Bogleheads.org

The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters sai...

I bought my current house about nine years ago and told my wife to make sure she really liked it as I would never move again. We bought a one story because we knew as we got older, we did not want to be climbing stairs. I'm 48 now and stairs don't bother me, but in 20 years I expect they will. I hav...

I have employees so I am interested in the small 401k not the solo. I appreciate the information greatly. I have looked at Simple IRAs, but they require employer contributions and I want the freedom to not do so in lean years. At the same time, I want to have a company offered plan so I can encourag...

I searched the forum and did not find the answer to my question and I have called Vanguard but their automated phone tree keeps sending me back to the starting point. Two questions I have. 1. What are the fees for the Vanguard small 401k? I know the $20 per fund fee but is there a fee to administer ...

Five of my former students went to academies. Three to West Point and two to Annapolis. All five went to prep school first and all played football at their academy. They did well, well enough to graduate at least, and have no regrets about their career choice.

nhdblfan wrote:Big 5 or Plains game ? Have a friend talk me into going to Zim for Cape with him next time

Lots of good info on here about guides and game.

http://forums.nitroexpress.com/ubbthreads.php?Cat=0

Thanks for the link. One of the things on my life list is Africa to hunt cape buffalo or lion.

One of my employees is a retired gentleman that moved to NC after retiring from his career job. He works for us at our gym(gymnastics school) three days a week or about 12 hours a week total. He had no background in this so he assisted other coaches and we trained him until he was ready have classes...

An easy way to save on the operation of an electric water heater is put a timer on it. I installed one for a friend a few months ago. It was a simple wiring job and took less than an hour. We set it so his shuts off from 11pm to 5am.

Actually displayed times are based on the "My timezone:" setting on this page: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/ucp.php?i=prefs&mode=personal You still have to answer the DST question correctly. That is very difficult for many of us. Yes. I just changed mine and it took 3 tries to get ...

Actually displayed times are based on the "My timezone:" setting on this page: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/ucp.php?i=prefs&mode=personal You still have to answer the DST question correctly. That is very difficult for many of us. Yes. I just changed mine and it took 3 tries to get ...

When I was applying to colleges, where I went was not only my decision. My parents had a say as they had a financial interest in play. I ended up going to a state school within commuting distance and lived at home. My parents let me do so and charged me no rent or board, but I paid for college. I wo...

...sometimes driving out of state makes you particularly vulnerable since they know you won't bother to contest it in court and nothing beats having out-of-towners pick up the tab for part of the budget. I experienced this first hand in North Carolina while driving a rental car. I was pulled over f...

We bought a new washer and dryer about two years ago. I asked a buddy of mine that runs an appliance repair business what he owned and if he would buy it again. He said yes so I got them on sale from a locally owned appliance dealer. Both are Hotpoint and we paid ~$550 for the pair on sale. So far, ...

I've found the best place changes from month to month. I check sale flyers at Autozone, Advance, Napa, Carquest and Walmart and get where the price is best. I don't use synthetic so as long as the oil meets the required API standard, I don't care what brand it is. Right now, I have five different br...

I bought a couple hundred ounces of silver in the early 2000's and sold it this past summer. I hope people will get confident in the economy again, silver prices will drop and I can buy more. At current prices, I'm staying out.

My wife and I own an S corp and an LLC plus I work another full time job. We have an accountant do our taxes although I sometimes also do our personal by hand to compare to the accountants

My day job is with the state of NC. Our 401k and 457 gives our total return for the prior quarter and the prior twelve months. I also have mine set to rebalance automaticaly every six months.

I has this problem on my front porch last year except three of the four boards around the column had some rot. I removed all three and replaced with new boards primed and painted. I left a gap just under 1/4 inch at the bottom. The old boards had lasted 12 years, the new ones should do the same. Eas...

I have the braided stainless supply hoses for the washer and shut the valve(single lever between hot and cold) after each load. If I go away over night, I shut off the water at the wholehouse shut off valve. One of my friends had a washer hose burst when they were gone. Came back next morning and fo...

Lots of good ones, but the best that I have read is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Fix-It-Yourse ... elf+manual

jayars

If you have a school in mind, you can arrange with the university to endow a scholarship or set up with the university as an unendowed scholarship. I have friends that have done both.

jayars

My main job is as a school teacher in North Carolina. 6% of our gross goes into the state retirement system. The state's contribution varies from year to year based on what the legislature and governor decide they need to contribute. We also have access to a 401k, 403b and 457 which gets no match fr...

My last vehicle, we were looking for a minivan. I was not satisfied with local dealers had so I went to a local guy that has a small lot, but will buy whatever you want at auction. His fee is a flat $600. I went with him to the auction and it reminded me of the tobacco auctions I went to as a kid. T...

"...not just average folks with $1M in investments". I want to be one of these average kind of folks. Someday...someday...

jayars

Did they tell you why you need a new axle? Usually the only time you get a new one is if the cv joint is bad and those can be rebuilt instead of new ones put in. If it's just a torn boot, they can be replaced. If you can jack the car up, you can check the brake pads yourself. Most cars have a little...

Letting go of mine was easy in every respect. My account was way less than when I started with them. She pushed me really hard to open a margin account. Their customer service was lousy as in my advisor failed to show for appointments twice. Once was to pick up a friend's dog and take it home. Secon...

Andy Griffith is they are black and white MASH if it has Col Blake and Trapper. If the opening has BJ with a mustache, forget it. Rifleman. Friday night boxing on ESPN Motorhead Garage Youtube is great for watching old shows. I use it to watch NWA and Mid-South wrestling from the 1970's and early 80...

Thanks FNK. I will give it a look asap.

jayars

I did a forum search and did not find the answer to my question. Are there good alternatives to Quickbooks for small business use? Any suggestions? Our issue with Quickbooks is the customer service. One example is today. We called to ask why the price on the website from which we ordered was differe...

Does the savings rate include money put into stock mutual funds and ETF's or just what goes into savings accounts? I thought I read it did not include stock and bond accounts. If that is true, doesn't that give a distorded view of the savings rate?

jayars

The Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee. The only book on Lee written almost all in his own words. I found much to admire and emulate in his character. It changed the way I conducted myself with regard to other people, work and life in general. The Roots of American Order by Russell K...

Thank you all for the replies. I do appreciate it. I am considering buying I-bonds again, but the horror stories about Treasury Direct are causing me to hesitate.

jayars

djw wrote:.....American Standard makes a toilet with a seat that's taller than usual and less prone to jamming. I'd recommend this in the master bath. As you age, you'll appreciate the extra height.

Serious question: What is a jammed toilet seat?

jayars

Looking at Treasury Direct, I see the current fixed rate for I bonds is 0%. Does that mean the fixed rate for I bonds issued in May will be 0% for the life of the bond and they will only earn the rate of inflation? Thanks

jayars

Age is 48. I have an asset allocation for my accounts that I stick to. I'm just playing a bit of "what if". I appreciate the replies.

jayars

Fix the old one? Sometimes it is a simple, inexpensive repair. My friend that has a appliance repair business refuses to buy front loaders due to the problems with door seals and the high cost of replacing them. Even for him getting them at his price, he says they are way more than he is willing to ...

I decided to open a 457 through my job in addition to my 401k. I am also toying with the idea of changing my asset allocation. I thought of four funds: S&P 500 index, Russell 2500 index, MSCI All country ex-US index and total bond index. Any opinions on allocating 25% to each one with automatic ...

What do some consider a high performance filter and why? I use Purolator, AC Delco, NAPA, CarQuest and even Advance Auto store brand. Never any problems.

Coach

To the posters with mileage minders on their cars, does the device measure miles or hours of operation? As far as "cheapo" oil change places, the oil they sell is no different than what your dealer sells. Here in North Carolina, the state dept of agriculture tests oil samples from all of t...

I read a couple articles on how a bond has a negative yield but neither really explained it. How does this work?

Thanks

While it would not be perfect, why could they not use one tax sheltered account for domestic stocks, one for international, one for bonds etc? To get a specific allocation, an account might have to hold more than one asset class, but I find it hard to believe they could not trim the number of funds ...

Not a Phd story, but one I found interesting. One of my fellow teachers had a degree in math and taught for 29 years before retiring. Two years later, he decided he needed to work again, but refused to even consider going back to teaching high school. He took a job as a janitor at WalMart. He said i...

Thanks for the replies. After years of having lousy options in our 401k/457 plan, the state seems to have gotten it right four years ago with the current line up of options. When I opened my 401k in the early 90's, the options were pretty bad for the most part. I am considering opening the 457 so I ...

We did a few things to keep the cost of ours down. 1. Wedding was at our church $200 2. Reception was in the church social hall $200 3. No booze or DJ. My wife hired someone from the local college to play the harp for $100. May seem odd but my wife likes harp music. 4. A friend gave us a nice weddin...

I searched the forum and did not find exactly what I was looking for. As a school teacher in North Carolina, I have acces to a 401k and 457. I have contributed to the 401k for 24 years but am wondering if there are any reasons to also contribute to our 457 plan. The plan page is here: https://www.re...

"...but only about a third of Exxon's stock has fallen today.."

I don't understand that statement. Is there more than one price for Exxon stock?


Core and explore=How the broker can make money when someone wants to index.

We bought our house in 2003 and it appraised two weeks ago for ~15% more than we paid for it. When I saw the report I thought "That's nice." but nothing more. I plan to live in this house the rest of my life(Just turned 48) so is there any reason I should care about the value of my house? ...

I currently have a Roth with T. Rowe Price in their Equity Income fund. I have been moving assets to Vanguard and would like to move this as well. Any opinions on Vanguard's Equity Income fund? It rarely gets any press but its numbers seem to be as good as the TRP fund which gets much favorable cove...

A friend of mine has an appliance repair business and he refuses to buy a front loader due to the high cost of repair parts, especially door seals. Also, changing brands doesn't means repair service will get better. My friend handles the warrenty repair service for four different brands of washers a...

I found a way to make drying clothes even cheaper. I use a clothes line. Made it from two landscape timbers and a PT 2x4, hooks and coated wire. Obviously can't use it in the rain, but I easily dry twenty loads a month on it. I replaced out 10 SEER heat pump with a 13 about 18 months ago and have no...