Bogleheads.org

Valuethinker wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:36 pm
Thank you for the correction. Maybe Winnipeg is just a lot colder and I was reasoning by false analogy (Winnipeg is also the mosquito capital of Canada - on a river delta - so you get the best of all seasons ). Thunder Bay is ... extreme (my father worked there for a time).

Winnipeg is at least 10-15 degrees colder in the fall/winter than Minneapolis. The distance from Winnipeg to Minneapolis is approximately the same distance as Raleigh, NC to New York City. Big difference in climate between Raleigh and NYC, right?

We are timeshare owners and we have actually been very pleased with our ownership, until the pandemic hit. We bought our 3 weeks all on the secondary market starting over 20 years ago, with one costing only $1. Our maintenance fees were reasonable and we never went to our home resorts, exchanging into some nice resorts using RCI, mostly in the northeast US. The pandemic changed everything. We had been exchanging every year into Lake Placid, NY in February for a winter vacation and Smugglers Notch, VT in October for fall foliage. Since the pandemic started we haven’t been able to find any exchanges to anywhere that we want to go, even though we have a ridiculous amount of trading power. Our resort where we had two weeks needed to raise thei...

Looks good to me, but I know you'll get a lot of push back from other Bogleheads. The most likely scenario is you buy the house, rates will decrease within a few years, you'll refinance, lowering your PITI, your incomes will keep increasing, and you'll end up just fine and live a nicer lifestyle in a better neighborhood.

Others will say the PITI is too much and it's too risky.

Valuethinker wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 4:04 am
Winnipeg in winter? Minneapolis? I look on the weather maps and see minus 20 (it doesn't really matter whether that's Centigrade or Fahrenheit ).

My apologies if I am way out of touch - I have never lived there. But I see *cold*? Also of course the latitude is relatively high.

You'd get the wind off the Great Lakes, too, in winter. That really is cold--in your bones.

Wind off the Great Lakes? You looked at a map lately? The nearest Great Lake to Minneapolis is 160 miles to the northeast of the city. I can assure you the wind from Lake Superior doesn't impact Minneapolis.

Mid-40s today. Minus 20 might happen one day per year. Cold temperatures don't matter if you wear a warm jacket, hat, and mittens.

Bfwolf wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:25 am
ASU and Minnesota are both reasonable choices. Minnesota is a marginally better school academically. The weather is a HUGE factor though. I personally would not want to deal with 4 Minnesota winters when I could be in sunny Arizona. Minnesota winters are some of the most brutal in the nation. Given kids are out of school in the Summer, Arizona's awful Summer heat isn't a factor. ASU being cheaper doesn't hurt either. $18K a year is nothing to sneeze at. Would be great if he could get into the honors college.

I've lived in Minnesota my entire life. Minneapolis winters are not that bad. The snow is cleared quickly and the U of MN has many buildings that are connected if there are particularly bad days.

Starfish wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:32 pm
That being said, I visited Phoenix many times, always in fall ( including at Thanksgiving) and spring. To me is one of the most depressing places. Everything brown, no real vegetation, no outdoors at least half of the year. Even the water in the pool is hot in September.

1000% agree. Minnesota is beautiful. Green trees, beautiful lakes. Wonderful fall colors and spring flowers. Arizona is brown.

Valuethinker wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:38 am
If he is used to the Upper Midwest climate, then Minnesota might be a good fit. If not, that's a potential issue - winter in that part of the world has to be experienced to be understood.

Not that different from the Northeast. Mid 70s in September and May, 60 in October and April, mid 40s in November and March, upper 20s in December and February, low 20s in January, for high temperatures.

A440 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:40 am I'm trying to plan a family vacation in August, as we are limited to when everyone can go. I'd like to visit several of Utah's National parks, but wondering how the temperatures/weather in August would be. Too hot for hiking? Too crowded? If so, I may choose another destination and keep Utah on the bucket list for a future visit.
What has been your experience(s)?

The parks that are at a lower elevation will likely be in the 90-105 degree temperature range in August. This includes Zion and Arches National Parks. I know Bryce Canyon is at a higher elevation so would be a bit cooler. It's a dry heat though so the humidity is not unbearable.

When I was helping my son through the college selection process one quote really stuck with me. "Selecting a college is not about selecting the best college. It is about selecting the college that is the best fit for your kid." I am not familiar with those colleges but assuming that they all have good programs then whichever is the best fit for your kids personality is likely the best choice. With a CS degree it would also be good to also consider which college would likely have the best internships. With many large tech companies having layoffs and hiring freezes I would suspect that getting good internships will also be a lot more difficult. How do I find out which college would likely to have the best interships? As a whole, t...

Minnesota. The job market is super strong with lots of internship opportunities at large companies in whichever major he ultimately pursues. Strong reputation across the country in many programs. Nice campus in a thriving metro area.

Two is getting into a better age for airplane flights. I found 6 months to 18 months being the WORST time to take a flight. It would help tremendously if you have parents or relatives to meet at the destination that would enjoy spending time with their grandkids.

Bring stroller and car seat and gate check both of them. Relaxing beach vacation. They’ll be too scared to go too far into the water but will have tons of fun digging in the sand.

CletusCaddy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:55 am

enad wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:47 am
Last time I checked those vehicles used to maintain a roadway still pollute a lot and now they'll be repairing the roads more frequently i.e. causing even more pollution.

Hmm. How about tanker trucks delivering gasoline to the 100k+ gas stations across the country everyday. Think those have any impact on pollution or road damage?

1000%. Electricity is delivered over transmission lines and grid system already in place. Gasoline is delivered by thousands of 80,000 lb tanker trucks to far reaches of the country.

You seem to have staying clean as your main concern. There are companies that will install a solid faux granite shower/bathtub so you have no grout and just seals at the corners. Otherwise if you have room for a full 3ft wide shower do that, its the best bathroom upgrade aside from possibly double sinks. I hate grout. Any recs on quality panels for a shower install? A tile installer (granted, he's biased) told me that the Bath Fitter liners can be problematic because if water gets behind it, it's trapped there, and mold will grow. No different than water getting through tile grout lines or in the shower corners. If your grout cracks water can seep in through the cracks and get behind the tile and grow mold. Tile installer obviously has a b...

Sometime between age 35 and 36, household net worth, including home equity.

My spouse and I combine all our finances and I guess we'll still be 38 by the time we hit $2 million, or $1 million per person.

Hoping to retire around age 52-55 when my kids are in college, with around $4-5 million in invested assets.

I'd just go for a walk-in shower instead of a tub. You'll appreciate it more when you get a bit older. If you're going to go with tile, yes, very large tile is better. The grout lines get all gross with smaller tiles. Have you considered a fiberglass shower insert? We have one and it looks very nice and is also easy to clean. Glass shower doors do get calcium build-up if you don't squeegee them down after your shower. If you can afford the heated floor, go for it. Wall lights in a bathroom do help light up your face more when you're trying to shave and/or put on makeup, so I do love wall lights for bathrooms. There are nice metal/plastic corner shelves that can be built-in that have drain holes to allow them to dry out, reducing potential f...

Carol88888 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 1:13 am

JoMoney wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:34 pm
Even better than no income tax, Alaska pays you to live there.

But the cost of fruit and vegetables along with healthcare is so high in Alaska that it probably eats up the amount that the state gives you to live there.

Correct. Alaska is in the top 10 for cost of living states in the US. Food, utilities, clothing, healthcare, transportation are all more expensive in Alaska than the US as a whole, while housing stock and public infrastructure suffer in quality.

I’d recommend VTSAX, VTIAX and the Fidelity Bond Fund, if you’re looking to add bonds. There really is no need to complicate things beyond the total market fund, total international, and bonds. And if you want to keep it really simple, could just invest everything in VTSAX.

When I was younger I did the same thing, sliced my investments across 6-8 different types of funds, but realized that it doesn’t provide any MORE diversification and also doesn’t provide any MORE in investment returns.

You can likely afford a house that has a total monthly payment (Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance) of around $2,500-$3,000/month. I'd back into your house price using a mortgage calculator assuming an interest rate, payment period (15/30 years), estimate of monthly property taxes and insurance and then add your down payment.

mega317 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 3:14 pm You can pay a second person specifically for taxes and a third person to be your butler or something for less than you're paying now.

Great way of looking at it. Take the savings and pay someone to clean your house, someone to do all of your laundry, and someone to mow your lawn all year for less than $8,000/year.

Nope.

The 1% makes no sense. He's trying to make it seem complicated when you could likely get better returns just using 1-3 funds with lower expense ratio. If you really don't feel comfortable, please transfer all your funds to Vanguard's PAS for 0.3% instead. I instantly saved you $5,600 this first year. I'll take 10% of that savings. Please pm me to Venmo me.

EnjoyIt wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:30 pm
But to say that $25k/yr $1.6 million may not be that big of a deal to someone who makes more is a bit naive (sorry for the insult just have no other adjective that fits better.) $1.6 million is 6-7 years of work for someone making $400k/yr. I don’t know about you but being able to buy 6-7 years of one’s freedom if they so choose is far from chump change.

You may be paying $25k/year less per year in state INCOME taxes, but a portion of that will be made up with increased property taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, toll tax, user fees, homeowner's insurance premiums, etc. I reject the notion that someone is really saving $25k/year, if they make $400k/yr.

piper wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:39 am

cchrissyy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:38 pm I've never understood moving to save income taxes by the exact people who make so much the taxes can't impact their lifestyle.
Live wherever you like! You can afford it.

For many people getting taxed at around 50 percent of income, How does that NOT impact their lifestyle?

You'd have to make $5 million/year to be taxed anywhere near 50% of income for both federal and state taxes. But this discussion is about state only, where the max state income tax is around 12-13% in California for VERY high income earners.

Typically I've found it all comes out in a wash. You either pay in state income tax or sales tax or property tax or toll fees or etc. Less taxes mean less parks, worse roads, worse schools, etc. If you like living away from all family and friends, feel free.

RANkiDEr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 10:09 am
"How much risk is a bank taking on?"

If my credit union gives 0.1% interest to customers for savings accounts (even in this high-interest environment), can I assume they take on very little risk?

I have slightly less than $250,000 in any bank account so I don't care. The government will give me my money if they fail.

I'd sell and get all those dollars to put to a more diversified portfolio.

I would, however, want to make sure I understand how the valuation was determined.

Curious why you suggested putting the catch basin inlets at the bottom. Wouldn't further erosion have occurred by the time the water got to the bottom? Bury a perforated 4" or 6" diameter french drain in a trench surrounded with 3/4" graded angular rock, with the small plastic catch basin inlets at the ravine bottom, and dump the water into the storm inlet in the roadway. Use a geotextile fabric around the bottom and sides of the rock trench to keep the surrounding soil from mixing with the rock. This will do a great job of keeping that ravine more dry. I meant at the low point of the V, in the ravine, if you're looking at it in a cross-sectional view. You could space the catch basins 30-100 feet apart, depending on how long...

Don't let him come home until Thanksgiving, his first semester. The first two months of college is the time period in which you'll meet more people and make more friends than you might the entire rest of your life. Encourage good study habits during the day and between classes so that he can be more social in the evenings.

Yep. I think they will issue you a check, which you would sign over to a brokerage firm to put into a Rollover IRA account.

Bury a perforated 4" or 6" diameter french drain in a trench surrounded with 3/4" graded angular rock, with the small plastic catch basin inlets at the ravine bottom, and dump the water into the storm inlet in the roadway. Use a geotextile fabric around the bottom and sides of the rock trench to keep the surrounding soil from mixing with the rock.

This will do a great job of keeping that ravine more dry.

If you can afford it, go for it. If, for example housing prices decrease by 20% in the next 5 years, would that put you in a pickle or would you be just fine? Do you want the stability of owning a home or do you want the freedom of renting and moving wherever you please whenever you want?

dukeblue219 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 6:49 pm
And on behalf of the Millennials on here, I'll preemptively apologize to anyone thinking "the nineties are old fashioned now??" because we feel it too.

Even 1999 is as old today as 1966 felt in 1990.

1985 Millennial here and I remember 1999 like it was yesterday but feel very old when I hear kids say things like "Back in the 1900s" when referring to the 90s.

Normchad wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:59 pm

I think everybody should use dead bolts. But honestly, they’re not keeping anybody out……

Criminals are opportunists. If they're getting through your deadbolt they must be very motivated, especially when the house down the block leaves their doors completely unlocked. Either that or someone is targeting you because you wronged them in some way.

iamlucky13 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:24 pm

Glockenspiel wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:23 am Lululemon are what the stylish slimmer men are wearing in my upper class part of town.

Definitely not the Dockers Pleated Pants suggested above.

Why not Dockers? Some of us have style literacy worse than the average American's financial literacy, so being specific would be helpful.

Yep. It’s the pleats. If you got flat front straight leg Dockers, I’m sure they’d be totally acceptable. Pleats make you look like you teleported from the 1990s.

Snowbird501 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 01, 2021 6:33 am I recently got a Cap1 Venture card and got a credit limit of $50K.

Nice. I've had a Capitol One Venture card for over 10 years and my current limit is an oddly specific $28,500.

Never heard of them so I'm assuming they're a trash Walmart-branded product.

Your term should last until you either plan to retire or for the full length of your mortgage term.

The amount should make up the monthly expenses that wouldn't be able to be paid if there was only one spouse working.

There's no need to buy so much term life insurance that the surviving spouse would immediately become financially independent if the other spouse passed away.

If you need $10k monthly to pay expenses and your spouse only makes $6k/month, then you need enough insurance to be able to provide $4k/month until the surviving spouse retires.

$4k/month x 12 months/yr x 15 years = $720k for 15 years, not accounting for inflationary factors.

Dang. A financial advisor charging a 1.7% fee to their customers might only need a handful of high net worth clients to make a decent living.

They could charge 1.7% and literally spend one hour a week managing the portfolios of their 5-10 clients and spend the rest of the time golfing and be living just fine!

Admiral wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:31 am
I believe you've now predicted seven of the last two recessions.

I was about to reply with something similar. People keep talking recession but don't realize that we've gone from 15.5% of the population being retired in 2011 to 19.5% of the population being retired now. The demand for workers is NOT slowing down anytime soon. We need so many workers and we're not doing anything about it. Birth rates are declining. Immigration rates are not increasing. Boomers are all retiring.

Ugh…still a very strong market (Long Island, NY). I truly can’t believe it. Just offered $610k on a house listed for $600k. They came back and said $620k takes it. Then texted back a half hour later and said “actually we have offers now wayy above $620k” sorry….the mortgage insurance taxes (PITI) was easily $4750 a month. This “bidding” is really getting annoying, some realtors will price a home below 2019 levels and start a bidding war. :oops: Hoping that the spring market brings some more inventory. I keep hearing that 99% of mortgages are under 6%. However, I just read 37% of homes have no mortgage at all. Moreover, in our market people are moving out of state to lower cost areas. So giving up a 3% rate on a $500k mortgage for a 6% rate...

Lululemon are what the stylish slimmer men are wearing in my upper class part of town.

Definitely not the Dockers Pleated Pants suggested above.

sc9182 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:09 pm
During the period when oil/oil-futures price went below zero into negative range (briefly) — did those farmers start getting “ACH withdrawals” from their accounts !?

Iirc- good many of land parcels you can buy these days comes “without” mineral-rights (i suppose mainly oil/gas)

No, the negative prices were for a short enough period of time that the mineral rights owners still received a check at the end of the monthly period. You're right that a lot of parcels are now sold without the mineral rights, in many areas of the country (Texas, North Dakota, etc.)

I don't know if there's any way to incentivize them to do their best in school while also having them pay part of the cost. Is the goal to have the kid shoot for a lesser school because of the cost of some highly selective schools? Is the goal to saddle them with debt after graduation? Is the goal to have them work a 20-40 hour/week job WHILE also doing school full-time?

I'd just involve them in all decisions, talk through everything that you're thinking, with them, and that you'll support them if you all agree on a school.

LITeacher wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:32 am Can a couple with a household income of $250k, for example, theoretically have save/invest enough to have a net worth of $4 million at 65?

Absolutely. My spouse and I are 38 and have a net worth of $1.9 million and have averaged less than $250k income for the past 10ish years. Save 30% of your income starting at age 22-24 and that couple earning $250k should have a net worth of about $4 million by the time they're age 50-55.

Me - Civil Engineer with a 4-person team under me, 15 years experience = $138k + 10% target bonus Spouse - Family Nurse Practitioner working ~0.7 FTE = $105k annually Royalties for oil extracted from land owned =about $180k annually Total household income = about $425k annually How did you get the royalties? 560 acres of land owned by family for over 100 years. Oil companies approached us to build wells and pipelines under the land. Royalties are a % of total oil extracted from the land and the current oil price. Wow! That sounds a lot better than raising cattle. :happy Yeah. If you know anyone in western North Dakota who owns any land and is complaining about not having enough money, don't believe them. Normal farmers/ranchers that appear...

A lot of window companies have a lifetime warranty. Figure out who the manufacturer is and give them a call. I've had window glass replaced for free because of lifetime warranty.

broncocountry25 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 1:05 pm

Glockenspiel wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:57 pm Me - Civil Engineer with a 4-person team under me, 15 years experience = $138k + 10% target bonus
Spouse - Family Nurse Practitioner working ~0.7 FTE = $105k annually
Royalties for oil extracted from land owned =about $180k annually

Total household income = about $425k annually

How did you get the royalties?

560 acres of land owned by family for over 100 years. Oil companies approached us to build wells and pipelines under the land. Royalties are a % of total oil extracted from the land and the current oil price.

Me - Civil Engineer with a 4-person team under me, 15 years experience = $138k + 10% target bonus
Spouse - Family Nurse Practitioner working ~0.7 FTE = $105k annually
Royalties for oil extracted from land owned =about $180k annually

Total household income = about $425k annually

Thanks for sharing your budget. My wife and I have roughly the same annual income as you (maybe slightly higher). We also have 2 kids (age 6 and 3). We save about $5000 a month is HSA, SEP IRA, Roth IRAs, and 529s. There's not much leftover after that. We've looked at our budget every which way and can't really figure out ways to trim the budget without sacrificing luxuries such as camps for the kids, vacations to see family, etc. It's just expensive to live right now, and amazingly, $200,000 doesn't go all that far. $200,000 doesn't go that far when you save 30% of your income, 20-25% goes to taxes, live in a HCOL area with a nice big house, new cars, vacations every 3 months, sleep-away camps for kids, travel hockey/baseball/basketball, ...

I'm a civil engineer and has some experience with permeable pavers. They work well in locations where there isn't a lot of road salt, sediment build-up, or heavy trucks/vehicles driving over them.

If you're just driving your normal sized car over them, or using them as a patio, they should work fine for you. Make sure you have a really good base.

On roads in locations with a climate with lots of snow and have snow plows driving over them, they don't work well because they get clogged up with salt/sediment in those locations.