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Question, what is more than enough? Looks like it's covered in the first chapter but is the book intended for the ultra-wealthy (maybe 25-50x annual expenses) or also good for investors who aren't yet FI. I'll plan to read at some point regardless, it just may hit home more when I feel I have "more than enough". You can read the table of contents for yourself to see if the topics sound applicable. (In the book description field on Amazon, click the "read more" dropdown link.) Broadly speaking, the book is intended for anybody who anticipates that a significant part of their portfolio will ultimately go to charity and/or heirs, either during lifetime or as a bequest. Thanks Mike. I picked up the book, enjoying the read j...

Nope. I hate buyers remorse, but I hardly ever regret spending money especially for big once in a lifetime occasions

Seems like a great book and I too have learned a lot from Mike over the years.

Question, what is more than enough? Looks like it's covered in the first chapter but is the book intended for the ultra-wealthy (maybe 25-50x annual expenses) or also good for investors who aren't yet FI. I'll plan to read at some point regardless, it just may hit home more when I feel I have "more than enough".

Thanks all, I'll hold off for now.

Would you upgrade an iPhone Xs for an iPhone 11 for about $100?

Specs seem similar, I would like a slightly bigger screen, newer phone, faster chip...but Xs screen may be better (OLED vs LCD) and the Xs has 2x optical zoom

pizzy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:51 am

ThankYouJack wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:49 am

pizzy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:28 am

ThankYouJack wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:21 am

LilyFleur wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:52 am
I agree. Get the dopamine hit through an activity that isn't shopping.

I actually hate shopping.

Did you throw away all the clutter yet?

Plan to start going through this weekend. Will set up the give-away, trash/recycle, and keep bags. Will be a team effort and I'm sure we'll have other things we'd rather do.

TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

Yep, one room (and a lot of trash bags) down! Plan to tackle another kids bedroom tomorrow. Bird by bird.

We relish the opportunity to be home raising our children and not paying for someone else to watch them. Goal is to try and focus on family. This is the most admirable goal anyone can have. Your plan looks awesome. Having your wife stay home with the children is an excellent idea and worth more than money can buy, but if you had to put a number on it, being raised by your parents and growing up in a stable home is worth at least $200,000 per year per child. Getting that kind of return by just giving up your wife’s $50k/year is a screaming deal. Sure, there will be challenges, but you are smart enough that they won’t be financial. You cannot get back a single moment of raising your child, and the dollars to time trade-off is a no-brainer in...

OP, if you could run the numbers again and answer some above questions, we could give you a better answer. $50k is a lot to give up out of your collective $132k income. But raising children is one of the most important jobs in the world. If you can figure out a way to do it, I would do it. We made this decision when my wife was pregnant with our first. She was teaching and running a hair salon and we decided we didn't want other people taking care of our kids. She left teaching and then left the salon. She rented a chair instead. I subsequently quit my full time day job to pursue a healthcare career where I work just 3 shifts a week (usually 4 now for the extra income). I don't have as much in my retirement account and we struggle from tim...

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Along with vrbo and Airbnb I would check apartments.com and vacation real estate company listings. I would try to book as soon as possible but with decent cancellation terms just in case you need to with the newborn.

Have fun!

JenniferW wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 12:48 pm I only see this as an evil way companies try and take our money by making us feel envious or embarassed.. F them.

Yikes, why evil? They're a corporation and want to make money to survive, I wouldn't call them evil

Plan to start going through this weekend. Will set up the give-away, trash/recycle, and keep bags. Will be a team effort and I'm sure we'll have other things we'd rather do. This whole thing has to be a team effort, especially your wanting things to change going forward. It can't just be one person saying "I don't like this much stuff so nobody else gets to have it." It could be a really interesting time to look at something like Jennifer W.'s discretionary spending thread and talk with everybody, including kids, about what your family priorities and values are, and where you want to put family time, money, and space. Maybe you all will decide you'd rather get fewer toys and do more outings, or donate money to charity together. T...

pizzy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:28 am

ThankYouJack wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:21 am

LilyFleur wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:52 am

jebmke wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:33 am Many posts here are focusing only on how to get rid of stuff. Good suggestions but equally important is to stem the inward flow.

If you find water in your basement, before installing a sump pump you need to understand where it is coming from. Often simply stopping or diverting the flow solves the problem in the long run and a sump pump may not solve the problem if the source of the water doesn't get addressed.

I agree. Get the dopamine hit through an activity that isn't shopping.

I actually hate shopping.

Did you throw away all the clutter yet?

Plan to start going through this weekend. Will set up the give-away, trash/recycle, and keep bags. Will be a team effort and I'm sure we'll have other things we'd rather do.

LilyFleur wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:52 am

jebmke wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:33 am Many posts here are focusing only on how to get rid of stuff. Good suggestions but equally important is to stem the inward flow.

If you find water in your basement, before installing a sump pump you need to understand where it is coming from. Often simply stopping or diverting the flow solves the problem in the long run and a sump pump may not solve the problem if the source of the water doesn't get addressed.

I agree. Get the dopamine hit through an activity that isn't shopping.

I actually hate shopping.

How come it has taken so long (6 months) for this information to be made public?

rebellovw wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:19 am Their "employee" is the poster child for really giving home workers a bad name. Using company computers for non-company work. What a jerk. Because of him we have to all get rid of what was a nice product.

I don't think one employee should be the scapegoat as mistakes have been made throughout company and leadership should bear responsibility. It'll be interesting to see how things continue to unfold and how LastPass reacts

I actually enjoy decluttering and throwing things away. A few times a year we involve the whole family in the activity. It goes like this - each evening after dinner we tackle two rooms. We have two trash bags - one for trash, the other for donation. We go through closets, drawers, storage containers, cabinets, etc. The whole process takes less than 15 minutes per room (the kitchen is a bit longer) once you make it a routine. It's amazing how much stuff accumulates despite everyone's best intentions. We're really good about not having clutter out in plain view but things tend to build up in drawers/cabinets/closets. If your storage containers and organization pieces are constantly full then you're likely holding on to things you don't need...

I agree, but some of the stuff I'd be giving away people would definitely want. Then tell those people that it is time to pick things up. If they truly want it they will find the space. By "people", I didn't mean my family...but friends or strangers. Well, you can gift your friends now. No need to wait for birthdays or next Christmas. As for strangers, are you sure? My father felt he had a trove of priceless goods but most were just of ordinary value. Garage sales and eBay. Or find a good adjacent charity or hobby group. I have ideas for my wife’s half dozen spinning wheels. I'm not going to gift my friends my used stuff for their birthdays :) But I have one friend that I give a lot to and some of the stuff he keeps, other stuff ...

I'm looking for a food processor, 7 cup or larger, between $100-$200+. Leaning towards another Cuisinart as my last one lasted about 15 years with a good amount of use. Any recommendations?

alex_686 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 5:53 pm

ThankYouJack wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 4:29 pm I agree, but some of the stuff I'd be giving away people would definitely want.

Then tell those people that it is time to pick things up. If they truly want it they will find the space.

By "people", I didn't mean my family...but friends or strangers.

Thanks for the suggestion so far. I'm the more organized one in the family so am looking to convince my spouse and kids who never want to get rid of anything.

rockstar wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 4:05 pm
What’s your house cluttered with?

A lot of kids stuff. Toys, clothes, and hobbies. We keep the house well picked up but the storage areas are filled to the brink.

pizzy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 4:13 pm Quickly? Throw it all away.

Whatever you decide, do everyone a favor and don't donate junk. It's a burden, not a benefit.

I agree, but some of the stuff I'd be giving away people would definitely want.

We've lived in our house for a long time and with a growing family have accumulated a bunch of stuff.

I'd love to declutter and organize but hoping it won't take a ton of time so am looking to do things as efficient as possible and give a bunch away -- thrift stores, friends, etc.

Organizing techniques I've heard of are:

Marie Kondo (seems too extreme and not sure people stick with it)
Home Edit (seems time consuming)
Swedish Death Cleaning (will be tough to convince my family)
Hire an organization consultant (seems silly but with limited time and financial resources could make sense for some)

What has worked well for people on here?

Interesting thread. I'm actually going in the opposite direction where I have a self imposed minimum annual spend. I don't think one is right or wrong, just different circumstances and feelings about spending money. What’s next? How many gallons of water we can save by not showering or flushing toilets? I knew you a guy who worked with me that used to shower with a bucket underneath him then use that water for his garden I told him about my 10-15 minute showers and he got pissed Always nice to see a thread like this to remind myself of just how much money I waste and then I don't feel like such a tightwad. That is very extreme but I bet the guy did it to help "save" the environment over money. If not, why would he get pissed about...

jebmke wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 12:04 pm

ThankYouJack wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 12:02 pm

jebmke wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 11:46 am Set up Filter list in iMessage; filter unknown senders to separate list and then select the known senders for viewing.

I'll give this a shot. But if it also filters credit card alerts and 2FA and other messages not in my contact list, I won't want to filter those.

Put them in your contacts list. Also, they still come in, they just go to a different list that isn't up front - you have to select it up at the top of iMessages. Nothing gets blocked when you use filters.

Yeah, I'd wish there was an option to block based on the message contents. Even if I filter unknown contacts, I'll probably want to check it daily for non-spam texts so could be more trouble than benefit.

jebmke wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 11:46 am Set up Filter list in iMessage; filter unknown senders to separate list and then select the known senders for viewing.

I'll give this a shot. But if it also filters credit card alerts and 2FA and other messages not in my contact list, I won't want to filter those.

PeninsulaPerson wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 11:41 am Can you hit block?

It comes from a different email address each time so it doesn't seem "Block this caller" will help. But will try anyway.

I keep getting a very obvious spam text on my iPhone saying my Amazon account has been locked. I keep clicking "Delete and Report Junk" but one time I missed (was doing it too quickly) and accidentally clicked the link. I closed the browser window quickly after clicking the link. Should that be any cause for concern? Anything I should check?

Also, is there a good way to prevent this text from coming in every day?

I agree with the best being Miele.

But best is different from favorite. My favorite is a cheap Shark stick vacuum cleaner. We use it almost daily for quick few minutes vacuums around our main living space. Keeps our space cleaner than doing longer vacuums every once in a while. And for some reason I really enjoy using it - much more than pulling out the big clunky plug-in vacuum.

Note: I have 4 vacuums, so wouldn't recommend just a stick vacuum for the whole house. But it's great for quick picks-up, especially with kids.

I'm a California native who you could not pay to move back, under almost any circumstances, but SLO is an absolutely beautiful area. If it appeals to OP, they could certainly afford to live there (median HHI in the county is <$100k). I would echo the earlier sentiment about the job being a Cal state; OP has to consider how important being research-focused is to them. The mean HHI is next to useless by itself. The HHI of Palo Alto is about $195K according to the 2021 US government census. Palo Alto is one of the most expensive towns in the Bay Area. I agree. I think the median HHI of Santa Barbara is < $100k, yet the median home price is about $1.6M. If I were the OP, I would pick SLO as my top choice but would visit to look at what I could...

Anything you want to revisit for your own investment planning? Not from a personal investment side, but maybe from a helping side. I know some elderly who have been in much worse financial situations than the woman in this story. Their biggest issues have to do with health and not money. When they run out of money, family is there to help. If family isn't willing or unable, the U.S. government and charities are there to help. I try not to be critical of decisions that happened along the way because that doesn't get us anywhere. I never want to have to rely on anyone for help yet realize if I live long enough this will likely be out of my control. So I guess my takeaway from the thread is to try to help more those who are in need...who know...

Not sure if this helps but... I grew up poor (at least early childhood) and money was tight after that. But this gives me comfort with the fact that I feel like I could lose everything...and things would still be ok. I would still have my family and friends and health. Plus it would kick me into a higher gear to rebuild some wealth - which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. So (at least for my own situation) I look at growing up poor as an advantage and feel I could take more risks because of it :) Exactly: we learned things not everyone knows and developed street smarts and resiliency not everyone has. I like tipping well too to help people out (not to show off, as it is sometimes interpreted). I'm perfectly happy with my older cars now...

Not sure if this helps but...

I grew up poor (at least early childhood) and money was tight after that. But this gives me comfort with the fact that I feel like I could lose everything...and things would still be ok. I would still have my family and friends and health. Plus it would kick me into a higher gear to rebuild some wealth - which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

So (at least for my own situation) I look at growing up poor as an advantage and feel I could take more risks because of it

Isn't this theoretical thread non-actionable. Not to be a scrooge (I may be missing something), but why do some threads get closed quickly because they're non-actionable while others don't?

I keep it very simple.

I track expenses each month in a spreadsheet (takes about 2 minutes a month). I round up some and treat that as my X. I like 25X for my FI number, definitely not 50X

Yes, you can always Monday morning quarterback stuff but the fact is Mom is going to run out of money 37 years after the husband retired at 99. They got to travel and have 15 years of fun before health turned for the worse for Dad. If he would have worked until 65, he would have lost 20% of those good years. Saying that, the 50% survivor benefit on the pension was a mistake as well as the 100k in the bank. Never should go below 20/80, IMHO. That would have helped. OTOH, the 2% TIPs purchase was a good market timing move. My overall take us that it sounds like they had a great time during retirement until Dad's health turned south, there are some things that are beyond our control. If they were happy and got to do the things they wanted to ...

A password shouldn't take "many years" to crack. That's similar to saying if it takes 10 years to crack, in 1 year, they will have a 10% chance of cracking it. It should be virtually impossible, so figure after hammering on the hash for 10 years straight they will only have a one in trillion chance, you get the point. The 1P extra key is a nuisance for me, it's just another thing you'll have to keep track of, all it does is add extra entropy to your password. If you already have good entropy, it does nothing in a practical sense. What do you consider good entropy and how long is your LastPass password? I think I'd much rather have a short master password with a secret key than a long master password with no secret key. So how is ...

A password shouldn't take "many years" to crack. That's similar to saying if it takes 10 years to crack, in 1 year, they will have a 10% chance of cracking it. It should be virtually impossible, so figure after hammering on the hash for 10 years straight they will only have a one in trillion chance, you get the point. The 1P extra key is a nuisance for me, it's just another thing you'll have to keep track of, all it does is add extra entropy to your password. If you already have good entropy, it does nothing in a practical sense. What do you consider good entropy and how long is your LastPass password? I think I'd much rather have a short master password with a secret key than a long master password with no secret key. So how is ...

A password shouldn't take "many years" to crack. That's similar to saying if it takes 10 years to crack, in 1 year, they will have a 10% chance of cracking it. It should be virtually impossible, so figure after hammering on the hash for 10 years straight they will only have a one in trillion chance, you get the point. The 1P extra key is a nuisance for me, it's just another thing you'll have to keep track of, all it does is add extra entropy to your password. If you already have good entropy, it does nothing in a practical sense. What do you consider good entropy and how long is your LastPass password? I think I'd much rather have a short master password with a secret key than a long master password with no secret key. So how is ...

mark_in_denver wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 1:57 pm A password shouldn't take "many years" to crack. That's similar to saying if it takes 10 years to crack, in 1 year, they will have a 10% chance of cracking it. It should be virtually impossible, so figure after hammering on the hash for 10 years straight they will only have a one in trillion chance, you get the point.

The 1P extra key is a nuisance for me, it's just another thing you'll have to keep track of, all it does is add extra entropy to your password. If you already have good entropy, it does nothing in a practical sense.

What do you consider good entropy and how long is your LastPass password?

I think I'd much rather have a short master password with a secret key than a long master password with no secret key.

So while in California my spouse and I should track the amount of time and amount we earn while there.

What about when traveling to other places? I've been a remote worker for about 10 years now and sometimes will do work on vacation - at times in income-tax free states and sometimes outside of the country.

Here's a recent article on it - https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and- ... ords-asap/

Personally I've never been a fan of LastPass so after this latest major breach, I would switch in a heartbeat.

I would shop around -- maybe ask at your bank / credit union for recommendations?

About 6 years ago my spouse and I did our estate documents for $600 (I think) total. I was at my credit union and saw a sign for estate documents for a low fee. It made me think that I should get them done, so I took down the info. Had a couple emails back and forth, met with the attorney for an hour and was done. Granted most things are cookie cutter which I'm perfectly fine with with. I'll probably adjust when I'm older, have more $, kids are independent, etc.

Last I checked, my attorney had really expanded his business. Seems like a good business approach to me to build up a large clientele.

I work in NY for part of the year even though I live in TX. I file a NY state income tax return for the wages I earn in NY. But what's the cutoff? Say you have a layover in MD and check email there for an hour... :oops: Another couple of good articles: https://www.palmspringstaxandtrustlawyers.com/nonresidents-working-temporarily-california/ https://www.palmspringstaxandtrustlawyers.com/nonresidents-working-remotely-for-california-businesses/ Bottom line, any hours worked in CA, CA will want their cut. I still read that as a no tax due for a nonresident who does not meet the "base of operations" test. This is assuming the remote employer is not in CA, there are no in-person job activities in CA, not performing services for CA cli...

What about the company you work for- I presume they will need to be registered in California- workers comp, unemployment reporting, and everything else that comes with it. Some companies don’t like you to work in certain states just due to the payroll and tax reporting complexity. There are also local taxes and filing requirements that might be triggered (like if you are going to live in San Francisco). Then there’s also the sick leave rules that may or may not be the same that your company offers. I don’t know if there is a magic rule that says 29 days is a tourist and no reporting or filing required, but 30 is a short term tax resident. Thanks, definitely more trouble than I hoped. I'm looking for specifics on length of time but don't se...

terran wrote: ↑Thu Feb 16, 2023 1:41 pm You'll need to look up the filing requirements for that state. Some base it on an amount of time, others on an amount of money earned in the state.

Thanks, the 2nd state will be California. I just started scanning this - https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/re ... ident.html but didn't see a clear answer. Seems like it could be a headache

I'm a remote worker and planning to spend one month in a different state this year. Am I suppose to file taxes in both states? I'm hoping not for simplicity reasons.

If you can only pay a security deposit by check, money order, cashier’s check or electronic / wire transfer which would you prefer and why?

I would start with https://www.score.org/

+1 on not getting a new car until you have the actual need. I had two smaller cars than the OP with my first child and it worked out great. Kids don't take up much space.

Counterpoint: the bigger the car, the sloppier the handling, the longer the braking distances, which makes it more likely you'll be in an accident. That's not a counterpoint at all to IIHS driver death rate stats. Those reflect actual experience, so any benefit/detriment in factors like handling or stopping distance is already reflected in the death rate, which is by vehicle miles, a lower probability of being in an accident would show up as lower death rate. But that rate is distinctly higher averaging across small models than bigger ones. Your points if actually factual would be relevant if all we knew were Newton's laws of motion and were trying to predict real world death rates from that. https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates...

We're considering moving and may apply for a loan that we should easily be able to afford: - less than 2x our anticipated annual income - 1 long term, very stable W2 job (but the annual pay is only about 20% of the loan) - excellent credit - currently debt free - we'd put 40%-50% down - our portfolio is about 4 times greater than the mortgage so could pay cash if needed (but would rather not for a few reasons) However, 75% of our income is 1099-NEC that started in the fall of last year. Before that, our income was low for a few years due to voluntary work breaks. Will they fixate on the low W2 income and make it tough to get approved or will account for the other factors to realize it's not much of a risk? Anyone with similar experience or ...