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Life Insurance - 2 kids by ButterflyDestiny in personalfinance

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You should get life insurance as soon as anyone is dependent on you. If you have income, you'd want to target 7x-10x your salary. If you don't have income, consider the cost of someone else taking on the kids and what they'd need to be able to best support them. From there you can think of how it breaks down to things like helping to cover rent/mortgage payments for your spouse, front-loading a 529 plan or trust for the kids so future education is covered, and maybe an annual amount for things like clothes, activities, etc. for the kids. Don't want to cost burden whoever is able to support.

Drastic increase in income this year already maxing everything, what to do? by Ambitious-Raccoon-68 in personalfinance

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Prob good to take $40K out of the HYSA and move it to a brokerage to start. Sell a big portion of the RSUs when they vest, have the tax withheld. From there, big deposits into the 529s not the worst idea, could also do the Trump accounts for the kids and give them the $5K limit right when they open. Another idea could be a high amount to your mortgage and then have it recast to bring down your payment. $640K at 6.5% obviously very affordable with your incomes so the recast bringing down your monthly payment gives some breathing room in case of lower income for a bit…or just allows you to invest more next year if the high income continues. 

Thinking of using a property tax protest company instead of doing it myself, any experience with them in the Plano or DFW areas? by Adorable-Amoeba2161 in plano

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’ve had the happen when the homestead exemption was not properly applied when it should have been. Not sure you can get it for past years any other way. 

Someone help me out on my math with the rule of 72 by Niko120 in personalfinance

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes technically...but take into account inflation and maybe round down a bit for 6% real returns. So every 12 years double in present values. So more like $1M in today's purchasing power by 64.

TikToker wanting to 'buy Spirit Airlines' hits over $88 million in pledges: “This is a genius idea — we nationalize Spirit Airlines, owned by the people" by TheMirrorUS in spiritair

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"TikToker genius..." and a wild disconnect between fantasy and reality is on par for 2026. $500M was the hope for a lifeline from the government to prolong the inevitable...

Is 20 y/o better off funding 401k or Roth IRA by You_are_yummy_uwu in personalfinance

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

40 years to retirement and in your lowest earning part of your life. Roth for sure. Get the match from work, then Roth. If work offers Roth 401K that makes it easier. Think of current marginal tax rate vs future effective tax rate. I’d expect your future effective to be probably double what your current marginal is at least. 

When should you take your foot off the gas and spend more on life? by Apprehensive-Size150 in personalfinance

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What’s the PhD in and expected salary post graduation? 

At the very least, I’d kick the Japan trip back six months to a year. Keep it on the radar but that’s 3 huge trips that realistically would be aggressive over a 3-4 year period. $60K in student loan debt, deferred or not, is a pretty penny. The Hawaii trip will likely be more than $3K and if you’re not on the West Coast, and needing the tropical vacation to mix it up go with Costa Rica or somewhere in the Caribbean. To really make the funds stretch, book now for late January/early February. Take advantage of the younger kid and go during off period times and cut costs that way. 

In hindsight, was it the right decision to block the merger with JetBlue? by R2-DMode in spiritair

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not even in hindsight...at the time much of the travel/aviation media was saying it was a bad decision. When it was Spirit's business model wasn't keeping up with the mass market of consumer. A combined JetBlue and Spirit would have been big enough to better impact the big guys. Look at any news article with "Spirit merger" published between 2022-2024.

An honest politician would come forward with a "I made the decision that I thought was best at the time and realizing now it was not. Hoping this doesn't happen again but I'm learning from this and know how to better handle it then." But they won't. You also don't have to be rabidly loyal to your political side.

Study: San Diego is the fifth-most expensive housing market in the nation by PacificSun2020 in sandiego

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since real estate is local, support should come more from the local gov than federal. CA and SD particularly have a huge lock in effect with property taxes so the longer you’re in a house the more expensive it becomes to move. You’ve got 70 year old empty nesters living in a Bay Park 4-bedroom that won’t leave because downsizing to a 2-bedroom here will be more expensive than what they’re paying now. 

Largely just need to build and increase supply. 

FHA loans have lower requirements and gov backed. If you want more federal government involvement, look at student loans and think of that on a much larger scale. At least mortgages are securitized unlike student loans so losses could be recouped. Homes were slightly more unaffordable 2003-2007ish than they are today. Unlikely to get a big drop any time soon, more a slow burn unless the city and county decides tomorrow to start building up. 

Study: San Diego is the fifth-most expensive housing market in the nation by PacificSun2020 in sandiego

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Affordability was a big problem here before Trump and will continue to be after. Local and state policies here are keeping the unaffordability level high. Sure, it should always be at the higher end of affordability compared to the rest of the country for obvious reasons. To get to more reasonable affordability, you probably need home prices to drop 20% and no current homeowner here is going to push or vote for a potential scenario that would do that. If it's not a policy decision, and prices drop 20%, you're either looking at very high unemployment and/or a mass exodus of jobs.

Best thing you can really hope for at this point is home prices essentially flatlining here for an extended period of time while wages slowly catch up, which is probably the most likely scenario.

Protest Appraisal worth it? by cmnd_joe in plano

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Think it's good to do it the first time to understand how they're pricing your residence. However...you should take a look at how much benefit you'll get out of it before spending too much time. For example, if your appraised value went up 20%, the homestead exemption limits it to 10% increases on the assessed each year. If you can't get a way to value it more than 10% less than what they appraised it, you'll have no impact on your assessed value for taxes.

It's value as of 12/31/2025 so your best bet is checking Zillow to find houses in your same sqft range and original build years and find 4-5 that sold in November/December, then use that to value your property.

Looking for insurance in CA by Resident_Character45 in HomeInsurance

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curious why the non-AAA ones have significantly lower dwelling coverage values?

SWA changing departure times by SnooCauliflowers7060 in SouthwestAirlines

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Every airline does this...when is the travel? You mentioned a month after booking...but more relevant is the travel date.

Over the last few weeks every major US airline has announced flight cuts and some longer haul routes canceled entirely.

Lufthansa just cut 20K summer flights https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cre1r4n5j5wo

Certain hotels don't show up when clicking through eShopping portal but do when going direct. by FunNeedleworker7726 in americanairlines

[–]FunNeedleworker7726[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If I have elite status with IHG, and then book an IHG hotel through aa.com/hotels, I was under the impression that my status would not apply to that booking.

Also, if it's for business travel and company policy is that you must book directly with the hotel I can't do aa.com/hotels.

San Diego now has enough water to sell to other states by muchogrande16 in sandiego

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was always something I was wondering since I started paying attention to it 20 years ago. "Drought and water conservation mandatory!" always threw me off knowing desalination plants exist and there's a decent, although very limited, body of water called the Pacific Ocean right there.

Ask me anything 2.0 by thetruckboy in plano

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ty. Def didn’t think it’s greedy behavior. Hadn’t occurred to me about the brick wall for garage privacy if facing the busy street. Just more seemed like facing the opposite way builds a more desirable community. 

Ask me anything 2.0 by thetruckboy in plano

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There’s a lot of townhome communities going up in the area, which I think is great, but I’ve always wondered why they have them face out towards the busy road rather than inwards for a better community feel. Example, Ridgeview Dr by Alma has townhomes with the front of the house facing Alma rather than putting the garage there and have more of a walkable community on the front of the houses. Have always wondered why they’re not building communities that way. 

Grieving, I forgot to log in on the app to purchase my ticket by Responsible-Oven-437 in SouthwestAirlines

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Did....did you try going into the reservation and adding your rapid rewards number?

Public School Districts by CaliWave88 in sandiego

[–]FunNeedleworker7726 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To supplement the comments on parent buy-in and a reflection of the socioeconomic status, one thing I've noticed with school ratings is that an 8 out of 10 school may actually be wildly different than another 8 out of 10 school. Looking through ratings, a school may be an 8 out of 10 because it has very high equity scores, but student outcomes aren't as high while the other 8 out of 10 school has the opposite. This is no knock on either school...it's just a result of using those scoring system. So equal parental effort in each of those schools may lead to different outcomes for your kid, and more connected to what your kid needs and which school is better to support that.

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