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Yeah, the thing is, we have to return the car before we get back on the train some days later to head on south. We can rent it in Monterey and return it without surcharge in Salinas, where we board the train. But if we rent the car in San Jose, we'll have a lot of back-tracking to do to get back to ...

Thanks for all the good ideas. We're arriving in Salinas by train on a Sunday and, guess what, no car rental places are open there on a Sunday! So we have to get to Monterey to rent our car. Yes, there's a series of buses we could take to get there (inexpensive, but takes too much time) or a taxi (m...

Hi folks, Our vacation plans are firming up nicely. We'll be spending four nights in Berkeley (thanks to old friends who offered us a place to stay), and one night at the Glenn Ellen Inn in Sonoma, which should give us a chance to explore the city sights as well as the area to the immediate north of...

I don't call it haggling, I call it "determining the correct price". Just like buying and selling stocks. Things are worth (in monetary terms) what others are willing to pay for them and what sellers are willing to let them go for. How does the seller know what the "correct" pric...

Now I get it. 5% average annual return (L-2040) only LOOKS better than 4.17% AAR (L-Income), whereas $129 (L-Income) REALLY IS better than $126 (L-2040). $3 better!

This sort of thing is either the reason I majored in English, or is the result of having majored in English. I didn't catch that the period covered by the chart (and thus the end value of $100 invested at the outset) is one year less than the average annual return. So maybe that's the answer. But is...

I was looking at the figures on the TSP.gov website for the returns of the various Lifecycle funds, and noticed what seems like an impossible anomaly. Rates of average annual return go up as the percentage of equities in the funds increases (no surprise) -- but the actual money balances appear to de...

The WEP's effects are graduated, depending on how many years (not necessarily 30) of "substantial contributions" there are: "Workers who have 30 YOCs are fully exempt from the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). Workers with 21 to 29 YOCs are eligible for a partial exemption." ...

Greetings. In half a year I turn 62. I'm now in the process of figuring out when to start taking Social Security, and am looking for resources. I spent some time at ssa.gov but am looking for more guidance. I'm a federal annuitant and am subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision. I currently hav...

2stepsbehind: what do you mean by "properly titled" accounts?

I had a very nice Mac Aluminum Powerbook that finally died on me. I disassembled it (thank you iFixit) and sold the parts piece by piece on eBay and made a pretty good pile of money from it. I was careful to specify exactly what I knew about the condition/working order of each part and to include go...

Harold, which do you think are the "more impressive" places to see redwoods, other than the Muir Woods? (North or South of SF)
And thanks for the specific ideas about routes and places to stay, that's just what I was hoping for.

letsgobobby: these, especially the last, are the main reasons my wife wants to go with the trust. And that's probably what we'll do. Although I must say, it goes against the grain, because I have always tried to keep my life, our lives (and our taxes!) as simple and straightforward as possible. Than...

Thank you for these suggestions and links!

My wife and I are both terrible vacation planners, but we've decided to go to California in mid-May for about 10 days. Spend 3 or so days in San Francisco, then rent a car and tour around/explore to the north and the south along the coast. We plan to drive south to somewhere around San Luis Obispo a...

I checked with USAA and the advisor said since most of our assets are in retirement vehicles they are already well "protected" and, therefore, I did not need to increase our umbrella liability insurance coverage from what it is now.

My wife and I do have personal umbrella liability policies, but they would not cover the full amount of our assets now. Maybe I'd better look into that. Neither I nor my wife, nor our kids, have "vulnerable" (or lucrative!) professions, either.

My wife and I are updating our wills, and the lawyer, after some vacillation, recommended establishing a trust to protect the assets that a surviving spouse, and (our grown) children (and grandchildren) might eventually inherit. I mention vacillation because the lawyer said several times that becaus...

It's possible we've identified the source or location of the smell: the vent on the right side of the back seat that leads to the battery. It's hard to be sure because the smell is worst when the car has sat closed up for a while; it's harder to detect once air is moving around the inside of the car...

I was really hopeful when I read about changing the cabin air filter! Unfortunately, that seems not to be the problem. I pulled out the filter and it's just slightly dirty looking, and has no appreciable smell. I vacuumed it and put it back. Is it really worth changing? Any other ideas?

I never thought I'd be bringing a question like this to the Bogleheads, but nevertheless... About a month ago our 2010 Toyota Prius developed a smell that we describe as "funky'" -- like old spilled food, not like rotting meat/dead animals. I've done everything I know of to clean the inter...

There is another option, which I use: I wanted better audio than my TV came with, so I bought a "home theatre in a box" (mine is a Sony HT-SS370) and is perfect for my needs) that comes with four HDMI inputs and one HDMI output (to the TV set). So depending on what I'm watching (TV, DVD, B...

So here it is: I currently owe $189,000 on my mortgage with about 18 more years to go (212 remaining payments, to be exact). My credit union will do a loan modification for a fee of 1% (=$1,890) to change the interest rate from the current 4.25% to 3.65%, which would result in my paying $60.66 less ...

Why do you ask? What possible difference could it make how old I am, or how old ayone here is?

We bought an old house that came with an in-ground, vinyl-lined pool. I swim in it every day that the pool is open (June through October) for fun, exercise, and to cool off (no central AC in the house). We have a Baquacil chemical system in the pool -- no chlorine. I find it satisfactory. It's an ol...

I've used Apple TV, my LG blu-ray player, a Sony streaming box, and a Roku. And of course my computer. My favorite is the Apple TV. Why? Several reasons: first, with Netflix I can pick out movies to watch, and then stream them right away. With the LG blu-ray player I had to select them first on my c...

Victoria, i don't know what you did for a living, but if the BAILEY RULE (Google it!) applies to you, you may pay no NC state income taxes. My wife and I, both born and raised in central Florida, never considered retiring back there for a second. Too hot, too humid, too many bugs, too flat, too pine...

I have owned both the Nook Touch and the Kindle touch. They are very similar in functionality. Because of its slightly concave back and softer finish, the Nook is, IMHO, slightly easier to hold -- but the advantage is slight. I think 3G (Kindle) might well be an advantage to someone not wanting to b...

I can't figure it out, but somehow I never read Bleak House -- I guess I just assumed I had, because (I thought) I'd read everything Dickens ever wrote. Anyway, it's a terrific read! A great book, except his heroine is, as usual, totally unbelievable. Many of his female characters are rich and fasci...

I owned a Nook Simple Touch briefly and learned that you can get to Barnes and Noble's free books by going (online of course) to their bookstore and entering "0.00" in the search field (no quotes, just 0.00). This will bring up many, many pages of free books you can can download. It's a ve...

No paper this morning (at last) -- darn! Nothing to read with my coffee and my home-made, hot-out-of-the-oven sourdough cinnamon rolls. Well, at least I feel more ethically pure and self-righteous, and that's something.

Okay, thanks everybody!

I called the phone number for subscriptions and told them I was still receiving the paper ... The lady said she would email my carrier about it. So maybe my "free subscription" is over now. We'll see. I did consider re-subscribing at the lower promotional rate, but when I realized that rat...

I knew I shouldn't have used that word. Okay, forget "charity". How about this: What percentage of our federal taxes (yes, I do include social security, why not) goes to pay for things that, say, 100 years ago, were paid for by private persons and private social groups (churches) to "...

Let me put that this way: I would like to know approximately what percentage of my federal income tax goes toward services and payments that used to be considered "charity" (here in the U.S.; I'm not concerned with the tiny amount we give to other countries). I know this term "charity...

Just to bring us all up to date: about a week ago, I sent an email to the customer service address for "my" newspaper, telling them I'd cancelled but was still getting a paper delivered every day. No reply, and no change: a newspaper is still showing up every morning. I think I'm going to ...

We cancelled our subscription to the local newspaper almost a year ago, but the paper continues to show up on our lawn every morning. Twice, someone from the paper phoned us to offer deals on re-subscribing, but we declined (without explaining why). We have not been charged or billed for any of thes...

I used one for years and was very happy with it. The blades do dull with usage and require resharpening. When the blades are sharp (and the gears oiled with something that Displaces Water and Lubricates) you can really zoom through the grass. Eventually I switched to an electric mower, though. Deali...

I use a rubber (silicone, probably) case. It was the cheapest thing Radio Shack had, something sponsored by Lance Armstrong's charity. It does not protect the screen, which I keep naked, but I always carry the phone in my front pants pocket, screen side facing inward, and I carry nothing else in tha...

Check out Writepad, by Phatware. I have used this on the iPad and it is very good. I believe there is an android version as well. They have a good demo video on Youtube.

Does anyone have thoughts on the "experimental browser" associated with the KindleKeyboard

Yes. It does work, but "just barely" and slowly and awkwardly. Don't buy a Kindle for this function. NB: I'm just talking about the e-ink Kindles, not the new Fire.

We were just talking with someone last night who said the same thing - amazing movie. I'm planning on seeing it.

I had been using ATT's prepaid Go Phone plan but wanted an iPhone (but not the expense of a contract). So I bought a used ATT iPhone 3GS (not unlocked, not jailbroken) for $225 and put my Go Phone sim card into it. I added the fairly cheap Go Phone data plan (still no contract). I had to download so...

So you're saying the returns vary a lot along the way? But it's the long term results I care about. And if the long term (yes I know, 6years isn't really very long) results are essentially the same, I prefer to stick with the allocation with the lowest variation along the way, the L inome fund. Than...

But this is like saying that over these six years it made NO DIFFERENCE what allocation you chose. Okay, so these six years are "exceptional"?

I was looking at the average annual returns since August 2005 of all the TSP-L (lifetime) funds and was surprised to see how little difference there was among the returns: L income: 4.42 2020: 4.64 2030: 4.59 2040: 4.50 2050: unavailable I know this is only six years, a short period, but it still se...

I wanted to replace my worn-out deck planking with a composite material rather than wood, but learned that with composite planking your deck joists must be on 12" centers to avoid bowing/drooping (mine are 24").

If you mean the virtual keyboard, I have been using it for a year or so, since the iPad came out. I like it fine for short emails, but for anything longer I go back to my iMac and its "real" keyboard. I have also used Phatware's Writepad for iPad app, and found it very effective in transla...

I learned from watching Antiques Roadshow that you should never do anything to remove the patina of natural aging from your treasured objects. You can decimate the resale value by over-washing! If you must, simply wipe off dust with a soft lint-free cotton cloth (old underwear is great for this) -- ...

We keep our TV and all associated electronic gizmos, including the cable box, plugged into a power strip with a single on-off switch. About half an hour before we plan to watch TV, we turn the switch on, to allow time for the cable schedules to download. Of course, if watching a DVD or blu-ray or so...