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There are only two companies on the ACA exchange in our state and neither company covers our doctors or preferred hospitals. That is, in my opinion, your choice to not get insurance that includes coverage for pre-existing conditions. Just get new doctors and, if needed, go to a different hospital. ...

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2.) Pre-existing conditions are covered by every insurance company in the U.S. now, Obamacare or not. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. This is not true. My wife and I were just turned down by United Health (Farm Bureau) for pre-existing conditions. Health Insurance companies can still sell "tr...

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I believe it is only available online and not in a Sprint store. I just ordered my new SIM card today and it was very easy. Will report back when the SIM card arrives and I am attempt to port my number from Verizon to Sprint. Anyone take advantage of this offer yet? Any info or suggestions on the p...

scouter

We chose quartz nine years ago when remodeling our kitchen and loved it, though we noticed that the patterns in it are more "regular" and look man-made when compared to the random patterns in granite. But this year we used quartz for our two bathrooms and were pleasantly surprised to see h...

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"Wet and Forget". I repeat, "Wet and Forget!" Very easy and all you need to know.

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Thanks for all the great suggestions and recommendations. The Bogleheads come through again!

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Does the Air Force have any recommendations? When S relocated for his fed job, the fed govt recommended a mover and everything went well. For his car, he and our D had a nice road trip from LA to SF to Tahoe to Chicago and ultimately DC. His employer, the fed govt reimbursed for travel, including l...

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navyasw02 wrote:Why not drive and do a partial DITY (do it yourself) move?

My daughter has to report for duty on Monday so she doesn't have time to drive. If I drove it out there, the gas, meals, hotels, and return flight would cost way more than the shipping, plus I would need to take a week off work.

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Need to ship our daughter's car from TN to CA, where she'll be stationed in the Air Force. Anyone have any advice or recommendations for car transport companies?

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We have 3 Velux skylights (stationary, non-opening) installed 17 years ago, no problems with any of the three. We also have two Solatubes in our rec room, installed about 12 years ago. Again, non-opening,sealed skylight tubes for light only. Also, no problems. Highly recommend both, but personally I...

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I asked our State Farm agent if our rates would go up after using Emergency Road Service. He said only if we were towed 3X in one year.

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Attic ventilation fans rarely save energy: Several studies show that even in a house with a tight ceiling, a powered attic ventilator uses more electricity than it saves. http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/fans-attic-do-they-help-or-do-they-hurt Thanks for this article! We have ...

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Multiple hard drives at home, some only run when backing up.

Backed up to the cloud through CrashPlan.

Videos also uploaded as private videos to YouTube.

Photos also uploaded to Amazon Cloud.

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I'm a big proponent of parents gifting to kids as evenly and fairly as possible. In this case, that would mean ignoring tax brackets or need and gifting the same to each. I say this because I've seen how unequal treatment has played a part in tearing my wife's siblings apart, while equal gifting pla...

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When I looked in early 2015, some of the ACA plans (with the same name and deductible) had narrower networks than the same plans purchased directly through the provider. In my case, an important doctor who saved my life two years ago was not in the ACA plans I looked at. And the ACA website doesn't ...

scouter

We did a doors-off helicopter tour of Kauai several years ago and while it was thrilling and beautiful, I knew it was somewhat dangerous. Three days after we got home a similar helicopter tour crashed on Molokai, killing the pilot and 4 sightseers.

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Poipu is a good beach for swimming, sunning, snorkeling (great protected cove with lots of beautiful fish), and I took surfing lessons there as well. Also, at the top of the canyon you can take a hike to the highest swamp in the world.

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I've used those kits and they are helpful. You do an outdoor sample as a control and an indoor sample in the room you want to test, and compare them. The cheap kits don't tell you exactly what kind of mold you're seeing, but you get a good idea of whether the room has more mold than outside and how ...

scouter

I've noticed that car companies have begun to use cheap speakers in their regular audio systems and make up for it with a corrective Eq curve built into the standard amp. (it costs them a lot less to build the eq into the amp than to use better speakers.) So if you replace the speakers with higher q...

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Main thing is to make the space exclusively for business use. The IRS frowns on rooms that are dual-use being claimed for offices. So, no TV unless that's needed in your business. A couch is okay if you have clients that would sit there or if you use it while working. A bed is probably a no-no unles...

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Prepared with H&R Block software, mailed paper returns for both Fed and State.

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Acorn TV has all the British series, at $5/month.

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I would certainly get a lawyer if I were your friend.

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I've got a good reason to file by paper. I filed electronically for several years until a few years ago when I got an IRS letter saying I had miscalculated our taxes and owed about $2k. I checked my Turbotax file and couldn't find any errors but noticed that the amount they claimed I owed was exactl...

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EmergDoc wrote:Life isn't fair. The sooner you realize that, accept it, learn the rules, and start making it unfair to your benefit, the better off you'll be.

If I had a nickel for every time I've told my kids this...

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We came to despise both cable and satellite and cut the cord a few years ago. It bothered me that we were paying for 300 channels which were full of ads, many of them were all infomercials! (I'm paying to watch infomercials?! That's like paying to hear a timeshare pitch.) So many evenings we'd sit d...

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We used an old-fashioned method I haven't seen mentioned. When we were considering a move to the county where we now live, we made appointments with the principals of every elementary and middle school in the Northern half of the county, about 12 schools. Actually touring the schools, getting to kno...

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The taxing of royalties depends on the situation. If the musical royalties are from her work then she reports them on Schedule C. If they are from someone else's work then she reports them on Schedule E. See here . Alimony is taxable when received and goes on Form 1040 line 11. See here . +1 on thi...

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+1 for Foyle's War

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Things can change a lot between your thirties and your fifties. No matter how satisfied you are now with your jobs and where you live, that could all be drastically different and beyond your control in a few decades. The career I loved and dedicated my life too ended due to changes beyond my control...

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Not to change the subject too much, but has anyone used H& R Block for foreign tax credits?

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I used to occasionally wash tennis shoes in the washer and dry them in the dryer (along with towels or jeans), but I noticed that they didn't last as long as when I didn't wash them. Seems like the stitching would start to come undone sooner and the shoes would fall apart. So now I only wash them on...

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It was an article in "Money" where I first learned about this new thing called the Individual 401(K) Plan. Since then my 401 has grown to a tax-sheltered $350,000. I don't read "Money" anymore but I'm glad I saw that article!

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Ours is increasing by 36%. Ouch.

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Foyle's War. Possibly the best TV series I've seen. Note that each episode is about 90 minutes.

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Foyle's War

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I do ours with video so I can narrate at the same time.

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I use the Apple Airport Express (3 of them) to receive music from our home computer on each of three different old-school stereo systems around the house, all in sync. Our music library includes all our old vinyl and CDs as uncompressed WAV files and I use a program called "Airfoil" to man...

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2. If you sell the house later, you have to subtract all the deductions you took from the cost basis of the house as part of the capital gain calculation. By the time you dig out all the records and pay the tax guy to figure out the reports, where's the benefit? As long as you don't claim the home ...

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Really hard to beat the Prius overall, especially when considering reliability. A recent Consumer Reports mentioned that their auto testers are always questioned at parties and dinners and their stock answer is "just get a Prius."

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Sorry to say that acoustic foam won't do hardly anything except dampen reflections within your room, and it will only dampen high freq. unless it's extremely thick. To stop sound transmission through the wall you'll have to add mass and decouple the new layer from the existing layer using resilient ...

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No smart phone here, don't want to be one of the zombies. I look around in airports and lobbies of public buildings and it's comical to see 50-100 people all lost in their phones. Half of them trying to walk at the same time. It could have been a 70s SNL sketch about the future.

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Examine the area around your HVAC unit(s). Skunks like to burrow under the units, (even under a cement slab under the unit) to get under the house. They can get in through a tiny hole that doesn't look big enough for a squirrel. They're quiet, you might not hear them under there.

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One detail you should check on is the statute of limitations in your state. In our state it's one year, so you must either settle or file a lawsuit before the anniversary of the accident, or the insurance company is relieved of all responsibility and they won't pay anything. You can always go back t...

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Prius.

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For dirty looks, I tip 0%.

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russelljohnson wrote:15% for acceptable service
0%-15% for bad service
15% - 20% for exceptional service

90% of the time, I receive acceptable service.

+1

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- "Your Money or Your Life" by Robin. Some good points, but very wordy. Did not finish. - "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" by Tobias. As above. Wow, surprising! Tobias' book was the first financial book I read (when it first came out) and I would say it was directly ...

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Also know that RO filters waste 5 gallons for every gallon of filtered water. When I found that out, we got rid of ours and went with a simpler 2-stage filter.

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We recently bought a 2011 ES 350 (30k miles) for $23k, and it's a very nice car. The ES models take regular gas. We've owned Camrys and driven Avalons, and the Lexus is very different- much quieter, rides much smoother, feels heavier, doors are more substantial. Also, the seats are more comfortable ...

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