4 hours ago, Swoop said:

Question for the blog: 

If Howie is hellbent on taking a QB at 15, in which order would you rank them from "I'd be okay with/like" to "I absolutely hate this"?

None I would like at 15. If they were to trade down from say 15 to 32/34 with Detroit so they could grab a QB and we could do something like:

18- Andrew Booth/Jordan Davis/Devonte Wyatt/George Karlaftis

32- Ridder/Corral

34- Boye Mafe/Arnold Ebiketie/Daxton Hill/Lewis Cine

I'd like that move.

20 minutes ago, D-Shiznit said:

As someone who is about to graduate law school and enter the job market. My hope is it save enough money for a down-payment on a house within the first 2ish years. Considering the rate of price increases for houses in Canada, I don't think I'll be able to afford it in a few years. The plan is to save save save as much as possible.

Be thankful that you didn't go to law school in the US.  I don't see how many of them are going to be able to ever buy a house given what some of them carry in law school debt.  

3 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Be thankful that you didn't go to law school in the US.  I don't see how many of them are going to be able to ever buy a house given what some of them carry in law school debt.  

I'm going to end up with about 85k in total student debt. How does that compare to the US?

4 minutes ago, bitbased said:

I've seen our friend's insurance deny coverage for procedures to aid in congenital issues for their kid. The healthcare system is complete garbage honestly and I feel for anyone caught up on the bad end of it.

 Health Insurance really has never covered Hearing Aids, but its certainly something we didn’t know or even consider since there’s no hearing loss in her or my family.  
 The really sad cases were at the Delaware School for Deaf, my kids attended until 2nd grade for speech therapy before joining a regular school, some of those children who’s parents couldn’t afford the hearing aids had really cheap 3rd set hand me downs that barely functioned.  I just saw a girl my oldest attended with, (she’s 23) she was completely deaf but the cochlear implants would give her some hearing, her health insurance paid for 80% which left her paying $17 grand but the battery cost of course wasn’t covered and she still needed $4 grand to turn them on, of course!!  We had a few beef and beer plus gofundme’s to help her out.   Her face even at 22 years old, hearing anything for the first time made it all worth it, I had something in my eye that day bugging me. 
 But hers is a sad a case where I’m somewhat happy that her father passed away 6 years ago in car accident because innocent people in their insurance company would of paid a heavy price if he still was alive, on the other hand I wish he was there to see it. 
 
 

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

So few are offered real pensions nowadays.  Basically a retirement account with the option of lump sum or an annuity.  Pensions are a rather new item in retirement historically and didn’t last long.  The average Joe didn’t have pension as an opportunity until the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1980s, companies were seeing legislation that allowed changes from pensions and twenty years later towards retirement accounts. This resulted in pensions diminishing but was offset with 401ks. Now, with the latest version of the Secure Act, employers can automatically enroll employees in 401ks. The employees can then opt out, at their own peril because retirement plans continue to shrink.  

Now pensions are in desperate straights in the US and western world.  The US pension guarantee fund has no money.  Public pensions are hugely underfunded.  (In my community, which has adequately funded our employees’ pensions and our police department pensions, we live in fear of the PA legislature moving to tie together all public pensions, like they have with teachers’ pensions. Philly’s police pension is seriously underfunded and it will be difficult for the City to ever fix without legislative help. Harrisburg is under water.  Pittsburgh and Erie aren’t in much better shape. Heck, the state is underfunded.). The Feds tried to fix the Post Office, went too far, and now may have gone too far the other way.  None of us pay attention to this and the elected officials do nothing about it.

Social Security was only meant to supplement retirement. For too many it is relied on entirely or for over 50% of income.  That isn’t sustainable and the fund is set to be underfunded to the tune of 71% of benefits in 2034. 

Medicare is limited to negotiation for drug costs.  Medicare doesn’t pay for long term care facilities. That is Medicaid after savings are depleted.

That chair is rickety. 

True enough, as you and @NCiggles point out. Coke does, GM does. I believe UPS does for its drivers, but the exceptions prove the rule. Defined benefit plans are like hens' teeth now; it's all Defined Contribution plans or Profit-Sharing plans.

If you can't rely on a pension you have to find retirement funding somewhere else, a perilous undertaking for people living from paycheck to paycheck. Almost an impossibility.

What Congress does with Social Security makes Howie look frugal. They have kicked the can down the road for decades. There are two basic approaches to sort out: cut benefits or raise the payroll tax. The former is generally the Republican approach, the latter the Democrats' approach. Good luck getting them to agree.

So many companies now are offering high deductible health insurance plans, which are almost no coverage at all. What they really insure you against are catastrophic illnesses or injuries. Other than that, you're on your own. Personally, I prefer term life to whole life and put anything else into investments, Roths, etc. But what am I doing telling you this? You're the insurance professional. Perhaps you think differently.

I have a SEP , a taxable individual , crypto , and a couple savings  accounts , but not everyone has the ability to put that kind of money away . I couldn’t imagine relying on just SS .

11 minutes ago, Ipiggles said:

in a lot of cases you really need someone on the inside who is willing to fight for you, to get through the red tape. 

Health insurance is easier to navigate than most people realize.  Most of the billing isn’t even processed by a human.  It is processed by a computer reviewing ICD10 codes (there are numerous search engines for free on line that can translate the procedure or injury code). Then the insurer processes fee arrangements with approved providers and pays that amount.  If out of network, they pay what the standard is.  Time anomalies are usually what are kicked back.  Now the insurer, or Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, will accept appeals.  But all have contractual or statute driven limitations on what they will pay.  Now part of that is on us as medical consumers.  We don’t ask questions about whether something is likely covered, whether a provider is "in network”,  or why the care provided exceeded the normal time for the procedure.  Medical providers seem to habitually overbill, miscode etc. because the process can be complex.  There is also a desire to maximize payment.  If I had a dollar for every time i witnessed overbilling (I really like providers that bill more hours than there are in a day), I would be as rich as Elon Musk (maybe a slight exaggeration).   

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/theres-growing-chatter-of-a-surprise-no-1-overall-pick/ar-AAW5KFS?li=BBnb7Kz
 

 

I don’t envy Jacksonville’s pick. No clear number 1 overall, whether they pick Hutchinson, Walker, or Thibodeaux, there’s a strong chance that player will be second or third best in that group.

1 minute ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

If true, this makes sense.  
 

 

Which is pepperoni and which is sausage?

16 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

There are 2 types of Federal disability benefits, Title 1 and Title 2 under the Social Security Act.  Title 2 has an insured component to be eligible for benefits.  So to be eligible for Title 2 your nephew would have had to paid social security taxes in 20 out of the last 40 quarters generally (worked and paid into the system 5 out of 10 years in the last 10 years).  If your nephew was never able to work, he may be eligible for Title 1 or SSI benefits.  Those have an asset threshold of $2,000 which isn't very much. Even then the monthly benefit is $841.  

Good post. Disability Benefits (Title 2) are designed to replace lost wages due to disability and only up to 80% of that, the reason being the shortfall is viewed as an incentive to return to work. If his nephew did not work the required 20/40 and 5 of the last 10 years, Title 2 is out. He is deemed "not insured." As far as SSI goes, he will have to show a lack of assets above a certain threshold in order to receive that meager benefit.

1 hour ago, Alphagrand said:

'worked out' might not quite be accurate.  My wife and I did have to do some re-financing (thankfully I've always had good credit before this happened), savings were mostly blown through, so retirement is now a pipe dream.  My wife wants me to quit working in 10 years when I reach 65 but I think that's going to be tough.  I'll likely be working as long as I'm physically able.  

It's not all bad in the grand scheme of things, considering I've had 3 relatives who retired and were dead less than a year later.  Retirement may not be all it's cracked up to be.

I'll take my chances

2 minutes ago, greend said:

I'll take my chances

 

5 minutes ago, D-Shiznit said:

I'm going to end up with about 85k in total student debt. How does that compare to the US?

I think the average that I have seen is around twice that for law school debt. It's something that has ballooned even with lower tuition public schools.  I think the average for my law school is around 6 figures which is ridiculous.   I graduated with about $10k in law school debt.  I mean the average starting salary has gone up but law school graduates here tend to have kind of a inverse curve in terms salary distribution.  So the average and median are both skewed with an upper distribution with a much higher average salary and a lower distribution that's much lower.  So most law school graduates are not making that much more than I made in my first job.  If you combine that with the housing market now vs. when I graduated,  it's hard to imagine that the pace is sustainable. 

28 minutes ago, Outlaw said:

None I would like at 15. If they were to trade down from say 15 to 32/34 with Detroit so they could grab a QB and we could do something like:

18- Andrew Booth/Jordan Davis/Devonte Wyatt/George Karlaftis

32- Ridder/Corral

34- Boye Mafe/Arnold Ebiketie/Daxton Hill/Lewis Cine

I'd like that move.

I watched a video on YouTube where someone did a 1st round mock and had Mafe at #15 and Jahan Dotson at #18 to the Eagles.  I know Howie just got an extension -- but TWO reaches in one first round??

16 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

If true, this makes sense.  
 

 

If true, I am starting think Howie isn't a bad GM.  

3 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

If true, I am starting think Howie isn't a bad GM.  

told ya

10 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

told ya

Nope, now I think he stinks again. 

Howie winning the SuperBowl:  Even a blind squirrel catches lightning in a bottle. (is this mixing metaphors?)

I think our guy does some things alright.

I love me some Howie.

27 minutes ago, justrelax said:

Good post. Disability Benefits (Title 2) are designed to replace lost wages due to disability and only up to 80% of that, the reason being the shortfall is viewed as an incentive to return to work. If his nephew did not work the required 20/40 and 5 of the last 10 years, Title 2 is out. He is deemed "not insured." As far as SSI goes, he will have to show a lack of assets above a certain threshold in order to receive that meager benefit.

Well the 80% is actually a cap on combined benefits and not the amount the benefit pays.  

28 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

If true, this makes sense.  
 

 

When the Eagles/Saints trade happened this is what I imagined was what Saints were doing. They know they need a QB for the future, so do their division rivals. They can’t risk the QB they like going to Carolina or Atlanta. Daniel Jeremiah said Houston/New Orleans had a deal in place before Watson chose Cleveland. I imagine whether it’s Houston/Jets/Giants, most likely the Jets, said we’d trade back but we want current picks & not future ones. That’s when Saints got busy calling teams with multiple 1st rd picks this year. I imagine the easiest one was with the guy who had 3 of em, is known for his eagerness to trade, and wants future picks. Makes sense for everyone involved. 

 

18 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

I watched a video on YouTube where someone did a 1st round mock and had Mafe at #15 and Jahan Dotson at #18 to the Eagles.  I know Howie just got an extension -- but TWO reaches in one first round??

I hate that this has been spoken into existence, and I hate even more that this is probably going to happen.

2 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Nope, now I think he stinks again. 

youre wrong again

Just now, CouchKing said:

Howie winning the SuperBowl:  Even a blind squirrel catches lightning in a bottle. (is this mixing metaphors?)

I think our guy does some things alright.

I love me some Howie.

Howie making trades for draft picks>>>> Howie making draft picks.  

I’m really keen on idea of taking Jordan Davis now. One of the best players on one of the best defensive college units we’ve seen in awhile that won a championship against the Bama machine, who also has all the physical tools & massive size.

 

it’s such a logical pick 

24 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

I watched a video on YouTube where someone did a 1st round mock and had Mafe at #15 and Jahan Dotson at #18 to the Eagles.  I know Howie just got an extension -- but TWO reaches in one first round??

Yuck. They need a bigger X who also can play big slot. That is not Dotson. And while Ojabo's injury I'm sure will help Mafe rise a bit, I still can't take him before like 28/29 where the Chiefs sit.

2 minutes ago, Dwide Schrude said:

I’m really keen on idea of taking Jordan Davis now. One of the best players on one of the best defensive college units we’ve seen in awhile that won a championship against the Bama machine, who also has all the physical tools & massive size.

 

it’s such a logical pick 

I have to agree. I truly think they are looking for a NT for this line, and not a penetrating DT. Interest in Jordan Davis and Travis Jones is pretty obvious. 

22 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

If true, I am starting think Howie isn't a bad GM.  

He's not the worst.  He does a good job with trades for the most part, specifically dealing with draft picks.  BUT... targeting talent, drafting talent and valuing his own talent?   Not so much.