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If taxes go up. its because the town is spending more money. If property values are increasing, the mill rate should be decreasing (in an ideal world) :happy . They do. When I bought my current house a few years ago, the assesed value was about 60% of the market price I paid. Mill rate was almost 2.1% Enter the pandemic and prices went nuts. Market value of my house is up at least 30-40%. Assesed value make a couple big jumps and is now higher than the market price I paid when I bought it. But the town budget has not grown nearly as fast (prop 2.5 limits, etc) so the mill rate has actually adjusted down significantly to about 1.5% on my last bill. Through all those ups and downs my annual tax bill in absolute dollars has risen only about 1...

Easiest way to make it go away is to dump Last Pass.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and- ... passwords/


This isn't the first, and likely wont be the last, issue with them. I used to love this service but stuck with it way too long.

I got a chuckle that we know call 1976 "old" Ive live in houses closes to 1776.... LIttle to be concerned about here.... Lead pipes stop being installed long before that house was built. Lead paint was technically not yet fully banned but they already knew the ban was coming in 78 so not likely. I think most asbestos had been phased out by then as well, though there is a chance you still may find popcorn ceiling tiles or flooring contaminated with it. The other thing that sometimes causes an issue from that time period is aluminum wiring (which can be safe when done right, but at the time they wired entire houses with it and didn't use the precautions we have today like anti-corrsosion coatings for the terminals when aluminum serv...

+1. Last year was a miserable time to buy a new car from ANY brand, with wait lists and markups for almost anything. Limited production or new models are particularly bad. If you want something super trendy like a Ford Bronco, Mustang Mach-E, Toyota TRD Pro anything,Audi E-Tron, etc it can get truly insane. To add to what Chris Said Toyota and Honda never allowed customer ordering the way American and German cars do. If you go on Toyota.com and play with the configurator sure you may see all kinds of options and packages and colors, but its just an illusion. Its really the regional distributor that is picking from that menu, and they distill it down to a few particular combos and as mentioned dealers have to pick from that. The dealer puts ...

OP: you don’t have to finance at the dealer. Look at local credit unions.

I just paid $55k for a 2023 4Runner Pro in December. Put half down (Traded in my 9 year old Tacoma for 70% of what I paid new + loaded up a couple rewards CCs ) and financed the rest with Mass Bay CU for 2.49%

Could I pay cash? Sure, but why bother when I can get a rate well below inflation on one of the few new cars that will actually appreciate for the first few years of ownership

Wow… Jacks story makes BMWs sound as reliable as Toyotas… woah.


OP:
If you must have a status symbol car that is luxurious and looks off road worthy, there are better alternatives to look at: Mercedes G Wagon, Lexus GX/LX, Toyota Land Cruiser.

As to paying for it, if you refinance after leaving the dealer and can get <3% it’s a no brainer in this high inflation environment. But you need to have the discipline to invest the money saved.

And your “savings” should be invested in low cost index funds. If you just park it in a 2% savings account you are wasting an opportunity.

I assume you max out all tax deferred/ retirement account space you have each year?

I’d reiterate the question - why an SUV? If you are cross shopping small sedans and big SUVs you need to ask yourself if you actually need the carrying capacity and AWD of an SUV or if you just want what’s trendy.

If the answer is you do and you prefer EV then look at thinks like the Model Y, Audi E-Tron, etc. lots of electric SUVs coming now.

Otherwise look at EV sedans. Model 3 isn’t the only option, it has the best charging network but as noted beyond that advantage Teslas are kinda blah.,,,

Jags4186 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:51 pm

miamivice wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:49 pm

z3r0c00l wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:45 pm Sounds like a huge amount to spend in 90 days. What is your normal monthly spending?

Around $4,000 per month on my Costco card. Not hard to shift to a different card for a few months.

So not sure why you’re asking? Seems like 75 days of normal spend will get you to your goal.

+1. Whenever I get a new card with a bonus target I just put all my other cards in a drawer until I hit it.

I moved out of public tech to a midsize privately held firm pre-pandemic. I couldn’t be happier. The lack of RSU compensation is more than made up for by the order of magnitude better job stability. We don’t grow very fast but have never had layoffs, ever. Not even during the dot com and Great Recession. I wonder where all the tech bros who liked to tell me I was underpaid are now? —— Now to make my reply actionable: The answer is to make yourself as valuable and high profile as possible. Don’t assume that because you have a pulse and passed a hacker rank challenge you are anything but a number. Don’t hide in your cube all day coding. Get out and socialize. Network. Take on the hard/challenging/PIA tasks nobody else wants. Volunteer for mor...

I had the same thing happen. Last year we travelled a TON, making up for lost time. Really started raking up some decent points and decided to make use of the 5/24 rule while I could to open up a couple new rewards cards and maximize sign up bonus points getting us to a higher tier one one program and a free week at a certain hotel chain. A couple cards had long 0% offers as well so I decided to let it float and dump much of our free cash into IBonds while the rates where 6%+ Coincidentally, at the same time I get a notice from Discover card that they closed a card for lack of use. It’s one I had since college that doesn’t offer much and I literally forgot I had it, but being such an old account that probably hurt. I looked at CK and my 790...

Thanks!

I just put it in my cart and i had enough no rush shipping rewards saved up it only sot me 69 cents in tax. sweet.

It seems that for Liquimoly you pour it into the fuel tank just before the next oil change and run or idle the car for 15 minutes or so to let is circulate through before draining. Then you pour in cheap oil and use a cheap filter, let it run one more time for another 10-15 mins, and then drain again. And after that, replacing with whatever normal oil + filter you normally use. If a product is instructing you to pour an additive into the fuel tank, and then drain the oil ... RUN... do not walk ... away. Most of these additives are snake oil. Oil additives should not be necessary if you are using high quality motor oil, and most of them (if they are anything at all) are actually concentrated packages of wear modifiers, like Molybdenum, that...

Back when we had solar it was not allowed to have a disconnect of any kind from the grid (per the NEM agreement.) This was common years ago for safety reasons, but these days the ability to automatically "island" homes with solar, batteries, or generators so that people working on the grid remain safe during power outages while you get to enjoy ongoing electricity is pretty standard. While I have no doubt that some localities or electric providers may not have updated regulations, they would be pretty far behind the curve. Not standard at all. To be able to disconnect and keep the house powered you either need to have batteries + a smart inverter that can run without the grid (not common other than Tesla installs), or an inverter...

MangoMama wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:30 am That's probably because the manufacturer only gives the dealer a fixed number of hours to do warranty repairs. Anything over that, the dealer (or tech) has to eat. For the thermostat change, the advisor mentioned Toyota gives them 2 hours.

Correct. They have a warranty repair schedule that specifies exactly how many hours of labor is paid per job. If they run into trouble or are short staffed and its takes longer the dealer eats it. But if the tech rushes and finishes fast I believe conversely they get paid the same the same rate = Unfortunately this could be seen as an incentive for careless work when its on the warranties dime....

I just traded in my Tacoma at 9 years old. Never did anything but fluid changes and tires. It was even still on the original brake pads. Dealer bought it for about 65% of what I paid new in 2014.

I have had odd things happen on older Honda and Toyota's (we had an '08 pilot that developed a valvetrain tick at 120k) but not with anywhere near the frequency to make me think there is a positive ROI buying an extended warranty.

FWIW I have always done a wire transfer or got a cashiers check for large 5-6 figure payments like that.

Back when we had solar it was not allowed to have a disconnect of any kind from the grid (per the NEM agreement.) This was common years ago for safety reasons, but these days the ability to automatically "island" homes with solar, batteries, or generators so that people working on the grid remain safe during power outages while you get to enjoy ongoing electricity is pretty standard. While I have no doubt that some localities or electric providers may not have updated regulations, they would be pretty far behind the curve. Not standard at all. To be able to disconnect and keep the house powered you either need to have batteries + a smart inverter that can run without the grid (not common other than Tesla installs), or an inverter...

Valuethinker wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 4:55 am Without checking, it's my guess that New England has the highest NG prices in the USA?

Propane prices should be much more even between regions (cheaper in the Texas-OK-LA area, because that's where the main wells and refineries are)? Local factors probably quite important (competitiveness of suppliers, who owns the tank etc)?

Probably - which means that if the conversion makes sense here (and I feel it does), it easily makes sense anywhere...

Happy birthday Taylor!

I don't know much about the Maverick, but apparently its even smaller than Ranger? If you really want something tiny (and if so, ask yourself why a truck?) then options are limited, but if you are looking at Ranger size then you should cross shop Nissan Frontier, Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado, etc. Tacoma is due for redesign apparently, will be worth checking that out. I just traded in my 2014 and never had a single problem with it. Got almost 70% of what I paid for it back! For a long time the Tacoma was the truck to beat in this segment (assuming you didn't get hit with the dreaded frame rust), however the second gen redesign from 2016 on got really mixed reviews over its lackluster powertrain. Hopefully the new one catapults back to the ...

I would do it. The cost savings are a no brainer - Right now in New England I get propane for 3.75/gal and NG delivered is something like $2.40/therm. Given a gallon of propane only has 90% of the energy of a therm of gas that makes propane 70% more expensive. Pre-pandemic the spread was even worse with NG under a dollar and propane around $3... if the market heads back in that direction your savings will be even more. As far as hooking up, once they run the pipe and install the meter the rest is easy. Unless your codes are really different the interior piping is the same (Ive lived with both and the plumbers use the same black iron pipe and fittings inside), typically its just a burner jet change and appliance side regulator adjustment (mo...

When I worked in public tech (midsize, much smaller than faaang), all invested shares where forfeit on termination date. Company Lao had a nasty habit of doing layoffs a month or so before big bonus payout dates.


I’m very glad I moved to private tech, and the owners don’t feel a need to downsize just h because everyone else is….l

I was about to ask an even more simplistic question - After we pass the limit today does the government completely stop selling bonds? I.e. can we even buy IBonds, EEs, etc at Treasurydirect before the cap is raised again?


Ye, I know its a total first world problem and the bigger long term issues at stake should make me rethink buying anyway.

I have no interest in Roth matching as that will only push us further into the higher brackets,and the extra catch up isn’t exciting as I’ll hit my number long before age 60. The swapping of catchup contributions to Roth not pretax will likely have an impact. I'm not sure you have the option on the match - I THINK they move to Roth but might be reading that part incorrectly. I get a big match already, my issue is that if I where to elect to take it roth it will just generate more 24% tax liability today, whereas in early retirement I will probably be able to convert at 12%. Not worth it. And the Roth catch up may or may not be worth much as I will be probably be paying college tuitions during catch up years and may need to skip it anyway t...

As I said in the devious locked thread, very little impact to us. We are a 24% bracket couple in our peak earning years that already max our contributions.

I have no interest in Roth matching as that will only push us further into the higher brackets,and the extra catch up isn’t exciting as I’ll hit my number long before age 60.

Later RMDs might allow for more Roth conversions, but unlike lots of folks here I plan to actually spend my retirement savings in retirement

I’m still reading but it seems like the bill has a lot of benefits for low income/low savers (mandatory enrollment, credits, longer catch up) and high income super savers (reduced RMDs, 529 rollovers, etc).

Call me the odd one out but I feel like I’m in a middle place where this won’t change much for our situation. We are mid income and save a lot but have more tax deferred space than we need already. And I don’t care about the 60+ catch up and late RMD because I plan to actually … you know… retire and spend it once there is enough. I have no interest in just sitting around miserly watching the balances increase forever just to leave a massive inheritance.

Cheers

Counterpoint - my wife and I have had car payments on an off over the years and still passed 1MM before 45. We drive nice, late model, reliable Japanese cars that we typically buy new and keep 10 years. I'm in software, wife works for the public school system and we were single income for 6-7 years when the kids where young. So not low income, but not super high either. You may enjoy your "junkers" but the Toyota truck I bought brand new in 2014 I traded in this year for 70% of what I paid for it (could have got more if I wanted to spend the legwork selling direct), and the new Toyota SUV I bought to replace it is actually worth more on the used market than I paid for it. So I would argue that its not "cars are bad" it j...

I plugged 40,000 of traditional IA withdrawal and 32,000 SS into this tax calculator. Assume you are 65+ since you are taking SS.
https://www.dinkytown.net/java/1040-tax-calculator.html

And it spit out a total federal tax bill of $6293.

That's less than a 9% effective rate on your 72k gross income. Yes your marginal bracket is 22% but that will only apply on additional dollars you take out beyond this baseline. Probably far lower than you where ever paying in your working years if you amassed an IRA balance big enough to easily handle 40k annual withdrawals.

My advice: count your blessings, stop stressing and enjoy your retirement.

Interesting. I've had the same insurer for 25 years and never once thought about switching. +1 Ive used Amica for Auto, renters then home, and life since the 1990s. I find that my auto usually goes down each year (other than years we trade up to a new car) and my home never goes up more than a % inline with the market valuation change. We currently pay: - $1400 homeowners on a 900k house - $1200 for a Honda SUV/Toyota pickup with max coverage/collision/comprehensive -$400 for 2MM umbrella -------- Total $3000/annually I've said it many times before but I suspect a lot of the folks who have these troubles: A - Are shopping price along among the ultra discount carriers B - Live in states with little or no regulation of insurance carriers. C-...

I think the article makes sense for a lot of people including most college graduates. If people age 30 or younger are going to save it makes more sense to save for a house down payment than for retirement that's 35-40 years away. I see no reason for people that young to save more for retirement than the company match. I remember reading that the great economist Milton Friedman would advise young colleagues at the University of Chicago to avoid saving too much at an early age. BTW my wife and I are financially doing well in retirement and neither of us began saving for retirement until we were in our early 30s. I think we were implicitly following the life-cycle model without explicitly being aware of it. :happy BobK +1. I only saved a bit ...

"Android" doesnt matter in this discussion. The same concerns would apply to iPhones, dumb phones,tablets and laptops as well. The issue is the lifespan of the Lithium-Ion battery. LiIons degrade from (in order from most damaging to least) : - Heat build up from fast discharge (heavy use) and fast charging - Spending time at a fully charged or deep discharged state - Depth of discharge per cycle - Cumulative charge cycles - Calendar life Good reading on this in layman's terms: https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries To really extend the lifespan, you want to keep the battery as cool as possible, avoid storing it full charged and charge only as often as necessary. In an ideal world you wo...

YOu *might* be able to, but it will also depend on if the smaller rims have enough clearance over the brake rotors.

If the model you are looking at has smaller sized rims on a different trim level then it should work no problem. For Example - Toyota 4Runners come with 17" rims on most trims but have 20s on the Limited. Its an easy swap to put the 17s on limited.

Another food for thought: "lights on to deter criminals" is a band aid.

If you area has high crime its more effective to vote and/or donate to candidates, organizations and efforts that will address the root causes of people turning to crime; which is typically lack of access to good education, healthcare and jobs in your area.

Houses lit up like Disney world at night are a major peev of mine. We never leave exterior lights on at night, unless we are out or expecting company.

So many reasons not to:
- Its a waste of money
- Its a waste of energy ( bad environmentally)
- It contributes to light pollution ( bad for astronomy, bad for wildlife, bad for human sleep)

Yep, looks like you guys are getting prime PLUS 2%.

Note that if you are not closed yet and Third Federal makes loans in your state you might want to talk to them. Mine is still at 3.74%.

Rule of thumb I’ve read is to consider reroofing before solar if the roof is past 1/3-1/2 of its expected lifespan… I.e 10~15 years for a 30yr shingle. We put up our own system on a 7yr old roof. Check the contract for the options if you need to reroof later. My installer will remove and reinstall for a fee of a few $k. Solar panels *are* getting better all the time, but we are at the point where most efficiency gains are incremental now (short of another big breakthrough) in 10 years they may make 5 or 10% more power.. not 50%. Note that the ads you see for bigger and bigger capacities (400, 500 watt) are actually for physically larger panels, they are not more efficient. As to net metering changes..l check the contract language from your ...

I have seen air source heat pumps be wholly inadequate in northeastern winters, not even New England. Ground source is much more expensive to install, but you should have no need of backup. Not true at all. I don’t understand why every time these questions get asked, people who don’t live in cold states and don’t own heat pumps keep making this claim. In northeast winters you need a cold climate heat pump . The Japanese brands are much better at this, such as Mitsubishi Hyper Heat and Fujitsu. They work at full capacity down to -15 F. Just needs to be sized properly for the heat load at those temps. I have a Mitsubishi Hyper Heat outside Boston and it’s completely displaced propane for the zone it’s on, even down to zero. Only cost 10% mor...

samsoes wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:29 pm Can you do a cashless exercise? That's when the stock options are bought and sold in the same transaction. That depends, however, if the market price is greater than the strike price of the options.

+1 can you sell to cover?

Either way I would get out now, as a startup that’s in trouble and having to layoff is a bad sign. Exercise and immediate sell it all….. or if they are underwater just walk away.

[ edit to addd, in my career I only ever had nonqual options for shares that are publicly traded. If these are pre- IPO shares I would only exercise if you know you will be able to sell them today, for cash]

“You don’t like it” is not a legal basis for making the tax bill incorrect. The tax is assessed at a certain mill rate multiplied by the value. If it went up that means that one or both of these things happened: 1. - The mill rate increased. There is usually a procedure established by state law for this. Some jurisdictions have an override process to change it via vote. In any case your local tax collectors office should publish the current rate and any change. 2 - The value increased. This is very likely given how much real estate has gone up the last 2 years. You should be able to look up your current assessment on the local assessors website and if it’s changed more than the average property you can call them and ask why. If you feel you...

When the capacitor is bad the compressor won't start but the fan will be running. Your fan is bad or it doesn't have power. If you have a multimeter you might be able to self-diagnose. The fan is probably back ordered or out of production, though. Good luck! Wrong. There’s usually 1 or 2 compressor capacitors AND a fan capacitor. A bad FAN capacitor can prevent an otherwise ok fan motor from running. Most often the outdoor condenser has a "dual run" capacitor that's basically two caps inside a a single can. The terminals are color coded and labelled, and its really a VERY easy thing to DIY as long as you leave the breaker off for a few hours and or discharge the cap (a screwdriver across the terminals does it instantly). Just one...

We pay more for a more reliable service... As jco mentioned above the MVNO's are second in line and get whatever bandwidth is left on a given tower after the national carrier customer load is satisfied. At peak congestion hours sometimes MVNO phones get no data at all and drop calls.

I will admit that I am running into more dead spots with VZ lately myself ... but in part years when I had ATT it was even worse....

+1 It hurts nothing to ask, just don’t phrase it as an ultimatum.

When I last changed jobs I was approaching an annual RSU vest date. I told them I would leave XX$ on the table and asked if they could match it or delay my start date 30 days to pass the vesting. They gave me the 30 days.

willthrill81 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 5:26 pm

giddyup969 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 6:15 am Has anyone recently applied with Third Federal know how long the process takes to open the HELOC?

It's probably not 'recent', but I believe that it took us about 6-8 weeks to complete the process when we opened ours with Third Fed in the summer of 2020.

It’s still taking a while. I refied mine in the spring, applied in April, got approved in under 2 weeks but the appraisal took a while and then it got stuck in title for over a month. Closed a couple weeks ago.

Still getting prime-1.01% for balances over 50.

My “regression” is about 10%.

60/40 portfolio is off about 15-20% (buoyed by having a bunch of the bond allocation in really safe stuff like TIAA trad and IBonds + 30-40% of income new contribution rate). House value is still climbing.

I think the takeaway is that if your losses are keeping you up at night your AA is not appropriate to your risk tolerance.

This thread reminds me of what a loser I am. A couple years ago age 26, I hit $1 million in investments. Got up to about $1.2m before the market correction. Now here I am and I am around $1.1m after all this time, despite investing each month. So many people in their 30s have 3-5x what I have and I realize I'll never get there. I am such a loser. Does anyone else feel the same way? Does it seem like I am on track financially? Cool off buddy. You had approx. 980k more than I do at age 26. I just want to be able to survive. Times are so tough now If you have 1M your times are not “tough”. Outside the bubble of this board, 95% of people never have that much in their entire lifetime. Something like 80% never get to 1/10 of that. It took me unt...

livesoft wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:21 am Below 5 figures for our new Trane system which replaced an old Trane system. Didn't even need to replace thermostats since our 1993 smart/programmable thermostats are close to state-of-the-art though not wireless/bluetooth.

Where do you live? Contractor pricing is location, location, location - i.e. costs in northeast or west coast are a lot higher than the midwest or south.

I had a new Mitsubishi heatpump put in and it cost me 11k. The cheapest AC only Carrier system was going to be over 9. And this is just one zone air handler and one condenser with new piping/wiring. All the ductwork, etc retained.

Multipe zones and adding on a furnace will increase the cost proportionally.

Every time these questions come up lots of people think they should be replaced just because they are "old" which is funny coming from a group of people that like to drive cars to the wheels fall off. :mrgreen: My question is why do you think they need replacing? Is something off? Have you had maintenance issues lately? Yes they might break down at some point, but the vast majority of breakdown are reparable.. The most common repair issues are things like bad motor start capacitors (dirt cheap) and thermal sensors going bad. The two things I can think of that might force a full emergency replacement are a crack in the furnace heat exchanger, or a bad leak on the AC side as your older unit probably uses R22 which is no longer made ...

I asked them if they would install a part if I provided it. The response was a definite "no". Sorry to hear that. To replace it yourself would require a mulimeter and the knowledge of how to use it. That's the only way you could know with total confidence that the old one has been discharged. $309 is common for an HVAC Tech to do it. It might take much longer than a year or two for rust to ruin the capacitor though. Replacement does not require a multimeter. The meter is only required if you plan to test with existing capacitor with the plan to keep it if it tests OK. Given the low cost of a replacement capacitor, and the fact that it's essentially as much work to check an old capacitor as it is to replace it, just skip the VOM t...

1. Redo the patio since the stairs collapsed and it became a safety issue. 2. Replaced AC central air unit, which suddenly gave out. 3. Replaced the dish washer that suddenly died. 4. Replaced the batteries on the sump pro (batteries are not cheap at $1k). 5. Replace my computer that suddenly died. 6. Fixed a leak that was dumping toilet water into my office. 7. Fixed a leak coming from the outside into the house, which turned out to be on the roof. No argument that a rainy day fund is necessary, but I am curious: #1 - could you have saved some $ by rebuilding just the stairs and not the entire patio #2,3 - Was it not something repairable? #4 - What kind of battery is it using that costs $1000? In my last house I had a Basement Watchdog bi...

The solution for snow traction in a RWD vehicle is good snow tires on all 4 corners. /full stop

Yes, back in the day people would add weight to the back of RWD cars (in addition to the snow tires) to increase grip in the rear. Typically throwing sandbags in the trunk or in the bed of a pickup. This increases grip at the rear and helps with acceleration and hill climbing.

BE VERY CAREFUL doing this, as there are a couple major caveats to beware of:
- Adding weight to the rear changes the handling of the vehicle and makes it more prone to a dangerous spin if you do loose grip.
- Adding weight to the rear does nothing to improve turning grip or braking. Lots of weight can actually make braking worse.