Recent content by dvalley

I've been wanting a powerwall since it came out, just can't justify it for my needs. There are a couple of alternatives out now too. However, on cloudy, snowy days the storage (batteries, powerwall etc) can only provide what they have stored and won't be able to replenish to keep up with the...

Good call outs, our furnace is natural gas based and pretty easy on the power requirements so it can be powered by the generator or the battery/inverter. Same with the refrigerator. Air conditioner on the other hand is a no-go as it's a big whole house unit. I do have a small roll-around ac in...

About 4yrs ago we had a power outage that lasted 3 days due to a blown transformer. Some of us who didn't have a generator had to take turns running an extension cord from a couple of neighbors who did. After that I purchased a small/cheap 1kw generator and then a yr or so later I also...

I sold some of my TSLA position in my brokerage account, let's say I had a short-term gain of $7k. Looking at the unrealized gains/losses I see I have a long-term loss of approx $7k in VIOO and VXUS. I'm in the 24% fed tax bracket. If I were to sell VIOO/VXUS will the net loss and net gain...

I noticed a couple of those MM funds just yesterday but at least the ones I checked said not open to new investors or something to that effect.

Target date fund but it pretty much acts like a stable value once you reach the target date in order to preserve the amount as much as possible. No state tax break on contributions. Thanks everyone.

While the current market is down compared to last year the 529 plan has been in a target-date fund so it's been pretty much in a stable value fund as of the last couple of years. While I do have a reasonable sized cash earning 2%-3.75% depending on where it's sitting I'm leaning towards using...

I ended up building a 5yr CD ladder too using Fidelity's CD ladder builder (cool tool that Vanguard should offer). The CDs include 3% to 3.75% non-callable CDs. If the rates go up I'll buy a few of those too; I still have some cash in lower earning accounts. Plus when the laddered CDs start...

BSN Mass Gainer powder, used to be $45, now $70.

Good catch! I meant to say notes/bills not necessarily T- notes. Speaking of which my order hasn't been filled yet. I guess clicking buy on notes is not an instant buy :popcorn: Oh and yes T-mobile...that's where I moved my money from and into Fidelity a few days ago and now they bump it up to...

I'm not very active on the board anymore but I do check in on a few threads every now and again. After seeing the rate and info above I decided today is going to be the day to dip my toes into T-notes and bills. So I opened a brokerage account with Fidelity (already had a HSA account) and...

Many HVAC people are dishonest because R22 is expensive and there's no way for a customer to know how much is in the system. About 5 years ago I had someone come out to replace the filter and tune it up for $65 as advertised. Without asking he 'topped it off' and wanted to charge me $300, I said...

Still using my Penfed cc which gives me 5% back at the gas stations. I look at gasbuddy.com once in a while but mostly it's not worth driving out of the way to save 10c if that.

I'm not worried per-se, just making observations and trying to be more aware of what's going on in the world. The thing is many things are hypothetical until they're not. No one thought a pandemic of the level we just experienced would happen in the 21st century where in the middle of the...

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Not just what happened this month or in the past 3 months -in several cases things are turning bad globally. Here in the US in particular I'm sensing a gradual societal decay that I've never witnessed before. Anyone read the book "EMP Los Angeles"? :frown: