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mortfree wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 9:20 pm Bi weekly is basically a scam - best thing you can do is start an amortization schedule in excel and track your payments.

Play around with extra payments and see what that does.

Seems like bad advice from the loan advisor

Its not bad advice for everyone and is far from a scam. For people who have trouble saving and their home equity and maybe a 401k are their only real assets, it can be good advice. Anyone who makes it onto this forum likely doesn't need to do bi weekly payments though.

I have read that Teslas have some of the highest insurance costs for its category of vehicles. Why? They get totaled out with fairly little damage because there is no repair network. The neighbor behind me had one corner of his Tesla banged up during our December ice storms. Its been sitting in front of his house ever since. This would have been about 2 weeks in the shop with maybe a little extra time to wait because body shops were probably busy from the ice storm damage.

Ill be investing as long as i have a job. The odds of staying employed to the point of the economy completely collapsing are pretty low.

if you have the discipline and desire to pay extra towards your mortgage then don't bother with bi weekly payments, just pay your desired amount of extra principle each month automatically. Most people who are responsible with money probably prefer to budget monthly instead of per biweekly paycheck.

ChinchillaWhiplash wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:13 pm “Buy when others are fearful”. Does it make sense to back up the truck to sector funds such as financials? Seems like a good time to get a huge discount. You might have to sit on it until it rebounds but you would do that with any holding. What would having 10-15% of portfolio in this matter as far as the downside. Could go down more. If it does just DCA into it. Is this any worse or riskier than holding something such as a REIT fund at these percentages?

That's buffets mantra for himself. He doesn't buy assets in the same way you and I do. He advises retail investors to use index funds.

Does anyone know if you need to answer the question about what's your annual salary during the presentation? My wife and I don't discuss our salaries in front of the kid since we don't feel it's appropriate for them to learn that right now while they don't fully appreciate the value of money. We are debating whether to bring the kid (9 year old) you the presentation or let them check in to childcare during the presentation. The presentation we plan to attend in Mexico during our stay has a requirement for minimum annual salary of $60K, which we qualify. We were wondering if we can just leave the response as "our annual income is and the qualification limit" or will they push for more specific salary ranges. You don't have to say ...

Just about any time you bring your car into a shop they'll check for other things to sell you. Many times those items are legitimate, other times they'll identify parts that are worn but still have some life left,("you have 5mm left on your brake pads", that might be 10000 or more miles), more rarely will the shop outright lie.

The first fund I every bought was the Vanguard Wellesly. I read about it in one of those "top 10 fund" click bait articles. Did a little googling, checked its performance against benchmarks and said good enough. I think I also put a bunch of money into the vanguard dividend growth fund because it "looked good" After several months I ended up here and then put a more thoughtful core 4 portfolio together. So yeah some of that money can be invested by people who dont know what they are doing.

Uhaul is likely highly dependent on the franchise and if they have skilled employees or a manager that cares. In general most hitches arent that complicated to install or wire up but if the guy doing it doesnt care thats not good.

I have no experience with a store like Rack n Road but they might be more reliable.

Ill be honest, I dont have HVAC people out unless there is a problem. Otherwise, yearly is overkill, have them out every 3 to 5 years.

One thing to keep in mind is that when you change to spec ID its not instant (or at least it wasnt the last time I did it). You had to wait a day or two for the option to become available.

psteinx wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 11:41 am Your kid will be homesick after a few weeks. Plan to go down and visit him/her. Better, to some extent, to visit THERE than to encourage/allow your kid to come home for weekends too often.

Man I never got homesick. My dad was the right amount of annoying to motivate me from ever wanting to live with him again but not hate him lol. Hes still a bit annoying though.

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. I mean does it really matter if mold grows in essentially a nearly sealed off space? Mold will grow behind a bad tile job too... I think the shower my dad had done wasn't a liner but completely new panels, essent...

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.

For getting around on the trains and subways, English will be fine. There is almost always an information desk that has helpful people who speak English. The more difficult thing about getting around is figuring out where a restaurant is in a skyscraper IMO.

Id use the USD value of the gift cards. I cant site any IRS documentation but that's what "feels" right to me.

I havent looked at mortgage rates lately. How much does getting an ARM save you over a fixed mortgage? Ive always been more of a fan of getting a shorter term mortgage to reduce rates instead of an ARM if you can afford it.

Also personally I wouldn't want to have another little risk of mortgage rate increases living in the back of my head.

nobody knows.

The banking crisis could be as bad as its going to get and this is the lowest the stock market will be for the next decade.

Life is short. If you can afford to upgrade now, and you want to upgrade now, then upgrade now.

8k isn't worth remarketing the property. Take the offer. Who is paying the buyers agent commission? If you are, you could try to squeeze some out of that by asking the buyers agent to come down on commission.

If the total time is too much and the work isn't fun I'll sub it out. Anything that I can do in a weekend isn't worth dealing with contractors for. Id replace a few windows but not the 14 that I needed replaced. No way am I redoing a roof. I have replaced a tile shower myself and I'd do it again for the cost savings. I've also built a full set of cabinet doors and several cabinets for a kitchen refresh. I like woodworking and would do that again for a kitchen remodel to save probably $20k to $30k.

Electrical and plumbing inst very difficult. Ive added my own circuits several times and modified other circuits many times.

Driving the Oregon coast is neat. You'd be able to stop by redwoods national park then too.

I was told by my contact at X that “X wealth management utilizes Fidelity.” Does this mean that my investments through X wealth management, are roughly as safe as they’d be if I had a taxable brokerage account with Fidelity? (I happen to have my taxable brokerage account at Vanguard, but I hope the question makes sense.) The solvency of the bank or of Fidelity as a company has nothing to do with your investments aside from possibly the ease of which you have access to them via online accounts. Your investments are held for you by Fidelity. They actually exist and you own the risks associated with those investments. Fidelity isn't allowed to take your deposit for 100 shares of VTI and spend it on something else while telling you what the va...

My wife and I spent a little over $3000 on a Purple Hybrid 3 about 6 months ago and really like it. Much better than the Leesa Saphira it replaced.

Do not trust ANY online mattress reviews for comfort. All reviews are manipulated by the mattress industry. Your only bet is to try them out and return if you don't like it. At least Purple has a lot of showrooms in most major cities so you can try them before buying.

Recasting is definitely a real thing.

I would be a good candidate for a recast but i dont because im going to pay the same towards my mortgage either way. I want my house paid off ASAP and i dont care if its better financially to invest that extra principle payment.

Id assume that recasts are relatively rare because its rare for most people to be significantly ahead of their mortgage amortization.

Put in notice on Monday. Dont work more than the 40 hours and she can do her best to transition her work. Best case is they walk her out and give her the two weeks pay. Personally I'd also try to keep any documentation of illegal activities just in case they end up in the news later and she wants to help the case against them. Probably not worth it to seek any whistleblower protections unless shes got concrete proof that would get here a big portion of a large settlement or judgement. HR is not her friend. They will be trying to get her to say things that make her look bad or to check the boxes to protect the company. Literally nothing good can come from talking to HR in this case. The company culture is too toxic and this is not a single b...

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'll have to meld minds with the boss (DW) and see what sounds interesting to her. The Boeing Factory Tour would excite me personally but I'll have to see if their pandemic shutdown still exists. The Bainbridge ferry sounds pretty nice as well. The Boeing factory is in a major state of transition and if they arent taking you into a factory, its definitely not worth it, go to the museum of flight instead. I was there a few months ago and there are some really cool Apollo, Soyuz, and Space Shuttle exhibits. Mt rainier is definitely worth it despite the crowds, the skyline loop is fairly easy for the area and should be on every touristy outdoor stuff list for the area. My tip is to enter the park at about ...

OP, try to tune out the noise regarding your opinions of inheritances and don't engage further. There are some very argumentative people here that really love to get revved up about that topic. I believe you've adequately explained yourself. I wouldn't focus on the investment itself but zero in on the the single item of the right of survivorship issue. If it were structured Joint Tenants in Common then it wouldn't be close to being a scam and nobody can say anything about the quality of the investment. But, as it stands, your father has disinherited your mother. That is a fact, it has happened. For that money to come back to her relies on the optional kindness/ethics of all of the other owners. If Tina is ethical then she would have no prob...

I am fortunate enough to have a house with amazing sunset views of the Olympic mountains and Puget Sound. Typically in fall when the sun sets more slowly and the perfect layer of clouds forms over the sound so that the sun illuminates them from below and casts shadows from the mountains onto the clouds you can get some of the best sunsets in the world IMO. When its perfectly clear in the summer the sky will just glow in ever changing colors from the time the sun goes behind the mountains until about 11PM.

Are you saying the cut outs in the joists for AC ducts are not large enough that the ducts could be rubbing against the joists, and resulting in squeaks? Cutting too big of a hole in a joist or cutting the hole in the wrong location could result in the joist becoming more flexible and more prone to squeaking in a number of places. Small holes for electrical wires or water supply lines aren't usually going to cause issues. But larger holes for HVAC or water drain lines could cause the issues, especially if the hole is not drilled in the center of the joist. There are codes for how/where to drill the holes depending on their size relative to the size of the joist. If you post the pictures, that might help. Squeaking under tiles is a bit more...

Its moderately accurate for the two houses ive lived in. My old house seems to be near some topographic feature which increases the noise and it definitely did have traffic noise. Id say its score is 5 points too high.

One big miss is that they dont account for train tracks. I now live about 100 yards from train tracks and while thr noise isnt that bad its noticeable when a train goes by. Aside from the train tracks i agree with the score for my new house.

Otherwise this tells you the obvious, dont live near major roads or under flight paths if you want quiet.

Im likely to inherit a mid 7 figure amount via funded irrevocable trusts from grandparents and members of their same generation that did not have children, my dad is currently getting the income from those trusts. This amount will probably double our net worth. My wife will also probably get a mid 6 figure to low 7 figure amount from her parents depending on their end of life needs. My mom and her husband are a financial mess with my deadbeat step brothers so who knows what will happen to their decent chunk of money. Im not counting on any from them. Both my wife and I also have aunts and uncles with no children so we may receive a portion of their estate but that's completely unknown. Other than dreaming about a bigger boat and nicer vacat...

Youve already got the answer that an extra principle payment is better mathematically than bi weekly payments. I'd never set up a bi weekly payment plan because it would be annoying to budget on a biweekly basis instead of a monthly basis.

One consideration of a Tesla is that they basically cant be repaired if you have any significant body damage that requires replacing a quarter panel. This also makes them one of the most expensive cars to insure because they get totaled out at a much lower threshold. My neighbor's Tesla got fairly banged up on one corner and side in the snow storms 2 months ago and its still sitting in his driveway unrepaired.

If I had a $450 penalty, I'd ask for a first time abatement and roll the dice that I wouldn't need it in the future. But I've only had like $20 worth of penalties in 15 years of filing my own taxes and my returns are fairly simple.

Yawn. This argument has been being posted by active managers since Ive been looking at this board. Some have gone as far as saying its unethical to own index funds because it doesnt reward success or punish failures of companies, lol.

Have some fun by buying some tools and fix it yourself?

Youll be much better off making sure it doesn't fall. Why are you concerned about dropping it? Are you securing it to a wall or is it staying on its base and you are concerned an animal or child will pull it down?

I bet many of the warranties have fine print that will depreciate your TV after a certain number of years.

Youll be much better off making sure it doesn't fall. Why are you concerned about dropping it? Are you securing it to a wall or is it staying on its base and you are concerned an animal or child will pull it down?

I dont think you need to buy all of the same brand. Appliance stores may give discounts for say 5 or more appliances purchased at the same time regardless of brand.

If they are all stainless it doesnt matter if the brands are different. I highly recommend getting clean touch stainless.

I know nobody buys them anymore but I vote for Oreck. Parts are cheap and the vacuum is easily serviceable. Ours is 15 years old.

Anyone you know having a bachelor party any time soon?

My new Miele Dishwasher is being delivered today after ordering it in Dec 2021, yes 2021. So no i don't have any recommendations yet but I thought it was funny that a dishwasher thread came up after our long wait lol. Im looking forward to the autodos feature, you can drill a hole in the side of the packets to refill them with a funnel. This is what scares me about Miele. While they may be the crème de la crème, how long will one wait to get a replacement part should one need to? With our large family and heavy use of our dishwasher, a 14 month wait would be a hellish situation. Once with our KitchenAid a couple decades back, the circuit board to replace one taken out by a voltage surge took nearly two weeks and I was about ready to go buy...

I think i have an older version of the commuter and my phone has survived several drops including onto the corners.

My new Miele Dishwasher is being delivered today after ordering it in Dec 2021, yes 2021. So no i don't have any recommendations yet but I thought it was funny that a dishwasher thread came up after our long wait lol. Im looking forward to the autodos feature, you can drill a hole in the side of the packets to refill them with a funnel.

Once the EJ has the claws of "hes such a nice guy" sunk in, you are fighting a losing battle. Your mom views this as a friendship and you will be trying to get between her and her friend.

Starfish wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:04 am Don't put your hopes too high. What will do if they don't?
It happened to me before, I was hit by another car from behind, while being stopped. Theor insurance company refused to pay. And that was that.

What did your insurance company do?

chassis wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:57 am Diminished value claims are urban legend. Abandon this idea and save mental time and space.

This is absolutely false in many states, I have received a $1500 diminished value claim on a $20k car with very little effort on my part. I didnt even need to get an appraisal. I filed the claim, they made an offer, I countered, they re-countered, and I accepted.

OP most likely wont be able to get a diminished value claim from their own insurance because they will be bound by the terms of their contract. They'll need to go after the at fault parties insurance.

Ive never had any issues with vanguard mobile check deposit.

ER = 0.5%. Sell it. Pay the cap gain tax if any. Transfer to your choice of brokerage and invest it in VTI with 0.03% ER unless you want managers to get rich off your capital. Thanks for your input. About $15k would be capital gains (long term) and taxed at 15%. So it would be like paying $2,250 to switch from a fund with an ER of .5% to a fund with an ER of .03%. I'm not good enough at math to know if it's worth it. But maybe it's just worth it for simplicity anyways. Im not a tax expert but to be fully legal you might need to amend your tax returns as far back as whichever statute of limitations applies. But yeah i'd sell it for simplicity sake. You didn't even know you had the money anyway so paying 15% tax on most of it shouldn't be a ...

Big Dog wrote: ↑Mon Feb 13, 2023 3:39 pm What about paying a refrigerator repair person to install the gasket? That way, if it has air leaks, they are responsible for making it work correctly?

Involving a repair person who may not return calls or have long waits in this mess seems like even more of a pain.

OP is the new gasket too stiff to seal properly or does it have kinks in it from shipping? Can you hit it with a hair dryer to make it seat better?