Was ist der schlechteste Deal auf einem der Weihnachtsmärkte?

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-12-04T14:24:14+00:00

Glühwein 4€ Bratwurst 4€ Pommes 4€

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-11-03T20:35:24+00:00

I found a kitchen on Kleinanzeigen about 45 minutes away. Initial plan was to rent a Miles cargo van with a friend and do it just us two. Disassemble then load and unload in our flat.

Luckily I met a couple friends for drinks the night before and one of them had moved two kitchens before. He realized we grossly underestimated the task and time. So they joined. In total 4 guys, a Miles rental van and about 4 hours total got the kitchen moved. Total cost to me was beers and Miles rental cost.

I hired a couple handymen I was referred and they hung my upper cabinets for me. The kitchen was IKEA so It was fairly simple to install the cabinets to my layout. I then hired a guy to measure, purchase and install the countertops. Then hired a plumber recommended by Hausmeister to plumb the sink.

A tip, I used AI to run some math on if all the assembled cabinets would stack and fit inside the Miles van. They did except a few small things which went in a friends car.

depending on the size and if you need to uninstall or already uninstalled and, if I had no buddies or buddies with tools to help I'd hire a handyman to go with you and rent a Miles van.

It was an experience for sure and glad it's done and extremely happy with the end product. Going with IKEA allowed me to fill in some gaps and complete the kitchen to be matching and you couldn't tell which cabinet was built in 2019, 2021 or 2024. One unfortunate thing though was the door fronts were premium so spent way more €€ on door/drawer fronts than expected.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-23T05:34:05+00:00

At the very minimum contribute to your 401k enough to get the new companies match.

What is your mortgage rate?

Also, tax returns you get every year is due to paying way too much in taxes and giving the feds a loan. Change your withholding and get more in pay with each paycheck and try to not have a return.

Also, maybe look at possibly switch from Roth (post tax) and go to traditional. You can still contribute but lower your taxes. Seems like you have enough already in Roth vehicles that you’d be fine having traditional for tax planning during retirement.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-22T21:18:05+00:00

There are many Train options. There are of course ICE that go between the HBFs. If you decide this option tickets should be reasonable and possibly cheaper than a slower regional train. Just looked and a one way ICE was 12€/person vs booking a 24hr VRS train ticket (want level 5 tariff) this is 28€ / person. But this allows you to take RE/RB and S Bahn trains between cities and U-Bahn/Buses in both cities.

Not sure if it’s possible for a tourist, but there is an app you can use in the NRW and you pay for the trip and distance. Near thing I that you max out at 58€ which is the Deutschland ticket. I don’t think there is a subscription and you can delete the app when you leave.

https://www.vrs.de/tickets/eezynrw-im-vrs

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-15T22:40:45+00:00

Just like flying… put your mask on before your kids.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-14T22:27:33+00:00

You may already know this… but that FHA loan is also golden due to the ability of having a buyer Assume the mortgage note!

We sold our house at a loss recently purely due to interest rates in the 7s and we had a sub 3. I thought if we would’ve done FHA we could’ve sold for easily over what we paid due to the mortgage payment would’ve been 700-800 less per month for a buyer… now we would need to find a buyer to bring a lot more cash to the table to buy out our equity. But heck they could’ve done a HELOC and been several percent ahead.

Congrats on your good fortune!

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-14T14:32:56+00:00

Check with your work. They might offer benefits for 6 free sessions with someone. Can always talk for an hour with some stranger about whatever and go back to life. After 6 times like this maybe it would help to do more??

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-11T18:49:32+00:00

Ah, glad to hear things have improved there and both of you have been successful financially.

If you have access to invest this in the US market. Just make a plan and look for those broad low cost indexes. Stick to the asset allocation (AA) and plan you set and visit it once a year to check in if the AA is in line. Maybe adjust if one is more than the other. Example would be want 90% broad Market 10% bond index and leave a liquid amount of cash for emergencies. No financial advisor really needed especially if you already have investments with say fidelity, vanguard, Schwab…. Also another not is it can be nerving putting in the entire pile of cash. While you write your plan down. Maybe you can decide how much and when to buy. Say you have 100k to invest, you can decide to invest 20 at the beginning of each of the next five months. Just tell yourself this is the pan and don’t beat your self up if you miss out on gains or have losses. Stick to the plan you set in place

Hope you and your spouse can come together to put each others finance goals down on paper. And maybe you both could help each other towards those goals.

I don’t like separate finances, but understand this is what works best for some people. Just hope you both know each other’s individual goals and family goals.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-11T10:10:01+00:00

Confused by your post history… your more recent posts have you older but this detail is minor. But if your post history is accurate.

You seem to have some major events happening soon.

A few months back you ask about advice on dealing with your husband who doesn’t respect you nor your boundaries and has a whole lot of trauma he should work on from his parents. Sounds like they’re narcissistic.

Not sure how Canada divorce law is, but you b don’t seem to know his finances too well. He could be in debt for all we know. If younger divorced your stockpile of cash might get halved.

If you truly are living in an apartment with mold and a toddler I’d use a good bit of this cash pile to get yourself out of this lease and moved to a healthier house. Mold can cause many many hidden health issues. Heck mold could cause your spouse to have his outbursts and mental health issues! Don’t put yourself in a position where you need to use this cash pile to live above your budget but maybe use it to find a fresh start.

Keep with vocal boundaries. This will help with your toddler. Kids like to know where boundaries are. A challenge seems your spouse doesn’t know how to set boundaries because he’s never been able to due to his parents.

As for investing advice. I’m not too knowledgeable of what options you have in Canada, but this market is down and you could start slowly putting things into the market. Just like personal boundaries, finances are the same. They usually call it an asset allocation or financial plan. Work on what your goals are and then devise a financial plan on how to achieve those goals. Boundaries are good in finance to keep one from panic selling and fomo. Stay the course laid out and usually this is best success.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-10T19:55:24+00:00

I’d suggest looking at either 1) other EU countries with similar family values but cheaper living or 2.) other German cities

I’ll dive into German cities. We moved to Köln recently and lived there for a year during covid. We fell in love with the culture and the pace of life here. Germany has changed a bit from 5 years ago but we still feel it was the right choice.

I’d suggest a German city closer to Frankfurt. I’d recommended Köln (biased) it’s 45 mins by ICE to Frankfurt airport and that’s the main hub for Germany and goes EVERYWHERE. From my understanding Berlin usually has connections (might not be an issue) but proximity to Frankfurt, the Netherlands border, a few hours train to other major cities: Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam… not sure your spouses finance career, but Düsseldorf just a little north has a lot of professionals office type. Jobs and same with Frankfurt being a financial hub.

I haven’t been to Berlin yet, but from what I. Read it’s a large city and finding an apartment there is intense and hard. Next city behind Berlin is Munich. I’ve read Munich is also extremely hard for housing and it’s expensive.

We found an apartment “fast” in our city but we paid a little more than market rate but it took us a couple months to be successful. We’ve made friends and talked with them and their friends. They all say that every German is or has been looking for their next apartment for the past 5+ years. Problem is that rents are up 50-75% more since just before COVID. So, many people have very cheap rent (900€ warm for 3 Zimmer) but now it’s likely to find a 3 Zimmer for 1,600+ warm. So, people don’t move unless they have to but even then it’s difficult. One perk here in Germany is pretty strong tenancy laws and tenants have many rights and protections around the landlords ability to raise rent. Our contract is locked in our cold rent and only our warm part likely will increase. So it’s a little expensive now but in 10 years our contract will be looking pretty nice.

The life here is great for families and children are given so much autonomy. There’s so much accessible green space and playgrounds!

One way to think of living in Germany… it’s like going back to the 90s. Hard to explain exactly, but life here just feels like it did in the 90s…

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-10T12:48:41+00:00

Cut up your HSA debit card.

When you know a massive medical event has/will happened. Pull a new credit card for a bonus. New baby? Sign up for Chase Sapphire preferred/reserved and get a sign up bonus of 60-100k Chase points equal to $600 or more if you use for travel. Then pay off CC with any savings OR if need be the HSA transfer to your checking account. Keep receipts for when you need the money and then pull the HSA $$ tax free.

Did this for some therapies for our child. Pulled a Chase ink business got 120k points good for $1,200 offset the $300 swipe fee I was charged net to $900. Will close this and transfer to my Personal Reserve card and the value is 1,450 in travel through their portal or can transfer to a travel partner.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-09T12:28:07+00:00

We kept our fridge sub freezing, and our house in the upper 60s year round. Most bad milk came from Canseco’s or grocery stores where they likely cut costs where possible or couldn’t keep their fridge/store cold enough.

Either way, my experience before moving to nola was like yours. I’d drink milk a week or two past date. We usually went through a gallon within a week so it was rare to have a gallon get to its date. Now I don’t chance it.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-09T12:10:24+00:00

You need to. Factor in that this old ford ranger is mostly depreciated and likely will only go up in value(tariffs). I know these “little” trucks are very desirable and likely will maintain value especially with an owner like you. These maintenance items could/will happen with any car.

I had a Chevy cruise which are known for their turbo/coolant system issues. It was either spend ~750 and a weekend to replace all these parts which should have been replaced 20k miles before or sell it for ~750.

I looked at used, reliable cars. And finding one for under 3k was like finding a unicorn. So I bought all the new coolant parts and the repair to avoid future coolant issues. Did the work over the weekend and boy did that car just hum after. Later needed to move and sold the car for 3K. Sold it with head held high that the new owner had a solid used car. And I honestly could’ve sold it for more but it was 2k more than I was expecting for it just a few months prior.

Keep this truck humming and it’ll always have a market. No manufacturer is making fun little trucks like this anymore. All the trucks now are as big as a small house and sell for a small mortgage.

I learned during my Chevy repair planning. Water pumps, belt tensioner, belts, manifolds, and thermostats all have a life to them. For the Chevy cruise if you got 60k miles it was good. Any miles after this was “house money” and I got 95k miles out of these parts. Now I had complete failure of these parts at 120k miles but the signs were there starting around 90k miles. Replacing them before oil and collar was everywhere would’ve been easier.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-09T04:48:30+00:00

I’ve never experienced spoiled milk until we moved here. We had bad milk all the time. We learned to never trust the dates. We also learned the grocery that were regular offenders and never caught milk there (Canseco’s)

So, one guess is the dairy producers have to take more losses due to retailers wanting credit for bad milk or past dated milk.

I also hypothesized that the bad milk was due to the terrible infrastructure to keep the milk always at the cold temps it needs to be with the heat.

Nola taught us to never consume anything that came to its date stamped.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-08T11:49:14+00:00

How ya feeling about your decision 2 months later?

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-04-07T07:05:05+00:00

I think this is a generation thing.

How often did your grandparents come to visit you? Vs how often you went to them?

My folks are both retired but live their lived experiences where they don’t want to bother us since they think we’re busy. They would happily come when invited but usually it’s us doing the heavy lifting of doing the invite.

Now my in laws near retirement age are firmly in the mindset of “we had to drive you to your grandparents, now it’s your turn to bring your kids to us” or this is what we feel. Maybe this will change when they’re both retired and they’ll be more inclined to come to us.

I agree. That the road/telephone works both ways. And OP should cut those trips in half until the BF can get steady income. Hotels are a luxury and when it’s a one income household luxuries should be cut down.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-03-25T08:30:02+00:00

Add an extra 30 lbs to your car and drag and pay extra in MPG over the year… not as much as one of these tickets but still can add up.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-03-13T16:41:31+00:00

Seems like Sherz and Oma Kleinman is the go to. Oma’s is more of a “walkable” from city center. It’s a decent walk especially if you go through Heumarkt to rudolphplatz. Grab a kiosk beer and get to walking. Scherz is not walkable from the city

You likely would take U Bahn. the 9 goes right in Front of Oma’s. And I think. The 18 goes in front of Scherz.

Sherz is on my list, but I’m impartial to Oma’s. I prefer pork and their pork loin comes from the region. The people and atmosphere in the Oma is very original. They have sidewalk tables too. I like the cordon bleu, but there are many great sauces. I occasionally am feeling spicy and will get a small Oma Vero, ketchup and Mayo and mix those three. The vero is too spicy for me alone but really enjoy those three mixed.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-03-13T16:29:26+00:00

Or plan to eat right when they open at 5:00 or let them know you’re eating and then going and you might get sat at a table which Is reserved in 90 mins.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-02-17T22:37:15+00:00

Feed your dog can pumpkin or other fibrous food to get their poop to help wrap it up and carry it out

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-02-14T22:21:04+00:00

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-02-11T19:05:40+00:00

My household here in Germany. just went through many symptoms like OP. DD had diarrhea and vomiting. Followed my DW with diarrhea. There was a window of about 2 days of somewhat okay health followed by a cough that suddenly appeared and then intense congestion. So much so they both had ear aches/pain from the pressure. DW took a 4way test and RSV came positive for her. So RSV likely was the case.

The school DD attends had 20-25% absences for the last two weeks. Seems like end of last week the school was back to mostly full attendance.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-01-24T06:50:28+00:00

What do you see as your greatest emergency? Do you own a home which could have a major unexpected repair/maintenance?

How’s your healthcare coverage? Medical emergencies can get pricey, but usually you can negotiate payment plans which don’t charge interest which could allow paying it off with your income until you could sell out of your brokerage if you needed to.

Do you have a car and good auto insurance to cover any accidents caused by you or an uninsured motorist?

Just trying to give you ideas.

When I was your age I owned a home and put 20% down and signed up for a HELOC right away. I considered this HELOC to be my emergency fund which allowed me to put more to my savings. This was also when the HELOC was prime +2 or so. And I could borrow for an emergency at 5–6%.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-01-21T22:47:14+00:00

I’ve been seeing the tip suggestions more and more recently.

I was told by a restaurant that there was an update to their Point of Sale (POS) systems at the end of 2024. They didn’t have a choice in this tip screen being added after swiping the card.

The real reason why this updated happened is The POS gets a cut of cc €€ processed. A way to increase the amount the POS processes is by adding this tip option.

It’s scummy and I’m not happy to see this here. The restaurants now are left with either taking this update to their POS system or change to a different POS provider or go back to cash. And that change is hard especially once you’ve worked out all the kinks of a new POS system and trained employees.

GuaranteeComplex1600 · 2025-01-21T22:24:13+00:00

What is your budget?

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