formally of kbin.social

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Cake day: June 3rd, 2024

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  • Don’t try to cheat the government. make sure you can say either you reported the large gift for tax purposes or the total is under 18k., if you must cheat you can take them on vecation and they use your gear for free but the plane ticket, meals and anything that could look like a gift is under the limit.

    tax fraud is something the irs takes serously and you never know when they look. Plus you are not sympathetic to a jury so prison is likely for you.

    if you give anyone more than 10k in a year (well under the limit) have your accountant deliver it all so there is plenty of evidence that you are not cheating. If you want to give over 18k have your accountant figure out how to do withholding so you friends don’t have a tax surprise.









  • If the valve (as opposed to flap) is gone that far, then a good modern water savings toilet isn’t that expensive and will probably flush better than the old one (good is key - there are many cheap toilets that don’t flush well!). Consider replacing the whole toilet instead. You can also get a toilet style you like (I personally hate high toilets, but some prefer them). I strongly recommend a bidet while you are doing this as well.

    I won’t say you should always replace the toilet vs just the valve, but it is something to consider - the effort is similar and the cost isn’t that much more. So if there is any reason to replace the toilet do it.


  • Step one, get an accountant, and lawyer. Things will get complex, and mistakes can result in spending more than you have which isn’t the goal. Thus an accountant to watch those numbers and keep me in the black. The big issue is taxes need to be paid so there needs to be enough left over to do that along with pay the accountant, but there will also be weird legal issues that come up.

    Second, the money goes to charity. How it gets there will be tricky though.

    The IRS looks at large donations and starts to assume I’m trying to dodge taxes by hiring a charity for something I’d do anyway - so my accountant will work with them to figure out what donation levels work for each that I care about. There are also some causes that I consider charity that do not meet the legal definition (often because they are political) and so the donation to them is still taxable (not that I’m trying to dodge taxes, but I’ll take advantage of anything that will help causes I care about)

    I will set aside some money as a fund for me. However I’ll only allow myself to withdraw from it as payment for work done for charity. projects like KDE or FreeBSD can always use more help. There is a summer camp I’ll volunteer for once in a while. Habitat for Humanity needs help… The important part is I need to put in 35 hours a week or I don’t get money from the fund (I will allow 2 months of vacation and that summer camp will get 80 hours/week when in session which I will bank for more vacation). The important part here is I need to stay busy - doctors tell me sitting around doing nothing when you retire is deadly so I’m not going to do that.

    Likely a lot of money will remain after I’m dead, so a trust fund will remain. However the instructions will be to drain the money as fast as possible. I know of several funds remaining from people who died 100+ years ago and the fund is now doing things I’m sure the original would oppose.




  • Read the manual. Changing the oil too soon is not helpful. modern oils often give the least wear at 8000 miles (the longest chain moleculs break down and that is accounted for by making the longer than needed.

    if you really want the engine to last install a bypass filter use 25k mile oil and then do an oil analisys every 10k miles when you replace the filters - only changa oil when the lab says so. the lab will charge more than the cost of an oil change which is why almost nobody does this.

    for most of us the engine will out last the gest of the car with just regular oil changes so this above is not useful advice.


  • bluGill@kbin.runtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldChoosing a used truck
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    4 months ago

    Diesel is clearly better if you are driving 20,000+miles per year. However you are not doing near that, so it won’t be worth the extra cost. Today diesel is so much more expensive than gas that the real advantage is only that diesel engines last longer, and in your case the body will fail first.

    How much of your driving is towing vs unloaded? If you are only towing then a large engine is better - displacement = torque = more fuel efficient. However if you are mostly unloaded something like the Ford Ecoboost engine is much more fuel efficient unloaded and when towing you lean on the turbo to use more fuel (as much as the large displacement engine!) and so still have the power - but the engine won’t last as long overall and will break more often - thus not a good choice if you mostly tow.

    I would lean to the 3/4 ton trucks. While a 1/2 ton truck has the specs to do the job, all of them are aimed at the luxury car market these days, and so they will make compromises that make them not as good for real work. 3/4 ton still is targeted at people doing real work and so they will have better compromises. (if you were asking 30 years ago a 1/2 ton would be fine)

    Do you need something now? Electric trucks are just coming out and should start hitting the used market soon. They only do about 100 miles when towing, but are much more environmentally friendly if you can live with that limitation. I wouldn’t think about sticking with the truck you have now for 3 more years to see what happens here (and also 3 more years to get real world experience with how electric trucks really work for people in your application)