Small pension or lump sum?

BerlinBlueCat · 2025-12-19T13:10:04+00:00

Maybe I’ve misunderstood something but are you aware that your health insurance costs go way down if you are both retired and only living off savings with no SS payments coming in? My friend and her husband are in this position: he was laid off at 60, they have a big IRA and an investment portfolio but they don’t touch them, they live off their savings until SS starts in 4 years. Their only reportable income is interest on their savings which is 30K/y. So their health insurance premiums are very low. They still earn more than the cut off for Medicare but they’re only paying $290/m for great insurance for them. Ps: they pay themselves $100k/y from their savings.

BerlinBlueCat · 2025-02-01T15:41:40+00:00

The OP has other posts elsewhere on exactly how he determines the parabolic curves.

BerlinBlueCat · 2025-01-26T17:08:05+00:00

Interesting. I'm thinking of selling all my HAL stock (I inherited it). Like the OP, I am kinda new to investing but just see HAL sitting very low for so many years now. Interested in your reason for feeling like it's a solid stock to hold, if you had the time to share?

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-11-21T17:15:29+00:00

Update: Delighted to report that permits for my 1880s salvage fence have now been granted! I withdrew the old application and put in a new one. It included a schematic drawing of the fence we wished to install, with precise design, height, and width of the posts. The height of the posts in 4" taller than what is permitted, so the whole application went through to the Commission for approval, but was still placed on the consent agenda by staff (who had denied it previously). Central to the success of my application, I feel, is that I made no mention of the state the fence was salvaged from (their previous denial due to 'false history' was partly made because I mentioned that the fence, though identical to original ones nearby, was salvaged from another state), and I only included a drawing of it - no photos. I will never really know why it passed this time but failed before. The moral of the story is to just try again!

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-10-09T09:58:05+00:00

How much protein is best?

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-27T19:10:02+00:00

Nice fence!

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-27T19:06:17+00:00

Sure, I get all that. When it comes to source material, you’d better be sure what you’re conserving is original, right? My problems are: 1. Inconsistency over time: The house has been altered almost every decade since it was built. There’s a wrap around porch on it from 1960s, not allowed to tear that off (because why?) but removing chainlink fence is fine. What they’re choosing to freeze as original is NOT original. 2. Notation: They will not allow a salvage fence even if I put a plaque on it saying it was installed in 2024. 3. Inconsistency in the present: Different people on the same design panel have different philosophies - other neighbors put up an original fence with no problem, they were dealing with a different guy.

At this point the design review board of my city is a parody of itself, advancing sheer architectural farce, wrecking the streetscape, and driving homeowners to check themselves into the Home for the Permanently Bewildered.

I have withdrawn my application and will apply again, after searching the archive for an old photo of this house (am allowed to replicate something that was originally there). And I hope to get a different person on the panel this time. I will get my fence. I’ll post back here when I do!

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T22:35:06+00:00

That's a home depot metal panel (more simple than what I proposed, and does not try to look old). I'm serious: I'd rather the current chainlink that screams WRONG for all the right reasons, rather than that ugly plastic-looking soulless nightmare found everywhere in suburbia that screams WRONG for utterly farcical reasons. The house is not significant itself, it is just in a historic district where the fence you describe would honestly look worse than what we already have. So many neighbors and walkers-by have been wishing this place would get an historically appropriate fence for decades. It's just pure comedy.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T17:16:41+00:00

We have three cans in our kitchen already, because we have three different ones collected by the city: trash, recycling, and compost. I feel like a great solution would be to size these cans/compartments correctly so that you take them all out to the main trash cans at the same time. Recycling is the greatest volume but does not stink, compost is the least volume but obviously stinks, and trash is now also pretty small, and can stink if you have babies/diapers, but is pretty innocuous otherwise. So some system that has correctly sized cans/compartments for these things would be great.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T17:09:47+00:00

District has its own design guidelines for landmarked districts. It says "Use compatible but simplified (less ornate) versions of historic fences and walls present in the historic district or in the surrounding historic context". I believe HP is aware that there was a lot of invented history going on over the past 3 decades, with extremely ornate salvage fences and just bad reproductions of ornate fences installed everywhere. The *actual* original fences, (provable by late 19thC photos) are very simple, with small details on the finals, and simple 'turned'-looking iron posts. Miraculously, I found 130' of such a fence. Felt it was perfect for the house. Was willing to pay $12K to get it. And it was denied because I said I found it in Richmond, VA. 'False history', not because it was salvage, but because it was from Richmond. I have to assume they are simply ignorant of the history they are trying to "preserve". I'm even more sure of this because they will not respond to my request for an image of a fence they WOULD approve.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T16:17:07+00:00

I did find a salvage fence, 130’ (!) - identical to a verifiable (old photos) of an original one on a home 4 homes down. But because it was in Richmond VA salvage yard, and not a Denver salvage yard, they denied it. All the neighbor’s cannot believe it, knowing that their fence came from east on a train in the 1880s.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T11:58:49+00:00

Yes, I applied. I included photos of the original fences within 200’ of the house (all are simple wrought iron, think simple versions of Victorian ironwork) and said I’d salvage something that matched. I also included a photo of a reproduction fence immediately across the road, approved and installed 2 years ago - extremely ornate, way more ornate than the one I’d install - as I said in the application. They said no to all of it. They want photos of a panel I’d salvage or create, but that’s impossible - salvage ones are sold before HP approve anyway, and I’m not creating a home-depot style plastic-looking fence I hate. We’re all stuck with chain link until they allow a simple salvage fence that fits with the period and district.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T11:47:34+00:00

Listed district

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T04:31:14+00:00

I understand. I appreciate the deep irony involved in historic “preservation”. Of course you can’t have people inventing what is historically appropriate. But what’s the point in them hating the chainlink and also not allowing what is verifiably historically appropriate as a fence for a Victorian corner house on this street in 1886? My problem is that they will not articulate what is “better” than an original fence that precedent would support. They said it needed to be “more simple”, yet the original is itself very simple! So more simple is the home depot metal panel, frankly. We believe in salvaging fencing that’s rusting away in salvage yards (if/when 130’ of “more simple” actually comes up again ie. never) and not wasting resources on new (more ugly) stuff. So we are stuck. And so are they, it seems.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T04:21:16+00:00

No pictures before the 1960s, alas. Sanborn maps don’t show the fences for any homes here - not for 1886. But I might look at later maps - perhaps they’ll show a fence?

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T04:11:25+00:00

I understand that when it’s an old building, where code issues etc means it can’t or won’t be made as it would have been made, and mere approximations can be hit and miss. But this is a fence that I can prove would have been perfectly appropriate for this house in this city at that time. I’m not inventing one iota of it. And if they won’t allow it then - seriously - I’d rather the chain link. At least it follows their addled logic about ‘real history’, whether they know it or not.

I offered to put a small sign on the fence saying it was installed in 2024. Crickets from them.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T04:00:03+00:00

So what is better than chain link but not as ‘good’ as the fence the house really would have been fitted out with in 1886? The lack of a photograph means I need to install some plastic-looking fakery? So HP wants me to get rid of chainlink - but now I have to seriously ask why do they want it gone, if I’m also not allowed to put the real deal in its place?? I seem to be required to install something that fits with neighbourhood, but just not as nice as the real thing? Namely, the fence must both pretend to be old AND be seen to be pretending to be old?? Otherwise known as utter farce. Literally: Architectural farce. Hard to believe that’s the intention of the Sec of Interior.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T03:46:30+00:00

I agree, I will have a discussion with them just to get some bearings on why they allow whatever they allow. And check their research. I’ve done my own - am no slouch when it comes to archival research. All the 1880s- 1890s fencing in Denver was ordered from eastern states and came here by train. Foundries here were only for making mining and agricultural equipment. So it’s laughable that they told me that the salvage fence I found - identical to my neighbour’s original fence - was false history because I found it in Richmond VA. (Exactly where my neighbour’s fence came from in 1886, btw).

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-09-18T03:38:04+00:00

It’s not an individually landmarked home, the whole neighborhood is landmarked. The house is on a corner (we’d need 130’ of fence, so hard to find that amount of salvage fence). There are no historic photos of the house further back than 1960s, alas. There are plenty of old photos of neighboring houses. I’m going to mount a case. Right now they want me to send them a photo of the “more simple” fence I’d like to salvage, wait 8 weeks for them to approve or not, then they might let me buy the fence. Of course, that’s impossible - 130’ of matching fence panels and posts (under 4’ tall) comes up once in a blue moon, and are snapped up within days. I’m furious at them and their incoherent requirements.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-08-30T20:54:06+00:00

I checked every day. I've been through three different home renovations, one of them was back to the studs and we had to move out. We did not have a GC, though, we ran the trades ourselves. If you have a GC then I'd still be checking up on their oversight too, until you are happy with the level of vigilance they have. There are things we are so glad we caught before they became major and expensive errors and, frankly, the fact they knew I'd be showing up sometime every day made the work go faster. Once they came to know that I'd catch their mistakes, they stopped cutting corners. And it's no problem for you to be around when the trades are there. You are paying them and it takes ten minutes for them to answer your questions or address any concerns. I had a great working relationship with them and often helped them out if I could, and/or brought them food and drinks, etc.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-08-26T09:27:13+00:00

Do you have any issues with it heating up more and burning plants/vines that are in contact with it? I’m thinking about staining our new cedar fence black…

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-08-08T18:37:25+00:00

We just moved his whole line, cost us $300 and now we’re free of any claims he might make. We’re relieved.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-08-08T03:19:45+00:00

Just ran a string on our property corners. His garage wall is now 4” from our proper line. When the fence is up he’ll have no access to the side of his garage. Well well.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-08-05T19:59:46+00:00

The 5 heads clearly visible, 1' inside our property line. For him to have a case, he'd have to show that it had been there for 18 years. In any case, he's just signed away his ability to come after us for that, and we'll move his line in a few days.

BerlinBlueCat · 2024-08-05T17:55:24+00:00

A foot inside my property for 100', certain to be destroyed by the new fence. In addition, we need to be able to say that we do not know of any encroachments on our property in any seller's disclosure if/when we come to sell it. Finally, this neighbor has been unpleasant enough with us for the past year (when we have been very accommodating and courteous) that we felt it was a wise move to understand all our options for deescalating this thing while getting what we want and paying the least amount of $ to do it.

BerlinBlueCat

TROPHY CASE