No, the other kind!! 
(Coincidentally, our lunchroom TV is turned to the current battle for the UEFA trophy).
I never watch American football and, if not for family, there are many spots I could happily retire to in Europe. Like @IxnayBob, Italy is towards the top of the list along with Scotland and Ireland.
The whole business of spectator sports has become too, well, business-like for me to be interested. Even ice hockey, which I became a fan of as the kids began to play and which held off business more than most sports, has lost its allure. And, as luck would have it, I actually prefer European ice hockey (wider rink, more emphasis on speed and less on brawn).
Since I can’t find the investing, gambling blog, I’m posting this here for those of you who are interested in physics and investing: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-07/jim-simons-has-a-killer-flash-boy-app-and-you-can-t-have-it
I could say Jim Simons is going to get very wealthy with this patent but he already is very wealthy. 
It is a patent application. Let’s see if it issues and what exactly issues.
We know that @BunsenBurner.
A little off topic, but this seems to be a very well-informed group, so I am asking here.
Does anyone know of any current promotions like the one at Fidelity where they award 50,000 miles for depositing $100K in a brokerage account? I am more partial to cash rewards as I have trouble exercising mileage points, but anything is better than nothing.
Citibank is running something where they pay a $400 cash bonus for opening a checking account with $15K and keeping the money there for 30 days. The account pays almost zero in interest, but $400 on $15,000 seems like quick money for the month.
Dow is back to 18,347.67 today. Can it go up to 19,000 soon?
There’s a current promotion at CapOne. If you get a new business Spark Visa and spend $4500 in 90 days, you get $500. There is no foreign transaction fee and you get 2% back on all purchases. $59 annual fee.
@HImom —AmEx was running a promo last month on a Premier Rewards Gold Card. $195 fee waived for first year, $500 cash bonus after spending $2000 in three months, $100 baggage credit for one airline. Pays 3x on airline tickets, 2x on restaurants, gas, groceries, and 1x on all else. Not the best reward program but $500 free is great!
Am not sure if promo is still running. It arrived in the mail several weeks back.
That is a good promo. I think I’m done for awhile. I try not to get too many CCs at one time, as they require spending and I’m not interested unless it’s our normal spend. In this case, we have to pay estimated taxes, so will use my new CapOne card to pay and get the $500.
Don’t need baggage credit because we already get it free on UAL due to status and CC.
Remembered for H and I to get our free annual credit report yesterday, thankfully, and H found a problem for July 2016 for Amex (which we don’t do autopay and haven’t used in months) for some weird adobe monthly charges that we are disputing. Good thing we checked!
I have really enjoyed my one month stay in Switzerland (with all my relatives and friends, had all sleeping arrangements at homes and also including an overnight in a vacation rental in Saas Fee owned by cousin’s sister-in-law; eating at family homes - only paid one lunch check in Bern, no one else would let me pick up the check for meals and coffee breaks).
Since we have been a one income family for a lot of years, it has been 18 years since my last visit (I am a dual citizen, born in the US to Swiss parents and filed paperwork to retain citizenship when getting married). Although I read and used Rick Steve’s Switzerland travel book, my relatives and friends guided me to the local attractions also based on weather (front and back of my trip were with rain and cooler temps - glad I brought a light sweater and jacket, several pairs of light weight slacks). Saw many new things to me this trip, and just had a fantastic time.
Owning a place or living in another country definitely has its pros and cons. After retirement in 6 years, H and I plan to make a trip to see/catch up with relatives/friends here in Switzerland.
My relatives in CA get more visits from the Swiss relatives due to climate and site-seeing.
My good friend who I am staying with now for the few days before my return state-side grew up in IL and went to Marquette, but has lived in Switzerland since (same as me, born in the US to Swiss parents). We have had some very good talks about what is going on currently both in the US and in Europe and more specifically Switzerland. Watched the British news Wednesday evening with the change-over with Prime Ministers.
I enjoyed the soccer games, watching many with family/friends. A high level of enthusiasm - my cousin’s H who works in the main Canton police station had the soccer talk at work just like we have football, basketball, or other sports talk at work. The Portuguese here still have their flags hanging out of their windows. A very kind Portuguese neighbor of my friend even helped me with my luggage on the rainy two block walk to the apartment from the nearby street.
As with the US, Swiss do like to go where it is warm and sunny for vacations, and also do like to see the world. They make decisions as we do on owning a camper (one cousin does - for many campers you need a special truck license and you can imagine the reason with many narrow roads), owning a 2nd vacation place, etc.
Most Swiss stay very active - walking, hiking, biking. On nice summer days, they are eating out on their patios/balconies. As an overweight American, I did desire to lose some weight before coming because I didn’t want to stand out like a sore thumb, but I didn’t feel too out of place. And there are food addicts here too - Menschen article about a 34 year old gal that weighs 168 Kilo (370 lbs).
However, I do see a lot of smokers. They have a bold message on every package of cigarettes, but it does baffle me a bit on the young picking up this terrible habit. Know of a woman here that did quit here after a 40 year habit - has a new non-smoking BF, and went to hypnosis/alternative way to quit and was successful in quitting.
Thanks for sharing about your extended trip, @SOSConcern. I visited Switzerland over 20 years ago. I loved it there and hope to return someday.
It used to be that the cost of living was quite expensive in Switzerland vs. the USA. How did you find it on this visit?
I ran across this article and although the $32,000 figure is what first caught my attention, I found the link within the article interesting.
Interesting article. Based on our expenses over the last 3 years, I doubt that we could live on that sum of money and we’re quite frugal. My big decision right now is how much of my wife’s 403b to convert to a fixed annuity yielding 9.7%. We have only one chance to make this decision - by her retirement August 12th.
Wow, DocT. That’s a great and very tempting yield.
@88jm19 It all comes down to the health care costs and no one has any real good idea where that is heading.
@DocT, have you compared it using annuity calculators? Depending on her age, it might be good.
For 100% survivorship, it drops to 8.65% at our ages - she will be 60 and I’m 65. If both of us die, what is left goes to our heirs. There isn’t any COLA. The main issue is how much to put into this. Generally we don’t need it so I may only put in a small portion of the 403b. It’s an extra precaution. I had done a calculation to determine at what return rate, keeping it in the market exceeds the annuity but I’ve misplace it.