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Afty

We hired three nannies through Care.come. I can't answer your question about auto-renewal because the company I work for pays for access to Care.com as a perk. I have mixed feelings on the overall experience. - 2 of the 3 nannies were excellent. 1 was terrible and we had to let her go. - Many people...

Afty

Did you ever talk to her (not in the heat of the moment) about sharing more of your relationship costs? Or was it out of the blue from her perspective?

Afty

DaftInvestor's post is an excellent description of leveling. At the company I work for, there's a rubric that goes with each job ladder that describes the expectations for each level. It might go something like this: L1 - Needs help putting pants on in the morning L2 - Can put pants on by themselves...

Afty

I think y'all are being too hard on the OP. A large stroller plus a pack-n-play will totally fill a small car's trunk. Also, a rear-facing car seat requires a lot of front-to-back space; it's going to be difficult to fit one in an IS250 without pushing one of the front seats all the way forward. A C...

Afty

The Apple HomePod has gotten excellent reviews for its sound quality, but you need an iPhone/iPad to use it. Sonos is a good choice, as is the Google Home Max. Someone mentioned uploading your music to Amazon Cloud. You can do the same with Google Play Music and stream it to whatever device you want.

Afty

Regardless of what individuals believe - Here in the US - the government kind of assumes the parents, if they can afford to do so, will be helping out. They do? According to whom? Who is "the government"? According to US government policy on student financial aid. If a student's parents can afford ...

Afty

We have two young kids. We could do it, but it would be painful. We'd have to cut back both savings and spending. It would also put a lot more pressure on the person who continues working.

Afty

Do people actually take assessed value into account when pricing properties? I've bought/sold 4 houses and have never seen this happen. Pricing has always been based on comparable sales. I would think that the market would understand that appraised value will be lower than market value since homeown...

Afty

A 529 is like a Roth IRA that you can only use for college/grad school. You can choose whatever investments you want inside the 529 (out of the ones offered by your plan). If you already have a substantial sum saved for college sitting in a money market fund, I don't see any reason not to put it in ...

Afty

The cost didn't go down as much as I expected, for the reasons mentioned by the previous posters.

Still have to pay for afterschool care
Lots more holidays you have to cover somehow
No school in summer means you have to pay for camps, which are quite expensive around here

Afty

I've been reading and enjoying The Manager's Path. It's about the career path for an engineer moving up the ranks from Individual Contributor to Tech Lead to Manager and onward and upward.

Afty

I have a donor advised fund through Fidelity Charitable. Over the past couple of years, I've had 3 of my grants voided after about 90 days, I'm guessing because the charity never cashed them. These are charities already in the Fidelity Charitable database, so I don't think the address/contact info i...

Afty

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BYD2O7mTI9E/VbB5_O_OdFI/AAAAAAAAAGs/NMkvxIUuq_8/s1600/Beutler_Google_Security-practices-v6.png (from https://security.googleblog.com/2015/07/new-research-comparing-how-security.html) Re: changing passwords frequently. There are two problems with this. (1) Suppose an attac...

Afty

FWIW, I never found the career centers at either my undergrad or grad school very helpful. They gave very generic advice and didn't have much insight into specific roles or careers. He's better off getting advice from people in the engineering department if he can. I'll echo that it seems fishy that...

Afty

I'm a margarita guy. I make mine with 2 parts 100% agave tequila, 1 part fresh lime juice, 1 part orange liqueur, and a splash of agave syrup for sweetness. For the tequila, note that the base level branded stuff like Jose Cuervo and Sauza is only 50% agave. You're better off buying even a store bra...

Afty

I am an engineer at one of those "Tier-1" tech companies. I am certainly not at work all the time. I work 8:30-5:30 most days. My weekends are free. The free lunches and onsite whatnot let me optimize my day so that I can get the maximum amount of work done, and then head home to be with my family. ...

Afty

I average the Zillow and Redfin estimates. My goal is just to be in the right ballpark and to keep an eye on whether the value is going up or down.

Afty

I don't think anyone gets "money-shamed" for having too much or earning too much. I think they sometimes do. They present a situation or question and get accused of "humble brag." Note: It is not me. I don't have enough to brag on here, humble or otherwise. There are also the cases where people get...

Afty

Try /r/personalfinance if you want to feel better about your relative financial position. Most people there are poorer than me (big student loans with low income, got scammed out of their life savings, etc), while most people here are richer than me. It helps me see that there are people better off...

Afty

With regards to gift tax: You can pay anyone's college tuition without incurring gift tax, as long as you pay the school directly. See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i709#idm140031964138384. Educational exclusion. The gift tax does not apply to an amount you paid on behalf of an individual to a qu...

Afty

"The intent, or end result, test combines a series of closely related events that do not have independent purposes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_transaction_doctrine Are there no independent purposes with adult children giving their aging parents stock or with grandparents pay for this grand...

Afty

Planet Money just did an episode about vodkas. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018 ... odka-proof

They also found that there are no measurable differences between cheap and premium vodkas.

Afty

One of the core Boglehead beliefs is that no one can predict what the market is going to do. The situation right now might be like 2007, or it might be like 2011. None of us know. So the best thing we can do is get a clear idea of the risks and rewards, develop an investment plan that we can tolerat...

Afty

That's one heck of a car he could buy, per Livesoft's Rule.

Afty

+1 to what livesoft said. I also use H&R Block Deluxe tax software and have not had issues. The Inherited IRA doesn't require anything special -- just enter the data from your 1099-R. You can enter the data from donating appreciated stocks under Deductions > Donated Items.

Afty

IMO you should reconsider Silicon Valley. There are many opportunities here, and despite the naysayers it's a pretty nice place to live if you can afford it. Your background would make you a great fit for a certain fruity company in Cupertino. There are many startups doing hardware design as well.

Afty

This is a scam: https://support.google.com/business/ans ... 2928?hl=en

Afty

Does the inherited IRA affect doing a backdoor Roth? Thank you. No, it does not. An inherited IRA is considered separate from a person’s other IRAs, and the pro rata rule does not apply. There’s a detailed explanation here with references to the tax code: https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-impact-of-t...

Afty

You might consider Suitsupply. I bought a suit at their SF location and was super happy with the experience. Their Battery Park NYC store has 5 stars on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/suitsupply-new-york-4

Afty

OP mentioned a race-prepped Z06 and a track bike. Are you planning to track the exotic? That would scare the bejeezus out of me, regardless of how rich I was. Imagine how you'd feel if you ran a $300k car into a wall. If you plan to daily drive it, I wonder if you would get sick of it quickly. It's ...

Afty

Depending on how much you will drive the car have you thought about joining a car club that has a range of exotic cars and has rentals for members? This might be a way to drive an exotic for a far lower yearly cost (and no worries on maintenance) depending on your usage. I gave some serious thought...

Afty

Nothing is going away, they are just changing the desktop application you use to sync your files. If you just replace the old Google Drive Sync app on your computer with the new Backup and Sync App, nothing should change from your perspective. It may even auto-upgrade without you doing anything, but...

Afty

In my 20s, I did buy a used mattress off Craigslist and slept on it for several years. In retrospect, that was one of my “too frugal” decisions.

Afty

I think your friend should prioritize getting into medical school over financial considerations at this point. Does she need to take premed courses? MCAT? Would she be able to get a job as a research assistant somewhere? She is behind the ball compared to all the premed students who have been prepar...

Afty

My understanding is that Redfin sends out an on-call agent to show a buyer a property so that the actual buyer's agent typically was not inside the house being purchased. This would limit the agent's ability to provide full representation to a buyer-- an analysis of comparable sales and a price opi...

Afty

1. Bluray (but the quality may only be noticable on mid/upper level components) 2. Amazon HD 3. Amazon SD (unless you really need 5.1) 4. DVD I agree with this ranking. Blu-ray uses the least compression and gives the best picture quality. The best place to see the difference is in dark scenes with...

Afty

You mentioned you are in NJ. I found this: Using the board of health to get heat Many local boards of health have the power to make repairs to heating systems so that you can receive heat. Your local government must have enacted an ordinance that gives the board of health this power. Even with an or...

Afty

LeSpy wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:07 pm
I was thinking about this recently; how can we know if real estate is a bubble or just a cyclical bull?

I'm not sure we can know. Bogleheads have accepted the futility of trying to predict stock market bubbles; why should real estate be any different?

Afty

but it would still happen no matter if they vest monthly or yearly. I beg to differ. Here's an example - Assume a common vesting schedule - 1 year cliff and then monthly vesting. Assume 400K worth of RSU over 4 year period - $100K for the first year and then $8333 monthly. For the sake if simplicit...

Afty

AMT tends to hit people who live in high tax states and have incomes between $200k-500k. I would guess that your RSU vesting bumped you into that income range, but it would still happen no matter if they vest monthly or yearly. There is not much you can about it other than earning less or earning mo...

Afty

You hit the nail on the head a the end. It's just hard to be 31 and have lived "broke" (that's a very relative word, as I realize I'm extremely blessed) from 13 years after high school, and now that I'm finally making good money for the first time in my life I'm still being told to live frugally......

Afty

Your child budget feels low to me - though I'm in NY and have just 1 child aged 4, between nanny, school (just pre-school) and activities we're more like $80k/year. Daycare just isn't available in our area and with both parents in careers you need a much higher level of nanny, OT availability etc t...

Afty

However, many people inherit useless junk from their ancestors and are stressed out by their very presence. The only reason they keep this stuff around is guilt; they think that by discarding these items, they're somehow disrespecting the people associated with the material goods. Nonsense. For peo...

Afty

My understanding is that there are no tax implications for you. This is not income, it's a gift. You have to file Form 3520 if the gift is >$100k, but that is just for reporting. See https://www.irs.gov/businesses/gifts-fr ... ign-person for details on how to report gifts from foreign people.

Afty

You are at the beginning of your careers, I assume in tech. There’s a good chance that your total income grows by 2-4x over the next 5-10 years as you move up in the workforce. You also don’t have a child yet, and even once you do, school district only matters once they are kindergarten aged. You ca...

Afty

Someone pointed out above that, if you can afford to pay cash for 2 cars, the financial difference between paying cash and financing is in the noise. Maybe $1000 over the life of the loan. While I personally would pay cash, given your wife's strong opinion and the lack of real financial difference b...

Afty

I qualified for TIP as a kid. I went to some sort of award ceremony at Duke but never took any of the courses, only the SAT locally. I had a friend who did take a course, and he loved it. Made good friends, some of whom he eventually met back up with at the top college he ended up attending. I've he...

Afty

I have also had bad experiences trying to get our home warranty company to fix problems. I wish I had thought of asking for a credit instead.

Afty

Go ahead and sell it, but not because it hasn’t been doing well. Sell it because you want to diversify away from uncompensated single stock risk.

Afty

Have you considered having different savings goals for different months? Suppose your goal is to save 25% of your net income. Suppose you earn $75k/yr salary and $25k in the year end bonus, both net. It should be totally acceptable to save $0 the first 11 months of the year and $25k in December when...

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