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  1. M

    Aging and guardianship

    Actually this has happened in many states, my aunt who lived in Nebraska, had a court appoint guardian clean her out (including selling the house etc). Now another possiblity to handle this is to set up a trust and appoint a bank as the trustee to take care of financial matters, My...
  2. M

    Depressing thoughts about our home value?

    Of course property taxes are a remnant of the old all purpose wealth tax the states had in the 19th century. This included personal property (i.e furniture etc), and intangibles such as bank deposits and stocks etc. Today individuals just pay tax on real property, businesses typicall pay a tax...
  3. M

    Depressing thoughts about our home value?

    I actually experienced this in the great Houston Bust of the 1980s House value went down by about 40% one year. (this was when Harris county (Houston) had 3k foreclosures a month.) So you don't really want this to happen, as if the real value declined that month you would likley be underwater...
  4. M

    Converting Primary Home to Rental but maintaining $500K Exclusion

    It should be noted that if you loose money on a rental at market rates that loss is accumulated and when you sell these losses reduce the gain. Secondly depending on the tax bracket depreciation recapture is taxed at a max rate of 25%. (may change in 2026). If you make money you pay taxes on...
  5. M

    dead batteries in 2023 rav 4 hybrid

    Keys what keys it now is a fob they hand you. This does provide one advantage when you get the car the door unlocks so you don't have to fumble for the key.
  6. M

    dead batteries in 2023 rav 4 hybrid

    If the car is new enough, it may listen in on the fm band for signals that will reset the time. My 2016 malibu did this for example when crossing time zones.
  7. M

    dead batteries in 2023 rav 4 hybrid

    A simple way to handle this is if the car sits in a garage, by a trickle charger and connect it to the 12 battery thru the jump clamps. This keeps the battery charged, I used this on a riding lawn mower that would sit 6 months over the winter and the battery laster longer.
  8. M

    Anyone insured a big house?

    Note that if you are in Ca, Tx or FL rates are going to skyrocket a lot. Fl due to Hurricanes and Ca due to wild fires, Tx due to the big freeze in 2021.Or perhaps soon anywhere near a coast. In addition the whole reinsurance industry has been losing money and as a result raising the...
  9. M

    Anyone against sending checks through the mail?

    some shops do and other just say checks. Of course given the interest rate on credit cards it might be better to get a personal loan for that amount, (if you don't pay the card at the end of the month)
  10. M

    Anyone have experience with modern Mini Computers?

    If you include nuc (next unit of computing (Intel)) form factor then it will mount to the back of the monitor. (about 4x4x2 in size) These do not have high powered graphics cards. There do exist nuc models that are larger that do.
  11. M

    Anyone against sending checks through the mail?

    I have seen this at several shops where due to the credit card fees there is a maximum value you can put on a credit card.One example was at a body shop where the max credit card payment was 1k (note the fee is 2-4 percent so for 8k thats 160 to 320 which is a lot. Now one way to...
  12. M

    Is Medicare IRMAA a big deal?

    Of course if you look at the formula for ss benefits there are 2 cliffs (bend points) where the percentage of income is reduced YOu get 90% of income replaced up to13380/year , 30% up to 89652 and 15% above that amount. I see when the new social security taxes come in a 3 third bend point at...
  13. M

    Solar, Wind Renewable Energy

    Much of the technology you discuss already exists. Much of the tech for offshore wind is very similar to that used in offshore oil. Platforms are transpored horizontally and upended, for deep water tension leg tech is used, so the platform is essentially anchored to the bottom 4 or more times...
  14. M

    Is Real ID worth it?

    There is an alternative the passport card which does fit in a wallet, and is designed for travel over land borders in North America. You can actually get both of them at the same time for an increased fee. I have sued this some times at the bank to prove id and it does work.
  15. M

    A simple, inexpensive, yet powerful solar storage system

    The answer to the fuse size question is assuming depends on the voltages of the panels which once you sum them up divide 1000 by the voltage, and then allow 10 amps or so of overage, since the main reason is to prevent a short . To the question of order it really should not make any difference...
  16. M

    Why Aren't I-Bonds Getting More Attention?

    Assuming she has an account recent updates say wells fargo does cash savings bonds. I know about a year ago I was able to cash them at wells fargo. Perhaps the branch may not however.
  17. M

    Reliance on Cell Phones

    Now days if your phone is close to your windows 10 or greater, phone link software with an android phone you can see notifications and send and receive text messages. It is also possible with the software to make calls if you can get the bluetooth to work. An alternative is there is an app...
  18. M

    Reliance on Cell Phones

    The problem is that cell phones run on software that has hidden bugs, once you get out out of the period when patches are offered it becomes vunerlable to the exploits, (Just like personal computers do). That is perhaps as big a concern, if you buy a pixel phone you might get 3 years of...
  19. M

    Reliance on Cell Phones

    It is possible to buy a bluetooth keyboard for a cell phone (if it has bluetooth), to allow one to type on a larger keyboard. for as little as $10. making the typing easier.
  20. M

    A simple, inexpensive, yet powerful solar storage system

    If you buy something like battleborn lifepo4 batteries they come complete with the charge controller so battery management is not an issue these are still 870 for 1 kwh of power storage, good for 3000 to 5000 discharge cycles. however if you buy a solar phone charger system from amazon and a...
  21. M

    Dying Laptop- Repair or Recycle? HP14-b109wm

    Note that support for windows 10 ends in oct 2025, at which point unless you go to linux,the system will not get updates. Now of course it is possible to use hacks posted on youtube to get around windows 11 restrictions but it is not clear that it is a good idea. (Or since you have a chromebook...
  22. M

    Can't file dad's last tax return...

    Did she note on the form that the tax payer had died. When my parents died I checked the box on turbotax and it printed it on the front of the form. (of course back then I filed by mail) Did the forms have deceased printed right after the taxpayer name?
  23. M

    Tax Return Fee

    As to dividends does schwab give you a 1099 with a total and the individual dividends listed as a supplement for you? Look at the documents and see what is sent to the irs and what is fyi. Vanguard and wells fargo do it this way. Anyway for the bond fund from vanguard they total up all the...
  24. M

    OneDrive -- make it stop!

    Although a bit drastic you could move to libre office which is comparable to office and free. (you might try looking at spread sheets to see if they still work. on the calc option you would need to choose office compatability)
  25. M

    Gas prices are going up fast

    Recall the limit used to be lower if prices stay up very long the limit will be raise, as it has been in earlier times such as to 100 in 2008.
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