Blow That Dough - 2022

[NW-Bound]

Wow. If you add in $350K equity in the house, I'm just over the $4 million mark. To quote Talking Heads, "And you may ask yourself...how did I get here?"

My day-to-day needs and wants are pretty modest. I do two major trips per year and that's enough for me. I fly Business Class on long-hauls but that's an easier decision when you're not spending that for two passengers. Thankful to have no needy relatives but I do throw some $$ at DS and DDIL every year (they don't ask for it or need it) and put money in the 529s for my 3 grandchildren. Maybe I'll step up the latter next year- I'm already giving about 25% of my AGI to charity and could cut that back.

The charity part is fun- I do a few major gifts but also donations of $200 to a lot of other causes.

I can't throw that net worth number around to too many people. Good to have some who understand.

I recall you posted somewhere that the bulk of your assets is in IRA/401k. I have the same situation, due to having to spend my after-tax accounts prior to 59-1/2. Around 75% of my portfolio is in tax-deferred accounts.

In a few years when you hit RMD you will have fun BTD on taxes particularly as a single person.

I am doing a lot of Roth conversion with the remaining years I have left. If you cannot escape a high tax bracket, might as well pay early and have that money in Roth so it can grow.

 

[COcheesehead]

My one vice (I hope I only have one) is vintage wine. Wineries only ship in the cooler seasons so we now have boxes of wine arriving almost every week. My wife thinks we have too much. I of course do not share that same opinion.

 

[audreyh1]

I hope you have a good place to store it, LOL! My Eurocave is always overflowing.

 

[COcheesehead]

I hope you have a good place to store it, LOL! My Eurocave is always overflowing.

Well that is always the challenge.

I have two wine fridges, an overflow rack tucked away in the den closet and another secret cupboard spot. When those are all full, I know I need to stop for awhile.

 

[omni550]

No, that seems short. I don’t have any reason to expect an EV to cause a shorter tire life.

EVs typically go through tires faster.....

https://motorandwheels.com/electric-cars-go-through-tires-faster/


omni

 

[audreyh1]

EVs go through tires faster.....

https://motorandwheels.com/electric-cars-go-through-tires-faster/


omni

Doesn’t that assume you always accelerate much faster? You don’t have to. I rarely do.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Looking at a Glock 34 MOS for home and Target use. (My Favorite Competition Pistol from my younger days)

I would like a Foldable MOS Sight too. I am vacillating a little while I check and learn all about MOS options.

 

[omni550]

Doesn’t that assume you always accelerate much faster? You don’t have to. I rarely do.

#1 Heavier weight (battery packs are heavy)

#2 Increased torque

Per the article.... "The expected lifespan of EV tires lasts between 30,000 miles to 40,000 miles, so you’ll have to spend more money on tires for an electric car. It is the price to pay for its enhanced performance."

omni

 

[MRG]

I’m just back from Italy and I want an Espresso machine now. Which one are getting/ recommend?

The other machine to check out are Breville. I haven't paid much attention to them general wisdom from the espresso forums is don't use their built-in grinder.

 

[MRG]

15,500 miles?

I'm about to replace the original tires on my F-150 after 75,000 miles.

You must be doing something strange with that Tesla...

Our roads are rough. It's also a performance model.[emoji41] It's not the technology it's how you use it. There was some tread left but going into winter in this climate it's foolish to try to save dollars.

 

[Koolau]

That is exactly what happened when DW dumped her 1998 Caddy with the cursed Northstar engine.


She loved the new car with adaptive cruise control and bluetooth.

I was thrilled when I bought my used 2000 Buick in 2012. It had my first "button" key entry (push the button and the doors unlock!)

 

[Koolau]

A couple of decades ago when my parents were still around they were considering getting a new and smaller fuel efficient car to save on the price of gas. At the time they had a large Lincoln Town Car that was in great shape with very low mileage (about 50k miles) since they didn't drive much. I was able to talk them out of it since more metal around them was safer and it would take decades to just break even. Ten years later they stopped driving so I offered to buy the car for the Blue Book value. By then it had 75k miles. They probably saved about $25k.

Cheers!

Yeah, it's probably not possible to come out ahead by trading cars for better gas mileage. A "cream puff" like a nice Town Car with 50K on it uses more gas than, say a Prius, but the Town Car is already paid for. You gotta save a LOT of gas to make such a trade worth while. I made that calculation on my Buick. It only gets about 20 mpg for most of my driving (in town.) But it's paid for and (so far) is reliable even though it's 22 years old. Oh, and it's gets over 30 mpg on the Hwy. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

I don't have $100,000 cars, but I have 2 Model 3's, one was $49,500 and the other 52K. Haven't had an ICE car since 2018, and I'm saving 4K or so a year not paying for gasoline. It adds up pretty fast. The total saved is about 18K so far.

If I lived somewhere else besides CA the amount would be more like 13.5K or so.

I just went over in my mind the cars I've bought since my first car (ca 1964.) So far, I haven't spent 100K! I thought that must be wrong, but I checked again - admittedly, I'm going from memory. Also, money spent in 1970s is numerically smaller but the dollars were worth more. Still, I think it's an interesting calculation to review. I actually like cars, but as I get older, I find it more difficult to spend a lot on them (How likely am I to wear out a $100K car at my age?)

 

[Koolau]

Glad you asked.

Last charged at home in March of 2021. Tomorrow I complete 20 months of driving on free fuel.

I average a couple charges in Pasadena and a couple plug ins at the Volta chargers a week.

Plug in, get lunch or dinner, and drive off with a smile.

Curious how many miles you drive per year. Free charging at a relatively slow rate would limit that unless you have home charging or paid charging.

We too have "free" (2 stalls) at our Costco parking lot - not Volta. The signs say you are supposed to only charge for one hour but I have no idea if the system shuts off. IIRC the chargers are equivalent to a home charger that runs on 240 volts so (IIRC) that's maybe 20 miles/hour??

 

[Luvtoride]

Easy and not BTD is a Nespresso unit because it does all the work and produces beautiful espresso. The pods do add up over time. If you want to go all out from scratch then the sky is the limit and quite a learning curve. Lots of options so you’re better off reviewing espresso sites.

I have a nespresso machine now which I enjoy but rarely use the milk frother I got with it.
After watching the Italian Baristas working these gargantuan espresso machines (I don’t need one that big) I was thinking if there is a decent home version machine I would consider buying it (a hobby in retirement?).
That’s also hoping my DW “allows” me to clutter up our kitchen counter with another coffee machine. Lol

 

[Luvtoride]

Oh boy. Espresso is a rabbit hole beware!

I started with an ECM Casa V that heated water to 200°f. Unfortunately our water boils at 197° and it was a mess. I upgraded to a Profitec Pro 300 as its a double boiler with a PID(thermostat for the boiler) so I can adjust the temperature. Works well but I'm getting interested in some features it doesn't have (pre-infusion, flow control....) the machine I'm looking at now: Profitec Pro 700, Lelit Bianca, and the Decent espresso machine.

The first two are traditional espresso machines with some minor programming abilities. The Decent is a completely different machine, smaller more compact, and it's driven by technology. Instead of buttons and levers there's a tablet that is the UI and controls aspects of extraction that no other machines can. If you are interested I'd suggest going to the Barista Forum for some good recommendations. Based upon how you use the machine and how many drinks you make will help determine the class of machine.

MRG, wow, thanks for the detailed explanation. There’s a barista forum here on ER? I will have to check it out. Good luck with your search and let us know which one you get.

I’m going thru Coffee withdrawal back here in The US. I went into a small independent coffee shop in NYC yesterday to get a macchiato and a croissant to mimic my Italian breakfasts…took way too long and cost $8 vs. immediate service and 3-4 Euros for much better versions in Italy. Why can Italians serve coffee so cheap??

 

[Luvtoride]

The other machine to check out are Breville. I haven't paid much attention to them general wisdom from the espresso forums is don't use their built-in grinder.

That’s a good suggestion as their appliances are generally readily obtainable at reasonable cost at many retailers. Perhaps a “starter” machine to try it out.

 

[audreyh1]

I have a nespresso machine now which I enjoy but rarely use the milk frother I got with it.
After watching the Italian Baristas working these gargantuan espresso machines (I don’t need one that big) I was thinking if there is a decent home version machine I would consider buying it (a hobby in retirement?).
That’s also hoping my DW “allows” me to clutter up our kitchen counter with another coffee machine. Lol

We don’t use frothed milk in our espresso. I drink the Nespresso black. DH may put a splash of heavy cream in his.

To do espresso right you’ll need a high quality grinder as well as the espresso machine, plus accessories like knock box, good quality heavy tamper, etc. This ends up taking some serious space. The grind has to be fine enough and properly tamped to get that gorgeous crema that makes espresso taste so good, so the high quality grinder is essential.

We had a fully plumbed in espresso machine long ago. It was quite large for home - a smaller commercial grade unit and took over our wet bar. DH became quite the barista including the latte art. I even got into roasting our own coffee beans. The coffee was just outstanding. We enjoyed it for many many years, but sold it when we moved. These days we’re content with Nespresso and Keurig machines. DH kept his ceramic burr grinder and we use it now to grind the beans for our Keurig reusable filters.

There are lots and lots of home machines of all sorts of price points and quality and ease of use. Not easy to pick one obvious choice but I haven’t looked in a very long time.

 

[athena53]

In a few years when you hit RMD you will have fun BTD on taxes particularly as a single person.

I am doing a lot of Roth conversion with the remaining years I have left. If you cannot escape a high tax bracket, might as well pay early and have that money in Roth so it can grow.

Yes, you're right. I'm doing a Roth conversion this year but most years I ended up in the 22% marginal bracket so didn't bother. My SS plus $1,800/month in pensions plus mutual fund distributions plus any realized gains from selling securities makes it impossible to "manage" my taxable income very much. Good problem to have, I know. I've been shifting to ETFs in the after tax account to avoid CG distributions.

I get a very detailed Monte Carlo analysis from UBS and just re-ran it. It does include tax impacts including RMDs although we all know tax laws can change. Next year I can do QCDs and that will help.

My one vice (I hope I only have one) is vintage wine.

Mine is scotch whisky. No storage problems! I've never gone over $100 for a bottle- I don't think I'd notice the difference and I'd be reluctant to drink it. On a whim I bought some Benriach "Smoky 10" at a store in SC- it tickled my feminist heart to see that the Master Blender was a woman. REALLY good stuff. I was happy to see that my local liquor superstore carries many varieties of Benriach, but I'm gonna skip the $999/bottle variety.

 

[MRG]

MRG, wow, thanks for the detailed explanation. There’s a barista forum here on ER? I will have to check it out. Good luck with your search and let us know which one you get.

I’m going thru Coffee withdrawal back here in The US. I went into a small independent coffee shop in NYC yesterday to get a macchiato and a croissant to mimic my Italian breakfasts…took way too long and cost $8 vs. immediate service and 3-4 Euros for much better versions in Italy. Why can Italians serve coffee so cheap??

Here's the barista forum link. It's a separate website.

https://www.home-barista.com/forums/

 

[donheff]

I'm making the final payment on our trip to Antarctica. I'm not even going to post the amount, suffice it to say a lot.

 

[Ronstar]

I bought a windshield wiper kit for my Polaris Ranger that cost about 4 times as much as my first car.

 

[street]

I bought a windshield wiper kit for my Polaris Ranger that cost about 4 times as much as my first car.

LOL! I like that comparison. The heavy wet snow will be here soon need to get ready.

 

[audreyh1]

I'm making the final payment on our trip to Antarctica. I'm not even going to post the amount, suffice it to say a lot.

Yeah, 5 figures I’m sure!

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Purchased the Glock 34 MOS I was lusting after and a MOS Sight for it. Very hard to find them in stock around these parts.