Recent content by punkinhead

How long is a computer typically down? A few minutes? An hour? Compare that to my family doctor who is down for weeks at a time because that's how long it takes me to get an appointment. I haven't seen my PCP in a few years because I can't get a timely appointment. I saw his nurse...

My mother had a medically necessary (as defined by her doctor) flight of several hundred miles that insurance refused to pay. After that my parents bought a medivac policy. They will provide a private jet or helicopter if necessary but if not needed they will provide an ambulance or van. She...

I never get asked for money anymore, but before retirement I worked a lot in the Rio Grande Valley (McAllen/Pharr) and it was pretty common to get hit up with the "my car is out of gas can you give me some money to get home?" scam. The last time was the most laughable. Three of us were driving...

Ours was up to $500 for $2M with State Farm so we finally dropped it last month. What really made us angry and caused us to review our policies is we're required to have anything with a motor covered so we needed policies on our e-bikes. They wanted to cover mine as a motorcycle even though...

One of the reasons I retired was because I was tired of the pressure from ridiculous deadlines. I was a machine design engineer and we nearly always shipped machines incomplete and finished them in the field so that a manager could claim with a straight face that we'd met our shipping deadline...

It's interesting that they only mention the pricing changes for delivery customers. I'm guessing that customers who are willing to pay for someone to deliver their food aren't price sensitive. I wonder if they raise prices on the weekends for eat-in or carryout customers or if this is just an...

I had that happen at a paint store during Covid. They mixed my paint then rang it up and the price seemed high so I asked to see a break down. They'd added a 20% "covid adjustment". I refused. They gave in when they realized that I'd walk out and leave them stuck with several gallons of a...

Especially since those last few dimes usually involve assumptions about uncontrollable and unknowable things like future tax laws and changes in your personal and family situations. I've found that fairly small changes in assumptions can wipe out or even reverse these small gains.

I don't know about a Mercedes, but it's very unlikely a Transit based RV can. The highest GCWR Transit chassis is 12,600 lbs. The built out RV is probably 8100-8500 lbs. Add 2 adults, 4 dogs (even small ones), 20 gallons of water, groceries, bedding, clothes, camping supplies like chairs, etc...

When we were picking a chassis for our RV we went with Ford due to lower repair costs, but even more so because of dealer availability. Every town has a Ford dealer or independent shop that can work on a Ford, not many not only have a Mercedes dealer, but one that can lift a 9000+ lb vehicle...

We don't do a budget, but every time I've gone back through credit card and bank statements the top category has always been "uncategorized". Several decades ago we had a financial advisor suggest that we write down every penny we spent for a couple of weeks, including small impulse purchases...

The beneficiary can be changed or up to $35K can be rolled into a Roth for the beneficiary. So that money can still be put to good use. We had a bit left over from our son's 529B so we just changed the beneficiary to our grandson. Something I never thought about, but I wonder if I could have...

We travel in a 23 foot class B with 1 dog. 4 dogs? Not a chance. Like ^^this guy^^ said, rent one and try it. Four dogs would give the phrase "under foot" a whole new meaning.

In my state we get a tax credit of 20% up to $1500/year. So $7500 invested only costs us $6000. That's hard to beat.

I'm the same. I suspect if I'd have stayed in my little home town that I'd have close friends from my school days even though we don't have interests in common but I moved away for college and never went back. Through my working life I only wanted to spend my free time doing things I enjoyed...