[bibsoconner]

My apologies Flu. For some reason I thought all your kids were in college. I’m trying to make you older than you are :).

Like you, I’ve been pretty happy with Vanguard for my own retirement and mutual funds so I just went with them for the 529s. I went with the “age” funds where they start out almost all in stock and now (for my 12th grader) are almost all in cash/bonds.

Like you, I’m not particularly interested in gaming the system. I’m too lazy for those games and I think the money is needed for those less fortunate. I don’t consider getting residency in another state gaming the system. Besides living there for four years, based on my experience, one often ends up settling down near the university or grad school. If the kid has a condo in that state, he/she really does have a vested interest in that state and is paying into it (ex: property taxes).

However, my brief research indicates that it is not trivial to establish residency for purposes of in state tuition. I’d be interested to hear from folks whose kids are recently in university if they considered getting residency in another state and if they were successful.

[bibsoconner]

Hey everybody (especially Flu!) I’ve been following this thread with interest as I have a 12th, 10th, and 6th grader. Please post to the group as there is a lot of interest. I suspect there are a lot of lurkers like me that don’t bother to post political or cultural comments. We are just interested in useful info!

I have 529s (and Educational IRAs) via Vanguard. I’m not advocating this. It was just a painless path for me. The 529 is actually through Nevada and given that none of my kids have even a remote interest in moving to Nevada (can’t say I blame them 🙂 ) this seems sort of silly. If there are 529s that people like that give me some sort of cost advantage for Californian schools I’d like to know.

My own limited research is that for somebody like me (~240K/yr income) there is not a chance in hell of getting financial aid so I should max out on things like 529s. I mention this because I have heard arguments that the 529s will be counted against you for purposes of financial aid. That might be a concern for some. If folks have other tips to save for college, please share.

Finally, I’m particularly curious how folks with older kids (FLU, I’m talking to you!) got on with trying to get residency in other states to lower their tuition. Back in my day when dinosaurs roamed the earth, one could establish California residency (for example) after 1 year and thereby lower the tuition for UC Berkeley. You basically just had to get a driver’s license and maybe live with your aunt for the summer or have a part time job. My understanding is that it’s much, much harder now in every state but I’d like to be corrected by those who know. All of my kids are interested in California schools but one of them is also interested in University of Hawaii* and maybe University of Oregon. Turns out that University of Hawaii non-resident total cost is roughly the same as a University of California school resident cost. The resident cost of University of Hawaii is dirt cheap so hence my interest in what it takes to become a resident. Heck, it might even be worth buying a studio condo to get her residency. But again, I think most states have clamped down and make rules like “must have been there 3 years prior”.

Thanks!

*Yes, I’m well aware that University of Hawaii is not as prestigious as UC Berkeley or Santa Barbara. Whether one gets more out of a prestigious school or whether your results come from what you put into it yourself is a (long) topic for another thread!

[bibsoconner]

[quote=temeculaguy]CA is a mess, she’s that crazy porn star girlfriend you know is bad for you but you just can’t seem to break up with. I can’t leave, I’m a weather wimp, bug averse plus my kids and grandkids are here. I’m a cheap uber ride to golf, casinos and wineries. I cannot find that in any no state income tax places. Wish I could, so I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.[/quote]

“porn star girlfriend”…??? I want to be like temeculaguy!

[bibsoconner]

My tax bill was considerably lower (~5000 lower) too. I’m ready to become a Trump supporter. Do I just need to get a MAGA hat or do I need to rip children from their mothers’ arms and put them in cages? Perhaps just grabbing a woman inappropriately or threatening a Canadian would suffice? Whatever it takes.

[bibsoconner]

The Economist is predicting a US Recession for late/end 2019.

[bibsoconner]

I think what folks that are supporting Kavanaugh are missing are:
1) There are multiple reports of sexual harassment from different women. There are also reports from males and females of his excessive drinking. His testimony doesn’t seem credible given the amount of people that are contradicting him.
2) This is not a court of law and there is no “innocent until proven guilty” presumption. He is applying for a life time job. If you were going to have your house painted and I told you the painter was a scumbag, and then other people said disparaging things, would you still let him in your house? Clearly, I could be coordinating with others to slander this good painters name, but you certainly have the right to pick another painter. And I suspect most people would. And that’s for a fixed length job to paint your house!

Anyhow, food for thought and no, I don’t hate painters 🙂

[bibsoconner]

“I felt bad because I would never do something like that.”

That’s an easy problem to fix. Simply “do something like that”. On the rare occasions when I do something nice, I suspect it brings me at least as much joy as the recipient.

[bibsoconner]

I had good luck with McKeon Hardwood Floors (https://www.yelp.com/biz/mckeon-hardwood-floors-lakeside).

Get a few bids and compare. Be aware that the staining of hardwood floors is a very smelling affair and you’ll want to leave the house for several days.

[bibsoconner]

Flu,

I believe you are a member of Costco? They give car quotes for members. When I was looking the Costco quote was NOT the cheapest, but was a useful data point. I believe TrueCar was the cheapest quote I got. Like you, I then played several dealers off of one another. I agree with another poster that pointed out that at some point, it’s not worth your time to save a couple of hundred. I’d also add another point. Some dealers throw in free/discounted service for 60000 miles or whatever. This might be worthwhile but at that point, having a dealer that’s easy to get to becomes a consideration. I.e., paying a few hundred more and having the dealer close to you might be a good decision. Good luck!

[bibsoconner]

Aw, a macabre mental exercise for Monday morning. Rather than ask for “gut feelings”, perhaps it would be better to hit the actuary tables and a statistics book. I’d help but my statistics course is a distant memory. Too bad we don’t know some Statistics whiz… like perhaps a guy that has a blog about housing statistics 🙂

Anyhow, I’d be curious about the correct approach, but shouldn’t you be thinking in terms of “Expected Value”. For example if you’re 40 and the policy is for 30 years with a 1 million payout and the chances of death in that time are 10% wouldn’t the expected value be 100K? Then the question would be how much is it going to cost at $750 year. It’s certainly not just $22,500 as you could have been doing other things with the money. I realize there are a whole slew of complications (future value of 1 million comes to mind). By the way, all my figures are made up. I have no idea of your age, policy amount or the probability of death.

Perhaps another much lazier (I like lazy!) idea is this. Approach several insurance agents. Tell them that you have a policy that has another X years to go and pays out Y dollars. Ask them if they’d cut you a policy that could beat the current yearly payment. If the answer is “Heck no”, perhaps you have a good deal? I mention this because I recall that term life insurance is a good deal towards the end of the policy. The idea being that $750 a year for a 20 year old is a rip off but is a good deal for a 49 year old. Both because the the 49 year old is more likely to pop off and because $750 isn’t worth what it was at the beginning of the policy.

Well, with those cheery thoughts out of the way, I wish you a happy week!
Cheers

[bibsoconner]

XboxBoy,

Please, please post what you end up getting (model and place you purchased). I’m in a similar boat. FWIW, for work I tend to get Lenovo. My latest Thinkpad has a P7 SSD and 32 Gigs of Ram. I actually find the SSD and Ram give me more bang for the buck than the processor. As others stated the ThinkPads seems to take abuse well. This was about $2000

I need something simpler (and cheaper!) for home use. Like you, I’d like to be able to program on it. In my case Visual Studio. The 32 Gigs of ram is great, but suspect I could make do with 16. I’d be worried with less than that as Visual Studio, SQL Server Express, and other stuff I use tend to chew threw Ram. I don’t need a crazy fast gaming machine. 15″ seems like a good screen size. If I need more than that, I connect a monitor.

Cheers,
Dave

[bibsoconner]

Wish I could find the article (and please post if you have it), but basically the $2 chuck was presented to a wine reviewer as part of a blind test. He rated it the lowest. The presenter then said to the reviewer, “Does it change your opinion if I tell you that this wine is only $2?” His response: “People actually pay $2 for this stuff?”

You can probably guess I’m not a fan 🙂

To the other recommendations I’d add that for less than $6 you can get a Cameron Hughes Pinot Noir at Costco. Very good.

Cheers!

[bibsoconner]

Hello,

The original poster could be me! I’m also looking for a 15 year fixed. I’m currently in a 30 year, $300K loan at 4.125 APR if memory serves. I’m about 2 years in.

In other posts (example: http://piggington.com/mortgage_rates_going_down) Aimloan was recommended. Do the regulars still like this one? I’ve taken note of the provident and HLS recommendations.

Cheers,

Dave

[bibsoconner]

Flu, Carlsbad Costco? That’s the one I go to from work. Or should I say, used to go to before they started construction on their gas pump area. Now the long lines are completely unbearable. In general I agree with the original poster: Costco is not the great deal it once was. I’ve noticed that the meats have all gone up (they’ve gone up everywhere, but more so in Costco) and there aren’t as many deals. And the amount of folks that stand in the middle of the aisle thereby blocking all the other shoppers has gone up considerably. Luckily for them, they still have cheap kitty litter so I’m there for now!

[bibsoconner]

For a given house, it’s impossible to say definitely that fixing up the house results in a higher sales price that more than offsets the cost of the improvements. For that, you’d need two parallel universes where you do the improvements in one, and not in the other. That said, my gut feeling is that it often is worth putting some money into cosmetic things. Cracked floors or counters in the kitchen that might cost $4000 to fix might very well put a lot of buyers off even putting in an offer. Curiously, telling them that the roof is totally shot and might cost >10,000 doesn’t even phase them. I think it’s a case of things that are “in your face” have more of an emotional impact. So, I would take care of cosmetic stuff. That doesn’t mean do the best job possible. Perhaps nice, neutral linoleum and cheap cabinets? I was in your position and did the improvements, and while it’s hard to know, I really do think we more than recouped our money. I got to say though, I was sort of bummed when I heard the new owners were going to rip out the kitchen anyhow. Also, don’t forget the easy things: clean screens, remove overbearing plants (that you might love) and create space.

Good luck!

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