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leo383

2006 Toyota Sienna minivan.

233,000 miles. Shows no signs of giving up any time soon.

leo383

"Most of my neighbors are spending a lot of money monthly on alarm/notification systems. I don't see the point." Quote: "For Durham, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). ... In Durham, your c...

leo383

No alarm system.

I did buy an ADT sign on eBay and put it out front.

I keep the blinds mostly shut, leave lights here and there on overnight, and lock the doors.

Most of my neighbors are spending a lot of money monthly on alarm/notification systems. I don't see the point.

leo383

My bank (Crescom) is becoming United Bank in a few days. I have a checking account there and my wife's small business uses them. We use the online banking. In the past we have had issues when banks change over and account info is delayed/lost/etc. and it just doesn't fill me with confidence that thi...

leo383

The great majority of people retire with FAR less than $1 million. Yet somehow they do.

This forum is great, but it's a super affluent bubble that can make an average Joe feel inferior in a hurry. Don't let it.

leo383

AnalogKid22 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:17 pm Pandemic, unemployment, oil. Next?

War.

leo383

I work for a non profit community center. We are closed until March 30 officially, my guess is for much longer. I am being paid through all of this, for which I am very grateful. Wife is a pharma consultant and has her own business. My guess is business will be okay. I am worried about the future lo...

leo383

I had a consultation with NW Mutual and their recommendation was mostly all Index funds / ETFs They did have some recs for PIMCO Income and PIMCO commodities. They would pay all transaction costs and charge a 1.2% yearly fee. They did not recommend one NW Mutual fund So it looks like maybe at a pla...

leo383

The last 20 years or so I have wanted to be a financial advisor. I am, however, a committed Boglehead and understand the sheer difficulty in running an advisor business that adheres to Boglehead principles. Could a person work for Edward Jones/Massmutual/et al. and put their clients in index funds/o...

leo383

I'm asking for input from those who have put kids through college and have used financial aid. I figure that is many. In two years our oldest will start college. My wife is all in for the kids to go to one of our very good state schools. I think that's fine, but I'd rather not limit things so much. ...

leo383

Funny considering Vanguard's raison d'etre is the uselessness of prognosticating markets.

leo383

My medium sized metro area has many opportunities for computer minded people to get together and learn/network/hang out. Just about all of them are free, or close to it. For example, meetup.com I would suggest the kid sign up for the program at the college, but more importantly, attend every informa...

leo383

Dead Man Walking wrote: ↑Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:18 am I thought Jack Welch was a genious. What happened?

DMW

It might have all been luck.

leo383

I have found that with our front loading washer, I can use a fraction of what the machine and soap company suggests, and the clothes come out clean.

I'm a fan of Tide and Persil. 1/4 as much as recommended, and the really big bottle lasts a long time.

leo383

My wife is interested in getting a valuation of her consulting business. They work with pharmaceutical companies in finding key doctors to help with bringing drugs to market. 13 full time employees, about 20 part time contractors. 2-3 million in revenues per year. What would you do if you wanted to ...

leo383

The prices are fine, the services Costco offers are excellent, but I just couldn't handle the wait times when we had Costco tires.

3-4 hours to get tires rotated? Insane.

I now go to Discount Tire and have been very pleased.

leo383

If you're serious about maybe having three kids at some point, you're in minivan territory. At the very least you're best off only looking at vehicles with three rows of seats. We have three kids and no sedan/coupe/small SUV is enough. They just don't have enough space for three in one row. Trust me...

leo383

retiredjg wrote:leo383, do you know the brand of the humidifier you have?

It's made by Essick Air.

leo383

We have a 220o sq ft house and one whole house humidifier. It's a life saver in the winter. I run it pretty much constantly, even here in NC, from November through February. We have a humidity meter in the house and I try to keep the humidity around 40-45%. It looks like this. http://www.iallergy.co...

leo383

80/20, and I'd eventually like to glide path down to something like 60/40 in my golden years. Not yet though.

We were 100/0 until about five years ago. I slept well then, and I do now.

leo383

Ball.

leo383

There Will Be Blood on Netflix.

I didn't see it when it was in theaters and I'm a pretty big Daniel Day-Lewis fan, but the ending was so hugely disappointing that the movie was ruined for me.

leo383

I keep a very small Moleskine notebook and a pen on me just about all the time.

No technological solution has worked for very long for me yet.

leo383

Have you looked at Columbus?

Many of the amenities that Cleveland has, but a lot better weather.

We have very good friends who have made Columbus their home, and I'm impressed by the city more every time we visit.

leo383

I have no hard scientific data, but my Sommer garage door opener is far quieter than that of any of my neighbors. Not even close. Can't hear it from inside the house, either.

http://www.sommer-usa.com/

leo383

I am the treasurer for the local PTA council. We oversee all of the PTAs in our city school system. We don't have an office At our last meeting, it was noted that having a phone number for the PTA would be a good thing. A number people could call, leave a message, and get a call back from someone wi...

leo383

abuss368 wrote:I have learned that over time, markets work!

This stock market recovery has had very little to do with markets.

leo383

There will be a time when the market crashes and doesn't recover.

I would caution against the "I knew all along it would come right back" line of thinking. No one knew at the time anything of the sort.

leo383

For the people that sold in 2008, when did you re enter the market? My neighbor and his wife sold near the bottom in 2009 and bought into a stable value fund and are still in it. He now considers the stock market to be "gambling". I guess it will take a bull much larger than the post 2009...

leo383

No one around here (central NC) will install a whole house humidifier on the heat system due to liability issues.

leo383

We bought a Sommer from Lowe's a few years ago, and had Lowes install it. The quietest opener I have ever experienced. Highly recommended.

http://www.sommer-usa.com/

leo383

OP, you just don't have enough firepower. You should have enough humidifier to keep the house between 40-50% humidity. Get one that can easily handle 500 more square feet than your home, that way you won't come up short. You can turn these things down, but can't turn them up if they are maxed out. W...

leo383

I used the Crest White Strips a few years ago, and was very impressed with the results. I didn't expect much, but they worked.

leo383

Gauss44 wrote:Cost of treating an ebola patient in the USA:

--$1000 an hour or

-- over half a million dollars per patient

How is the government going to pay for that? Any ideas?

That would actually be an excellent economic stimulus.

leo383

We had a small painting company paint much of our house a few years ago.

I bought nice coffee and muffins for them every morning while they were here. They were grateful, and I figured it prevented any possible trouble if I tipped the lead painter and trusted him to evenly distribute the tip.

leo383

I would think a lower percentage of Bogleheads golf than the general population.

Seems like a sport where it would be difficult to maintain a Boglehead attitude. I could be wrong.

leo383

Epsilon Delta wrote:You're all pikers.

In a worse case scenario there is nobody left to worry about the bond market.

A pessimist says "things can't possibly get worse."
On optimist says "oh yes they can."

leo383

When the DOW is at 100,000 in 30 years, it won't matter that much what the prices were today... You'll still be pretty happy. Absolutely no guarantee that it will be there. It might very well be at zero. Almost a religious belief that it will go up over time. What if it's exactly where it is today ...

leo383

At 6.8%, I'd pay them both off then replenish the emergency fund over the next year or so.

leo383

Late 1990s I got a friend interested in investing. I had him put lots of money into Janus and Marsico funds, the go-go funds of the time.

It still haunts me. He is now an index fund fan, and we are still friends.

leo383

Electric bass guitars and amps.

I have 9 bass guitars and three amp setups. Probably have about $7-10K wrapped up in all of it. Really, nothing else I do costs all that much.

leo383

I intend to throw the extra $100 at the mortgage.

We are at 4.25% fixed on the mortgage rate. I do look at it like a guaranteed return, which is a rare thing.

leo383

We were getting close to not needing PMI on our mortgage (was doing the math in my head every month :) ), and I was semi-dreading the process of asking to have it removed. I have read over they years what a pain it is to get rid of PMI. Saturday, I received a letter from our mortgage company telling...

leo383

I think 20% (rounded up to the nearest dollar) is reasonable for satisfactory service. However, if one uses coupons, the tip should be based on the regular price. Definitely tip based on the regular price, before taxes. Years ago I was a waiter at a (pretty nice) restaurant that celebrated its 50th...

leo383

I am a single guy living in Southern California and have been using the same Frigidaire front loading washing machine that I purchased from Lowes in 2004. It has performed flawlessly. To avoid any problem with mildew, I have always just left the front door open. Of course when I had a top loading m...

leo383

Because a 20 something has insight and research that no one else has.

I have a feeling that this time will be different!

leo383

Also $2.99 for the Nook. I just bought a copy.

I got this book out from our library a year or so ago, but it's not really a book that lends itself to a quick read.

leo383

telemark wrote:I haven't read Mr. Tobias' book, but I'm guessing he wrote it when inflation was considerably higher than it is now.

Yes.

leo383

Keurig most days, sometimes use our Ready Set Joe by Melitta.

leo383

Yes. We try every year to max Roths and 401(k) as best we can (wife has very, very unpredictable income every year, I don't have a regular income). For a few years, all we had was our Roths as tax exempt, so I put money away in taxable accounts. I keep it close to our 80/20 allocation. Tax Exempt In...

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