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  1. dandan14

    DVR - What to buy and what can it record

    You may want to look into Tablo -- but it is made for OTA signals -- not to record streaming.
  2. dandan14

    Who Are Your Friends?

    Ha, I had to google it. Retired Old Men Eating Out! (I may not qualify officially -- but I could show an AARP card if that gets me in!) haha It doesn't look like there is a group in my area, but I've slowly built up a Friday morning coffee crew. I look forward to that. I've also met a lot of...
  3. dandan14

    Annual streaming costs

    We averaged $28/month. A lot of that was Netflix -- which is pretty much a constant. Others included Paramount Plus -- and "with commercials" promo deals on Hulu and Peacock. I didn't carve out a separate line item for Prime Video (it is wrapped into Amazon Prime yearly cost.)
  4. dandan14

    I "made" $65K today. Why am I having a hard time donating to charity???

    Interestingly enough, I had a similar talk with my wife this week over just spending $300 on a new phone -- because I don't really need it. I decided to try something. I'm going to setup a budget. If I give myself permission to spend x per month in different categories, maybe that will help...
  5. dandan14

    Bob Brinker just called it quits! Marketimer is gone!

    Now you'll have to switch over to Clark Howard. He's still putting out daily content after 30+ years. It is a little more consumer oriented, but he's always been my favorite. "Save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off!"
  6. dandan14

    Looking for that elusive PURPOSE in retirement

    I suggest a local service org (Rotary, Kiwanis, etc). They typically bring in a speaker once a week from a local nonprofit. I’ve found that being exposed to a large number of local nonprofits has been a great way to explore how I can help and get involved.
  7. dandan14

    Investment money increase / Haircuts

    I love it!!! Let me see....my wife has been cutting my hair for about 16 years. I remember how scared she was the first time she did it! She's great at cutting hair now, so my kids have never had a "paid for" haircut. Based on my kids ages, I just calculated 492 haircuts saved. Assuming an...
  8. dandan14

    Term life insurance needed in retirement?

    This is key. If one spouse dying reduces the income (whether it be a pension or Social Security), it can be important to insure that income. For example, in the US, let's say spouse 1 gets $2500/month in SS. Spouse 2 gets $1500. Total income is $4000. If either spouse dies, the higher...
  9. dandan14

    Does Term Life Insurance make sense for us?

    OP, I think you are thinking about things correctly -- for the most part. A couple of questions: What is your current cost of living? Does your wife get SS in addition to her pension? Do you have long term care insurance? Since you will be 61 in 18 months, I'm assuming you are 59 now. This...
  10. dandan14

    Personal finance course

    If you have time, I would suggest teaching them how to work problems using a financial calculator (like the HP 10bII which can now be bought for <$30). Once they have this skill, they can calculate the answer to almost all of the financial "whether it is better to do x or y" or "how much...
  11. dandan14

    Are you frugal or a cheap b@$t@rd?

    Our local foodbank makes their purchases through "America's Second Harvest" (secondharvest.org).
  12. dandan14

    Are you frugal or a cheap b@$t@rd?

    For the last few years, I've made a deal with my girlfriend. We buy each other a thoughtful gift of around $10 and then we make a donation together to a needy cause. There are several organizations that allow you to purchase animals/livestock for needy villages around the world. As an...
  13. dandan14

    How do other VERY young dreamers plan?

    I'm in a similar boat, just a little further down the road. I've been working full time for about 10 years and was exactly where you are now 8-10 years ago. I've done analysis out the wazoo, but like you say, there are a lot of variables. The best thing you can do is sock it away as hard as you...
  14. dandan14

    leverage techniques

    Personally, I wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole, but my brother has played in this arena quite a bit. Basically, what he does is look for houses that appraise for higher than the sales price -- or that he thinks will appraise a lot higher with minimal work. With the instant paper equity...
  15. dandan14

    Starting a business talking to young adults about finances?

    Now that is an interesting idea! I wonder what would be the best way to reach the college students/young adults and their parents, and in what form the instruction would be delivered. In response to an earlier comment about Junior Achievement, I have taught JA for a few semesters but felt their...
  16. dandan14

    Offered a "free" MBA

    I did this a few years ago at UNC-CH (not a top 10 school, but usually in the top 20 depending on the poll). It cost me about $50k when it was all said and done. Besides the tuition, the other costs you should consider are: 1. Daytime or Executive (night/weekend)? The impact to your personal...
  17. dandan14

    Starting a business talking to young adults about finances?

    Exactly. That's why in the 3 monetizing models I listed above, none would be paid for by the young adults. It's those people who won't or can't pay for advice that need it the most, whether they realize that or not. So the trick is figuring out how to get one of those models (maybe there are...
  18. dandan14

    Starting a business talking to young adults about finances?

    Interesting idea. More of what I had in mind, however, was talking to 18-25 year olds in those years when they are getting on their feet financially and forming the habits that will keep them out of credit counseling in the future. I did an interesting experiment a few years ago where I took...
  19. dandan14

    Starting a business talking to young adults about finances?

    Hello fellow FIREers: I've grown increasingly ready to leave the corporate world and have been thinking more and more about an idea I came up with a few years ago. I thought I'd throw this out there to you all to see if I could solicit some ideas. Basically I'd like to take the concepts that...
  20. dandan14

    The "Bond" portion of my portfolio

    I currently have 23% of my portfolio in bonds. That 23% is divided between govt bonds and a mix of high/low grade corporate bonds. I hold most of these in tax sheltered accounts. My question is this.... I have recently seen some 3yr and 5yr CDs paying 6%, and I'm really tempted to buy some of...
  21. dandan14

    CD Rates

    Dang! Interesting how their <5 year CDs aren't above average, but the 5 yr really jumps up there.
  22. dandan14

    I want out of my cube!

    I totally agree with the networking advice. I've been in this situation recently, and both of the offers I got came as a direct result of networking. I had absolutely no luck with replying to job postings on job boards, job fairs, etc. I picked up a book at the library recently called "A Foot...
  23. dandan14

    Like Father Like Son???

    This is an interesting thread, and something I was thinking about recently. My dad was really the one who broke the trend. My dad and I have very similar statistics. Grandfather: Farmer Married at 21, 5 children Three homes in his lifetime (childhood, family life, and when the kids moved...
  24. dandan14

    Arbitrary Savings Goals

    Yes, I definitely have arbitrary savings goals, but they are only loosely tied to my retirement goals. For me, retirement is still 20 years away, so I set achievable short and medium term goals (goal for this year, goal for the next few years, etc.) For the last 5 years or so, my brother and I...
  25. dandan14

    Finding local investment clubs?

    Thought I would post an update to this. I did go to the NAIC (a.k.a BetterInvesting) meeting last week. I have to say, I wasn't impressed. There were only about 6-7 people there, and two of those worked for (or volunteered with) Better Investing. They were basically pushing this software that...
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