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July 31, 2020 at 10:05 AM in reply to: Any clever workarounds to get new mortgage pricing on a cashout refi #819062
OwnerOfCalifornia
ParticipantToo bad about loan cabin…as of this writing, they’re advertising 1.75% and 0 points (not necessarily the same thing as $0 cost) for a 15-year refi. I submitted online three days ago, haven’t heard from them yet. I think all these internet places, while offering crazy teaser rates, are just massively swamped.
I just closed a refi for 2.625% 15-year in April (about net-$500 out-of-pocket) and thought that was nuts.
October 2, 2019 at 9:12 AM in reply to: Charles Schwab just dropped trading commissions to $0 #813696ParticipantTD Ameritrade just matched, as expected:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/td-ameritrade-joins-party-cuts-232459946.html
August 7, 2019 at 12:27 PM in reply to: window cleaning, solar panel cleaning, pool servicing, grill cleaning #813155Participant[quote=flu]How often do solar panels need to get cleaned. I am assuming not that often?[/quote]
I tested this once a couple years ago. The following is mostly not scientific.
I waited for two sequential identical weather days in June (temperature, humidity, cloudless, duration of sunlight on array, etc.) At the end of day 1, I got up on my roof and thoroughly hosed off my panels. The result was ~ 8% increase in generation on day 2, which for my system was about $0.32 / day of electricity.
No telling how fast the panels would get dirty again, probably pretty quick in the summer, meaning you’d have to get up there kinda often if you were OCD about it. I decided that’s not worth my time and safety (walking around on my roof), and the winter rainy season was sufficient.
ParticipantI think there is a very long answer to this. SDG&E offers several EV-TOU rates, but I’m not well versed in many of them. I know the best one for someone with a small solar system (net consumer) or no system at all, is EV-TOU-5. It has a super-off-peak rate of $0.09 / kW-h, but comes with a fixed $16 / month fee (that’s not a minimum use–you pay it no matter what).
I have a small east-facing solar system and a Tesla model S, and I’m a net consumer. My sweet spot is TOU-DR-P. On peak rate isn’t too bad, and a modest discount for super-off-peak. The trade-off is those reduce-your-use days (of which there are only a few per year, obviously during super hot weather): My rate from 2pm-6pm is crazy high, like $1.40 / kW-h. Whenever that happens I’ll just stay a work late.
Also, I don’t have a Tesla home battery or anything, but I think one could really game the TOU rates, especially the EV-TOU-5. Load up super-off-peak, and dump on-peak.
ParticipantI have bought and sold at Blue Vault. They’re in mission valley. Easy & seamless transactions.
ParticipantIf the bill passes in its current form the $7500 EV tax credit ends 12/31/2017. That’s shockingly soon for people in the market for an EV, notably all those Tesla model 3 reservation holders.
Assuming the tax plan bill even passes, I suspect the EV tax credit gets compromised back to its current state (per manufacturer, phase-out begins in 2nd calendar quarter after 200,000th EV sold in US).
Participant10-yr and 30-yr T-bill yields at fresh lows.
ParticipantWow, silver is just ripping this week. It makes one of those silver short ETFs look mighty tempting, but I never have the giblets to execute.
My physical buying of both gold and silver is definitely on hold.
Participant[quote=flu]I am finding its not so easy to sell bullion back…especially silver.[/quote]
That’s unfortunate to hear…every time I sold gold or silver several years ago it was seamless. I sold to kitco once, but I usually bought and sold from the (now Chapter 11 and very likely criminal) Bullion Direct P2P platform.
BD was nice while it lasted, and if you’re bored you can read all about it. Best summary is blogged about here. Short version is that people thought aggregate ~~$30M of metals were stored in some fashion, but there appears to only be about $700k when they filed chapter 11. I always just took delivery. It looks like they’re trying to emerge from chapter 11 with the same basic P2P bullion trading platform, but with new management. I hope the old management goes to jail; FBI is investigating.
I’ve never tried selling to a coin shop. I’ve got some Ag 100oz bars I want to sell, possibly very soon if Ag price keeps up.
Participant1. Never used that retailer. Platinum: for believers in PM ‘ratios’, I guess platinum is a good buy right now.
2. I’ve seen these but never thought about buying them. Kinda intriguing…I guess you can think of them as a zero-cost waaay-out-of-the-money call option.
Participant[quote=flu]I have another dumb question. Why is the spread between spot price and ask price so large for metals like pallidium and platinum? Spot prices of both is lower than gold but ask price is much higher from spot. Is it just because the metal is not traded as much? How do those two compare to gold?[/quote]
Don’t know about this one, your guess is as good as mine–those metals just aren’t traded as much and don’t have the ‘investor’ appeal of gold & silver I guess.
Platinum & palladium are industrial metals (like silver, sort of) and are used in catalytic converters. I wonder if their under-performance relative to gold over the last few years is due to the thinking that we really are in the twilight of the ICE era.
Participant[quote=flu]Is there any issue with coins tarnishing if they aren’t kept sealed in a box? Will that affect resale value significantly?[/quote]
I have some krugerrands I bought 12-13 years ago, dated from the 1970’s. They look really good, not perfect mint-state, and the were sent to me in the vinyl sleeves I speak of. I don’t think they’ve changed at all (but that’s just me eyeballing vs my 13 year old memories) and the sleeves aren’t sealed. That’s the thing about gold that the ‘bugs’ harp about: chemically, it’s almost indestructible. My eagles and maples in unsealed sleeves are similarly fine after years.
I’d be more worried about silver, but the silver I have looks great after many years,no change that I can see.
Yeah, anecdotally I think the resale value will be affected if your bullion gets damaged or tarnished, but buy prices shouldn’t sink much lower than spot.
Participant[quote=flu]Don’t people use bank safety deposit boxes. Or is that a no no?[/quote]
Yeah that’s fine, and I have a bank box. The bank does not necessarily insure the contents! Check about your options with that
[quote=flu]How are you guys storing your coins[/quote]
I buy generic vinyl coin sleeves, fits any gold & silver bullion that I have. And the coins I’ve purchased locally are protected as such. Search on Amazon, etc.
Participant[quote=flu]Interesting. I did not know that.[/quote]
Yeah, I am talking only about USAA. The same goes for jewelry, firearms, high-end camera equipment, and a few other things for which you’ll need a VPP rider. I suspect other companies are basically the same but I could be wrong.
When I was on the phone with USAA, they barely even knew what bullion was and had to put me on hold while they looked up coverage for such things. They thought I was a “coin-collector”.
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