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I am not yet FIREd, but I am leery of Wade. Seems like he is in the pocket of the insurance companies. I might read it if I have some free time. The review linked was more of a turn off than a turn on. They guy disclosed that he got an advance copy (good), but then it read like it was a...

How about Delaware? Your property and sales tax go to about zero (not quite).

I got dinged yesterday. Someone hacked my account on walmart and ordered $109 in banker boxes (to be sent to me) and a $100 Google play gift card (digital delivery) and charged it to my card on file. I had been lazy and the password was one that had been used other places (my fault). I...

I live in Delaware County for the last 3 years. Its on the Delaware line and in my school district they raise all the money through the property tax. I pay over $15K/year on a 700K (pretty nice) house (possibly 800K now). I consider that to be HCOL but not like CA or NJ or the like. Before...

I'll play. I am 42, my wife 40. Last year was a banner year, mostly due to stock comp. I took out a huge chunk of my mortgage last year (200k, 45k to go) and kept pace on maxing 401(k), HSA and 529 plans. I am going to spend a little money on the house this year, and the stock comp won't be...

I do it all the time for HD or Lowes. I use gift card granny.com to find the discounts. I'll use Raise, Cardpool but not e-bay. I like electronic gift cards only. I only like the ones where they seller had to enter a credit card to back up the sale. After I have the gift cards my next move...

I used to muse about having a place by the ski resorts and by the beach. My loose plan would be to live at the beach in the winter (rent out the ski resort in high season) and the mountains in the summer (rent out the beach in the summer). The idea was basically by flip-flopping locations I...

Breaking Bad, Then HoC. Then season 1&2 of Homeland. Season 3 is only marginally worth your time. If you like BB, and haven't seen the Wire, work that one in.

I usually have to take a call or two per week if I am on vacation. It comes with the salary / responsibilities. I am fine with it. My in-laws found the practice abhorrent. I see their point, but we took different paths, my f-i-l never worked past 5 PM and was focused on his kids. He is...

Could they get by on 90K per year? Boom they are at 3.3% WR. Would they consider downsizing house or life if things got tight? What are their prospects to re-engage or partially re-engage if there was a nasty sequence of returns? If were me I'd be bouncing between OMY and its go time.

Hard inquiries for car loans and mortgages get grouped. Not credit cards. I sign up for CC by the boatload and routinely have more than 20 inquiries in the past 12 month on any given credit reporting agency. Inquiries is one of the lowest weighted factors. Unless you have a very young...

My wife and I argued about spending the coin on NAV in her highlander. She disliked the wires from the garmin. At the end of the day, her car, her choice, but it will be salt in the wound if it breaks based on those prices. Net result is I got upgraded to her old garmin, which had speed...

So you have $5,500 plus $5, plus XXXX being her old IRA. You need to know that for her conversion (does not impact yours). If her old IRA is 10K you need to either convert $15,505 with basis of $5,500 and pay taxes on 10,005. Or if you convert less than the entire TIRA's you need to allocate...

I share pretty freely here and elsewhere. I guess I take comfort in the places I frequent I am pretty much in the mainstream of those groups, and therefore get some herd immunity. For example, here I talk finances, index funds, credit card rebates, tax stuff, etc. There is nothing so...

Some of these can be found in the US, but when I think of local cuisine and trips, these were favorites: Stroopwafel in Amsterdam (caramel covered waffle cookies) Korean BBQ Gelato in Italy Blood Oranges (Italy / Spain) (mostly for novelty) Tortilla sandwiches in Spain (Omelets with potato...

Who is the lender with 1% for months 1-12, 2% for 13-24%? Pretty good deal, though I don't love the 4.5% thereafter.

I was about to chastise you that you can't do LBYM later, that you need to bake it in your DNA, even if the amount was small. Then I kept reading and saw all the substantial amounts you have (and continue) to save. Bravo. I think you are in good shape. I am in PA and have two kids (8 & 5)...

The first "annuity" you should buy is to defer taking social security until age 70 as it has a lot of features like COLAs, spousal benefits, and post FRA (full retirement age) roughly an 8% return. It is subject to policy risks, but once you hit FRA, the risks will probably be shouldered by the...

A couple weeks ago my five year old declared "best day ever" because we had spent the afternoon hanging around with the neighbors and trying to fly a kite. I felt awfully good about that. I can't pinpoint my best day ever (leaving aside the birth of my two children, the wedding was great, but...

I prefer Almay for this reason.

I am considering doing the pre-order for a tablo dvr. I don't need it and it could be junk. If it was $100 I would have already ordered it. Its $231 shipped, with a year of guide data thrown in. I'd want to experiment with something before I committed to cutting the cord. For TIVO, if you...

I'll play (my back records are a bit spotty), retirement accounts only, I have company stock in taxable but that has been dedicated to the mortgage (almost dead), cars, projects, life. 0-100K: roughly 80 months 100K-200K: 30 months 200K-300K: 46 month (2008 was a huge factor) 300K-400K: 21...

I sometimes get automated scam calls saying my mastercard is compromised, just enter the number in the keypad. I will key in some random # starting with a 5 (mastercard=5, visa=4, amex=3) just to see what happens next, but they always ask me to re-enter. I am surprised that their phone...

Shows up as income (for aid purposes) to the kid and impacts the following year's aid. So the ideal scenario is grandpa funds the senior year.

I am not there yet, but I do have some concern that my wife may have too many suggestions about how I spend my time. She is a SAHM, so I also think about me "invading" her turf. We don't fight all that often, but it isn't all that pretty when it happens. May be a factor when I approach the...