Recent content by ychuck46

Only one of our favorite restaurants is doing this, and he is a small operator who keeps his prices very reasonable. I don't mind his 2-1/2% surcharge because he is very fair to start with, and essentially we split the difference, since I get 5% cashback on my CC. When the big chains start...

I retired 10+ years ago (the wife had done so 4 years before me). I did not sweat the details like you are now, and stayed then and still are now, largely invested in the stock market. More important than buckets and how much should be in stocks versus bonds, the more important thing should be...

Bingo. The caveats on this product make it not worth the effort. I can almost guarantee any investor will be better off putting the same amount of money into a combo of an S&P500 ETF and either a Total Bond ETF or Treasuries. The only people making good money off this Calamos offering will be...

I have a number of CCs all paying me cashback for various transactions. Also received a similar notice recently for a card I haven't used in years, particularly since it had nothing to warrant me using it anymore over my other cards. Normally I would make a charge and keep it, but in this case...

I have a goodly number of credit cards that I use for various items, since most emphasize different things for their highest cash back amounts. I only use cash back cards since retiring ten years ago. We don't fly any more after I did so much for years, and my wife always hated flying anyways...

Be very careful of the IRMMA hell. We are in our second year of it and it is painful. I made sure it ends after this year but I had some trading get out of hand 2-3 years ago, so both mine and my wife's SS and Medicare checks were lowered substantially.

My wife and I said years ago that we would never get ourselves involved in any HOA or condo association type of situation, both for the (sometimes) onerous HOA fees and for exactly the kinds of situations noted here by the OP. At 70 and 71 years of age we are still happily ensconced in our...

As others have stated, it depends. I carry a lot of higher dividend paying equities in tax-advantaged accounts, and I have layered a number of CDs at our bank, but not enough to move the needle overall. If I had my choice it would also be lower inflation and lower interest rates. The current...

I have one point and one question: 1. Disability insurance - while there may be a case here or there where it worked very well in the buyer's favor, for the most part this is one of those insurances that the provider will do all they can to not pay out. To me it is something people need to...

Don't watch news programs anymore, outside of some CNBC for stock news and what little they comment on regarding current affairs that might get included. I prefer to get my news from a variety of online sources rather than the obviously slanted way all the networks, regardless of where they are...

Same thing happened to us a few years before that. We had a great agent and local office but their hands were tied. Never been back to them and whenever I ask for a quote they are always much higher. Looks like they don't want the business even with folks who have spotless driving records...

The Turtles still around? In the 1990s and 2000s we used to live in Syracuse where the NY State Fair took place. While they had modern grandstand acts that you had to pay for (they were usually horrible), they also had another stage that they brought in older acts for free. I saw people like...

Yeah, apparently they are unaware that people actually can shop their policies. Either that or they were saying they didn't want to insure your vehicles in NYC, and just go away.

When I was doing my research on alternative insurance providers, I used their websites to get the results of their pricing. One is particular was much higher than I was already paying so they were immediately crossed off my list. Later one of their agents sent me a message to call them because...

Same difficulty I have. At 70 I still make all the investing decisions; my DW has zero interest in it, basically saying "do we have enough to get by? Great!". I have tried to make things somewhat easier by consolidating some accounts into Vanguard such as her workplace 457 plan, but I still...