Suntup Editions - All Books

[Dave1442397]

Washington allows Oregon residents to not pay our sales tax by showing Id but Oregon does not reciprocate. I am working on a legacy system that the company is trying to replace. The current estimate is about three years. As long as the stock market does not tank I will be in a position to retire in three years. If the company does not outsource my job to our India partner I should be able to make it to my retirement target. That and the fact that when they dump me I will get a package that includes 1.5 years pay and a year of medical insurance. My goal is to have the house nearly paid off in the three year time frame. Should be able to get pretty close.

Sounds good. They started trying to offshore my department to India back in 2011, and pretty much gave up on that a couple of years ago. Things finally came to a head when the accountants figured out that having our code done in India and then fixed by us was costing them more than when we just did it in the first place. We still have a small team there, but they are only allowed do the most harmless updates, and I have very little interaction with them these days.

As far as rewriting, we converted from VMS to Linux over the past ten years, and we're converting DCL to Python before DCL support dies off. Every new VP thinks we should rewrite the entire application, and then looks at the estimate to rewrite a 35-year-old Fortran system with 18MM+ lines of code and says "Forget it, carry on..."

All the programmers in my department are in the 51-72 age range, and I think only three of us are under 60. There soon won't be anyone left to offshore

[Martin]

That's great! PA and NJ have a reciprocal tax agreement, so the fact that my office was in PA and I was working from home in NJ has no effect on taxes. They just announced that our building is being sold, and teams are being relocated to Wilmington, DE, downtown Philadelphia, and Pennington, NJ. Most of my team lives close to the old PA office, and the commute to DE is at least 90 mins each way from there, so our manager is pushing to have us classified as full-time remote employees. That would suit me just fine. If I can make it another 10-12 years without getting laid off again, I'll be ready to retire.

Washington allows Oregon residents to not pay our sales tax by showing Id but Oregon does not reciprocate. I am working on a legacy system that the company is trying to replace. The current estimate is about three years. As long as the stock market does not tank I will be in a position to retire in three years. If the company does not outsource my job to our India partner I should be able to make it to my retirement target. That and the fact that when they dump me I will get a package that includes 1.5 years pay and a year of medical insurance. My goal is to have the house nearly paid off in the three year time frame. Should be able to get pretty close.

[Dave1442397]

Your mention of state income taxes brought my current situation to mind. My office is in Oregon but I live in Washington. Washington has no income tax but Oregon taxes at 9%. I began working from home last January due to my wives health. In March they closed my office and I have worked from home the since then. My employer continues to withdraw State taxes. When I file this year Oregon will have to pay me back all the taxes taken since about mid January. I will have a massive refund this year. My office is closed until at least June and there is talk of allowing us to work remotely permanently. That will equate to a 9% raise. I am averaging over a 12% return on my HSA investment account, it has maintained a very nice return.

That's great! PA and NJ have a reciprocal tax agreement, so the fact that my office was in PA and I was working from home in NJ has no effect on taxes. They just announced that our building is being sold, and teams are being relocated to Wilmington, DE, downtown Philadelphia, and Pennington, NJ. Most of my team lives close to the old PA office, and the commute to DE is at least 90 mins each way from there, so our manager is pushing to have us classified as full-time remote employees. That would suit me just fine. If I can make it another 10-12 years without getting laid off again, I'll be ready to retire.

[Martin]

I found a lot of good info on this site - https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/in...53/#msg1333153

I diverge a bit by putting more in 401(k)s before other IRAs, but we plan on leaving NJ once we retire, and I'd rather avoid the tax hit now.

The HSA, if you have one, is a great savings tool. My employer offers payroll deductions for HSAs, so I avoid payroll and income taxes on contributions. You can invest most of the money in your HSA (I have to keep $1,000 in cash), and mine is all going to a Vanguard Target Date Fund. I don't use my HSA money - I just pay medical expenses (mostly dental and vision right now) out of pocket and let the money sit in the HSA, unclaimed and growing.

Your mention of state income taxes brought my current situation to mind. My office is in Oregon but I live in Washington. Washington has no income tax but Oregon taxes at 9%. I began working from home last January due to my wives health. In March they closed my office and I have worked from home the since then. My employer continues to withdraw State taxes. When I file this year Oregon will have to pay me back all the taxes taken since about mid January. I will have a massive refund this year. My office is closed until at least June and there is talk of allowing us to work remotely permanently. That will equate to a 9% raise. I am averaging over a 12% return on my HSA investment account, it has maintained a very nice return.

[Dave1442397]

Great post, Ron. Way to put things in perspective. So- when are you available to help me with my "portfolio"?

I found a lot of good info on this site - https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/in...53/#msg1333153

I diverge a bit by putting more in 401(k)s before other IRAs, but we plan on leaving NJ once we retire, and I'd rather avoid the tax hit now.

The HSA, if you have one, is a great savings tool. My employer offers payroll deductions for HSAs, so I avoid payroll and income taxes on contributions. You can invest most of the money in your HSA (I have to keep $1,000 in cash), and mine is all going to a Vanguard Target Date Fund. I don't use my HSA money - I just pay medical expenses (mostly dental and vision right now) out of pocket and let the money sit in the HSA, unclaimed and growing.

[RonClinton]

Great post, Ron. Way to put things in perspective. So- when are you available to help me with my "portfolio"?

Okay, since you asked, here’s the formula for investment success:

Buy low, sell high.

Boom. Done. Remember me in your early retirement.

[swintek]

Great post, Ron. Way to put things in perspective. So- when are you available to help me with my "portfolio"?

[Brian861]

I have the same feelings. I've never read the book but the description of it sounded really interesting and the production values will obviously be great considering it's being published by Suntup. All that being said, the price point has also kept me on the fence. I have a hard time justifying paying that price for a book/author that I have never read. I also have a hard time justifying the price because it is much higher than some of the previous AGE's that I have purchased by what I would consider to be much more popular authors/books. For example, it is almost double the price that I paid for my Red Dragon AGE and is priced higher than the AGE's for both Horns & Misery. Also, knowing that Suntup has two more announcements coming in February hasn't helped as I'm now inclined to save money for those announcements rather than spend it on a book that I am on the fence about ordering. I'm hoping that one of those February announcements will appeal to me much more than the Auctioneer.

The Auctioneer was a really good read but I'm personally focusing my collection away from anything not King or Hill related. With a few exceptions being books in a series. Little Books, Graveyard Editions, etc.

[RonClinton]

With the admittedly close help of several financial firms, I've managed our assets for a number of decades now, so have some fundamental investing experience and knowledge...and one thing I know is the importance of saving, and 30% is outstanding, Dave -- congratulations, that rate of saving is not something most are able or willing to do (myself included, I regret to say).

[Ben Staad]

RonClinton Very thoughtful post as usual. Thanks for sharing.

*Side note. Never knew we could do the @ thing here.*

[Dave1442397]

Well stated, Ron. I spend money on books because I enjoy them, not because I think they'll be worth anything later on.

I got into some good financial forums a few years back, and have kept to a savings rate of 30% of income, despite my wife wanting a new kitchen

[RonClinton]

To start with I know very little about investments. However isn't a collectable "investment" feel a little more like cash on hand then an IRA or other? Those things incur penalties if closed early (right?) whereas a collectable, with inherent risks in regards to value, can be easier to "cash out" of. Right?

Oh, I don't think it's a tangent -- the key lure (aside from their great editorial choices and beautiful production qualities and pride of ownership) about publishers like Suntup and Centipede, and I choose those two purposely vs. CD and others, is the increase in value that is seen shortly after publication and the thus-far sustainability of that heightened value in the aftermarket.

The key thing about a well-balanced portfolio of investments (not an IRA, which is a retirement account that, yes, has early-withdrawal penalties) is that they are far more resistant against market whims and the aging of their marketplace than the collectible market. Those who invested in Beanie Babies or Hummels or Precious Moments figurines or baseball cards are left with essentially valueless items once their respective markets collapsed for a variety of reasons and there was no one remaining to buy their (and everyone else's) tchotchkes so they could "cash out." The same can be said of books...with a few notable exceptions, e.g. Suntup and Centipede and anything associated with Stephen King, most limited editions do not retain their cover-price value, and their value tends to diminish exponentially as the years wear on and tastes change and authors lose appeal. I remember when the Charnel House S/L HC of Ray Garton's LIVE GIRLS was a firm $250, if not more...last I saw on eBay, it was going unsold for $75, and there are many examples like that...most (not all) Arkham House titles have lost much of their value they had 30 or 40 years ago, as older collectors have completed their run of Arkhams and or aged out (polite euphemism) of the marketplace and the younger generation increasingly eschews the vintage stuff in favor of the Indie books that their friends are reading and talking about on social media. That's why the common axiom that 'collectible books make poor investments' is a good thing to keep in mind when weighing the reason(s) for a book purchase.

Contrast that against someone who invested in a Vanguard fund or a specific stock like Apple or Amazon at that same time period and did extremely well since there was tremendous buyer/market demand (and, no, there are no penalties for selling investments held in a standard, non-IRA market account, one only has to pay capital gain taxes upon their easy, instant sale. There is risk, certainly, with investing in the market, but by keeping a portfolio well-balanced and diversified, the risk is far less than putting all your eggs in one collectible basket and trusting that your full run of Edward Lee limiteds are going to continue to increase in value (spoiler: They did not, as his stuff does not appear to have aged well in the collector market, for the most part...but I use him only as an exemplar of a large number of such authors, given that long-term popularity and collectible cache in the limited market is far more the exception than the rule).

I have no idea what the future holds for the value of Suntup and Centipede releases, but I suspect many Arkham collectors and Dark Harvest collectors and Necessary Evil Press collectors and Dark Fuse collectors and Cemetery Dance collectors all thought their purchases were sound, and from a personal satisfaction perspective they were, of course, right, but as investment speculation they largely were not. So the basic point is that investments in the form of equities, bonds, ETFs, etc. have -- in general -- significantly more stability to weather time and changes in the economy and culture than do normative (i.e. not art, which is on a different level of risk and return) collectibles -- be it toys or figurines or books -- and a far better time-tested track record of increasing in value. In short, buy the books that bring you joy, not the ones you believe will result in a windfall down the road.

[sholloman81]

What do you folks think about the AGE of THE AUCTIONEER? I loved the book but so far have resisted paying $125.00 for the AGE.

I have the same feelings. I've never read the book but the description of it sounded really interesting and the production values will obviously be great considering it's being published by Suntup. All that being said, the price point has also kept me on the fence. I have a hard time justifying paying that price for a book/author that I have never read. I also have a hard time justifying the price because it is much higher than some of the previous AGE's that I have purchased by what I would consider to be much more popular authors/books. For example, it is almost double the price that I paid for my Red Dragon AGE and is priced higher than the AGE's for both Horns & Misery. Also, knowing that Suntup has two more announcements coming in February hasn't helped as I'm now inclined to save money for those announcements rather than spend it on a book that I am on the fence about ordering. I'm hoping that one of those February announcements will appeal to me much more than the Auctioneer.

[Ben Staad]

I'm going to withdraw (without removing) the above as not to detract from the thread. I don't want this thing to go on a tangent.

[Ben Staad]

To start with I know very little about investments. However isn't a collectable "investment" feel a little more like cash on hand then an IRA or other? Those things incur penalties if closed early (right?) whereas a collectable, with inherent risks in regards to value, can be easier to "cash out" of. Right?

Yep, IMHO - as an asset class, generally, collectibles make poor investment vehicles for a variety of reasons.