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My flood insurance was pretty cheap so I purchased it. I read somewhere (possibly here) to insure for events that would be devastating and that you can not afford to self insure. It would not be much fun to be stuck paying a mortgage on a house that was destroyed in a flood...

SSSS wrote:Paint over it with brick-colored paint.

I have also considered this route - http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/2010/08/painting-brick-fireplace-from-white-to.html

I researched this a little bit because I would like to remove paint from my fireplace. Soda blasting seemed to be the best possible solution.

I am far from an expert, but I just recently blew in more insulation myself. I already had loose insulation so I decided to stick with that. It also allowed me to insulate in an area that would have been difficult to get to with rolls. It was fairly easy, but still a fair amount of very dusty work. ...

They just come with the board. You are responsible for everything else power supply, SD card, etc. It seems a bunch of issues are related to the power supply so make sure you get a good one of those. There are several distributions available including some that are debian based. If my memory serves ...

Thanks for the replies. I'm on board with paying down the mortgage. My new goal will be to pay it down enough to refi. I have some stocks in a taxable account (ESPP). Would you sell that and apply it towards the mortgage? In a few weeks my 401k will be maxed and I will be able to apply more of my pa...

I have already maxed my 2013 Roth IRA and will soon max my 401k (minus the % I need to contribute throughout the year for the company match). I really like the feeling of knocking these out ASAP. If it makes financial sense, I would like to set myself up so that I can do this next year. I do have an...

I'm sort of in the same situation myself, though just a little less debt. I struggle with it and cringed when I first found out. I think how the debt came to be is important. I think my g/f simply was ignorant and didn't understand the magnitude of the debt she was undertaking and obviously didn't h...

Yes, I already do a fair amount of transactions with my phone - transfer money, deposit checks. If you trust your computer I can not really think of any reason to not trust your phone. Ultimately smart phones are just small computers so they are equally subject to the security risks of a regular com...

I wonder how that compares with a Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi has pretty low specs compared to many modern smart phones. The Raspberry Pi shines with its low power consumption. This was announced today: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet Towards the end of the video they talk about docking you...

I'm not a big fan of Comcast so I got Clear as soon as it came out. I was pretty pleased with it, but I had to drop it when I moved and didn't have any coverage at my new house. However, I had a couple of friends who had it and were initially happy but eventually dropped it because it appeared to sl...

I was looking for a place to stash my emergency fund so I researched this a few months ago. I ended up stashing $5000 of my emergency fund at Mango. It's got its drawbacks, but I can live with it since I hopefully won't need the money. I've only had it for a couple of months but so far it has been g...

centrifuge41 wrote:Giftcardgranny. Searches multiple gift card exchanges at once.

I just used this site to find a bunch of Lowe's giftcards. It worked great for me and helped me effectively get an extra 8% off a new dishwasher.

At 5.125% its probably worth paying it down to get it above water in order to refinance. These days that's a pretty high rate. I am currently planning to max my 401k this year. Should I reconsider that plan and pay down my mortgage instead (still contribute to the company match)? I do get a little ...

With the energy consumption you might end up losing when money on it when compared to a raspberry pi or andoid on a stick. I'd donate it. Sometimes Staples offers a $100 credit towards the purchase of a laptop/desktop if you give them your old PC/laptop. I'd be interested in any experiences with ra...

I currently owe ~$169,000 @ 5.125% on my house. I have a conventional 30 year mortgage that is owned by Freddie Mac. Unfortunately the mortgage originated in July 2010 so I do not qualify for HARP. I already tried to refinance but the appraisal came in pretty low and I am underwater. Right now my pl...

I have been using Straighttalk with an unlocked Google Nexus phone for about a year now. I am very happy with the service. I have heard about the 2GB limit, but I stream music and talk radio on my commute and I have not run into any issues. You can really use any AT&T phone on Straighttalk. So i...

I had a few follow up questions related to my post a few weeks ago http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=107346 . Tax efficiency - do I need to be concerned about any tax efficiency differences between my rIRA, tIRA and 401k? Somewhat along those lines, should I consider selling my...

Thank you to everyone for your insight. Sorry I am late to reply, I wanted to read over everything a few time to make sure it was all sinking in. I'm still not sure it is :happy I have added the expense ratios for all the funds available in my 401k. I confirmed I am in the 25% tax bracket. The Black...

Emergency Fund: 3 months of expenses Debt: 2 years in on a 30 year mortgage $170k left @ 5.125% Tax filing status: Single Tax Rate: 25% (I think) State of Residence: GA Age: 32 Desired Asset Allocation: 80% stocks / 20% bonds (open to suggestions) Desire International Allocation: 50% (not sure about...