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My wife bought some of those ultra sonic bug machines that make lots of insects go away. The brand we have is called Pestacaters. They seem to work good on cockroaches. Since we started using them 2 years ago we never spray inside for bugs and we have no bugs inside but we have tons of nats and bugs...

I'm sorry guys but any bond fund that looses 40% to inflation in 5 years is a DISASTER and we very well could be heading into just this kind of market...... So maybe there needs to be some sort of early warning systems or way to look out for similar scenarios if you are going to hold this kind of fu...

Did Short Term Investment Grade exist in the 1970's ??? I cannot find the relevant data. If it existed what was the performance say from 1970-1984? My reason for asking is if you add up the REAL loss to inflation during the 5 years from 1977-82 the Vanguard Total Bond Market fund LOST 40% of it's re...

My daughter tells me that many of the "executive producers" of US films are really just investor actors who put some of their money into the movie project for a share of the profits. These "producers" don't do any work to make the movie they just review the project before it star...

The big thing this is doing is changing what kind of new cars manufacturers can make and sell to get this "average mpg". Yes the used car fleet will eventually turn over after 20 years or so and become more efficient but that is a long way down the road. In the interim GM and Ford cannot s...

They are also a great lever to get hotels and motels to really check their records and reverse incorrect charges. I used to travel a lot and had huge bills for rooms and rental cars and so forth every month. I used mostly one Master Card CC but had 2-3 others that got some of the action. At least on...

Curlyq I did the same thing back when I was young and broke in the 1960s. We had bias ply tires back then that lasted maybe 20K miles so I would wear out 1-2 a year as I never could afford new ones. I would buy 2 used "new" tires and put them on the front of my car and move the best of my ...

In Phoenix we have a thriving lower income class and lots of low wage immigrants who can only afford some used tires. So we have used tire stores. See below. A good set of used tires is $100. And to suppliment their income these same stores transport old almost worn out tires in bulk to Central Amer...

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Wow. Great term that defines current situation for all kinds of bond investments..... Sort of like "cash is trash" saying from the 1970s....

Bill

From the paper I think this is great area of research. Yes we Bogleheads have learned how to do investing on our own. And this approach is cheaper. But we all know that many others really do need some guidance and help. Thus I think many could benefit from a low cost for fee advisor who uses low cos...

I think that is the way sales tax is collected in California as well. A car is taxed by the state based on its value when the title is registered if there was a name change on the title. So a new car is taxed at full value irregardles of trade in value. Same issue with private party sales, you pay t...

Peets Coffee whole bean Holiday blend, medium roast... Very good but only available around Christmas... Weber Grills.. Atomic snow skis for speed Solomon skis for pow and corn and bumps lots of different food brands -Krispy crackers, JIF chunky PB, Oatnut premium bread, Fat Tire beer, etc.. Sebastia...

I answered your poll based on what I have done for most of my life, slightly used cars. I have bought 8 used cars over the years that were 1 to 4 years old at purchase. I still have two of those. I also bought two new mid priced passenger vans when I had little kids. I usually drive cars till they d...

One of my employees back in the 1990s used to do somewhat like Ramsey suggests. He made a hobby of it. He would read the want ads in the paper every day in detail and make calls as needed as his job was intense but included periods of waiting for the computer. He would buy 3-5 older cars or small tr...

I too hold a big chunk of Vanguard Intermediate Term Corporate Admiral Fund. I bought it back when as well. I am holding for now as it is currently paying about 3.1% on the current price. I recommend you hold as well and spend that money as you need. I think this return and risk is just about the be...

I expect to see a big change in Costco return policies soon due to people who abuse them. They are destroying it for everyone. Yestereday during a lunch break I saw a person return 4-5 big bundles of cut flowers to the return counter. Yes cut roses and other nice flowers were returned and Costco too...

Be thankful that you got your bag back and the items stolen are inexpensive. Yes you seem to have done enough as long as you keep your credit frozen for a while. Just keep a look out for strange stuff and maybe notify your credit card companies and see if they want to issue you new cards. My daughte...

You need to provide us some details on securites location so we can understand the tax issues with changing from single stocks to index funds. Are your stocks presently held in IRA or 401K accounts? If yes I suggest selling fast and moving over to index funds quickly. But if your single stocks are h...

I did professional proposal management and negotiation for many years for a big company. Consequently I was always going to some bid meeting about our proposal or some bid negotiation session between our company and the government. Bids for $5M to $40M jobs would be shown in the bid detail with 9-10...

I recommend a Subaru Outback with 4 cyl, cvt transmission and awd. Buy it new or slightly used and keep forever. This is the ultimate versatility station wagon. It is the just the right size, big enough for four but small enough to park easily. It hauls a ton and goes anywhere including deep snow an...

Thanks all for the detail advice guys. I really appreciate it. I will check with my CPA as suggested to verify your information and move forward with the liquidation process.

Bill

The will names my wife and her brother as her dad's co-personal representatives and the trust names them both as Trustees. The will and the trust both say each gets 50%. No where in either document is any bank or commercial company or lawyer named as having any role. So our tax accountant told us th...

Taylor. Thanks for the link. But where are the Couch Potato Portfolios and performance for those of us in retirement and wanting 40% or so in equities?

Bill

Timber reits are also subject to political issues like what can be exported or imported and what can be clear cut or how various parcels can be harvested and so forth. PCL stock went down a ton back in the early 2000s due to a big change in policy about Canada lumber. Basically the Bush administrati...

My friends from work did this half time for 6 years or so after they retired in teh early 2000s. They still own a home and used that as there main mail address. They got a freind who was a neighbor to collect the mail and then forward it to them when they called and ask that it be forwarded. They tr...

Almost all my FILs assets are in his trust including his home and all his investments and his car. The trust was revocable when my FIL was alive and he was the trustee. But since he passed it now is irrevocable with my wife and her brother as executors and heirs.

Bill

My father-in-law passed away in early May so now the family is trying to figure out how to handle his trust. My wife and her brother are joint executers and heirs. But neither is financially sophisticated so my wife is asking for help. All the investments are set up at a high cost bank brokerage hou...

I use two different brick and mortar banks for our personal accounts. I also keep my investment accounts at two different brokers. I keep some extra cash on hand. I decided after 911 that two separate banks and two seperate brokers was necessary to survive a major 911 like electronic hacking attack ...

Bungo I think you need to try to find out why your step daughter got bad grades and try to understand where she is coming from emotionally. Then you can make better judgements on what to ask her to do next. Yes I think she needs to get a part time job for sure but maybe she should also go to communi...

As you age walking a lot to do shopping and see doctors starts being very impractical due to various issues. Some people loose walking any distances at 65, most are good for lots of walking to 75+. But after 80 or so most people get some type of bone or joint issues or some other health issues that ...

I would suggest you rent a condo or home in the area you are interested in first. IMO you need time to learn the various areas at the lake itself in some detail before you decide where you want to own. I would rent for this summer to start (say 3-4 months and maybe get a furnished place) and then sp...

Retired. As I pointed out just filling in a pool with regular dirt is not a good answer. You have to use heavy equipment to tear away the concrete sides and then use special rock, gravel, dirt and sand mixtures to fill in the resulting hole. Then you have to compact the hole to make the area usable....

I wonder if this new comment by Mr. Bogle is a tactic for him to get some of us older people to invest more in stocks and less in bonds to reduce our risk due to raising interest rates? Just a thought on my part as we all know he has talked a lot in recent times about making sure we had as much as p...

Cover the empty pool with a deck. One of my neighbors did this with his pool as he no longer wanted to use it. The cover is made with Trex and support lumber and sealed. My neighbor had his built and the contractor said his pool could be reclaimed at some future time as needed. See below for some li...

Maui Jim produces their own lenses of several types as shown on their web site. I got my wrap around custom sun glasses 2 years ago. Yes they are expensive but worth every penny. They are just clearer and better fitting and much better than ordinarly sun glasses. These glasses are my 10th or so pair...

Thanks for getting the site back up. I see the PMs were also lost after 5/19 so any data or messages sent after that date should be resent..

Bill

Dix. I second Ryuns comment about Sequoia being gorgeous but a long haul from Yosemite. Distances in the Sierra are hard to figure as the roads are very windy and narrow and can be traffic clogged in the summer. They will wear the driver out in 2 hours from turning. Figure going into Yosemite from I...

I did not say the cheapest. Yes a regular bike is cheaper but a electric bike is "faster". Please read the article. The guys main point is the time cost of money. In some cases the car is slightly faster than a bike in actual drive time. BUT if you add back in the time that you have to spe...

I like the Beacon Bar and Grille at Camp Richardson west of South Lake Tahoe. It is a great place to eat lunch and listen to good music and sit on the beach. They have live bands almost every afternoon so be prepared for the California beach scene. After lunch have a Rum Runner and dance a little an...

I'm having the same problem with Yahoo Finance charts and some other stuff when viewing pictures. Explorer wants some sort of Flash update but then never loads it properly and when I go to Adobe all updates are current. So what gives???

BIll

Come on guys, if you are going to dream about muscle cars do it BIG with smoking cars like the 1970 Chevelle SS with 454 LS6 Corvette engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevelle or maybe a 1970 Pontiac GTO 455HO in Here Come the Judge orange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_gto or m...

Now if you guys really did your homework you would all see that a "electric bike" is the fastest way to get to work and the cheapest..... See here.

http://www.evworld.com/urban.cfm?newsid=38

Bill

You need both a trust and will if you have any assets over $100K or so. Title everything you own like cars and homes and non-ira investment accounts and checking accounts in the name of the trust. Set up the trust as a revocable with you and your wife as co-trustees. Make the trust the beneficiary o...

This may be the toughest time of year if you are going anywhere around July 4th. All of the Sierra is loaded with people from all over. You should make reservations NOW if you want to stay in a motel anywhere near Yosemite. If you can get reservations stay in the park as that is the best place to se...

I did TLHing one year in my play account and sold an oil stock that was down. I bought another stock to replace it to tide me over until the next year. Well about a month after I sold the stock the company was bought out by some foreign company at 30% or so premium over the market price so the stock...

Some things I learned from my kids years in college. Colleges will not give you any significant money for merit scholarships if you can afford to send you kids on your money. They may give you a slight tuition reduction but not much. Smart kids in high school may have issues in a big college honors ...

Briki, Sorry but that is not what happened with this guy at all IMO. He would gladly have paid ebay if the auction had worked like a auction and allowed people to bid up the price instead of the sniping stuff and a few low bids at the end. His highest bid on ebay was like $3200 from some dealer. And...

Briki and others, The piano I wanted did have a reserve price posted and a phone number. BUT the reserve price the seller wanted was crazy IMO as it was like $10K for a used item that sold for maybe $12K to $15K new. A fair price was around $4K to $7K but the seller had not reconciled himself to tak...

Bert. Maybe I did not explain my self well enough how I preceive ebay truncated auctions. With high price items there are things that are a long ways away from your home and thus lots of shipping costs and issues with quality risk to consider in your bidding. Thus lots of low ball sales. Plus with e...

Boy I love all you snipers on ebay. By sniping you totally destroy the "auction' price finding mechanism (at least on big items) that is the whole purpose of a auction, to find the best price that an item will sell for. Some of my friends say this happens all the time. Two have bought used BMWs...