8/29    Applying for a home loan now. The loan officer keeps asking why
        I wrote large amounts of check, and what they're for, and fax
        her proof to support what I said. She said loan regulations have
        tightened a lot to prevent money laundry. What is the max amount
        of money I can transfer these days without triggering annoying
        audits? I am not a terrorist.
	...

5/13    Does FDIC ever matter? How likely is it that your deposit of
        over $250k going to be screwed over in a major US bank?
        \_ Was Washington Mutual a major bank?
        \_ Was Washington Mutual a major US bank?
        \_ Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Good one.
        \- As with nuclear weapons, this insurance produces much of its value
	...

3/9     In a 15/30 year loan, the amount of payment stays the same but
        the payment on interest decreases while the principal increases.
        Suppose I decide to pay off a huge chunk of principal, will
        the amount of interest I need to pay decrease drastically, or
        do banks still want to take out a huge chunk of interest rate?
        \_ You don't actually have separate "interest" and "principal"; you
	...

11/21   I'm trying to figure out how much I save. Does money I contribute
        to debt (student loans and car loan) considered money I "save"?
        \_ "I'm trying to figure out how healthy I am. I normally
           smoke 2 packs a day but now I've cut it down to just
           1 pack a day. Does the reduction count towards health
           that I hope to 'gain'?"
	...

2/19    http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/let-the-human-capital-exodus-begin
        \_ Suppose you are a damn good executive.  Someone gives you the
           chance to come in to a ailing firm that has a long history and
           some serious pluses going for it.  If you manage to turn things
           around in a 5-10 year time frame you will be heralded as a
           brilliant mind and even the elite will treat you like royalty.
	...

2/3     Does any democrat pay taxes?  Or is it just cabinet nominees?
        \_ Democrats are cheap and try to do their own taxes and
           that has a tendency to screw things up, whereas Republicans
           usually justs pay their accountants and "externalizes" problems
           to someone else (their employees). In this respect, Republicans
           are smarter, esp. with their money, as expected.
	...

8/22    This is not a critical tax question so I'm not going to ask my
        accountant. At any rate I used to claim "2" on my tax W2 and had
        always gotten money back (a few thousand dollars a year) every year,
        thanks to itemizing tax & owning my parents' properties in my name.
        This year I decided that I'd get more money back immediately and
        pay tax later, and decided to put down "3" instead of "2". However,
	...

3/3     I have been searching Google and also contacting some friends regarding
        the going rate for a 3 month contracting position that might become
        full time at a big internet company in Mountain View.  The duties
        consist of works for a backend Java and Java-related technologies
        developer.  I have about 5 years of working experience with about 2
        years of Java and Java-related technologies working experience.  I have
	...

04/732  How does the home office deduction work? If I work from home 1 day
        a week can I report whatever I spend on my workstations/routers/DSL?
        \- you know home office deductions are a red flag for audit. are you
           sure it is worth it? especially when you start dedecting some
           fraction of your PGE bill and only have W2 income. --psb
           \_ it's a red flag if you don't own a business.  If you do own
	...

1/19    For those of you recommending contract work, do you recommend
        being, like a taos whore, or do you recommend pimping for
        yourself? (if so, how do you market yourself/get gigs?).  I'm
        interested as applies to sys. admin, not programming.
        \_ I was lucky--I found a guy who takes care of some friends'
           contracts.  He takes 10%, does _all_ the paperwork, makes sure
	...