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I figure someone here has dealt with this before... I got a letter from Vanguard last week telling me I need to do a restatement of my individual 401(k). At first I didn't understand it, but after some internet investigating I see that it's and IRS requirement to make sure that the plan complies...

My MIL announced this week that she is ready to sell the family home and move to Charleston to live near my BIL, SIL and the grandkids. She has in mind that a continuing care retirement community would be best because she "only wants to move once." From my initial searching around, CCRCs sound...

I've been seeing a dietitian for some health issues and she recommends Juice Plus to her clients. It seems like a decent product but it's multi-level marketed (i.e., she gets a commission when I buy it) and I hate stuff like that. Some searching around turned up at least one other similar...

It was actually a few days ago, but what a great day! Funny, too - I called to find out how to make the final payment, assuming they'd have to send paperwork or we'd have to go into a branch. Turns out you can make the final payment over the phone, they just transfer the money from your checking...

It's been about a year since we had a new furnace installed and the company called yesterday wanting to know if we want to schedule the annual maintenance. It's $134 for them to do a 21-pt checklist that's mostly checking and clean/dust various parts. I'm sure we normally wouldn't bother...

I read the book Getting Things Done last week and started working with the system this week, and I'm shocked at how much of a difference it's making. The book is from the late 90's and I'm sure the author (David Allen) made millions going into companies and giving seminars so there must be...

I'm looking for a countdown timer to add to my desktop, but I'm running Vista and there doesn't seem to be an official widget available. DH looked around and after initially downloading some malware that was caught by our anti-virus software, he found one that seems clean from softpedia. But...

What's the deal with the CNBC ad that keeps showing up at the bottom of my screen? If I close it, the wheel on my mouse will no longer move me up and down the page, and the ad reappears as soon as I go to a new page anyway. And now I'm really annoyed - I hovered the mouse over the ad for too...

DH recently brought home some chocolate chip cookies, and I've been warming mine up in the microwave before I eat them. But the odd thing is that when I heat one up, the microwave makes a kind of rattling/crackling sound for maybe half a second partway through the 10 seconds of heating. I put...

I left a small plastic bottle of hand sanitizer in my car the other day. The bottle was inside another bag, so it wasn't in the direct sunlight but it was about 85 degrees and sunny all day. When I retrieved it, the bottle was expanded as though it had been at altitude, and the plastic seemed...

I work as an independent contractor doing data analysis for various clients. I'm looking for advice about what to do (if anything) as I finish up a project for a new client. I was called in to analyze some data and draft a report. At Client's insistence, we agreed on a lump sum rather than...

DH is looking for a new electric razor. Any recommendations? He tends to have trouble getting a close shave, the 5 o'clock shadow starts early.

Anyone else following this? Gates made a speech yesterday about DOD budget cuts and mentioned the possibility of raising premiums for retirees "of working age." Which I hope will be us in a few years :coolsmiley: Has there been talk of increasing premiums in the past? Is this something that...

We had our house treated for termites in May, both drywood and subterranean. From everything I was able to learn, both kinds are very common here (coastal southern california). Fast forward to this week, when I noticed that our back patio (10x12, concrete pavers) has a bunch of what look little...

Our 40-yr-old furnace died this past winter, and we're finally getting around to replacing it. I've had 4 people out to give estimates, and they all said the same thing - small house, so 40K BTU is fine, and the biggest challenge is finding something that will fit in the very narrow closet that...

DH has an iPod shuffle that's a couple years old. No problems with it. But yesterday, when he plugged it into the computer to charge, the orange light flashed 3 times and then stopped, and the computer said it didn't recognize the device. Trying again, rebooting, etc., didn't help. Any ideas?

A few months ago, my sister and my parents installed engineered hardwood flooring in my sister's 3rd floor condo. The sub-floor is concrete and they used what they thought was a higher quality soundproofing layer (from the floor retailer), then the flooring. The boards get glued together but not...

This isn't urgent, but it annoys me so I thought I'd see if anyone here has some insight into the problem. Our local phone company, AT&T, says they can't provide DSL service at our address. I think they said they could provide phone service. The weird thing is, we live in a densely populated...

I was reading a fairly recent thread about VOIP phone services, and I'm leaning toward converting to Ooma from Cox Cable, our current provider. Those that have Ooma, are you still happy several months later? I also have a question about setup. My cable modem (which I'd keep for DSL) comes...

The thread on cold calls for charity/politics made me think of the kids who come to my door several times per year selling magazines. I've usually played along and listened to their pitch (which always seems to start with something about practicing their communications skills) but only succumbed...

I've been trying to get set up as an independent contractor, and established an LLC this year for liability and greater credibility with clients. I don't intend to ever grow the business beyond myself, so incorporating seemed like overkill. I had some income this year from contracting (two...

I was working on our taxes today and discovered that for 2009 (and forward) we will be better off with the standard deduction than itemizing. Which is really fun because I associate that with retired people who have little or no mortgage (we plan to pay ours off) We actually still have 9...

When DH and I first started investing (1998), we didn't know anything and went all into an S&P 500 managed fund (:frown:) and then wised up a little and switched to an S&P index. Then I read about diversification and we started putting money into small cap and international indexes. Ten years...

If you share videos with friends or family online, how do you do it? I occasionally take short videos with our digital camera, and would like to share them with family and friends along with the online photos that we send through Picasa. As I understand it, video files are too large for Picasa...

My dad helped us install our dishwasher a few years ago (maybe 2003?) and we didn't know to put an air gap in the line. But we didn't have any problems, either. Then a year or so ago when we were living elsewhere and renting out the house, there was some kind of (unrelated) water leak under the...