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We're childless over planners and are scheduled to move into our CCRC apartment in late 2024. We took care of two parents for over 12 years and we've "seen the movie". It's a 2-bedroom unit (1950 sq ft) with a study and a one car garage and is currently being built. The price was around 320K...

The Feds policy reminds me of the old Air Force saying. "Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a pencil and cut it with an ax"

Much like your signature, we've grown accustomed to our frugal ways and simple lifestyle. We don't have kids so no one to leave the riches to. We're converting to ROTHs and suspect that the future CCRC living medical deductibility will shelter some of the funds from the government. We will...

Thanks to a pension and frugal ways, our withdrawals have been zero. SS at age 70 along with pension will cover 160 percent of our expenses. We've been fortunate and we need to loosen the purse strings a bit. Our move to a CCRC in 2025 will create some new expenses, however.

Like many here, my BP started to rise in my mid-fifties. Lisinopril 5mg was prescribed and it worked well until 10 years later. My VA doctor bumped me to 10mg and at the same time ordered a sleep study. The prognosis was moderate to severe sleep apnea. Now, after one year on a CPAP I'm back...

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund

My late Father was a home building contractor circa 1950-1980. The average house size in his business area was probably between 1000 and 1500 sq ft. His repeat business would be people in their 40s with 2-3 teenagers and they usually wanted MUCH bigger houses because they were feeling cramped...

I'm slowly converting to Roths as well. I'm a little concerned that Congress will dream up an exotic transactional tax that will nail me when I withdraw money...if ever. Example of government thinking: When I was stationed at McGuire AFB in NJ years ago, I used military aero club planes to...

I use a dedicated Chromebook, VPN, and a Yubi key for financial transactions.

I wish you the best! I pretty much did the same thing at my house as well. My experience has mostly been with fiber optic to the desktop as I previously worked for the Defense dept with classified networks. The military was anal about copper and its propensity for crosstalk on copper-based...

This a head-scratcher for sure. I believe I would run a direct (homerun) RG-6 coax cable from the box on the side of your house from Spectrum's connection directly into your modem. Run it through a window if you have to. This would eliminate all COAX wiring problems within your house. If the...

It really sounds like you have a layer one problem. (IOWs either ethernet or COAX connections) Any correlation between wet weather and poor Internet connectivity? I think I'd replace the RG-6 coax cable from the modem to the wall. If that doesn't improve your situation, I'd replace the RG-6...

One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink, it exploded into flames. The alarm went out to the fire departments from miles around. When the volunteer firefighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire...

My DW would never allow me to stock a bunch of parts for various systems as she's a minimalist and is constantly trying to pilfer my garage artifacts. I do keep capacitors for the system as these are most prone to failure. If the heat goes out, we'd have to vamoose to the "Bat Cave" ... our...

I'm a newbie to CPAP as I've been using it for 10 nights now. 19 incidents per hour are now down to 3. I just can't seem to sleep more than 5 hours with it, however. I do feel much better and do sleep sounder. In case you folks are unaware, there is an at-home sleep study now. No need...

Me too!

8.2% YTD. Thanks, WD-40 and Clorox for taking one for the team.

Nice interview with an expat military widow that moved to Portugal and bought a house. I believe she spent 350K euros on a 2 bedroom apartment. https://www.poppinsmoke.com/expat-retiree-profile-american-moving-to-portugal/

Replaced the pump assembly on my Generac pressure washer.

I tend to agree. Other than term life insurance in our productive years, anything else with the "I" word in it, is just not worth it after 65 years of age.

Same boat as you. I took a lower coverage a few years ago, but will likely drop it in 2023....just a feeling JH will go for a huge increase in premium.

On a lighter note... My 94-year-old FIL has been through the assisted living experience and is now in a nursing home. He's very sharp and is worried about his finances. He asked my DW about this subject and how long he could afford his nursing home costs. She replied that he had enough...

I'm retired military and recently turned 65. You must sign up for Medicare A and B or your Tricare for Life will not start. You'll also need a new military ID as yours will be dated to expire at 65. The new ID will be indefinite. I believe I'm paying $144.00 per month for Medicare. As for...

I like the Equate brand from Walmart. 30g of protein with 160 calories. The caramel and vanilla flavors are my favorites. For me, they're more of a snack versus a meal replacement.

My standard answer when people ask me why I smile so much: I'm too stupid to do otherwise. Seriously, being an introvert, I'm happy and really don't miss the "stores". Our travel plans for the future have come into doubt and that's a bit of a downer. DW is the extrovert and this has affected...