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Home Performance with Energy Star is a nationally recognized program for home energy audits. BPI certification requires that the auditor pass a test demonstrating knowledge in the field. Typically, these programs are required to be funded by the utility as a way to offset load growth and avoid build...

My grandfather told me that he thought the reason he and his siblings lived so long was that he grew up eating cold oatmeal. Not sure about the validity of this, but he did live until he was 93. And many of his brothers/sisters lived into their nineties as well. Having ancestors living that long mak...

You seem like a good candidate for a hybrid. In 2010, I had a 50 mile (one-way) commute when I was living in Maine. I bought a Ford Fusion Hybrid and averaged 36 MPG. It worked very well and did very well in the winter with snow tires. I switched jobs so my mileage dropped way back. Now, I have abou...

My wife and I are going through a similar situation with her MIL. She is moving into an independent living apartment and selling the house. But it's outdated, has original (25+ year) carpets and kitchen. Everything works, but it's clearly not move in ready. My wife had three realtors come in and sim...

I'd recommend the books, Retirement Portfolios, by Zwecher and Rational Expectations by Bernstein. These books, among others, helped me think through how I wanted to structure my investments going forward. Both have a common theme... make sure that the basic living expenses are covered by riskless a...

I'm in a similar situation with almost all of my assets in tax-advantaged accounts. We're going to do a kitchen remodel and we've saved enough to pay this with cash outside of our emergency fund. I decided though, to set up a HELOC so that I had the flexibility. The interest rate is low if I need it...

At a minimum, I would treat the ESOP as a portion of your stock portfolio. Assuming that you want to keep the same 90%/10% stock/bond asset allocation that is in the Vanguard 2050 fund, you'll want to buy 10% bonds or bond fund to match the value of the ESOP asset.

Financially, the $1000/month is more valuable since it includes mortality credits. (Some annuity buyers won't live as long, so the company can pay higher lifetime payments.) The five-year payout drops those credits and essentially pays back the $265K to you. For comparison, with a brokerage account,...