Posts by brightranger52

rowdydrifter19 said:Where are you all picking up your gold? Which jewelry chains actually offer the best rates right now?

If you're looking to buy in bulk, it’s worth making the trip out to Denver. You've got Scholler just a few blocks away, and they gave me the link for smart i Philoro, which I'll drop below. Last time I was in Denver, Philoro had slightly better pricing on stuff for the Philharmonic Orchestra, but right now Scholler seems to be a tiny bit cheaper.

https://philoro.at/shop/goldmuenzen

Benjamin King2 said:So you've got something like this—a portable drive, maybe two 3 TB units? Just hook it up to your PC using an eSATA or FireWire interface. Honestly, don't even bother with USB 2.0; it's absolute garbage and way too slow. Check out this silver model here:
I can't see any text to rewrite! Send over the post you want me to work on, and I'll get right to it.

Hmm... that 6TB WD would be perfect for me. I was just looking into it and noticed it comes pre-formatted for Mac. It looks like I can fix that if I have access to a Windows 7 or Vista machine. What do you think about that?

Check out this review on the WD Caviar Gold 6TB. It’s a pretty deep dive into how these drives actually hold up under pressure. If you're looking to beef up your storage, this might be worth a read.

Anyway, thanks for all the helpful info!

Benjamin King2 said:That’s not just a portable drive; it’s a Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit. It’s basically a chassis holding 4 drives that plugs directly into your router via an Ethernet cable.

Man, I totally misread the situation.

Alright, so can you give me a solid recommendation for a big drive? All I really need is somewhere to stash my movie collection, mostly MKV files. Should I go with that 6 TB WD option or stick with the Seagate 4 TB you mentioned?

Benjamin King2 said:As far as I know, the biggest drive is from Seagate at 4 TB. Where on earth did you see those WD drives?

Right here;

I’m seriously in need of a massive external drive. I'm looking at something in the 6 or 8 TB range. Has anyone here actually dealt with drives that big lately? Everything I see online makes it look like Western Digital is the only player in the game for those capacities.

Well, here’s the official proof that State Farm is absolute garbage. The SEC finally slapped them with a penalty.

The punishment? They’ve been ordered to go public with their shady behavior toward policyholders—though sadly, they’re only making them publish it in The New York Times.

amberhound62 said:If you haven't opted for passenger insurance on an AO policy, it honestly doesn't matter which provider you pick for yourself, since you aren't the one being billed under your own policy anyway. I guess if you want to make things easier for the person you actually caused damage to, it might be a good idea to steer clear of Berkshire Hathaway..

That’s totally backwards!

You're driving, and your family or some friends are in the car with you. You hide an accident, and they end up injured—more or less seriously. All of them are covered under YOUR policy. So, it actually matters a lot whether you're forcing your family or buddies to deal with the headache of Allstate or State Farm, or if they get to settle things smoothly with someone like GEICO.

Here’s some official paperwork for you guys; it's the ruling from FINRA acting as the insurance regulator, basically confirming that State Farm hasn't been playing fair when it comes to processing claims.

The sequel was such a letdown. Honestly, I didn't crack a smile once. Unit is definitely the better movie, even if it drags in certain spots.

Jason Campbell70 said:I’ve only ever dealt with one insurance claim, and that was through State Farm.

Whenever I told people my car had been hit by someone insured with State Farm, the typical response was, "You'll never see a dime," or something along those lines.

Here’s how it went down:
My car was damaged in an accident—it was just sitting there in a parking lot. The police showed up to investigate, and in the official report (which I checked later), they clearly stated the driver, X. Y., was at fault (and they were insured through State Farm).

I wasn't even home at the time, so I had no idea what kind of shape my car was in. 😁

After I finally got back home about ten days after the accident, I headed down to the police station to pick up the incident report. Of course, our local police department isn't exactly known for its speed; it took them about twenty days to get everything processed.

Once I finally had that report in hand, I went to State Farm to get the damage assessed. 😬
There, I filled out some paperwork, the adjuster took photos of the vehicle, and mentioned the assessment should be ready within two weeks at most. At that point, I could decide whether to have them fix the car and bill them directly, or just take a cash settlement. Honestly, I have to hand it to the adjuster—very helpful, polite, and professional. 🙂

About ten days later, the assessment arrived in my mailbox (two copies of the agreement).

I signed the contract (since I was happy with the amount offered😁) and dropped it off at the State Farm office. They told me the funds would be in my account within a week.

And so it was! 🙏

I don't know how other insurance companies handle things, but as far as State Farm goes, you really couldn't ask for a faster or simpler process. 🙂

Come on, even they can pull it together and settle a claim properly once in a while. 👏 Usually, though, they give you way more grief over personal injury stuff than property damage like car accidents.

Alexander Sanchez33 said:Isn't the standard turnaround supposed to be two weeks?

That's the rule, and pretty much every insurance company sticks to it. Well, except for Allstate, State Farm, and Sun. People actually report them to Deloitte for missing deadlines and being shady with claims processing. Sure, they get fined, but it doesn't change a thing.

Avoid them at all costs!

David Jackson4 said:Money market funds seem to be climbing pretty steadily, and they don't really deal with those crazy crashes you see with bond or stock funds, maybe seeing something like a 6-9% bump monthly. Plus, there aren't any entry or exit fees to worry about. I guess you can pull your cash whenever you need it, but the interest rate is still probably better than anything you'd find in a standard savings account or a CD.

OMG, so that’s at least 72% annually! 😉 Since Zions Bank money markets were sitting at a measly 0.61% back in 2010, it is high time they actually started delivering some real returns.😎

Raymond Jones8 said:I’m not sure if this belongs here, but whatever...
So, we've got this chunk of cash saved up in Dollars, and now we’re looking at putting it into a CD or something similar to keep building it up.
We were debating which currency to go with, and someone suggested maybe moving it into GBP?
The exchange rate seems pretty decent right now—I doubt it’ll drop much lower than this—so it feels okay, I guess, but honestly, I don't know much about this stuff, so I'm hoping for some advice.
This savings is basically meant to be a safety net for our family since we just had a new addition, so we can't really afford to have the money tied up for too long, and we definitely need some kind of currency stability.

I agree that the Pound is pretty cheap right now (actually has been for a while), but you might lose interest in saving in GPB once you see how pathetic the interest rates are on a CD compared to the Dollar. It might make sense as a speculative move if you're betting on the Pound gaining strength against other currencies.

Douglas Carter4 said:I honestly don't know, but this really doesn't give me much peace of mind. Just take a look for yourself.

What a great piece of writing from some certified Euro-skeptics. Honestly, I have no idea why anyone would even bother clicking on a portal like that.

Check out this quote from the article;

"In these uncertain times, American citizens should seriously consider whether they want to keep their money in obviously unstable foreign private banks, or if it would be smarter to move their savings into a rock-solid, secure American bank that is one hundred percent state-owned."

LOL! By that logic, everyone should just dump all their cash into the USPS Bank, which ended up billions in the hole thanks to those reckless investments by their protege.

Michelle Williams6 said:Just go with whichever one is cheapest. If you end up in an accident and try to sue for damages, this detail won't matter anyway...

That’s pretty bad advice. What happens if you hide an accident and your passengers—like your family—get hurt? Then they're the ones stuck dealing with your crappy insurance coverage.

Brian Murphy32 said:Wells Fargo is currently offering some promotional interest rates on fixed-term savings accounts, though they did include a caveat that they'll be charging account maintenance fees for the first three months at $2.25/mo👎

I checked out their little promotion. Honestly? It’s a total mess. They claim it's "premium savings," but there's a catch: you either have to move your checking over to them or buy life insurance through State Farm or Generali. Hard pass from me.

Other banks don't play those games; they actually just want your deposits. Plus, the rates are way better than what you'd get at JPMorgan Chase. Check out Bank of America, Hypo, Wells Fargo, or RBA instead.

Alexander Sanchez33 said:Between State Farm and Allianz, which one is actually worth it? The American Chamber of Commerce and those other tiny boutique firms hold a measly 0.06% of the market share—which, frankly, tells you everything you need to know about their stability. They barely have enough liquidity to cover basic operational costs, let alone handle major claims when things go south.

And look, don't fall for the idea that it doesn't matter which provider you choose for your liability coverage. If you rear-end someone and your insurer only cuts a check for a fraction of the actual damages, that person can come after you personally for the difference. Then, you’re stuck suing your own insurance company to recover what they should have paid in the first place... it's a massive, exhausting waste of both your time and your sanity.

Tell me you're joking with that last part. Seriously. If you hit someone and your insurance only covers part of the damage, they aren't going to sue *you*—they'll go after your insurance provider for the difference to make sure they get the full amount. Only an idiot would sue an individual when there's no guarantee they can actually collect any money from them later, especially when they can just sue an insurance company that's liable for at least $1166667 for injuries and up to $583333 for property damage.

Btw, I agree that State Farm is the way to go, while GEICO, Liberty Mutual, the ABA, and Sun Life are a total mess.

Adriano is a killer player, but man, he’s a handful to deal with. If this link actually holds water, it pretty much tells you everything you need to know about him;

http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=22258

It’s not even about whether Mike Tyson can play or not. The real issue is his attitude—he’s a total liability in the locker room and he just can't stand being managed by Roberto Mancini. Now they're basically trying to dump him on someone else. Honestly? I don't think Lionel Messi is worth $75 million plus Mike Tyson. Nobody is worth that much.