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Was in a similar situation a few years ago. Wife not happy with the house - the 2400 square feet was simply too small for the 2 of us, and she was drooling over a near 4000 square foot new construction one story. Her mother had died a few months earlier so she had come into a small inheritance that would ease the cost. When I crunched the numbers we could afford the new one, but we would have to change our lifestyle. We had no debt, saving 35-40% of income for retirement, no real care in the world about purchases. But even if we paid the house off on day one we would be spending at least 3 times more a year on taxes, insurance, etc, to the point where our freewheeling lifestyle would be affected. The thought of living on a constrained budge...

UpperNwGuy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:26 am On a grammatical note... bi-monthly means every two months. Twice a month would be semi-monthly.

Actually bimonthly can mean both. As a word, it is quite ambiguous.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/sport/ch ... index.html

Former NFL player says he lived at the stadium his first two years, didn't keep up with the Joneses, and estimates he saved 80% of his NFL salary.

...to this day, the 45-year-old says he doesn’t see the point in getting carried away with his fortune.

Certainly beats my 35-40% overall gross salary savings.

I would not say UNT is in a large city (Denton is 150k or so), and it is far enough away from Dallas and Fort Worth to not feel a part of the urban setting. Weather is hot in the summer and can get really cold in the winter. Would not be my choice for weatheror natural beauty. Also, as a practicing engineer in Texas (Houston) for 30+ years I didn't even realize it had an engineering school. Don't know any engineers from there. For Texas schools, most new engineers I know come from UT, A&M, UH, and Rice.

Computer will only report power if you have a power meter (pedals, cranks, hubs, etc).

livesoft wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 1:32 pm I am unconcerned about those risks because our sustained withdrawal rate is relatively low and we haven't even started SS benefits. We could probably just live off of our SS benefits when the time comes to begin those.

I look at my parents who have a low to mid 7 figure savings. The pandemic really put a damper on their spending. Their combined SS benefits have been more than enough to cover their expenses.

Given the trend among some Bogleheads at least to embrace increasingly ultra-conservative spending rates in retirement, the only thing that increasing or unexpected longevity is going to mean is likely dying with even more wealth. Nothing wrong with that but for a lot here, longevity is a plus for wealth versus a minus whereas it's often framed as a negative - ending up on Medicaid and eating awful things. Fortunately we have lived below our means, and while mainly a single income home I have enjoyed a 3+ decade career as a fed. My pension and my/spousal SS benefit at age 70 will provide more net/spending income then today (due to how much we save currently). Just need savings for those bridge years to SS and also to cover my wife if I fai...

For me Dress shoes - started buying higher end shoes with leather soles a few years ago. Too many casual dress shoes that end up in landfills because they can't be repaired as wear sets in Blenders - wish I knew about Vitamix decades ago. Cheap blenders are another landfill ingredient Japanese strawberries OK maybe not worth paying airfare to Japan to get them, but if there the price of strawberries is higher than here, but they are not the hard, durable for shipping variety. They will turn to mush if bounced around but are they ever sweet. Can pop them in your iike candy. Would love to find some here. Homegrown food - costs can be high for home food gardens, but the taste is worth it. Salad greens with real flavor are a game winner. Pictur...

We did a week long trip to France some years ago and rented a car once we left Paris. On the way to Rouen by car we did Monet's Garden (kids probably wouldn't like that), castle ruins in Les Andelys (could be good for them), and Normandy. On a separate trip to Belgiom it was just trains (stayed in Ghent, went to Brussels. Bruges, and Oudenaarde).

When both of you are fully retired what will be your expected tax bracket? If still 22% I would just take it out of the IRA. It is money you will haveto paytax on down the road anyway. Even if at12%, the 8% interest rate closes the gap between the 12% and 22% brackets. If it were me, I hate loans so I would nip the expense in the bud as quick as possible.

I would never entertain a $40 saddle. Cheap saddles wear down quick. The best saddle I ever had came with my 2007 Specialized Tarmac. Hard, thin, could sit on it for hours. Never did replace it and should have picked up another while they still made it.was a $150-$200 saddle back then.

I find if there is excessive padding/gel that it starts to rub in a bad way or gets uncomfortable on the sit bones after time. I need something compatible with my toosh.

4) Have a government pension waiting for me the year I turn 56 and 10 months and don't want the reductions that comes with retiring before then.

5) I genuinely enjoy the work I do. The diversity of the work I do could not happen in most other organizations in my discipline, and I constantly address issues that enhance my skills, keep me interested, etc. I also mentor the next generation which is rewarding. I do have things I could do with my time away from work, so your 1) - nothing better to do with my time, doesn't apply.

Early last year I had cut back on my contributions because I was at the limit for everything, including catchup contributions, have a pension coming to me that will satisfy at least 60% of our typical spending, and have at least 50x saved in retirement and brokerage accounts to cover gap years before SS. But in the middle of last year I reversed that and since then am contributing the max across the board. Why? Market is down, and until it recovers that 20 to 25% it lost last year I figure it is easy money. Once it crosses its previous high I will likely take my foot off the throttle again.

Seem to play Hexcells Infinite way too much. Relaxing while listening to music.

Automobilista 2 and Dirt Rally 2.0 with my racing rig and VR

Lots of odds and ends on the Steam Deck. Many different shmups, old console roms via emulation, and more,

Some things to keep in mind 1) which agency - some I would work for, some I would avoid (disclosure - I am a fed who works for the agency that has taken the top spot for many years) 2) where is the job - is this in one of regions with good locality pay 3) are the benefits worth it to you - as a fed entering my 34th year I am in the old FERS pension contribution of just 0.8%, so my paycheck goes further than newbies contributing 4.6%. But that said, the vacation policy is great, and you can negotiate your annual leave somewhat (that is, instead of starting out a 4 hours/pay period, try to negotiate for 6 hours, but you have to do this before entering service). Up to 240 hours of vacation can be rolled over. Likewise 104 hours of sick leave, ...

You make a good point, and you are right that it really doesn't make sense to earn money in a lower cost area, only to move to a higher cost area and stop earning money. I think frankly, there are very few places that both have 1) high populations of Asian Americans, and 2) great weather year-round. Texas, where I grew up, has two months of above 100 degree weather; 2) frankly most coastal cities with larger Asian American populations are equally pricey: SF, Seattle, Chicago, NYC. I realize I'm being super-picky, but my guess is that most White Americans would not choose to retire in Harlem, New Orleans, Detroit for similar reasons. With "2 months of above 100 degree weather" it sounds like you grew up in Dallas. Not all of Texas...

I have lived in Brazoria County for 30 years. Depending on where those properties are there could be rationale for holding them, at least for a few more years. There are a few areas with high levels of development though what you describe for the properties sounds like they are on the very low side of value.

If desired you can PM me with the general location and I can provide some insight into what is in the vicinity and expectations of future development.

What if the job you do get once you separate from the military is as a federal employee? You will lose that 5% match. Many agencies give hiring preferences to veterans, and as an FYI in my direct group of 27 or so employees (in an agency of 17k+) we have 3 vets and another other way once he gets his degree. Wme had a slew of retirements and those vets account for half our hiring.

Thank you all for the thoughtful and informative responses! For more information we would be going first week of May. Definitely traveling business as a great and also she gets motion sickness so would be more comfortable. Can use miles more easily for Sydney (since American is operating) but that is not determining factor. Sounds like Japan is the winner! The only other destination I thought of was France but I think Japan seems safer, more polite folks, and oddly easier to navigate which is a big focus for her. Never been to Australia but I have been to Japan some 30 times for work and pleasure. After several trips and nagging from me for my wife to come she finally did and fell in love with it. She has been at least a half dozen times w...

KlangFool wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 10:25 am OP,

Why renting the second home for 3 months out of a year is not an option? It is cheaper and less maintenance effort on your side. Financially, it is less risky too.

KlangFool

That is what i would do as well. Wife and I have talked about that when I retire We live with an oppressive summer, so escaping north has appeal. Further, renting gives the ability to try a different city/state every summer.

MillennialFinance19 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:52 pm Wow, this is a crazy question. You could re-phrase this as “can I buy the Mega Millions winning numbers today for yesterdays drawing?”

The will should be executed as intended in writing.

Per the other thread, which did not involve a grandchild, a deed of variation does allow for this. The nuance here is the inclusion of a minor.

https://www.irwinmitchell.com/personal/ ... fter-death

I don't want to hijack the original thread this was inspired from, but a similar situation. Can siblings change a will where a minor grandchild is involved? Situation is MIL, in her will, left proceeds of the sale of her house to my wife, brother #1, and the minor son of brother #2. Other assets were evenly divided amongst wife and two brothers. MIL wanted to leave money to grandchild since at the time brother #2 was not financially responsible. He has demonstrated maturity in the time since her death, and my MIL was waffling about changing her will but never did. Would we need the minor grandchild to agree or since he is a minor, just his parents?

Previously I used a Bluetooth setup, and it was a bit of pain with spotty coverage at times. Ditched those and bought a Yamaha receiver with Musicast support and several Yamaha Musicast speakers. Currently have 5 or 6 speakers spread across different rooms. Works great. Can stream from online without the receiver, stream from our NAS without the receiver, or if we want to listen to a CD or vinyl we go through the receiver. Is it as hifi as my previous setup? No. But wife wanted music through the house and this was the best solution. Sonos speakers won't work for what you want.

So a few hundred $$$ more than you are already paying for rent? Yes, you can afford it. You may have to save a little less, but you can afford it.

Thanks for all the input! Well, felt pressure to decide before all business class rewards flights were gone, so bought the return ticket home from Brussels today. Trip is also now 15 nights . Madrid 2 nights (get over jet lag, Prado yet again, 3 euro wine) (2 hour flight to) Paris 5 nights (museums, cafes, day trip to Reims) (1.75 hour fast train to) Strasbourg 3 nights (1 day old town, 1 day cute village wine bus or private guide tour) (4 hour direct train to) Belgium for 5 nights Need to decide where to sleep in Belgium for 5 nights. Last night needs to be back in Brussels, as have 7 am flight home. Boy, people and even guidebooks definitely have strong opinions, some pro or anti Bruges, some anti Brussels. Maybe we just go to Ghent 3 an...

Knock Bruges down to a night, skip Paris nights, and head to Amsterdam? Not knocking Paris at all (love the place), but offering an alternative since Paris isn't really in your heart.

Monte Carlo simulations for financial planning typically rely on repeated random sampling of past results to get the statistical likelihood of achieving financial goals . A basic assumption is that the random sampling is independent , e.g. next year's return does not depend on last year's return or the return of any other year. You can use Monte Carlo with independent and dependent variables. It is easier to use it with independent, randomly selected values from a defined probability distribution function (PDF), but a more advanced tool could easily implement a more complicated model of a string of returns. For example, if you mine the historical data and find that indeed you can develop a model where year 2 returns are a function of year ...

You say you are not a museum person but I would suggest a few 1. Museum of Resistance- will go well with Anne Frank house. It covers how the Dutch ocountered the Nazi occupation. 2. Troppenmuseum - all about the Dutch colonization across the world. Lots of cultural artifacts from places far and wide 3. National Maritime Museum - perhaps it will appeal to the outdoorsy nature of yours. Fantastic museum with examples of Dutch naval history. I am actually in Delft now for work. Definitely worthy of a day trip to wander through old town. I arrived Sunday and would have loved to visit the 2 main churches, climb the stairs, and get some great views. Unfortunately they are closed to visitors on Sundays. I did not feel impelled to go to museums her...

TwstdSista wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:27 pm

Oddball wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:25 pm Roth are also going up from $6000 to $6500, I am a little bummed $6500 doesn't divide evenly by 12

Ahhh ... but $7500 does!! (for those of us over ... ahem ... a certain age)

$6500 divides quite nicely by 52. Weekly contribution of $125. But alas, my over 50 weekly contribution won't be an even number at $144.23 and a few hundredths of a cent.

I never found Japan to be expensive. I have been about 30 times for work and pleasure since 2007. Obviously in the past when the dollar was weak was not as much a value, but hotels, food, and transportation have always been reasonable. Sure you can stay at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo and spend a ton per night, but there are plenty of good, albeit small, hotel rooms for $100 to $150 a night in the heart of Tokyo. Likewise there are plenty of reasonable restaurants. Remember there is no tipping, so meals end up being comparable to US. Honestly places like California feel more expensive for travel than Japan. When I first started going, a week in Japan, including airfare, cost less than a week in, say, Orlando. That's good to hear. I remember from ...

I never found Japan to be expensive. I have been about 30 times for work and pleasure since 2007. Obviously in the past when the dollar was weak was not as much a value, but hotels, food, and transportation have always been reasonable. Sure you can stay at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo and spend a ton per night, but there are plenty of good, albeit small, hotel rooms for $100 to $150 a night in the heart of Tokyo. Likewise there are plenty of reasonable restaurants. Remember there is no tipping, so meals end up being comparable to US. Honestly places like California feel more expensive for travel than Japan.

When I first started going, a week in Japan, including airfare, cost less than a week in, say, Orlando.

Thanks for all the suggestions! We're planning to take a day downtown to do Eastern Market, maybe Greektown, Corktown, etc., and we might make it over to Belle Isle. I love the DIA suggestion, but we took a trip to downtown Chicago and did Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum and the kid was...surprisingly not at all entertained. I'm not sure he'd last longer than like 30 minutes at the DIA. Bates Burgers is definitely going on the list. Get a babysitter for a few hours. I just read about the DIA Van Gogh exhibition this morning, andI can't recall if there have been that many of his works in one place in the US before. A real highlight of a trip to Amsterdam was the Van Gogh Museum. I love his stuff, but seeing them in perso...

Xyz214 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 12:29 pm I also started receiving these same spam mails. At the same time, yahoo started offering me to get their premium service to filter out spam mails.

Wife and I were inundated with spam. I found a website talking about the issue, and it was commented that a user thought it was a ploy to switch to the premium service. They did and the level of spam didn't decrease. So much for that conspiracy theory. It was reported that the spam emails were merely tricking the filtering. I will say that in the last 2 weeks we haven't gotten any of those spam emails (Ace, McAfee, etc). It has been a nice change.

Will be using age 55 rule to withdraw from TSP. Current tax bracket is 22%, and I am contributing to Roth TSP because a) the traditional TSP balance is high (around $900k), b) I desire to burn that portion down fully by the time SS kicks in, and c) tax hedge (if 22% gets renewed great, but I see it going up in the future so I don't mind paying now). Just using our current expenses, the amount of pre tax income we would need would put us at the breakpoint of the existing 12/22 bracket. But I expect to bump that by at least $40k to spend down/convert the traditional TSP. Pension combined with age 70 SS really pushes things higher. I expect retirement to be enjoyable. "Take home" pay will be greater due to having to burn down the tra...

Currently 53, expect to retire in December 2026. Am a fed and will retire with 37 years of service and will likely get another year of credit for the 2000+ current sick leave balance. Married so pension will get docked 10% for spousal survivor benefit. Currently maxxed out at the GS 15 level (fortunate to be in a high locality pay region that is also MCO). Current contributions are $26k into Roth TSP, around $9k into traditional TSP for employer matching, $7k into HSA, and $14k into Roth IRA. Typical spending is $75k to $90k each year (Roth not included in this). House is paid off, and no other financed debt. If the same level of spending continues in retirement I would need around $115k pre tax (for conservatism I am assuming tax brackets ...

Cheez-It Guy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 6:36 am ^Vinyl is the only growing physical format thanks to hipsters.

Nostalgia is hitting cassettes as well. There have been releases of new music on cassette the last couple of years, While shopping for new vinyl at a local music store, I have seen a few new releases on tape.

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/19/casset ... ords-music

We did a kitchen remodel last year. We may still be in the honeymoon phase, but honestly i5 was worth it. We changed the footprint of 5he floor cabinets which added more storage and made the whole area look more spacious. Functionally it has made cooking m9re enjoyable. I would say it was worth it.

greenman1 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 9:40 am Thank you all. Appreciate all the responses. I have asked my nephew to talk to the university career center and he will look into the NASA space-grant/internship site.

In particular, search for NASA Pathways. You can also find periodic postings at USAJobs.gov. Back when I was a student it was called "the co-op program". I was in that and am in m6 33rd year of employment with NASA.

We have had some great kids come through the program, and it is our first pool of people to hire from upon graduation. And right now the aerospace industry in general is facing an aging workforce crisis. Young guns are needed.

During a kitchen remodel (due to a dishwasher leak) we replaced our floors. House had carpet, tile, and engineered wood. We were debating laminate and woodlook tile and ended up going with laminate. We are in Texas (Houston area) and on3 consideration was that the laminate is floating, so should there be foundation issues in the future the laminate will be more damage tolerant than tile. Another couple of reasons were noise (tile is harder and will not absorb sound as well) and standing on tile barefoot or with socks gets painful after time. Another issue is that tile can crack if something is dropped on it. We experienced that with the old tile. If you go with tile and are near one of the big cities, Daltile has a showroom. We went to the ...

Mostly gravitated towards headphone setups. Do have a 20+ year old Rega Planar 3 turntable, but most of my time is spent listening to my Marantz HD-CD1 and HD-DAC when at my home PC (and listening on my Massdrop Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee cans. Also have an old pair of HD 580s. The other room where the turntable is hosts my Stax 404s hooked up to a Stax SRM-006. At work I have a Stax SRM 252 attached to SR-001 "ear phones". I should upgrade my Stax unit, and the time may be right with the weak yen.

Some years ago we did a Paris to Normandy trip. With a car it opens up quite a bit. On the way, make a stop at Giverny to tour Monet's home. We were there in a June and the gardens were spectacular. You can wander the grounds and see the inspiration for his works.

Also on the way is Les Andelys. It is a small town, but you can visit the castle ruins of Richard I. When we went to No4mandy we actually stayed in Rouen,

I had to travel several times to Les Mureaux for work and took my bike with me. I gained an appreciation for the back roads, so much that when we drove to Normandy and back to Paris I stayed off the highway to enjoy going through small, idyllic towns.

Jack FFR1846 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 7:37 pm Just one thing to think about is taxes. If social security is delayed, more IRA money can be converted to Roth money, staying within a tax bracket. The added benefit of this is that when RMDs are required, they'll be less, so again, less taxes.

Bingo.

brak wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 5:33 pm Makes me wish my daughter was a firewoman, and in reponse to another comment, it is a triathlon bike. Does that make any difference? Thanks

No. I took my road bike several times to Italy, France, and Japan in a hard plastic case. Just had to remove the wheels, seat and seat post,pedals, and the bars to fit it all in. Tri bars with extensions may be more problematic, but a box catered to the tri community would fix that.

Even though the case is hard plastic, because of the large panels on 2 sides it could bend a bit. Never experienced damage with either an aluminum or carbon frame.

Plastic ruins the crust in 30 minutes. What is the best way to store bread at home? Not a rhetorical question. I do put it in a Ziploc sometimes, but, as you say, it doesn't turn out good. But if I don't do that, it'll go stale overnight. Paper bag. Bread box. Well, yeah, everyone had that in the old country . But that only justifies the counter space if you always have fresh bread (that didn't come out of a plastic bag). Which, of course, in the old country everyone did. I think America just doesn't view bread as important, not just gastronomically, but also culturally. It's more of a sandwich component here than a central food staple. We have a bread box, and in it right now is unsliced sourdough bought 2 days ago from a local bakery. Th...

Vulcan wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 11:00 am

j0e0r7 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 7:30 am

Vulcan wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 12:11 pm Plastic ruins the crust in 30 minutes.

What is the best way to store bread at home? Not a rhetorical question. I do put it in a Ziploc sometimes, but, as you say, it doesn't turn out good. But if I don't do that, it'll go stale overnight.

Paper bag.

Bread box.

If in the Houston area head to Common Bond. They have the best croissants I have had outside of France. All their pastry and bread is top notch. Quality bread can be found elsewhere. For example, Whole Foods has pretty good fresh baked bread, though if in Texas I would go with Central Market for top grocery store bread (from the in-house bakery only of course).

Cycling is an aerobic sport. Lifting won't help. The pedal forces are remarkably low. Leave lifting to the sprinters - they depend on that anaerobic burst. Stretching? I see cycling as constrained motion. In my 140,000 or more miles of cycling I never stretched, the 10 to 15 minutes of warmup b3fore I get moving with intensity is all I needed. Drink and food should be a function of the ride distance and intensity. For a 40 mile solo ride that takes me 2 hours it is nothing more than water and a banana. I live in the Gulf Coast region so heavy sweating is a thing in the summer. Yet never have I used salt tablets. At most it is Gatorade on 2+ hour rides. For food it is just bananas and fig newtons. Gels get messy. On long, fast, and hot rides...

We bought a Waterstone for our kitchen remodel. Very solid. Like you say - can tell the difference between cheap and high end. We will be doing bathrooms next but haven't decided on brands. One thing that is decided is to avoid big box stores.

Renovated our kitchen and splurged on a Waterstone. Night and day difference between it and the big box store stuff, Currently staying at another house while we finish up painting. It has a big box store faucet. Can't believe we used to have something like that. Just felt light and cheap.

Personally I account for taxes in my calculations. For example, I take my post tax contributions and divide by 0.78 to get the gross base. I also calculate pre-tax on a post-tax basis and use my net for that. Employer contributions are included in both calcs with the pre/post tax basis.