The joint chiropractic

Hi, long time lurker here in desperate need of some advice. I (28f) have been with him (31m) coming up five years now. We joint own our house, I pay the mortgage and he pays the bills (works out roughly the same). To cut a long story short, he is an alcoholic. I knew he had problems but they are the worst they have ever been. He has lost his driving licence due to drink and is still paying for a car he can't use because he likes to just say he has it (£300 a month down the drain). He orders things online when he is drunk and never uses them. He constantly gets impulsive about a new hobby, throws a load of money at it and after about a week or so it gets forgotten about. I'm talking mountain bikes, drum kits, guitars, Lego, Warhammer. You name it! He is constantly pulling sickies from work and has currently been off for about 10 weeks because he trapped a nerve in his foot. Claimed he couldn't walk but is fine to stagger around town pissed out his head on a weekend. He never lifts a finger in the house, won't do his own laundry, never cleans up, goes about 5 days without showering, steals my food (I have to lock my cupboard because he just goes and helps himself - going to do his own food shop is clearly too much effort.) I also have to lock my own alcohol in a suitcase or he would take it without thinking. As he has been off work on "long term sick" he is constantly up all night playing video games and drinking, watching TV or going to his friend's (again to get drunk). He literally will not do anything unless it involves alcohol.
About 3 weeks ago I gave my head a bit of a wobble and told him I couldn't deal with it anymore and that I wanted to end things. He got angry and told me to piss off, then a few minutes later came down and apologised and said he will get better, he doesn't want me to go, etc. I have been in the spare room since then and he hasnt asked why or tried to talk to me, anytime I try to catch him sober enough to have this conversation he tells me I'm stupid and I'm overreacting.
I've built a rod for my own back here because I have put up with everything for so long he seems to think he can do what he likes and that it's normal behaviour.
What can I do reddit?! I live 3 hours away from my family, his are just up the road but they dont want to know. I'd love to just pack a bag and leave with my animals but I feel like I shouldn't be the one to go as he is the one with the problem and I look after my house.
I have never felt so down and low as I do now. 😭
TL;DR alcoholic, impulsive, lazy "boyfriend" will not accept we are over and I still have to live with him.

I just posted this in a comment but this is the first time I'm talking about it openly so I'm gonna post it here:
The sexual assault and violence done against male children is very less talked about, it saddens me. It changed my whole life, every single aspect of it.
I grew up in a struggling and in a poor joint family. When I was 8-9 my mother got a job as a government teacher, that was the turning point of my life for better or worse. You see, my mother's job was in another city, so she had to travel back and forth everyday, which meant I barely saw her.
I was a kid so I was dependent on my two aunts to feed me and raise me. My younger aunt was new to our family, so when she started touching me, I didnt know what to feel. I asked my fellow 10 yo's in school how to feel, but they told me to be proud, they thought my aunt was pretty and I should feel like a stud. I was still a kid though, so when things got explicit I didn't know what to do, I remember holding off tears when I was punished by my parents or when I fought my older sibling, because my aunt would be disappointed that a 10 yo that she touches at night is crying. I wanted to be a man. That's when her brother raped me too, and I discovered I may be more inclined towards men. I then distanced myself from her, her retaliation was accusing me to be a troubled child, who did bad things. She also accused me of trying to kill her on one occasion. None of this news reached to my parents though, so all the punishment and the scrutiny I faced was limited to my aunts and uncle.
I believed I was the one to blame, i still don't know what to believe, I wonder how different I would have been if I wasn't sexualized at such a young age. I was a literal baby, I wish someone had protected me, but I know now that is not the case for most of the people who have gone through what I have been though.
I still see my aunt everytime i go home, I can't tell if it's my mind playing tricks but I recognise the way she looks at me sometimes, it ignites something sad in me all over again. I haven't looked my father confidently in his eyes in years, all I feel is shame when I'm with family. It's so fucking agitating.
My childhood took away my ability to feel at home, everyone around me loves their home but I just count my days till I get out of there. I just want to feel what it's like to grow normal, it's not fair. You might feel like I'm exaggerating, but there's many things I didnt even talk about, my earliest memories ever is me being asked to perform sexual activities on my older cousins. I hope my experience is 1 in a million, I hope nobody feels like I do.

It's a 2008 535xi. Struts, strut mounts, and control arms as well as sway bar links are about 2 years old. I had the front up to check for ball joint looseness but when I let it back down the right front made a crunching noise as if I'd left something under the car. It was kinda loud, too. Just to be sure I bounced my butt on the fender and it crunched some more. After that, it's quiet.
Anyone got a clue what is making that racket?
Thanks!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/02/trump-georgia-election-investigation-fulton-county/
An Atlanta-area investigation of alleged election interference by President Donald Trump and his allies has broadened to include activities in D.C. and several states, according to two people with knowledge of the probe — a fresh sign that prosecutors may be building a sprawling case under Georgia’s racketeering laws.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) launched an investigation more than two years ago to examine efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his narrow 2020 defeat in Georgia. Along the way, she has signaled publicly that she may use Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to allege that these efforts amounted to a far-reaching criminal scheme.
In recent days, Willis has sought information related to the Trump campaign hiring two firms to find voter fraud across the United States and then burying their findings when they did not find it, allegations that reach beyond Georgia’s borders, said the two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the investigation. At least one of the firms has been subpoenaed by Fulton County investigators.
Willis’s investigation is separate from the one at the Justice Department being led by special counsel Jack Smith, but the two probes have covered some of the same ground. Willis has said she plans to make a charging decision this summer, and she has indicated that such an announcement could come in early August. She has faced stiff criticism from Republicans for investigating the former president, and the ever-widening scope suggests just how ambitious her plans may be.
The state’s RICO statute is among the most expansive in the nation, allowing prosecutors to build racketeering cases around violations of both state and federal laws — and even activities in other states. If Willis does allege a multistate racketeering scheme with Trump at its center, the case could test the bounds of the controversial law and make history in the process. The statute calls for penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
“Georgia’s RICO statute is basically two specified criminal acts that have to be part of a pattern of behavior done with the same intent or to achieve a common result or that have distinguishing characteristics,” said John Malcolm, a former Atlanta-based federal prosecutor who is now a constitutional scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “That’s it. It’s very broad. That doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to charge a former president, but that also doesn’t mean she can’t do it or won’t do it.”
Among Willis’s latest areas of scrutiny is the Trump campaign’s expenditure of more than $1 million on two firms to study whether electoral fraud occurred in the 2020 election, the two individuals said. The Post first reported earlier this year that the work was carried out in the final weeks of 2020, and that the campaign never released the findings because the firms, Simpatico Software Systems and Berkeley Research Group, disputed many of Trump’s theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election.
In recent days, Willis’s office has asked both firms for information — not only about Georgia but about other states as well. Trump contested the 2020 election results in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Ken Block, the CEO of Simpatico Software Systems, declined to comment on what he has turned over to investigators. A lawyer for the Berkeley Research Group also declined to comment. A spokesman for Willis declined to comment on the investigation. Lawyers for Trump also declined to comment.
It is unclear if Willis will seek indictments of people for alleged actions that occurred outside Georgia, such as those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. RICO experts say it’s unlikely she will do so. But, these experts said, the law allows Willis to build a sweeping narrative of an alleged pattern of behavior to overturn the 2020 election, with Georgia as just one piece. Evidence and actions outside the state, such as Trump’s statements from Washington that inspired some of the rioters and the parallel efforts to overturn other states’ results, could be presented as additional evidence that helps establish that pattern.
“The Georgia statute is broadly written” to allow the inclusion of violations of federal law as well as some other states’ laws, said Morgan Cloud, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta and expert on the state’s RICO law. “For example, acts to obstruct justice committed in Arizona might be relevant if the goal of the enterprise, of the racketeering activity, was to overturn the 2020 presidential election nationally, as well as in Georgia.”
Cloud added that prosecutors in Georgia must prove only that two racketeering crimes occurred under the state RICO statute, but that other facts could be used to explain the breadth of an alleged scheme.
An ambitious prosecution
Willis’s investigation has already come under scrutiny as a test of applying state criminal laws to actions that revolved around a federal election — and that in many instances resembled constitutionally protected speech. The probe has prompted a debate, even among those who believe Trump’s efforts were improper, as to whether prosecutors will be able to prove that Georgia crimes were committed.
Her potentially sweeping application of Georgia’s RICO statute could amplify those questions. RICO allows prosecutors to target leaders of alleged criminal enterprises who in previous generations eluded convictions. In Georgia, it can be applied to many patterns of activity that are crimes under state or federal law, such as dogfighting or drug dealing, obstruction or conspiracy — going far beyond its origins as a tool to fight organized crime.
Several legal experts said they expect Willis to home in on possible false statements by Trump and his allies to government officials — one of the crimes that can be prosecuted under Georgia’s RICO statute.
In 2015, Willis attracted national attention as a deputy district attorney by using RICO to prosecute a massive cheating scandal in Atlanta’s public schools that sent eight teachers and administrators to prison.
Prosecutors in Georgia have obtained RICO convictions where the pattern of racketeering activity included actions in other states. In one notable case, prosecutors in Richmond County got convictions for several men they accused of kidnapping a Sam’s Club manager in a robbery scheme in 1998, stuffing him into the trunk of a car, driving to South Carolina and killing him by setting the car on fire.
In the Trump case, Willis has said she is focused on the phone calls Trump made to multiple Georgia officials seeking to reverse his defeat, his campaign’s efforts to persuade the Georgia legislature to declare Trump the winner, the gathering of Trump’s electors to cast electoral college votes for Trump after Joe Biden had been declared the winner in the state, and the Trump campaign’s potential involvement in an unauthorized breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County, Ga.
Dozens of people participated in those efforts, according to reams of emails, texts and deposition transcripts from the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack: Trump lawyers such as Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Ray Smith and John Eastman; senior advisers including then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Jeffrey Clark, then a senior official at the Justice Department; and Georgia GOP leaders including the party chairman, David Shafer, and its then finance chairman, Shawn Still.
Multiple legal experts have said persuading a jury that those actions broke the law could prove difficult. The debate reflects the unprecedented nature of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. While the effort immediately prompted calls to hold him and others criminally responsible, identifying laws that apply to such a scenario has proved challenging — and could help explain why Willis’s investigation is in its third year. That dynamic applies both to the Georgia investigation as well as the special counsel’s federal probe.
Most of those scrutinized in the Willis investigation have maintained that they did nothing wrong. They had every right to pursue claims of anomalies, many have said, particularly given how close Biden’s margin of victory was in Georgia, two-tenths of 1 percent.
“There’s not a single thing that I did in pursuit of election integrity that I have any regret or concern about,” Shafer said in a recent GOP address.
“It’s dangerous,” said Malcolm, the Heritage scholar, referring to the investigation in Georgia of contingent electors. “What you’re doing is tainting political activists who are trying to play a part in an election, who are trying to help their candidate, and all of a sudden you’re launching a criminal investigation.”
Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House of Representatives’ first impeachment of Trump, over his pressure campaign with Ukraine, cautioned that it’s too soon to judge the investigation, but said he believes the overall case is a “strong one.”
“Either skepticism or belief is premature because we are not privy to all the evidence that the district attorney has amassed at this point,” said Eisen, a criminal defense attorney and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It just depends on the evidence.”
Eisen was among the authors of a lengthy examination of the applicable law in the Fulton investigation, concluding that possible crimes, besides racketeering, included making false statements and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
Malcolm said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that Trump is at substantial risk of being charged. But he said he believes much of its analysis is “slanted and misguided.”
Trump’s call to Georgia
Willis launched her probe shortly after Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), during which Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” That number would have given Trump exactly the votes he needed to reverse Biden’s victory.
While Trump has been widely rebuked for that comment and others during the roughly one-hour call, it’s unclear to some legal analysts if uttering those words broke the law.
Trump did not spell out that he wanted Raffensperger to break the law; nor did he directly ask the state official to find the votes, which might have given Willis a clearer path to seek a felony charge against him, such as solicitation to commit election fraud. Instead, the comment could be interpreted as the president simply spelling out the math that would allow him to reverse Biden’s victory.
Trump may have hurt himself, however, in his appearance last month at a town hall broadcast by CNN, during which he explained that he called Raffensperger to tell him, “You owe me votes because the election was rigged.” Willis could offer the statement as evidence of Trump’s intent for Raffensperger to switch votes, several legal experts said.
“Subjects of criminal investigation aren’t usually reckless enough to go on national television and admit their corrupt intent,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, wrote on Twitter after the appearance. “But Donald Trump just handed Fani Willis a new piece of evidence and tied a bow on it.”
Willis has also investigated appearances by Giuliani and other Trump allies before Georgia lawmakers in the days immediately after the 2020 election, during which they described fantastical conspiracies of voting machines swapping Trump votes for Biden votes and poll workers in Atlanta triple-counting suitcases full of ballots.
It’s a felony in Georgia to make a false statement in a government matter, but Willis must prove that Giuliani and the others knew that what they were saying was false. Giuliani was not speaking under oath, so there is no exposure for perjury charges, and some legal experts say he might also be protected under the First Amendment.
Willis may also examine the actions of Clark, then the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, who wanted to send a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and state legislative leaders falsely claiming that the department was investigating “significant concerns” in the 2020 election, and urging them to call a special session of the General Assembly to appoint Trump’s electors to cast Georgia’s electoral college votes. Senior Justice Department officials blocked Clark from sending the draft.
Whether the Republican electors who convened to cast electoral college votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, broke the law is perhaps even murkier.
Georgia was among seven states where the Trump campaign and local GOP officials arranged for alternate electors to convene with the stated purpose of preserving legal recourse while an election challenge made its way through the courts. Willis has offered some form of immunity to 12 of the 16 electors, according to three individuals with knowledge of the investigation. Not counted among those with immunity are Still, now a Georgia state senator, and Shafer.
Shafer helped organize the meeting and presided over it. Still has been described in news reports as having blocked members of the media from entering the room before the meeting started. Prosecutors have apparently focused on those activities in their questions to various witnesses, according to three other people with knowledge of the interviews. Prosecutors have also inquired about who mailed the electoral certificates to Washington, they said.
One of Shafer’s lawyers, Holly Pierson, wrote in a letter to Willis that Shafer had no knowledge that Trump allies would propose, later in December, to use the alternate elector certificates to block the counting of electoral votes for Biden in the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. It is not even clear if the plan to thwart the joint session had been hatched by Dec. 14, 2020, the day the electors met. The House committee did not refer Shafer or Still to the Justice Department for federal prosecution. Pierson declined to comment.
As the nation waits to see what, if any, charges Willis will seek, one key question is what evidence she has gathered that Trump, his campaign or allies knew about all the different efforts to reverse Biden’s victory. And that’s just the first step — getting to trial and persuading a jury may present even more formidable challenges.
“Proving all this beyond a reasonable doubt,” Kreis said, “that’s going to be the hard part.”

Friends bday is coming up and I’d like to gift him a special blunt like art type shit, maybe not like cross joint but something similar? Heart shape or something . Anyone has the gift of rolling nice themed joints?

Hello, gentlemen (and ladies)! Please forgive the length here, I'm trying to provide as much detail as I can.
A little while ago we had a 10 x 20 cabin shell built behind our house for my retired father to live in (hired out plumbing and electrical but did all the finish work myself). Dad's cabin was built on basically a pier-and-beam, and is separated from the main house by a four-foot-wide breezeway. The cabin is level but the ground beneath is not (see photos). The cabin is very solid and well-built, but I get nervous thinking of wind getting beneath it so easily here in TX, and it doesn't look great just hovering above the ground like that.
So I want to build a nice sturdy little wall around the very base with standard 8x8x16 CMUs--two, maybe three courses--perhaps fill the space beneath the floor with insulation, and do something to tie the cabin more solidly to the ground. Whichever option I do, I plan to use a self-adhesive flashing between the CMU and wood, and will install a few grated vents.
I am considering three options (see photos and drawings; sorry, I'm not an artist):
Option A: Buy four concrete deck piers. Dig holes below cabin corners and set piers on 2" of compacted gravel so the tops of them are 2" below ground surface. Set PT 4x4 post in galvanized base on them; lag bolt 4x4 into cabin base plate at inside corners. Then dig trench around cabin (excluding corners), 2" compacted gravel, pour 12" wide 2" (or 4"?) deep concrete footepad, build CMU wall onto it, with vertical rebar and grout every 24" OC. (Remember, this is only a 2- or 3-course wall.)
Option B: Same as A, but with 24" tall (filled) sonotubes at corners, and galvanized post/foot plates for 4x4 posts sunk into concrete when appropriate after pour.
Option C: dig footers 8" deep around entire cabin. Fill bottom 2" with compacted gravel, and pour 6" deep 12" wide footers with two #3 or #4 rebar in each "length," and rebar corners tied in. Vertical rebar every 24" OC. Grout every other cell & all rebar cells. Possibly epoxy or grout anchors or bolts into CMUs & attach to base plate every 4' or so.
(I know Option C is the way to build an actual loadbearing structural wall, I'm just wondering if, since this is such a short wall and won't actually be really bearing the weight of the cabin, I could get away with the less expensive options.)
The breezeway between the main house and the cabin door is 10'L x 4'W. I plan to place a concrete pad there, 4" deep, with a footer along the cabin side to match whatever I do around the rest of the cabin so my CMU wall can continue there. Beneath the pad will be 2" compacted gravel and a moisture barrier.
Regarding this pad, I am not sure if it needs rebar or is a wire mesh sheet okay, since it's only 4"? Should I use epoxy and rebar to tie it to the house foundation, or should I put a strip of that fibeasphalt expansion joint material?
If this project goes well, I am planning to enclose the back porch with CMU, and then build an entire CMU building/tornado shelter. I've already built a form to make a lintel, and I own a concrete mixer and a pencil vibrator. We lived in a CMU house in Florida, and I loved the security of it (and did a few repairs on the walls while living there, so I have some familiarity with the materials, though obviously not as much as any of you. I've also spent considerable time over the last few years reading everything I can find on how to build with concrete and/or CMU, and am a fairly experienced DIYer.
Does my plan sound workable? Which option should I go with? Do you have any other tips or suggestions? Would any of you in the DFW (HEB) area like to help/advise/teach a fun lady who bakes awesome chocolate chip cookies and other treats, values your knowledge, experience, and time, and wants to learn? (Or at least advise/help with purchasing materials, since it seems no one outside of HD/Lowes is willing to sell them to me?) Feel free to PM me.
Photos & drawings:
https://imgur.com/a/XzVup7M
Thanks very much in advance!

Catch the full episode: https://www.wealthformula.com/podcast/371-ask-buck-june-2023/
Buck: Welcome back to the show, everyone. And today it's just me. Like old times. And we're going to take questions from the audience. There's actually no audience here in my room, in my office here. But I'm going to take questions from you. And we'll start with the question from Mike. Mike, here you go. Hello, Buckets. Mike Kaye from Melbourne Beach, Florida.
Mike: I was wondering if you were looking at any opportunities out there in regards to investing in distressed assets. I've noticed that rates have gone up in a lot of operators like Western wealth aren't cash flowing and are actually looking for more capital because they've got themselves into trouble. And if rates stay higher than expected, there could be some some pretty good deals as far as bailing folks out.
Buck: So I wanted to get your thoughts on if you were looking for anything out there as far as funds or whatever it may maybe create some opportunity here. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for the question, Mike. The answer well, let's start with this. Obviously, there's a lot of distress in the system right now. Interest rates have gone up a the steepest slope in American history.
And as you might expect, that has not been good for operators, particularly those who relied heavily on floating debt. You know, and this is important, I think, to understand what's going on a little bit, because you might be wondering why in the world would you use floating debt anyway? Well, if it's a long term hold, it never would really make sense to do that kind of short term debt.
However, and with these larger assets, the problem is fixing debt. If your plan is to, you know, ultimately sell. And, you know, 18 to 24 months, you are going to end up with an extremely high prepayment penalty. And so in those situations, the extremely short hold are the shorter hold models, you know, generally ran on floating rate. So if you're again, your business model is to get in and out in 18 months, it doesn't make sense to lock in the rates.
So obviously now they would be better off if we had. But everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Right. That is from Mike Tyson, not from me. But that's that's kind of what's happening across the board here, especially for floating rates. And as for looking into creating this fund, which, you know, maybe you got a rescue fund or something like that, that the answer was whether I, I think that that's potentially something to do is, well, yeah, it's certainly something to consider.
And I have thought about it. These are essentially these sort of preferred equity positions, essentially become the lender. So there's not like any tax benefits or anything like that. But so, you know, I have thought about this, but but before doing anything like that, I want to make sure, you know, the economics makes sense for everyone against, again, perhaps one of the most appealing parts of this fund might actually to be getting into some second positions and maybe be first in line if the property fails and you know it or is distressed, it needs to be taken over.
But I really need to think about it because I also want everyone to have as much dry powder as possible. And because, again, it is no fun to be in this environment and those people who are going to make money are going to be the ones that have like nerves of steel that, you know, are okay to feel like, okay, I'm losing some money on one hand, but there's an opportunity to buy distressed assets on the other side.
And that's where real money is made. And again, it's a psychological thing that happens in every cycle. And the key is to try to keep your wits about you and learn, you know, learn whatever lessons you have to learn and move on and deploy. I certainly am not one who is not learned from this experience. Myself, I absolutely have, and I think it'll make me a better investor going forward.
Unfortunately, we're still in the midst of this mess right now. But anyway, bottom line is the answer is yes, potentially. I've thought about it. And I think like those kinds of preferred equity, essentially debt being in the second position behind the main lender, that is that's potentially appealing. And certainly as an investor, I think it's appealing because essentially you're you're in a lending position. You're not you know, you're not in an equity position, so you're superior to the equity position. Hopefully that helps. All right. Let's go on to the next question here. So it's from John.
John: Hi, this is John Valentino. I listened to your excellent podcast every Sunday morning on my run, walk and find them uniquely interesting and helpful amongst a sea of podcasts that aren't.
Buck: Yesterday you mentioned Terry Loughlin and your late in life swimming experience. I'm 68 now and at 55 I decided to learn to swim. I researched all of Terry's stuff and ended up using a local swimming coach here in Fresno, California, who knew Terry and who had a lot of experience. He had me swimming, breathing and flipped, turning very quickly.
Four years ago when we visited Maui, I did a two mile ocean swim with some master swimmers. I now swam about a mile and a half every Sunday with which the swim coach they taught me. And I do that. I listen to your podcast. I'm sure we could get you swimming and breathing properly very quickly. He Fresno's not too far from Montecito. Good luck with your swimming and let me know if you'd like me to hook you up with Rich. The swim coach.
Buck: Well, John, thanks for that. That makes for a lighter moment in this sea of despair. Ha ha ha. That's funny, kid at sea of despair. He's swimming. Anyway, for those of you who don't know what John is referring to, I'll just take a minute because, you know, taking questions from all kinds.
All types of questions here is back in 2016, I think it was 16, I listened to Tim Ferriss podcast about how he spent his whole life trying to swim and unsuccessfully, I'd say, met up a guy, met up with a guy named Terry Loughlin, who taught his total immersion technique or tie. So I decided, well, gosh, you know, basically Tim Ferriss was talking about my story, like he spent his entire, like, you know, didn't learn to swim as a little kid and then all this and trying to catch up and no one could teach him.
And that was kind of where I was. I do like him numerous, like tries added back in my twenties and thirties, and then I kind of had given up. Then I contacted Terry. He was in New York, upstate New York. So he actually flew out there. I was in Chicago at the time and he taught me to swim in about 2 to 3 hours and it was really unbelievable to me.
And the only thing I didn't learn how to do during that visit was to breathe. And unfortunately, that was so that was like I was there for like a day and a half. And that was the part I didn't get to. So now I can swim, but only as long as I can hold my breath because I can't seem to, you know, I can't breathe and swim at the same time.
Unfortunately, Terry had, end stage cancer. When I saw him and I believe I was his last student before he died a couple of months later, and he'd actually stopped teaching for a while, you know, before I got to be the lucky one that he decided he had enough strength to go back for. So lucky for me. So but yeah, I would love to, you know, John, shoot me an email, you know, where I am and I get well for Malcolm Connect me to your guy.
And I think Fresno might be a little far, but if he's as good as Terry, maybe I could. Maybe I could learn to breathe in a day, too. So, hey, anyway, thanks. Thanks for that. Let's go on to the next question here. All right. This one's from I think it's Garima.
Garima: I am looking to become a real professional on studies. We've been doing real estate for a little bit but wanted to do this. I really need help. If you can guide me well and see.
Buck: Well, I don't know. I can do my best about that, Garima. And first of all, I have to preface this as I always do, that what I'm about to say is not legal or any kind of tax advice. I'm not a tax professional. My degree is in medicine. I'm a former board certified surgeon, but that doesn't qualify me for much. And this in this arena, it's just my understanding of the tax law, which, you know, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about. So it's not like what I'm saying should not be listened to, I think.
But on the other hand, the liability issues, I have to make very clear consult with your own tax professional before anything anyway. So again, probably the best thing I can do in terms of guiding is tell you what I know about the qualification as real estate professionals status. And by the way, I should also point out that the benefits that I'm going to talk about, there's a lot of this similar benefits without having the status in short term rentals.
And that episode, I believe, is 354. So go back and listen to that one. It's I thought that was a pretty interesting episode. But why is agreement talking about this RFP short for a real estate professional So everyone is on the same page? What is the real estate professional designation? Why is it useful? Well, a real estate professional is not the same thing, is in a real estate agent or a real estate broker, which are basically involved with real estate transactions.
They're involved as like the middleman. Right. That's not really the business of real estate. The real estate professional is someone who is who is materially involved with the business of owning and operating business. And the reason that this is important, we'll get to in a minute, but I'm going to go into the qualification parts of this. And again, I'm not giving you advice and basically telling you what I can gather from the IRS website And basically the material participation is one of the first things.
So you can't you can't be a limited partner in a bunch of real estate and call yourself a real estate professional. You have to have some activities that are truly owning and, you know, operating real estate. I mean, you have to be involved in the management operations of your rental properties, right? So the level of involvement is different than obviously if, you know, even if you have a propertyif you have a property manager or whatever, it's still going to be more active than if you're just a limited partner.
But another one of the things that you have to qualify for is you have to spend more than 50% of your total working hours in real estate activities. So in other words, if you know, if you've got a full-time job, you can't really qualify as a real estate professional. There has to be more hours than any other profession. Right? Your participation in real estate activities has to exceed anything else that you're doing in terms of business and employment. There's also something called the 750-hour test, which you must spend at least 750 hours per year on real estate activities. And some of these things that you can do include property management or rent collection or maintenance or advertising, other related issues, acquisitions, underwriting, etc.
I mean, there's a lot of things that, you know, once you own real estate, you can be an active owner, right? So anywhere that's... So why would you want this designation? Because it sounds onerous to go and try to make sure you've got all these things if you're not already doing it. Well, as you may know, the real estate income itself, that real estate income itself is considered passive income.
Right. And similarly, the losses from real estate in the form of depreciation are considered passive losses for most people. Those passive losses cannot be applied to any active income, right? So if you have an income of $500,000 and you happen to have $500,000 of depreciation or paper losses, you couldn't use those losses to offset your personal active income.
The reason is that one is active and one is passive. So you can't do that. And unfortunately, unless maybe you or your spouse, rather, with whom you file jointly is a real estate professional. So in this case, what would happen is those passive losses from real estate would become activated, in other words, their active losses. And you can, you know, you can offset anything with active losses, right.
And even W-2 income. So that's the idea. So, again, theoretically, check with your legal, you know, and tax people and hopefully they know what they're talking about. But see, if you're a C, if you're a doctor, you're making, again, $500,000. And let's say your spouse, who's a real estate professional, generated maybe $50,000 in income, but $300,000 of paper losses, you can deduct that $300,000 from the salary, that is earned income on the doctor's side.
So basically, that is what the huge, big deal is about this real estate professional status. And again, I'm not a tax professional, but this is something that a lot of people in our group do, and it is, you know, following the tax code, that's the key. So Garima, bottom line is I don't know how else I can guide you other than to give you information.
But, you know, I guess what I would do if I were you is, you know, try to figure out how you can actually, you know, get yourself qualified as a real estate professional and make sure that, you know, you fit those criteria and talk to your tax person about it. Okay. Next question is from Mark Hammons. Mark's question deals with tax law, and I'm not sure it's appropriate for this forum.
Feel free to pass on if you feel like addressing it. Well, it's another question. Well, you know how I feel about that. I'll tell you what I think. But
don't take it as tax advice in any sort of way. But okay, so here's the question Mark says. He says, I'm a partner in an LLC that was formed for residential development.
Our project is nearing completion, and this year it will take business income to be taxed at a 20% LLC rate. I will receive income from the sale of raw land and taxed as long-term capital gains. I'm a full-time physician and not actively involved in the business of land development. Can I offset any of this income with accumulated passive losses and leases?
Thanks, Mark, for all you do. Thank you, Mark. And well, as you may have gathered from the previous question and the answer that I gave Garima, you are a full-time physician, my friend, and therefore you do not qualify as a real estate professional, and therefore you cannot use those passive losses against your active income as a physician, and you are stuck in that stratification of income hell, which is that you've got these great-looking losses on the passive side and this great income on the active side, and you cannot do anything about it.
So now, if your wife was doing this real estate stuff and qualified as a real estate professional based on the criteria I mentioned earlier, then you would theoretically be able to apply those passive losses to active income, and boom, all of a sudden, you would have what it is you are hoping for. And anyway, but I do have people in our group who are literally, you know, with that spouse set up.
Well, that's why I brought it up, right, where they literally had a spouse quit their job so that they can switch to real estate professional status. And although their cash flow may constitute a theoretical pay cut from their job, the generated losses, paper losses, are being applied to the larger active income stack. There, in many cases, justifies that because they may make a total gross amount of income that's less.
But because of those passive losses, they actually get to keep more. So that's a complicated answer to a simple question. In my non-professional opinion, Mark, you are kind of screwed. Can't do that anyway. All right. So the next series of questions is from Terry. And let's see, let's start with the first one. Is this one. My understanding is there are U.S. dollars held overseas in the United States.
What would be the impact to the value of the dollar if the overseas cash had to be converted to CBDCs, which is central bank decentralized coins? Well, I'm no expert on this, but from what I know, I'm not sure it would have a material effect on anything overseas because as I understand, CBDCs is a little more than using distributed ledgers instead of central ledgers for digital money, right?
Because the thing is, you have to remember that 90% of the U.S. dollars are digital-only already. They do not exist in the physical world already. So what difference does it make if it's on a single ledger or if it's on a distributed ledger? I'm not sure that it does. As I understand it, the idea would be essentially to make it into like a software update almost, right, where the new digital currencies would be CBDCs.
But of course, I could be wrong, and my understanding of the plan that the U.S. has there is it could be wrong. I'm sure there's a larger plan eventually to use this as a way of maximizing tax revenues and tracking people's spending and that kind of thing. But in the short term, I don't really see how it has repercussions for money overseas.
But if somebody knows of something that would cause that, certainly email me. But I don't know that. Okay. This question is also from Terry. He says, "Rising interest rates have had an impact on existing multifamily operators, and it seems like part of the multifamily model relies on interest rate value being lower than cap rates." That's correct. "Combined with the multiplier effect of low cap rates for value-add projects, do you see cap rates going up until interest rates come down?"
How high can cap rates go before the value-add model is no longer viable? Are rents still rising fast enough to offset interest hikes? Okay. So yes, I do see cap rates going up. Remember, in order for debt to make sense, the interest rates must be lower than the cap rate. So if your borrowing rate is 5%, then your cap rate needs to be above that in order to have positive cash flow.
Otherwise, you're amplifying your losses. That said, often, you know, you may have seen in some cases operators buying things and they'll consider buying things like that. If there's an obvious thing that's going to drive up net operating income pretty quickly. But right now we are seeing rising cap rates. Now, as for the value-add model being viable, I would say that yes, the value-add model is viable in all interest rate environments and with all cap rates because remember, folks, real estate was not people didn't just start making money on value-add.
This has been around for some time, right? There are plenty of people who got rich off of value-add real estate in the eighties despite double-digit interest rates in double-digit cap rates. So what has created so much distress in this system is not the absolute interest rates. It's the pace at which the interest rates went up.
They're the moving goalposts. You see, every time you underwrite a property, you have to model in interest rates and reversion cap rates. And if rates are not stable, it's very difficult to underwrite. And that's why these real estate markets right now have been so illiquid. There really are no stable variables to underwrite with. Rightly, you got to have the goalposts, you got to know where the goalposts are so you can play the game right.
Once you have that stability, though, you can underwrite again, and in value-add real estate, the money isn't made based on interest rates being high or low, but it is made by ultimately creating a positive delta in the net operating income. And that can happen in all interest rate and cap rate environments. So I don't see it being an end to value-add real estate at all.
In fact, one could argue that if you're, say, you're buying real estate, which hopefully we are in the fall, and you're getting great deals on it, you know, the rates are high, but the numbers are making sense. You do your normal net operating income, you do your normal value-add program, you try to increase NOI, and you get lucky.
And by the time you're ready to sell, interest rates have actually come down. Well, in that case, you're going to actually probably get, you know, more for your property than you would otherwise if rates were stable. So I actually don't see this as something that is ending anything. In fact, I think those who, again, take advantage of a higher-rate environment and buy into assets that make sense at high interest rates could seriously make money in the next, you know, several years.
So let's see, the last question from Terry is, "What are your thoughts on portfolio allocation between real estate stocks, cash value insurance, gold, crypto, and cash?" Well, I might not be the best person to ask about portfolio allocation because I think my portfolio would make most money managers think, right? I'm about 75% real estate, maybe 5-7% crypto, mostly Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the remaining investments are things that I believe are uncorrelated.
The most stable thing is, you know, I'm a big fan of cash value life insurance in part because, I mean, it is so stable. I mean, seriously, it is incredibly stable. If you look at the environment that we're in right now, it makes you, again, think you should be buying more cash value life insurance. It's extremely stable.
And this is why it was such a big deal during the Great Depression. People lived through the Depression and had no faith in anything except for cash value life insurance, which is what they were buying. But anyway, I think, in particular, I'm talking about these strategies that we're calling, well, formula banking or various leverage dials, wealth accelerators, things like that.
So there's that. I'm also obviously into other things that we have in our group. We're involved with like ATMs, which, you know, don't seem to have much correlation with the economy per se because people who use that still needed it. Good times or bad and did well even through COVID. You know, there's also things that we're doing, like I'm invested in things like, you know, cargo ships that are delivering essential oil and gas to the country, things like that, where again, it's not something that is significantly correlated with the rest of the markets.
And I think that's one of the things to really make sure that you're not... I mean, listen, I guess in my case, being 75% real estate, I mean, it's not a good time to be 75% real estate right now. Right. I probably... I mean, if I did the numbers, I'm probably less than 75% real estate now because I probably lost quite a bit of value in the real estate.
But I'm not even going to look at that right now for this purpose. But ultimately, though, you know, listen, personal finance should be personal. I don't own stocks, although I'm not against stocks. I'm just, you know, not a guy who really owns stocks except for some big, really, you know, asymmetric plays in the energy space, you know, through Mercatus and things like that.
I don't own any physical gold, although again, I've talked about possibly wanting to do that. I don't really want to right now, but I'm hoarding cash right now because I think there are going to be tremendous buying opportunities in real estate with distressed assets, and I think that's going to be the name of the game in Q4. So but again, I do not think it's a good idea to listen to me about portfolios.
I think I think it's if you want those kinds of things, you probably should, you know, talk to others, talk to, talk to, you know, our RIA's, things like that. But to me, again, personal finance is really personal. And for me, I'm, you know, I'm pretty aggressive on some of the things that I have a lot of belief in.
So, okay. Well, I guess that's my last question. Before I go, I want to remind you that there's another actually, there's actually another podcast that I do now, which is, you know, it's kind of just taking something that I was spending a lot of time learning about and and and trying to process myself and turning it into another show so that I could share with you.
The show is called CPO, CPO. You can find it on pretty much all of the ways that you find this show and
hopefully on YouTube soon too. We haven't quite gotten to YouTube, I think, but the show is, I think, very interesting because, you know, we talk about wealth on the show, but I mean, you know, what do what is more what's more coveted than, you know, actually having health because then your wealth is actually useful.
So a lot of Sabio is really about various types of longevity and wellness type stuff on the science that we know out there. Really interesting stuff to me and would love for you to check it out again at Sabio with Buck Joffrey. Check it out and let me know if you like it. Give me a positive review. That's it for me.
This week on Wealth Formula podcast, this is Buck Joffrey signing off.

I’m probably massively overthinking this, but a guy at a self checkout just asked me to tap my clubcard for his shopping, as he does not have one. He was old and friendly, so I felt obliged.
Is there any risk of fraud here? I used my Tesco joint credit and clubcard on the card reader before he started scanning and then left.
Can he access my points or credit card this way? I’m aware that tapping for someone else is against Tesco’s terms but not too worried about that aspect. Thanks!

So I would put my SO in the category of "problem drinker" or "almost alcoholic" because he is not physically addicted and can go without beer, but when he is drinking, he sometimes has a hard time not having more than he planned if he has more than 2 or 3 beers. He abused alcohol a lot more heavily when he was younger but has made a lot of efforts to cut down and change his habits over the past 4 years. His life does not revolve around alcohol the way some of our friends' lives do, and he definitely doesn't want it to get back to that point.
He doesn't always have the issue of drinking more than he planned, but it happened enough (and caused problems in our relationship) that recently he decided on his own, to take an entire month off from alcohol and focus on other "outlets" instead including mountain biking and drinking cannabis infused drinks instead of beer, which I am totally ok with because it doesn't cause the problems that drinking does.
The month break just ended and he explained to me that he felt he had made a shift in his approach and his desire/need to drink beyond moderation. He explained how he now had other outlets and realized that he could get through difficult moments that definitely felt like drinking triggers by dealing with them in a different way. He did a lot of introspection and learned some things about himself.
Yesterday was the first Friday after he was letting himself drink again and he had a frustrating day at work. I should mention that he is a carpenter and most of the crew he works with are drinkers and some are functional alcoholics and a few are in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Anyway, he went to our local pub straight after an extra long day at work and texted me he was going to have two beers and then leave. A bit later he told me he was having one more, and said he was being mindful...I was at a work event until almost 10 and lo and behold, when I am done he is still out, so I ended up picking him up at the bar. He wasn't completely trashed but had definitely gone beyond moderation and was in his typical mode of being very defensive and paranoid that I was mad at him for drinking and judging him for being a bad person. I was indeed disappointed, but I realized it wasn't a good time to talk about it and we narrowly avoided a big fight. I realized in those situations he needs me to just act cool even if I'm not, because he can't deal with any negativity from me about his drinking when he's drunk. His brain isn't capable of rational communication. So I switched into total acceptance/"saint" mode and put up with his somewhat obnoxious but also loving behavior and we went to bed.
This morning one of the first things he said to me was "Well, that's June taken care of...," meaning that after last night, he was planning to quit beers again for the rest of this month. I believe him, and I believe he is in the process of realizing that he does have a problem with alcohol and needs more than a month off to change his behavior. I didn't say anything except "Ok," because it's his choice to make and the best thing I can do is support him in his journey without judgment. I have no expectations, but I know if he wants to stop for another month, he can. I imagine he sees last night as an indicator that he hasn't grown as much as he thought he had.
My question for people here who are in various states of changing your relationship with alcohol is : Is it normal to go through this kind of testing oneself and for lack of a better term, screwing up and drinking more than intended, on the way to figuring out what actually works for you?
I assume it is a normal part of the process, but it would be helpful to hear from others about how you thought you had made a shift but then realized you weren't there yet. What did it take for you to actually make that shift? Any key insights you had?
I have no idea if my SO will end up quitting alcohol completely or just find a way to consistently do moderation, and either outcome is fine with me, because he's fine if he has only 2-3 beers (he doesn't drink any other alcohol). I would totally be ok with him being "California sober" because he is much easier to be around when he's a bit stoned and it doesn't cause him to act weird/annoying like alcohol does.
I don't like being around him when he's drunk because it makes me uncomfortable and I have a problem with his drinking behaviors - being inconsiderate, not doing what he says he will, being very difficult to communicate with and lacking in empathy (for example last night we were smoking a joint and it made me gag/vomit and he didn't even ask if I was ok even though he noticed what happened). When he's sober or just having cannabis, none of this is a problem other than the typical minor relationship communication issues that most couples go through.
I have suggested that he might want to check out this subreddit to be with like minded people, but he hates all social media so it's not gonna happen.
I appreciate your perspectives, thanks in advance!

So I noticed this leakage last year. We’ve been the owner for 3 years now. It’s an old house from 1953. The balcony is in fiberglass and the silicon joint looks good.
Under the balcony, you can see the weird fluid leakage. It was coming behind the plank that is used to stabilize the balcony near the house wall. I removed the plank, it was full of old empty pest nests: arachnid and perhaps wasp.
You can see spots of the liquid on the upper portion of the plank. There were shims there, to help ensure a tight fit with the balcony. Looking closely to the wall, it seems to be coming from the space between the balcony and the silicone joint.
So, anyone can guide me as to what this might be and how to correct this to ensure it stops leaking?
Maybe the silicone joint is leaking petrol due to sun exposure? Maybe a pest is producing this? Something is leaking from a hole from a brick joint, and coming out as such? So many possibilities
Any and all help is really appreciated.

My husband and I have separate finances and split certain costs like utilities. We pay utility bills with a joint credit card, which is linked to my Mint account. Is there a way to change my settings so only half of the bill counts toward my budget?

Shabbat shalom everyone! Today I’m continuing the most important lesson ever. Many say that Yeshua abolished the Mosaic Law, and that the Old Testament is long gone and obsolete. Is the Law and the Prophets abolished? Let’s put the some of the writings of the New Testament to the test of the Law and the Prophets.
Last week we learned that Paul declares Yeshua as the high priest and the builder of the house of Israel. He also declares that both Moses and Yeshua are servants of Elohim, but that Master Yeshua has greater honor than Moses, because he is the builder of the house, and not a servant. Paul warns us that if we hear the voice of God or his spirit, that we do not harden our hearts like some of the Israelites did. He then uses the story of the Exodus and compares the fallen Israelites of the exodus to the people of his time and then urges them to believe in the messiah, and if we do, we belong in his house if we keep the confidence and the hopes of the promises of Yahweh to the end.
Again, we can see that looking at the New Testament writings with the lens of the Torah, that the verses become clearer and there are no contradictions. Here is the score far:
The Torah: 14
Doctrines of Devils: 0
Let’s keep sharpening our proverbial spears and swords, which is the Word. Let’s continue our study of Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews. God willing, we will find new treasures greater than gold and silver.
Hebrews chapter 4:1-2
[1] Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. [2] For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
In chapter 4 Paul continues with his reasoning from chapter 3. He reasoned that those who did not see the promised land from the exodus, did not see it because of unbelief, and unbelief leads to sin. If we don’t believe the words of the Torah that are God’s Laws, statutes, and ordinances, well then Paul states that we cannot enter into his rest. In verse two we get a clue on what the gospel is according to Paul. When Paul says that “the gospel was preached to us as well as them” who is them? He’s referring to the Israelites that fell in the Exodus. What gospel is Paul talking about? It’s the Torah. The good news (gospel) according to Paul are the commands and promises from Elohim, as given to Moses. That covenant is the contract between mankind and the creator of the universe, that if we follow his laws, statutes and commands, we will enter in the same rest as the creator did after the six days of creation. For all of you that think that the gospel is the New Testament and the story of Yeshua, Paul here writes in plain words that the gospel was heard by the Israelites of the exodus. Therefore, the gospel cannot be the story of Yeshua. Why did some of the Israelites fail? He answers that question in verse 2 by declaring that the word did not profit them (the fallen Israelites from the Exodus), because they did not believe the promises of Father. Here we also get why faith is so important! We need to believe the promises and the blessings from the Torah. Else there is no reason for them. I think we just found another gem! The gospel according to Paul is the Torah. Messiah was predicted in the Torah. How can we believe in messiah by removing the many other promises and blessings? Sounds like cherry picking to me. Let’s not choose the red, plump, and ripe ones over the hard, green, and sour cherries. All the cherries will be ripe one day.
Hebrews chapter 4:3-10
[3] For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. [4] For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works*. [5] And in this place again,* If they shall enter into my rest*. [6] Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: [7] Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said,* To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. [8] For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. [9] There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. [10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
In verses 3 to 10 Paul uses the shabbat as an example to show that the ones who believe do enter in his rest. He quotes Psalm 95:11 to show that Father already declared that those He was angry with will not enter in His rest. He then quotes Genesis 2:2 to show us God’s example of entering the shabbat rest. He then returns to Psalm 95 and declares that there remains a rest in God’s people, and that God’s people do as Father did, rest on the Shabbat. For all of you out there that think that the seventh day shabbat is long gone, in verse 3 Paul states that “we which have believed do enter into rest”. So, Paul does hold the shabbat as a holy day.
Hebrews chapter 4:11-12
[11] Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. [12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do [14] Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.[15] For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.[16] Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Let us work to enter that rest… Sounds like a contradiction in terms, working to enter the Shabbat. Well the Torah has many other commands, can we enter Father’s rest as a murderer? Or perhaps as a rapist? Maybe as a thief? Well, no we can’t. Sin will separate a person from the most high Elohim. As Father promises that His people are separate from the world, it’s only by holding on to the promises in the Torah and the writings of the prophets of God that we can do that. The words of Elohim cut deep and divide the separate from the world (or holy). Paul continues by declaring that all works are known by Father and master Yeshua and that by relying on the one who loved us first, yet without sin, but with the same human nature and temptations, we can get mercy from our transgression and find grace in his teachings and blessings.
If you are his sheep, the words of the prophets, and the Torah, and master Yeshua’s teachings won’t be too hard for you to accept. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Psalm 95:7:8).
Next week we will continue with chapter 5.
Don’t take it from me! Prove all things and judge for yourself. Let the spirit lead you where it wants you to be.
Yeshua is our master, savior and rabbi, we need no other man to lead us!
Shalom, VN

Other than the obvious ones like compression g the joint too much (eg if something heavy fell on your head) and rapid bending (eg whiplash)
I'm Wondering what other movements can stress the joint which then causes cartilage damage

I’ve been mudding for a few months now and every now and then I start having these craters in my mud. I can usually fix it on the 3rd coat but I’d like to get to point where I only need to do 2 coats. The stuff from the picture is the pre-mixed blue lid joint compound for my second coat.
I usually use a mixer to loosen up the mud a bit but im wondering if I’m over mixing it or maybe not mixing it enough? Maybe it’s the angle of my knife? Or maybe it’s just what happens and there’s no way around it. Any advice would be appreciated!

I’m looking for any tips or recommendations on how to take a complex model and turn it into parts I can print. I print a lot of mechs and complex vehicles for my Battletech habit, and I run into a lot of issues with arms and pieces snapping off. I have a number of tanks I recently printed, and those came in parts. It was so much easier (less supports to remove), and I get much better results.
The Bambu slicer just has one single plane for cutting. Often times, what I want is to “cut” an arm at the shoulder joint, but there’s a lot of overlapping parts of the model with that joint, and I end up cutting the whole side or parts of a leg while I’m at it. Piecing those back together would produce a worse result in the end. I tried loading up Blender to use its selective cut tool … but that’s way outside my current skill level with Blender.
So any tips on how you go about breaking down complex STLs into parts would be appreciated! Thanks!