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It's $30 at Home Depot: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Clopay-21-in-Opener-Reinforcement-Bracket-Kit-4125479/100069364 It looks like a 10 minute job with a wrench and screw driver. -- Doug

I'm running 1Gb over cat 3 cable I installed in 1996. Short runs, less than 75 feet. Yes, I'm getting the full 1Gb. Usually, when I see slow downs to the 87Mb range, a patch cable only has four wires connected. Gb ethernet requires all 8 wires to be connected and will fall back to 100Mb...

I live in Texas. Hail is not rare. I've had my insurance company (same company for all of them) replace five roofs. They ranged in age from a couple of years to close to end of life. All replaced for full cost less deductible. The last one was the end of life one. One spring, we had a...

Because the policy had replacement cost coverage? Mine does and I paid extra for it. It also covers the cost of replacing stuff damaged in a fire or other insured event. Otherwise, you will get the depreciated value. For clothes and lots of other stuff, that can be close to zero. -- Doug

I'm a very DIY kinda guy, but after 7 years on Medicare, I contacted https://boomerbenefits.com. They are a Medicare broker. They were terrific. Very knowledgable about Advantage plans, supplement plans, the whole 9 yards. Also very patient and no pressure. I normally don't do brokers...

I have had a Medicare Advantage PPO for the last seven years. I'm mostly pleased, but I am healthy so far. Only the occasional checkups and screenings. For the first two years, I was with Blue Cross. I got pissed at them when they lost a claim I filed *seven* times. Never did get paid. I...

We're booked on the Sea Cloud from Dubrovnic to Naples in June. it's been postponed twice. And a Rhine river cruise is on my mind. -- Doug

The cruises are very different from the big ship cruises. There is no casino. Very little on board entertainment of any kind other than lectures by first rate experts on the area you are traveling. NatGeo photographers accompany most trips. Night life is slow. Maybe a movie with popcorn...

The story on all of them is pretty simple. DW and I are addicted to National Geographic Expeditions. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/ They are a major example of BTD, but we have never regretted a nickel of it. They have access to the most amazing places and people. Pitcairn...

North: 82º North, just short of the ice pack. South: Palmer Station, Antartica East: Agra, India West: Mount Everest (miss closing the world circle by about 300 miles) Highest: Pang La pass, Tibet (17,076 feet, breath taking in several ways) Lowest: Dead Sea (-1410 feet) Remote: Pitcairn...

When my dad died, he had a couple of thousand slides, I had about the same myself. I bought one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/224699378087?epid=1201596580&hash=item34512069a7:g:rygAAOSwdr1hew5E off eBay and scanned them myself. In total, it took about 6 weeks. The automatic slide feeder...

15 amp breakers only need 14 gauge wire. -- Doug

I grew up in Detroit. There are two kinds of people there, Lafayette people and those misguided types who go to American Coney Island next door. Recently, I took DW to Lafayette for the first time after talking about it for years. She said "This place looks like a dive." I said "Well...

Eh? Don't all for profit companies have that as their purpose? If banks provide a service that people are willing to pay for, how is that unethical? OK, I know some banks have unethical practices, e.g. Wells Fargo But that doesn't seem to be an intrinsic property of banking. -- Doug

I have a few fancy watches. Hardly ever wear them. My Apple watch is way more useful. They are *not* an investment. They're not scarce. More are made everyday. And the price difference between buying a new watch and selling a used one? Oh yeah. If you have saved long enough and hard...

Why? -- Doug

Not apples to apples. The SS 8% is guaranteed. 8% return these days would be very aggressive, thus very risky. -- Doug

My wife has a 2000 BMW M Roadster that she loves more than me. It has about 65K miles on it. We've found an excellent independent mechanic who is both cheaper and more trustworthy than the dealer. Keeping it running well only costs about $700 a year. But the car only gets about 2,000 miles...

Grandfather clocks ca. 1750, 1790, and 1900. All running. Chairs made by my multi-great grandfather, 1850, used daily. A bunch of Craftsman tools from the early 1970s. A Fluke multimeter from 1980 or so. Used it a few minutes ago. -- Doug

DW literally woke up one morning and said "I want a BMW 640." So we went to the dealer and drove a 2016 BMW 640 Gran Coupe home. Not the greatest negotiating position but we both love it. We saved all our lives and paid cash without any dent in the retirement plan. So why not? To answer...

*Do Not* look at it side by side with an OLED TV. Don't even look at an OLED. It will be expensive. My plasma died in 2015 and I replaced with an LG OLED. I was blown away. -- Doug

That is the purpose of the bucket system. It was invented by Harold Evansky, a financial planner, as a tool for managing his clients. When they call him up in a panic he can say "You're good for X years. Do you think these troubles will last that long?" As a number of folks have pointed out...

Why would I want to know? That's the kind of thinking that leads to panic selling. In 2008, I was shredding my brokerage statements without opening them. What I know is that I've got 7 years of withdrawals in low volatility assets. Much more than 7 if travel stays curtailed. I'll stick...

Depends on what you bought. A mutual fund order will execute after the next market close at the closing price. If it's a mutual index fund, no. You got it at this afternoon's close. If it's an ETF index, it probably executed somewhere near this morning's open. -- Doug

You nailed the core of the problem. Varying levels of lock down vary the rate of growth of the virus "the exponent". But we don't have near enough information to do that calculation with any precision. Too much lock down and we either have a dead economy or a rebound in the virus because not...