Search results

We visited the wife's family this past thanksgiving and during the trip her mother wanted to pass down some family furniture. This coffee table was made by her grand uncle for her aunt, and then was passed on to her mother (when the aunt died). I'm really impressed with the workmanship. I can't...

Does anybody have experience with dental insurance obtained through CoveredCA (the california ACA health exchange) and can speak to the pros or cons? or have researched this and have opinions on whether the insurance is worth purchasing? if you have purchased a plan, how did you choose the...

Just heard that California passed AB 72 which eliminates surprise billing from an out-of-network provider at an in network facility: Audio: Measure to prevent 'surprise' medical bills heads to Gov. Brown | 89.3 KPCC...

I've always loved having plants and now that I'm not living out of our car, we can actually have some greenery. I saw this TED talk by Kamal Meattle on using plants to improve the air: https://www.ted.com/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air?language=en I figure, if I'm going...

Tl;dr Quit work and sold home in San Jose. Traveled for 2 years across the US and Canada to look for a cheaper/better FIRE location. Ended up back in California (San Diego). This is going to be a long post, but I'm hoping it will be of interest to those looking to move as part of their FIRE...

While having my coffee this morning, I googled life expectancy calculators and input my data: https://www.myabaris.com/tools/life-expectancy-calculator-how-long-will-i-live/ No need to enter your contact info to get results. Just close the popup box and it will display in your browser...

Anybody know where to find a complete list? The only thing I could find was: https://www.ishares.com/us/capital-gains-distributions which was missing a bunch of ETFs like IJJ, IJS, EFV, IEUS, SCZ, etc. And this link...

On the road today listening to podcasts and I found out about a program (SmartShopper) that pays health care patients to use the cheapest provider when having a medical procedure done. In one example, they directed a patient to a cheaper MRI option (cost = $450) versus a hospital (cost = $1000)...

I thought this was a very good article (although somewhat technical) about how backtesting can fail or mislead: 9 Mistakes Quants Make that Cause Backtests to Lie by Tucker Balch, Ph.D. | Quantopian Blog I never did any backtesting with financial/stock data (beyond running FIRECALC etc), but I...

My wife occasionally enters various contests/sweepstakes/etc. I don't have the patience for this and due to my cynical nature I generally assume they're all scams (like McDonalds Monopoly). However, DW just found out today that she won $1750 (in gift cards) for CostPlus world market. This was...

Wife and I have been discussing how much space we need for a home and she showed me this short clip from portlandia: Small homes/condos are appealing to us but I think we'd need to stay above 500 sq ft or so.

I'm looking for an app (preferable android, but IOS is also an option) that my wife can use for tracking her weight training sessions. Basically all we want is something that can record the exercise, weight setting and number of reps. We've downloaded a few but they seem overly complex for what...

My wife renewed her policy on CoveredCA two weeks ago for 2015 and we were a bit surprised to find that this resulted in her current policy being canceled. I.e. no coverage for december. Our only warning was that BlueShield did not withdraw the monthly premium for december. There was no letter...

I just noticed a thanks button on the web version of this site (after being a member for years :facepalm: ). However I don't see it on the IOS or Android apps -- is it not available or am I just missing it.

Anybody here trying to optimize fuel efficiency on long distance driving trips? I've recently done a few trips with cruise control and got the following approximate MPG on my honda element: 25mpg @70-75mph 30mpg @60-65mph Although I knew driving faster reduced efficiency, I was surprised at...

My bro got a new iPhone 6 and went DIY/LBYM on the case!

Yesterday I made a trip down to goodwill and I bought a pair of nice shoes for $4. I've never bought clothes from a second hand store before (although I've donated a lot) and I was surprised at how nice some stuff can be and how inexpensive it is. I think there's a limited amount I can save...

Do I need an existing Roth IRA to do conversions from a trad IRA (or can we open one as part of the conversion even in a year with no earned income)? Also, would there be any advantage to opening multiple roth IRAs while we still have earned income? I think the answer to both questions is no...

Today we closed escrow on our house, one of the last steps to extricating ourselves from the bay area. However, now we've got a big chunk of cash lying around doing nothing (roughly 250k additional) and our portfolio was already cash heavy. So the question is what should we do with this money...

Just curious to see if folks know what their overall expense ratio is for their portfolio. Last time I checked, I was at 0.237% ER for everything (cash 14%, bonds 9%, & stocks 77%). Lowest fund were at 0.07% for vbtix / vfiax. Highest expense ratio was for brsix (bridgeway ultra small cap) at...

For all the doom and gloom going around in the news, I don't see it in my local economy (San Jose). I walk my dog at least twice a day and I always see packed restaurants and large lines at starbucks etc. Is this just bias on my part or are other people seeing the same thing?

Hello everyone. I've been reading this forum as a lurker for a while and thought I should introduce myself. In a nutshell, I am 37, married, no kids but have a dog. I did my engineering degree in canada, came to the US for grad school, met my wife, got a job (under NAFTA visa), and liked...