Bogleheads.org

Had a Black and Decker 18v for years - worked well until the batteries started dying - as is normal for a NiCad battery pack to do. No issue with quality there. Purchased a Black and Decker Cordless drill with two new battery packs for much less than just the packs themselves - Bonus drill! Those st...

Ah - didn't see anything on the 2013's and didn't look. Now you have me curious. I will have to work at shutting off that part of the brain that says "I NEED that new car!". It starts singing to me when I read threads like this and go to car websites.

- L

Didn't know - but a quick look at Toyota's web site and it shows a 3.5L v6 - 269HP w/mileage of 19/27.

http://www.toyota.com/rav4/specs.html

- L

4 years ago looked closely at the Toyota Rav4 - much bigger than they were originally. Good towing capacity (#3000), V6 with decent gas mileage. We ended up going with the Toyota Sienna minivan -it just gave much more cargo space when not towing, and had the same towing capacity. We have been enjoyi...

I had this problem with my parents as they converted to using Yahoo WebMail from Windows Mail. They would try to use Picasa or some other app to automatically send mail and it would launch Outlook or other local programs. I know that Chrome and other browsers can handle MailTo links, but not other p...

livesoft wrote:Perhaps a tome such as Jane Bryant Quinn's "Making the Most of Your Money" would be good? It would be a good reference book for insurance, savings, wills, loans, credit cards, etc, etc....

20+ years ago we bought that book and it was a great assistance! Highly recommended!
- L

Go to the Mortgage Professor website and see the refinance calculators. He has many types and one should fit your needs. They all start from today, the interest paid to Refi A. are sunk costs already. Use the current balance of the current loan as your starting point. You really only need to look at...

I got the same letter. It sure looks to me like transfers into the account are charged the fee. No mention of Wire Transfer only.

- L

We have Hardiplank on our 12 year old house. It was installed primed and painted on-site. We re-painted this year. The cedar trim around the windows and the soffits needed the painting. The siding looked fine - no pealing, cracking, etc. The south side exposed to the sun was a bit more faded than th...

...I purchased a Yamaha ATS-1010 sound bar at Costco. ...want a relatively cheap way to upgrade the sound, I highly recommend this Yamaha sound bar. We picked up one of these about 6 months ago for our "second" TV. We have the basement Home Theater with surround speakers, amp, sub-woofer,...

I don't have direct experience, but I have friends with family members with special needs. Some get financial assistance - because the special needs person is an "adult". They have to be careful of inheritances and gifts, because even something considered a minor gift could be enough to ge...

We are on #5 - last was November 2011 with 3.375 for 15 years. Looking into a 2.75 for 15 years w/$1400 closing costs. Payback based on mortgage comparisons on Mortgage Professor website is about 18 months. Need to give it some final thought/discussion with my better half and see if it is a go. - L

Please contact Amerisave Customer Service at 866-970-7283 to discuss your experience. We look forward to speaking with you. Thank you! wow that's creepy But also kinda cool. The search companies index everything and Amerisave found a good reason to do data mining - to improve customer service! Kudo...

@dratkinson - I did many of the same things you have done. I now use Crash Plan. Some people don't like cloud backup or proprietary backup formats. I would suggest moving beyond XCopy, although it is still present in Win7. You could use Robocopy and have a slight improvement (standard on all Win7, e...

One BIG thing to do, regardless of what tool you choose to use is: Periodically restore files to to validate that the backup and restore process works. A Backup that has never been tested should not be considered a backup. Backup Tools fail on occasion or your Hard Drive fails or something glitches....

I tested Crashplan for about a month. The Windows service randomly stopped working rendering the automated backup unreliable. Further, the service did not automatically start when the computer rebooted despite the fact that the service was set to automatic. Emails traded with their tech support pro...

Recommend CrashPlan. Can choose to backup to your own computers (or friends) for free or to their cloud for a fair, low price. Has family plans for multiple PCs.

- L

It gave me an estimate of 10-11 years younger than my grandma is now - 104 and still kicking. It didn't ask how old your relatives are....

- L

... I too live in Wisconsin. ... We live in Wisconsin as well (Milwaukee Metro). I would suggest looking up Wisconsin Mortgage ( http://www.wimort.com ). We have financed and refinanced with them 9 times over the past 20 years - all with the same mortgage broker - she is great. It has always been s...

This just doesn't sound right to me. Those of you that are paying ahead - have you confirmed with your mortgage holder that you really can just not pay for a few months mortgage since you "paid ahead"? How is the amount you paid credited? Is it held in some kind of account and credited eac...

I looked into the NASA FCU Rewards Visa - but found that the website is incorrect in my opinion (and others on the web). The tiered is per month, not per year. If it was per year - the tiers would be no big deal based on what we put on the cards (basically - everything and pay it off each month). Gi...

If you use Web Mail and don't want to have to configure a local client like Thunderbird or Windows Mail, you can use a product called Affixa found at http://www.affixa.com . It is a small service program that is installed on your computer that handles the request to email files from programs like Pi...

I have read about two packages, but not tried them - so I can't say how good they really are. For the cost (Free) - it may be worth a try. The first is supposed to be the "simpler" of the two: DVDFlick at http://www.dvdflick.net The second is supposed to be more powerfull, but a bit more c...

In other words you have checked and it's not worth the cost of replacement (there's a huge environmental cost to make, ship and retail a fridge, plus scrap an old one, in any case). So that's Mr. Lacrocious 15 Love on Mr. Valuethinker ;-). I don't know if I won a point or not. If I did, it was beca...

Check the links posted here re energy cost. That GE downstairs could be burning 3 times what your new one is burning. Could be 1000 kwhr pa so $120 pa at average US electricity price (a bit less, perhaps, because door does not get open and closed so much). Those old fridges people keep in the garag...

Some ISP's restrict direct access to their mail servers to people on their network. (ie: AT&T may only let you directly access their email servers if you use them as an ISP.) You can use the web interface without issue from anywhere, but a Windows Mail type POP access is restricted. You would fi...

About a year ago we purchased a Kitchen Aid French Door, Counter Depth. It is slightly taller than normal - which gives back some of the lost cubic feet that a Counter Depth fridge looses. Most counter depth's max out at 18-20 CU feet. This one is 22 CU Feet. We had to raise the cabinet over the fri...

...What is the reasoning behind this? I can't think of many features of a desktop client that do not exist in Gmail. My assumption would be that your job has outdated requirements or is simply unaware of the benefits of choosing an alternative. You mean requirements like "Google must not be ab...

...One of the reasons I prefer a client is I can get email from multiple addresses in one place. You can do the same with the web clients, but doing it through the web involves telling at least one of them that you are also working with a competitor and occasionally they won't co-operate.... I do t...

... I see you did not mean what I thought you meant. I thought you were extolling the virtues of using a web interface rather than a desktop email client. Instead you are simply suggesting using google as your email provider. As you point out in 4) these are all compatible with using a desktop emai...

I don't think I can emphasize enough the benefits of moving to a webmail provider (Gmail is the clear winner) at this time. There is no reason to use a desktop email client in 2011 and beyond. You may not be able to do enough, but you could start by actually listing a few of the advantages. I would...

I can't connect via Quicken as well - which is odd - as we have another account that downloads inside quicken just fine. I haven't investigated yet - but will later this week.
- L

I was able to access the BofA website and the new card right after activating it... Thanks BigFoot48 - gave me the incentive to contact them a 4th time. I finally talked to someone who knew what they were talking about and was able to get setup fully, logon, see account balance and statement histor...

I haven't tried to access mine via Quicken as I can't access it online. They tell me I have to wait until the next statement closes in a week or two before it becomes available online.

Is that anyone else's experience? Were you able to access it online before the first statement closes?

- L

Kaneohe - I agree with you on that! I really don't know where the horse is running yet so no way am I putting any money on it. That said - I have done specific share identification in the past and plan on doing that for the foreseeable future for my taxable accounts.

- L

..... For specific ID folks......... Several other possible traps you might fall into that I discovered accidentally.......if you exchange into a new fund several yrs from now when this subject is not in the forefront of your brain, if you don't remember and if the rep does not ask for your electio...

I cannot tell you how many folks I know who argue about this. One of my best friends- female-- and my partner-- male-don't think the man should always be the one to compromise here so in our house and hers --where we're each lucky to have two bathrooms--in one it's left up, in the other left down. ...

Went folder crazy for a few years, then went simplified. Use Quicken (used to use MS Money) and reconcile to that. Normally, enter receipts a few times a week to keep it input times smaller. Anything for Gas, Groceries, restaurants gets tossed. Anything that might need a return (clothing, household ...

To me that sounds like you choose what cost basis method (AVG or not) you are using to LABEL the shares with going forward (prospectively) and that stays the same until you change it (to be fair, there are revocation provisions also that I .................. out just for simplicity here since they ...

Based on what the webcast said - you MUST choose the basis you want to use at the time of sale, not later at tax time or any other time - only and required at the time of sale. I would think that you would get some pretty convoluted and complex basis calculations if you choose to use average cost on...

Watching the vanguard webcast on cost-basis. They are saying that you can choose the cost basis for covered shares on a transaction by transaction basis - you are not locked in. Covered shares being those purchased after the new law goes into effect. For stocks and some ETFs was 1/1/2011, for Mutual...

I have been searching for another 2% Visa/MC as well. The Fidelity 2% Amex just isn't taken where we shop the most (grocery stores, etc.). Does anyone have/know about the Nasa Federal CU CashBack Visa? Supposed to be a tiered 2% based on annual spending: $0 - $1000@1%; $1001 to $2000@1.25%; $2001+ @...

I went through this same process about two years ago. I decided on a GE 12-year 2"-insulated model from Home Depot. (Also, I upsized to 50-gal., thinking that a larger, better-insulated longer-warranty model might be of interest to a family in the future...) HD's contract installer was excelle...

My own spreadsheets[/url] require the lot to be split manually; if you bought 300 shares for $9000 and you sell 100, you split the previous line into 100 shares bought for $3000 and 200 bought for $6000. I have not sold partial lots, but I expect I would do what Grabiner did. Manually separate out ...

The Schwab card inherited by FIA is being converted to Bank of America.

The straight 2% cash back monthly will be gone soon, with new cards/numbers being distributed with different cash back scenarios already listed above in the thread.

- L

...Your card will transition to BOA's website. Your card number will also change. There really is no choice about switching the auto pay bills since the existing card will no long exist. That is true - I read that - but it didn't hit me until you mentioned it! Thanks. Time to start transferring the...

...Do I really want to take the time to switch over all of my auto pay bills to another card when I have no guarantee that the new card won't drop/reduce their benefits as well in the future? Unfortunately, reducing/dropping benefits is the new norm in the world which we live in now. Agreed - but I...

Yes - I just got the letter:
1% every purchase
2% groceries *
3% gas *

* for the first $1500 of net combined purchases per quarter.

Can receive 10% bonus when redeemed into a BOA checking or savings account.

Time to start looking for other cards.
- L

Sorry you had a issue right with the new CapOne card. We have had one for years now and have not had any sneaky fees or issues. Their fraud dept. has been proactive - calling on suspicious charges (even if they were valid internet computer parts orders); when a card received fraudulent charges, ther...

Married college sweetheart and celebrated 20 years back in May.

Krantcents - Congrats on 43 years!

- L