Search found 215 matches

by Zapped
Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:35 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How to spend a Saturday in Helsinki
Replies: 14
Views: 2053

Re: How to spend a Saturday in Helsinki

Good replies from folks who have been there. Just wanted to add that I always like TripAdvisor's "Things To Do" section when I'm visiting unfamiliar cities. Here's the link for Helsinki - https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions ... simaa.html
by Zapped
Tue Sep 15, 2015 2:51 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: McDonald's has good coffee: McDonalds has Senior Coffee
Replies: 92
Views: 31637

Re: TheGreyingDuke

Darker roast coffee also has lower acid content. So folks who think they're helping their acid reflux by drinking lighter coffee actually have it exactly backwards. One of the darkest roast coffees in the world, Sumatran, has the lowest acid content of all. Hi Rupert - I'm not a coffee snob & I do enjoy McDonald's, Starbucks and other chains. Bad coffee is a little like bad pizza; even when it's bad it's OK. I've also purchased green (raw) beans from Sweet Maria's and played around with home roasting. I just wanted to differ with your comment about Sumatran coffee being "one of the darkest roast coffees in the world". Roasting profile (e.g. dark) and coffee source (e.g. an Indonesian Sumatra) are two independent variables. It...
by Zapped
Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:41 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Garmin maps for Italy?
Replies: 18
Views: 7152

Re: Garmin maps for Italy?

Puakinekine wrote:I find Nokia's Here navigation app excellent for Europe. You can easily download and store the maps ahead of time. One of the best things about owning a Windows phone are the excellent free Nokia apps. Recently Here has also been made available and free for Android and Apple.
Thanks so much, @Puakinekine, for point us to Nokia's "Here" app. I hadn't mentioned that I had tried various offline options for my Android smartphone & tablet and wasn't really satisfied with any so far, although the free Android app "MAPS.ME" came pretty close. I had not heard of Here before & look forward to giving it a whirl.
by Zapped
Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:35 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Garmin maps for Italy?
Replies: 18
Views: 7152

Re: Garmin maps for Italy?

OpenStreetMaps is a project assembling high quality routable maps for the entire world. I routinely use these maps with my cycling-specific Garmin computer as well as an older Garmin that doesn't have lifetime U.S. maps. You can absolutely use this excellent service for getting around Italy without purchasing Garmin's proprietary maps or worrying about a data connection to your smartphone. Here's the drill -

Go to http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl
Select Generic Routable
Choose a predefined country - Europe - Italy
Hit "Download map now!"
On the next page, download the osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip file
Unzip the file, copy it to an SD card that your Garmin can use
Boot your Garmin up with the SD card and check that it worked.
by Zapped
Tue Jul 21, 2015 1:49 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Update on Brooks Saddle
Replies: 3
Views: 1180

Re: Update on Brooks Saddle

@LifeIsGood - rather than starting a new thread, it would be best to reply to your own thread from Dec 2014.
by Zapped
Tue Jun 30, 2015 3:12 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Will you pay to not have ads?
Replies: 35
Views: 5614

Re: Will you pay to not have ads?

bklyn96 wrote:I willingly pay $38 a year for my ad-free Pandora radio subscription!
Not to hijack the thread, but @bklyn96 could you let us know how to get Pandora for $38/yr?

I was paying $36/year for a few years until spring of 2014 (not this year, last year) when Pandora abolished annual subscriptions and jacked up the rates. Even for previous customers, $3.99/month was as good as anyone could get according to their site and any number of irate customers griping on Internet forums last year. I had to vote with my wallet against the 50% annual price increase on principle.

For new customers, I think Pandora is currently $4.99/month.
by Zapped
Fri Jun 26, 2015 2:39 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Google Map: How To See Traffic Far Away
Replies: 25
Views: 6066

Re: Google Map: How To See Traffic Far Away

GOT IT! Thank you so much! It works! Hi Leesbro63 - even though you seemed satisfied with the replies, I didn't notice anyone pointed you to the "arrive by" & "depart at" features that use typical traffic information. Since Google can't predict the future (yet), this is what I personally use for planning trips. Here's the default route from Pittsburgh to Washington DC, where you ask for an estimated arrival at noon on a typical Friday - http://i.imgur.com/qmizNRj.png Say you've been burned so many times by the traffic in Breezewood that you just want to avoid it altogether. You just drag the default route through to the nearest interstate and get an updated route & estimated times - http://i.imgur.com/gO1g9x2.pn...
by Zapped
Sun Jun 14, 2015 7:38 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: just widowed
Replies: 21
Views: 5824

Re: just widowed

Condolences on your loss. You mentioned that you "know the retirement account is way too much in bonds" but you didn't say that you had a particular stock/bond ratio in mind across all of your accounts. If I'm adding up your accounts correctly, of your $1.26M in investable assets, roughly 40% is now cash (including life insurance proceeds), 10% stocks, and 50% bonds. So the first thing you should do, and perhaps you know this, is to come up with a stock/bond balance you can live with, even through a possible market correction. If, for example, you decided you liked a 60% stock and 40% bond allocation, you'd already have your bonds and would just need to DCA into stocks at a rate you're comfortable with. One problem, though, is tha...
by Zapped
Sun Jun 14, 2015 3:29 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Do I need to keep my landline number?
Replies: 58
Views: 22395

Re: Do I need to keep my landline number?

If you'd like your old landline number to still exist so that folks that you do business with can reach you without you having to contact them all to inform them of a new number, you have a pretty simple option. Because you ported your old landline number to Straight Talk for use on your current VoIP system (what you referred to as your "home setup"), you can now port it to Google Voice for a one-time $20 fee if you like. There are no other recurring monthly/yearly charges at all, or at least there haven't been for the last few years. You could then set up Google Voice to forward all incoming calls to that old landline number to one (maybe both) of your cell phones. It can also perform some call screening for you if you want to ig...
by Zapped
Wed Jun 03, 2015 6:24 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Recommendations for a Pedometer
Replies: 22
Views: 3536

Re: Recommendations for a Pedometer

Thanks for all the suggestions. I would prefer a pedometer I could wear, something like a wristwatch, as opposed to a pocket-type pedometer. I'm not following the technology closely, but I think pedometers are typically mounted at the beltline because it's easier to set up an internal spring-and-pendulum mechanism to count steps at that location. Seems like it would be difficult if not impossible to count steps from a wrist-mounted device. Pedometers are dirt cheap, so why not just take a chance on a sub-$10 model & see how you like it? Decades ago when I had one I would check its accuracy by walking or running and mentally counting my steps for a hundred or so steps. If the pedometer readout was within a step or two of my mental count...
by Zapped
Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:09 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Net worth of 85k at age 21
Replies: 13
Views: 3364

Re: Net worth of 85k at age 21

It seems a few people have mistaken my words as cocky, or over confident. : <trim> Sorry for the long off topic post, but I felt that it was needed. I am still open to investment advice. Lol @stevblev - let me add my congratulations and a warm welcome to the forums. You composed a very articulate reply to the unwarranted ad hominem attack you've received in this thread. Many of the highly-educated technical folks I work with aren't able to write with such clarity, and you certainly can state your case more clearly and effectively than 99% of the non-Boglehead masses posting on the Internet. Even though the noise you're getting is fairly mild by Internet standards, it would be best to ignore the personal attack here and continue to focus on...
by Zapped
Fri May 29, 2015 10:08 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: What am I doing wrong ?
Replies: 39
Views: 6298

Re: What am I doing wrong ?

I didn't see how to attach a spreadsheet so here's a screenshot of the budget forecast before and after Medicare. http://i.imgur.com/wumHJWI.jpg That's a really nice spreadsheet itemizing planned expenses, with the three low/medium/high spending options. Although your pets may differ in their opinion of the "silver" plan ;) But I'm confused about some expense numbers. In the Gold Plan, you show that your expenses drop from about $53.7K to about $45.4K. That implies your monthly expenses drop about $690/mo once you're in your Medicare years ((53.7K-45.4K)/12). But looking at your monthly itemized expenses, you remove $1100/mo for private insurance & deductibles and add about $405 for your spouse Julie AND $450 for yourself for...
by Zapped
Fri May 22, 2015 7:53 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Not your father's Total Bond Market Fund anymore
Replies: 86
Views: 20250

Re: Not your father's Total Bond Market Fund anymore

I know those graphs show different time frames, but for the years that are the same, 2009-current, why does the 1st graph show Term outperforming Total and the opposite on the 3rd. Orange above blue in 1st and opposite in 3rd? Why the reverse on the graph? It's the graphs I don't understand. I think I understand your confusion, and at this point I'll re-post my 1st and 3rd graphs here for discussion. "1st graph" - Jan 2009 to today. http://i.imgur.com/ON7Zg4M.png "3rd graph" - May 2005 to today (10 years total return) http://i.imgur.com/DPaDhMs.png Other may explain it better than me, but I'll try. The fact that Intermediate-Term Bonds grew much faster than the Total Bond Market between Jan 2009 and now is great, but ov...
by Zapped
Fri May 22, 2015 2:31 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Not your father's Total Bond Market Fund anymore
Replies: 86
Views: 20250

Re: Not your father's Total Bond Market Fund anymore

To start, just looking at 1st and 3rd graphs.... Aren't they comparing the same 2 funds over roughly the same time period? If so why does the Term bond fund (orange line) show more growth than Total bond fund (blue line) in the 1st, but in the 3rd graph it looks like the reverse is true. I'm just looking at it in the most basic way: Orange line higher than blue In #1 and just the opposite in #3. My 1st graph showed total return from Jan 1 2009 to present My 3rd graph showed total return from last ten years (i.e. May 2005 to present) You're 100% correct that since 2009 the orange line (intermediate-term bonds) outperformed blue line (total bond market), and conversely orange underperformed blue over the last 10 years. Side note: it's not a ...
by Zapped
Fri May 22, 2015 1:01 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Not your father's Total Bond Market Fund anymore
Replies: 86
Views: 20250

Re: Not your father's Total Bond Market Fund anymore

@Doc - the month-by-month, three-year-rolling-average chart you presented just makes my head hurt. I feel like I've stumbled into a technical analysis meeting and I'm being pummeled with candlestick charts that contain curious patterns I'm not sure I believe. For me, it's simple. Total return. For starters, I'm trying to *reinforce* your case, not *contradict* it, with the performance of Vanguard Total Bond Market from Jan 2009 to today. http://i.imgur.com/ON7Zg4M.png OK, it looks like Intermediate-term bonds did great in that specific interval, as you wrote, and you're building a case that something fundamental has changed. But if you'd simply started at the beginning of 2008 (to preset) or started 10 years ago, intermediate bonds don't lo...
by Zapped
Wed May 20, 2015 10:45 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Need Budgeting Help ASAP!
Replies: 42
Views: 8406

Re: Need Budgeting Help ASAP!

... It is nearly impossible to figure out what food costs. I think going out for dinner and drinks aka my social life is what is killing me here. I saw that Grt2bOutdoors suggested you buy a pad and write down what you spend money on every day, but I'm sure you'll find that tedious. How is it impossible to figure out what food costs without going OCD on the record-keeping? I'm guessing the tab at a local grocery store isn't the problem here. You're either (1) withdrawing a lot of cash from the ATM and tossing it over to the bartender or to friends while splitting a meal tab, or (2) your eating/drinking is all documented online in your debit- or credit-card activity. If you're withdrawing a lot of cash without knowing where it's going, it s...
by Zapped
Wed May 20, 2015 9:58 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What's so great about simplicity?
Replies: 118
Views: 18093

Re: What's so great about simplicity?

For what it's worth, when he was the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke had to reveal all his accounts. His retirement account is at TIAA CREF. He was still at 50% TIAA Traditional, 50% CREF Stock, the default for people back a few decades ago when TIAA CREF only had those two funds. I thought what sawhorse wrote about Ben Bernanke was interesting enough that I wanted to dig a little deeper. I didn't realize that the two holdings (actually totaling 90% of Bernanke's disclosure in 2013, not 100%) are TIAA-CREF annuities , not standard stock or bond funds. Our new Fed chairman Janet Yellen's disclosed holdings were more complex and market-exposed, coming in at 64% stock funds (mostly Vanguard) or individual stocks, 29% bonds, 5% cash and 2% annuitie...
by Zapped
Wed May 20, 2015 8:48 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Young And Clueless
Replies: 28
Views: 4688

Re: Young And Clueless

I currently have a year left for my BS in business administration and will have about 40k in student loan debt and have 20k left on my car. This paints a different picture. Hopefully the 40K in student debt will be a good career investment for you, but the car loan probably wasn't the best idea. Those payments are a drag on your ability to save. I think most of us here would agree that you should go to your HR department to find out how much salary they will match into your 401k and have that amount withheld from your paychecks. But I personally wouldn't max out other accounts (401k, IRA, or taxable savings) until at least the car loan is retired. Perhaps if you swung a special student rate for the car loan you might consider just making p...
by Zapped
Mon May 18, 2015 12:29 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Young And Clueless
Replies: 28
Views: 4688

Re: Young And Clueless

Hi andrew928 - you may be (pleasantly) surprised how many seasoned investors (ok, "older") welcome your opening line here. You wrote that after receiving a 50% increase in salary at age 21 you " figured now would be the best time to start planning for retirement and get ahead of the game ". Damn straight! I suspect most folks your age looking at a 50% pay increase would've thought "now would be the best time to... buy/lease that new Bimmer, buy some high-end A/V equipment, take an around-the-world trip in first class". Thinking back 30 years or so, I'm sure I would have splurged a bit myself, or at least found a way to spend a lot of that bump in pay on things that seemed reasonable at the time. If you can reas...
by Zapped
Sun May 10, 2015 8:12 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should I buy a lighter bicycle or lose body weight?
Replies: 53
Views: 9394

Re: Should I buy a lighter bicycle or lose body weight?

It's a little surprising to me that folks are unforgiving about a 10lb gain in a year. I don't see any posts saying that ... In offering advice to d_green, I was trying to speak generally about my impression of earlier replies. Not sure how this helps the OP, but since you said you didn't see any replies where people were negatively judging OP's weight gain, I was referring to these specific comments - sawhorse wrote: " Given that you ride 50 miles a week, I find it hard to believe that you would be overweight. " dbr wrote: " Gaining ten pounds in a year is not good news. Is there an understandable reason why that happened? " celia wrote: " Suppose you didn't ride bikes. Would losing weight improve your health? Wit...
by Zapped
Sun May 10, 2015 7:08 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should I buy a lighter bicycle or lose body weight?
Replies: 53
Views: 9394

Re: Should I buy a lighter bicycle or lose body weight?

It's a little surprising to me that folks are unforgiving about a 10lb gain in a year. I'm a 5'11" male in my mid-50s who dropped from 205lbs to 159lbs during 2011, and have stayed at 168-172lbs for the last three years while not being as strict about my diet as I was while losing weight. I certainly understand your struggle and know I could push up my weight by 5lbs in a single weekend of eating anything I wanted. I read earlier that someone was surprised you could be overweight when you ride 50 miles/wk. 50 miles was my Sunday ride this morning, and the 14 people on the ride ranged from 18 yrs old to 70 years old, with a wide range of body weight stuffed into a lycra/spandex casing. Most fitness trainers and nutritionists seem be say...
by Zapped
Fri May 08, 2015 2:46 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help w/ AA Spread Across Multiple Accounts & an Emerging Market fund issue/question...
Replies: 17
Views: 1898

Re: Help w/ AA Spread btw Multiple Accounts & an Emerging Market fund issue...

Niceguy, ... my father generously agreed to give me a 8-year loan for the remaining $140k at only 2.50% interest (a little more than he would get in a 5-year CD, and a little less than I would have to pay for a 15-year mortgage). I have paid off about $18k of the loan so far over the past year. You're correct: I just realized I forgot to add the $14,611.65 in total interest (if it takes me all eight years to pay it off) to the loan balance. So it's more like I have about $137k remaining on the loan balance. I'll edit/fix the original post now. Good catch. It's a minor point, but if you're following a standard loan payment schedule your balance should be about $125K now, not $137K. That's assuming you've made 11 payments (Jul 2014 through M...
by Zapped
Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:56 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: engineers - please help with engineering school selection
Replies: 185
Views: 21449

Re: engineers - please help with engineering school selectio

Not sure what the benefit of an "honors" program would give him. For engineering majors, 80-85% or so of classes are dictated to you, there is very little leeway in electives selection or options that would, for example, benefit an honors liberal arts major. I mean Physics 101 is Physics 101. My undergrad degree was from a reasonably prestigious Ivy League school where I don't remember there being an "honors" program. But my kids both recently attended University of Texas at Austin in the honors program within the Computer Science department, and there was a real benefit to being in the honors program at this crowded, competitive, and well-regarded state school. As a dad I probably don't know all the details, but I do r...
by Zapped
Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:43 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Diversify out of company stock
Replies: 12
Views: 1662

Re: Diversify out of company stock

Thanks Zapped...they are shares, not options and virtually all are long term not short term gains. I (inadequately, I guess) was trying to make clear there is not deadline to sell the stock and that I can weather some ups and downs within normal range. Does that make sense/is that clear? Thanks! Very clear, thanks. Hopefully the replies won't make it sound like we're giving you grief over a "rich man's problem" because anyone can sympathize with your desire to minimize the taxes you pay to Uncle Sam. I/We just don't want you to have so much of your net worth wrapped up in a single stock even though the stock's appreciation in the past has been very good to you. I'll bet you're worrying that now *might* be the wrong time to conver...
by Zapped
Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:39 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Diversify out of company stock
Replies: 12
Views: 1662

Re: Diversify out of company stock

Hi tmsul100. When you started this thread you wrote... I worked for the same company for a long time and accumulated quite a bit of stock through the years. ... but you just added this... The shares are in a personal, taxable account. : There is no expiration on the shares In my limited understanding, options may or may not expire. I don't know what it means to have accumulated stock that may or may not expire. Are these options, not actually stock shares which you own? If so, you've obfuscated an important distinction here, since your gain on options will be treated as compensation and taxed at your marginal rate, whereas gains on stock you had accumulated over time would be taxed (presumably) at the much lower long-term capital gain rate.
by Zapped
Sun Apr 19, 2015 10:05 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: [Vanguard Prime assets available in new brokerage account?]
Replies: 12
Views: 1644

Re: Quick technical question about Vanguard website

@petergibbons - the reply from ResearchMed may be correct, but your question made me curious so I just logged into Vanguard to attempt (but not complete) a stock trade. Like you, have a standard taxable mutual fund account and a taxable brokerage account (in addition to a rollover IRA that's not relevant here). In the mutual fund account I have some mutual funds and my Prime Money Market account, and in the brokerage account I have only two ETFs with no other cash-like account. When I initiated the stock trade, the full Prime Money Market balance from my mutual fund account was shown on the screen as being available to fund the trade, even though the trade has to take place in my brokerage account. Because I didn't want to actually perform ...
by Zapped
Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:11 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Opticians [Purchasing eyeglasses]
Replies: 13
Views: 2581

Re: Opticians [Purchasing eyeglasses]

Going into my local optician yesterday I was offered a price for glass frames of $320 but on the internet at a place called Zenni it costs $19.95 and my optician says bring it in and they will put the lenses in. I'm confused by this - " my optician says bring it in and they will put the lenses in ". Zenni sells the complete eyeglasses - frames and lenses. You don't return to an optician to have them assembled. Make sure your prescription shows your PD (pupil distance), because that's often left off a standard prescription. Anyone in your optometrist's office can measure it quickly & informally while you stand at the counter. Also I strongly recommend you upload a full-face selfie to Zenni so you can virtually "try on&quo...
by Zapped
Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:24 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Review my financial health. [Was - Tesla: HELOC vs Loan]
Replies: 116
Views: 13722

Re: Review my financial health. [Was - Tesla: HELOC vs Loan]

bump, hoping for some followup comments/review of the advice I took from you folks and did not make the silly decision. I re-read this entire thread while saving the mystery of who-bumped-this-old thread for last. For once it was the OP! Welcome back, randombogler. Your original financial info and your update make sense as far as they go. Despite the scary moments where you were dealing with the layoff possibility, you've maintained a healthy family income and continue to build non-home assets. On the negative side, you don't seem to have started investing in index funds. Maybe you're doing that with your 401K (you don't say), but the scariest line, to me, in your original post and the followup relates to your taxable investment.... Stock ...
by Zapped
Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:24 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Smartphone app to block hundreds of multi-number spam calls?
Replies: 24
Views: 5441

Re: Smartphone app to block hundreds of multi-number spam ca

@Browser - I saw your post yesterday & just caught up on the new replies. I don't see anyone explicitly saying "me too", so I'll add ME TOO! We were discussing this at work the other day. Several co-workers vaguely thought it was illegal to cold-call or spam cell phone numbers, but said they sometimes got those calls on their home numbers. But like you I and at least two other co-workers started getting these spam calls nearly a year ago on our mobile phones. For me, it's always a robo-call with a recorded message about consolidating credit card debt. Ironic because in 30+ years of using credit cards my wife & I pay in full every single month. I'll go a week or so without getting a single call, but then I'll get one or two...
by Zapped
Mon Apr 06, 2015 10:57 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buy more expensive house to improve financial situation?
Replies: 37
Views: 12551

Re: Buy more expensive house to improve financial situation?

The average London home is worth about 5x what it would have been worth in 1992 -- if I had been buying then. They have been fantastic investments. I had a large gain on a home in Austin TX which I purchased (coincidentally) in 1992 and sold in 2010 to buy a different home locally. But when I compared that gain to the S&P500 over the same period, I found that the S&P500 outgrew my home value by a comfortable margin. Same thing when I checked the S&P500 growth from 1992 to 2014 for the London 5x home price appreciation example - an investment in the S&P500 in Jan 1 1992 grew about 7.9x, or if you waited until Jan 1 1993 it would still have grown 7.3x by the end of 2014. Of course the carrying costs of home ownership (mortage...
by Zapped
Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:52 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Baby Grand Piano
Replies: 42
Views: 8183

Re: Baby Grand Piano

@airahcaz, it seems like you've transitioned in this thread from asking for general advice to specifically questioning the discount versus MSRP for a new Yamaha GC1. I'll be the third person (I think) to recommend you slow down & thoroughly read Larry's Fine's excellent book on piano buying. My wife and I learned a lot about the market when we were buying our 3rd "real" piano. You mentioned a daughter who might transition from digital keyboard to traditional piano. That's great since most teachers will tell you (correctly) there's no substitute for the tactile feedback of a real piano. Even high-end weighted-hammer digital keyboards only provide an approximation, and there's no sensation of the vibrating notes in your fingers ...
by Zapped
Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Graduating Medical Student- Rent vs. Buy in Residency
Replies: 45
Views: 8546

Re: Graduating Medical Student- Rent vs. Buy in Residency

I like WCI's blog, and agree with him that renting in general is not a good choice for residents . However, nearly every resident in my program has bought a home, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something. @MathKid - not to nitpick, but is the quote where I added boldface a typo? WCI clearly writes that renting is a good choice for residents , but you claim he says the opposite. Regardless of that, I'm so glad most replies have urged you to rent rather than buy during your residency. Growing up in rented apartments, I personally knew when I graduated with my BSEE in the 80s that I was going to buy a house regardless of whether a detailed financial calculation of the rewards said it made sense or not. But if I had been in grad school, ...
by Zapped
Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:28 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How to store/archive old photos?
Replies: 29
Views: 4637

Re: How do you store your photos?

Prints from typical mass photofinishers lose much of the information that is in the negatives, and are nowhere nearly as good as the images that you can produce by scanning the negatives directly. I found this out when I started scanning my old negatives years ago. What scanner did you use or would you recommend? I have about 2,000 family photos not currently in digital format. Some are fairly old and fragile and were passed down from older relatives. I would like to just scan it once (high-quality scans for archival purposes) and not have to bother with it ever again. I am tempted to outsource this job out as I do not want to sit in front of a scanner for 45 seconds per photo, for 2,000 photos. Hi Caduceus - at the risk of bumping this ol...
by Zapped
Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:09 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Google voice
Replies: 57
Views: 11629

Re: Google voice

@toofache32 - I don't remember when it was added, but Hangouts has supported sending photos for a while. Works regardless whether you're remaining in the google ecosphere (i.e. chatting directly with another gmail user) or sending traditional MMS to a mobile phone. @Browser - yes, Google has changed some things and like most folks I tend to forget about the older products like Google Chat and Google Talk once they release new products like Hangouts. Hangouts has merged a lot of functions that were formerly separate apps. You said " I have no idea how to use Google Hangouts with GV [Google Voice] to make calls with my Obi ". Nowadays I don't think that the Obi is involved when you want to call a phone number via computer or smartph...
by Zapped
Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:48 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Fly or drive?
Replies: 84
Views: 8966

Re: Fly or drive?

These cost estimates can't really be applied to a single trip, though. They include lots of costs that don't change if I decided to fly instead, like insurance, license and taxes, etc. In that quote I infer that you don't like including fixed costs "to a single [car] trip". It's correct that you have fixed costs even if you leave your car in the garage during a vacation where you choose to fly instead of drive, but I don't see how you avoid including the fixed costs when you take a trip in the car. The continuation of fixed costs when you don't use your personal vehicle on vacation is an argument in favor of driving, not an argument in favor of flying. Even maintenance and depreciation are not necessarily affected by a 1500-2000 ...
by Zapped
Wed Mar 11, 2015 10:17 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Fly or drive?
Replies: 84
Views: 8966

Re: Fly or drive?

Several replies debated whether the IRS reimbursement rate accurately reflected driving cost. Unless I missed a key reply, I didn't see any detailed calculations or sources cited. So here's a source: each year AAA produces a guide which calculates the cost-per-mile of driving various size vehicles. In Spring 2014 (the most recent publication) the average across "sedans" was about US$0.59/mile assuming you drive 15K miles per year and finance your vehicle. http://i.imgur.com/wE6thvU.png Before anyone objects to averages, you can review a detailed breakdown of their calculations in this pdf across different vehicle types. For my own 2011 Hyundai Elantra, I would love to think I'm driving it for as little as $0.40/mile, but the AAA c...
by Zapped
Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:03 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How to store/archive old photos?
Replies: 29
Views: 4637

Re: How do you store your photos?

Several replies imply that folks are scanning prints. That's like making a photocopy of a photocopy. Take the negatives and slides to a scanning service - my local Costco did a fantastic job on my many hundreds of negatives and slides from the pre-digital era.
by Zapped
Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:51 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: HR Block Backup (on Mac)
Replies: 2
Views: 836

Re: HR Block Backup (on Mac)

Another complaint about H&R Block backup failing on Mac OSX from early February was the first item a Google search returned for me.

Why not just save your return and pdfs in the place you currently use to store all of your electronic data (e.g. a cloud service, an external drive you store in a safe location)? I can't see a reason to depend on a backup utility supplied by your tax software.
by Zapped
Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:53 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taxation of NSF REU undergraduate research stipend
Replies: 51
Views: 21531

Re: Taxation of NSF REU undergraduate research stipend

Zapped, it does not work that way. If you provided over 50% of the support, you are the only one eligible to claim the child. The child is not eligible to claim him or herself, regardless of whether or not you claim him or her or not. I don't mind being wrong, but please explain what you're saying a little further. I mentioned I calculated taxes on two scenarios - "the first assuming I'd continue to list my son as a dependent, and the second assuming he wasn't [a dependent anymore]". So I don't understand what you mean when you specify that my son cannot claim himself as a dependent, since I never mentioned him doing anything like that. For my son's tax return, I'm not sure I could even fool the tax software into taking a persona...
by Zapped
Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taxation of NSF REU undergraduate research stipend
Replies: 51
Views: 21531

Re: Taxation of NSF REU undergraduate research stipend

During the first year it mattered one way or the other with my sons, I ran two tax scenarios - the first assuming I'd continue to list my son as a dependent, and the second assuming he wasn't. With tax software it was pretty easy to generate the four different returns (two versions of our joint return, two versions of the son's return). Given that I was still paying more than 50% of my son's support (although it was getting close), I think I was still allowed to choose dependent status or not. Both times I did this exercise, my son not only got a much bigger refund but "as a family" we were minimizing our total tax obligation to Uncle Same. So I was happy to emancipate each of the boys in turn knowing that although we paid a smidg...
by Zapped
Fri Jan 09, 2015 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Can I retire early? 38 y/o
Replies: 95
Views: 19170

Re: Can I retire early? 38 y/o

Congratulations on cashing out of your business and amassing a nest egg of $3.8M in cash after taxes! If you're haven't already do so, you can run your scenario through online retirement calculators like Firecalc or the retirement estimator at Fidelity Investments. You don't mention your spouse's income so I'll assume that's not part of the equation now or later. Since you have a reasonable concern about whether you can make this nest egg last for the next (possibly) 50+ years, I wondered why you feel the need to buy a $900K home and pay the associated annual maintenance, insurance, and taxes. For my family, I only accept paying a high cost per square foot because I need to live near where my work is, and that means the suburbs of a (few/ex...
by Zapped
Thu Jan 08, 2015 5:33 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Bonds, are they worth it?
Replies: 11
Views: 1829

Re: Bonds, are they worth it?

Amazin wrote:oh I wasn't referring to bond fund, I was thinking of individual bonds. didn't even know bond fund existed lol
Here's a good reference on the topic of individual bonds versus bond funds -
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Individu ... _bond_fund

On the right side of that wiki page you'll also see links that can teach you more about different types of individual bonds. At the bottom of the (lengthy) wiki page you'll find links to other forum discussions and some Vanguard white papers on the topic.
by Zapped
Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:24 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Is my HVAC (heat pump) really dead?
Replies: 54
Views: 6445

Re: Is my HVAC (heat pump) really dead?

itstoomuch wrote: You can test the hp by putting the unit on cooling and desired temp 3 degrees below current indoor temp. The exhaust air should be warm and the vent air, cold..
itstoomuch suggests that you run your HVAC system in AC (cooling) mode, not heat pump mode, for testing. I would NEVER do this with outside air temperature below about 60degF let alone in the middle of winter. I believe doing what itstoomuch suggests would ruin your compressor pretty quickly.
by Zapped
Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:16 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Games
Replies: 38
Views: 6302

Re: Games

Banagrams is great fun for a couple and also accommodates many more players. It's like Scrabble but there's no board and no tile-scoring. Much quicker than Scrabble & the gameplay is simultaneous.

Boglehead tip: retails is US$15 ($US14 at Amazon currently) but I've often seen it in the toy aisle at Walgreen's pharmacy for about US$10.
by Zapped
Wed Dec 17, 2014 10:39 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: What desktop should I buy.
Replies: 36
Views: 8564

Re: What desktop should I buy.

Sluggish response aside, there are a lot of hardware issues that can crop up in any laptop more than a few years old. Before you rush back to a desktop, consider buying any inexpensive laptop (or Chromebook) commonly available these days in the $200-$250 range, then set your calendar for 18-24 months out and sell it either on Craigslist or eBay. We've done this for at least a decade and usually get about half the original price, sometimes more. Like smartphones and tablets which are practically disposable items after a few years, I consider my laptop to be a "rented" item with a reasonable price of $50-75/yr depending on the buy/sell price spread over a couple of years. An example you might buy now & sell in 2016 = this $249 A...
by Zapped
Tue Dec 16, 2014 9:50 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Need help with men's exercise clothes please
Replies: 56
Views: 7189

Re: Need help with men's exercise clothes please

I exercise strenously here in Central Texas and my clothing is soaked more than half the year. Only if it's about 55F or below will I stay dry. The benefit of the tech fibers over cotton is that they aren't quite as heavy/clingy when they're soaked. My most comfortable clothing when it's completely wet with perspiration is my spandex bike gear. There's something about the fact that bike gear isn't flopping around your chest that makes it much more comfortable when it's soaked through. I personally think the wicking effect works better in direct skin contact rather than with loose clothing. But since it's not socially acceptable to wear skin-tight outfits during other exercise I have to stay uncomfortable when I'm out for a run. I don't wear...
by Zapped
Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:04 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What to do with profits: disagreements with partners
Replies: 9
Views: 1519

Re: What to do with profits: disagreements with partners

Hi Thornhill - I'm in my mid-50s but still remember being in my mid-30s with all the usual worries about how my salary compared to the expenses of mortgage, car loans, daily expenses, future college payments, and trying to save for retirement. Are you concerned that your salary is so low that you can't make ends meet? If so, I can understand your desire for a pay raise or a cash bonus. Are you concerned about the long-term viability of the business? If so, I can also understand why you'd like to cash out some of the initial profits now. If you're not underwater in your personal financial life, I'd be pretty happy to receive the SEP-IRA distribution on the portion that's not being invested back into the business. You'll dodge some taxes and ...
by Zapped
Fri Dec 12, 2014 9:49 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Your opinion of a Financial Advisor
Replies: 26
Views: 6060

Re: Your opinion of a Financial Advisor

protagonist wrote: Ugh.
So why do you want to do it? Sounds crazy based on your description.
Protagonist - you might not have noticed this is a 5-year-old thread, resurrected by the OP who came back to let us know that he decided not to become a financial advisor and is instead living happily among us as a CPA.
by Zapped
Wed Dec 10, 2014 10:04 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Good buy flip phone, smartphone app to talk/sms for free?
Replies: 10
Views: 1910

Re: Good buy flip phone, smartphone app to talk/sms for free

dbCooperAir wrote:The bigger question, I would like to use my wifi connections if possible to make calls and texts. I have had a Google phone numbers for years, did not use it much. But they have this app that I just loaded on the desktop (Google Hangouts) that appears to work quite well for SMS and Voice. Is this a good option to use on the phone as well or should I look at something else?
The mobile version of Google Hangouts was only recently updated to allow you to do just that. At least sending/receiving voice calls is new with the mobile version of Hangouts, I can't recall if full SMS report to/from US mobile numbers was added at the same time or was already working. Hangouts should work fine for you over WiFi.
by Zapped
Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:52 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Instruments and kids
Replies: 31
Views: 3152

Re: Instruments and kids

Great advice! My son is 7 and asked for a drum set for Christmas, so that's his "big gift" this year. You, sir or madam, are a very brave parent. My youngest took up percussion after several years on piano but we made him agree there would never be a drum set in the house. His 1910-era rosewood marimba sure looks and sounds nice though! Both my boys started piano at the same time, when they were 3 and 5. My oldest later played cello and as I mentioned the youngest was/is a percussionist. Add this to my previous comment about no drum sets in the house - my wife & I actually met at a music conservatory, but we told the kids the whole time they were growing up that we wouldn't be paying for a music degree after high school. We a...