PGE our friendly Bay Area Utility

[GAJ]

The one thing I THINK I know is that making everyone go into 401Ks means you better play day trader (really watch the investments by category) with it or it will just lose by design to the more savvy people at the top.

Not at all; just follow Buffet's advice and get an S&P stock index fund.

One example, if you had $100k in an IRA/401k and put it into SCHG (Schwab US Large-Cap Growth ETF) in 2010 you'd have three quarters of a million today.

I know I went through my "overthinking/picking individual stocks" phase and the results were way less than that simple Buffet strategy.

 

[GAJ]

Yeah, I don’t see why that’s bogus. I paid the money from my check every month, I worked very hard at the job, had no union protection and could be fired at will. The pension amount is based on the formula of what I put in.
How is that bogus and how are you funding that amount? This is non-governmental so the military comparison is bogus. What am I missing? That retiring is a sin? I am the first of my generation to have ever retired in my family and I live here in the DLZ (Richmond-San Pablo) still paying a mortgage and a shitload of property tax assessments for the failing huge school district and other agencies. I can no longer have decent dental benefits despite paying for Kaiser and Medicare and fear the next crown or root canal.

My brother got in before a similar thing happened at Eaton.

Like you, gets more from that than SS.

I wasn't so lucky but I certainly don't think you or he didn't deserve to take that at the time; why wouldn't you?

 

[byke]

Yeah, I don’t see why that’s bogus. I paid the money from my check every month, I worked very hard at the job, had no union protection and could be fired at will. The pension amount is based on the formula of what I put in.
How is that bogus and how are you funding that amount? This is non-governmental so the military comparison is not apt. What am I missing? That retiring is a sin? I am the first of my generation to have ever retired in my family and I live here in the DLZ (Richmond-San Pablo) still paying a mortgage and a shitload of property tax assessments for the failing huge school district and other agencies. I can no longer have decent dental benefits despite paying for Kaiser and Medicare and fear the next crown or root canal. I will never have a fancy retirement home, a boat, hookers and blow whatever. I get it for public pensions, especially the spiking bit.

I think it's the normalizing of 20 years for retirement funds to be mature/available that's bogus. People aren't dying at en masse at 60 anymore. Great depression era career duration without the great depression area lifespans.

Also, on the lifestyle, move overseas and live like a friggin champ! That's out plan. There are 1st world places that a single person can live pretty nicely on $1000/mo.

 

[Bay Arean]

I think it's the normalizing of 20 years for retirement funds to be mature/available that's bogus. People aren't dying at en masse at 60 anymore. Great depression era career duration without the great depression area lifespans.

Also, on the lifestyle, move overseas and live like a friggin champ! That's out plan. There are 1st world places that a single person can live pretty nicely on $1000/mo.

The pension was for my last job of my entire working life beginning at 17, when I began paying into social security. It’s a share for the money I purposely did not take in the paycheck. I only had that last job because i have had a series for jobs, like so many people, because of layoffs. My pension stopped growing when I hit 65 so I worked two more years beyond my unfair reward. I just can’t see how investing in something when you realize the day is coming that you can’t work or die is in sight is wrong.
Like I said, I am grateful for that damn pension it saved my ass but they, and I, have no idea how long I’ll collect before I croak. And I get less than I could have because I am including Ms. BA in it.No worries, she’s six years older than me so she won’t necessarily loot for long,

 

[byke]

I suppose I'm having a hard time seeing full equivalence from the situation I posted to yours. It's the 20 years part that I dislike. My old neighbor was a union construction laborer and started at 18. I never kept up with him, but he talked about his 20 years and, if he stuck with it, presumably could have retired at 38. I'm not saying that he shouldn't get the money he deserves from putting it in, I'm disagreeing with it being available at 38.

 

[ST Guy]

I worked in an industry that had no retirement plan other than you could contribute to a 401k if you wanted to. Which I did, though not as much as I should have. I did pay into SS, though, for nearly 50 years. And I took my SS at the age of 70. I earned every bit of what I now take from SS. And anyone who wants to take even a little of that away from me can rot in hell.

Fortunately I can live entirely on my SS so I don’t have a need to use my investments.

 

[Eldritch]

I receive a pension payment from working 20 years at Rossmoor, a non-profit non-government funded housing development. They were phasing out pensions when I came to work, offering 50-50 pension, 401K and now only offer 401Ks to new employees.

I don’t know if I am Boomer looting but that monthly pension equals my entire Soc Security. The 401K portion is pathetic in terms of gain, and it would take decades to amount to much. I have to collect on it when I reach 72. I am so grateful for that pension but not sure how it hurts you younger gens. I wish everybody had pensions but I must be ignorant to understand why that’s bad.

The one thing I THINK I know is that making everyone go into 401Ks means you better play day trader (really watch the investments by category) with it or it will just lose by design to the more savvy people at the top. Pension admins are certainly corruptible but it has been their job to make that money gain not lose. I have never figured out if the 401K conversion was a more realistic and somehow fair thing to do with wage garnishments or a scam by the wealthiest to extract more money by the same means.

This last year, the non-profit board I worked for sold the remaining pension fund to an insurance outfit. So I don’t know if one day, that company will go belly-up and I will lose the pension, but I am prone to catastrophizing that it may happen. Then I will have to live on the meager 401K remainder, (plus social) so I live fairly frugally for that reason.

Saying that 401k and Social Security isn't good enough is not saying that Pensions are a fiscally responsible or sustainable model of doing business.

If Social Security Reform is a conversation that should be had by Americans, it honestly is probably a good conversation to have.

However that conversation is completely separate from the corruption of Government requirements funding private retirement plans that the entire world not governed by those specific laws and contracts has abandoned as being unrealistic.

It is bankrupting Cities, it is making the cost of operating critical infrastructure like our electrical grid untenable.

In large States where the corruption is most prevalent like NY and CA, it is making the cost of Developing Real Estate in Cities where it is most needed, unapproachable.

The madness needs to stop.

 

[Holeshot]

IMO, one of the larger problems with CA pensions are the lack of a restriction (at time of earning the pension) that pension dollars are based on a CA SOL and those who move out of CA are subject to a reduction in payout. They missed the ball...or rather, always thought CA would be in an immigration period and never have an emigration period.

The state literally killed itself the last few years, IMO.

 

[GAJ]

What, only four?

State regulators unanimously approve PG&E's 4th rate hike for 2024

For the fourth time this year, PG&E rates are going up. This time state regulators approved a 2.7% increase which amounts to $6 more on an average bill every month.

abc7news.com

For the fourth time this year, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) rates are going up after state regulators voted Thursday to approve the increase. According to PG&E data, residential utility rates have increased 54% since 2020, when the utility exited bankruptcy.

PG&E bills to rise as California regulators approve 4th rate hike this year

PG&E customers can expect an increase of about $6 as soon as October.

abc30.com

This follows a 9% decrease in July, and then a half percent increase in September, and then this would be another 3% increase," says Jeff Smith, PG&E Spokesperson.

 

[Abacinator]

Fuck those people

 

[Holeshot]

And yet they want "all electric" everywhere. This is what's defined as: A Racket.

 

[Grissom]

We are being absolutely screwed by the providers in California

 

[littlebeast]

they’ve been crazy busy under-grounding lines up here. we’re inundated with crews working their asses off. it’s a PITA, but if it helps with the fire danger, we’ll take it. hopefully once this massive effort and investment is completed, it will be reflected in future rates. and yeah - it’s easy to be cynical, but the regulatory agency watches the numbers - whichever direction they are going.

 

[tzrider]

I’d love to see them do that where our place is too. You can’t dig a hole anywhere there without hitting a boulder, so I doubt it’ll ever happen.

Instead, Edison tops and mutilates any tree they think might be able to reach a power line. They’ve wreaked havoc on trees anywhere near power lines. In the meantime the power pole that supports the electric service to our house is a…

…tree.

 

[littlebeast]

I’d love to see them do that where our place is too. You can’t dig a hole anywhere there without hitting a boulder, so I doubt it’ll ever happen.

Instead, Edison tops and mutilates any tree they think might be able to reach a power line. They’ve wreaked havoc on trees anywhere near power lines. In the meantime the power pole that supports the electric service to our house is a…

…tree.

same here (the whole divide we live on is granite). their solution has been to bury them under road beds. means digging channels through the roads - which is hugely disruptive. but hey, it’s working.

also gotta kinda lol at hitting rock. dudes up here are like ‘that’s what dynamite is for’. personally, i think they just love blowing shit up (drill a hole, and drop a stick in - it gets tiresome).

 

[GAJ]

And yet they want "all electric" everywhere. This is what's defined as: A Racket.

Thing is, solar under NEM3 is starting to pencil out.

NEM3 (Net Metering plan 3) requires a battery for it to pencil out, NEM2 did not.

 

[budman]

What, only four?

State regulators unanimously approve PG&E's 4th rate hike for 2024

For the fourth time this year, PG&E rates are going up. This time state regulators approved a 2.7% increase which amounts to $6 more on an average bill every month.

abc7news.com

It is not making sense to me. State regulators have to be making $$ on those small profits PG & E is making.

We need a rate bump because 1B ain't enough!!
That said I have great respect for the PG & E boots on the ground. Real people and real work.

 

[Holeshot]

What have past years looked like for PG&E Bud? I'm too lazy to look....but could these be makeup years?

 

[Mike95060]

What have past years looked like for PG&E Bud? I'm too lazy to look....but could these be makeup years?

I mean, they probably should have taken a loss after Paradise was turned to ashes.

 

[budman]

What have past years looked like for PG&E Bud? I'm too lazy to look....but could these be makeup years?

Quick search gave me this.

It looks like they have more than made up for the losses in 2018 - 2020.