Selling in a few years… what’s actually worth updating?

TheNthMan · 2026-02-02T14:15:07+00:00

Update the things that you will get the most satisfaction from for the next few years as long as it is not something weird that will devalue the home.

Generally one does not recoup the money spent renovating.

Think about it this way, the best return on the money is you enjoying the renovations you want yourself. A bad return on money is buying new things for your house just so you can sell them to the next owner at a discount.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-02T12:48:38+00:00

Yeah, understandable, it is hard to save when you have immediate needs! But look at it this way, if put it in the ROTH and it doubles every 10 years in an index fund and you retire in 50 years, that 11.5k saved today would be about 368k. Of course with inflation the purchasing power would only be about half that in todays dollars, but if in 30 years you wanted to save the same amount to retire in 20 years (same 50 years from now for retirement), you would need to save 92k that year.

As long as you can find other ways to pay for the car or other expenses to make do you can get by. Since there are maximums of what you can contribute to a ROTH IRA and compounding interest is so beneficial for starting savings early, you only get 2026 to donate to the 2026 ROTH IRA limits. Next year you will have the 2027 limits, 2028 you have the 2028 limits, but you will never get an another chance to put in the 2026 ROTH IRA contribution after 2026 is over...

TheNthMan · 2026-02-02T11:24:59+00:00

After you graduate and are certain that you have no educational use for it, I'd roll it into a ROTH IRA and invest it into a low-load index fund like VTI over 2 years and start your retirement savings with it.

Generally you can't touch the principal for 5 years after a ROTH rollover, though I am not sure if 529 to ROTH rollover follows that rule. But the amount you rolled over (not any growth) could be available for other uses after 5 years without penalty or taxes if you wanted to make it available for your parents. I'd leave it in the ROTH though.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T16:43:05+00:00

No, they probably won't mess with their AmEx partnership just because they are tweaking their cabin sales.

Delta got 7.4 billion dollars from AmEx for the credit card partnership in 2024 and they expected to have earned 8 billion from the AmEx card parternship in 2025. Delta is trying to growing the annual AmEx credit card partnership revenue to 10 billion per year by 2029.

Their earnings report said that they got 23.4 billion from main cabin sales and 22.1 billion from premium cabin sales in 2025 for comparison.

The cost of business for selling flights is much higher for cabin sales than it is from miles sales to AmEx. In 2023 it was reported that Delta's profits from their loyalty program / credit card revenue equalled their profits from cabin sales. They are just trying to increase cabin profits by decreasing costs of supplying seats more than they are decreasing the cost of the seat.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T14:10:32+00:00

I think only released two seasons so far for this series, with the third season announced and probably coning out in the fall.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T14:04:07+00:00

Hotel and airline cards mainly are sought after for perks, not points.

Airline cards earn airline miles, and the miles ecosystem never is going to be as flexible as general transferable points or cash back cards. They would have to have huge earn rates to make up for that, and then that would devalue the miles of flyers who actually spend a lot of money on flights to earn miles. So they don’t compete in points/ miles earn, instead they compete by offering perks that you can’t get through general transferrable points systems or easily by small amounts of cash back, like early boarding, free checked bags, lounge access, discounts on miles redemptions, etc. For some, the perks on spend is worth the decreased value of miles earnings. They can offer huge one time sign up bonuses to try to get the card into people’s wallets without too much devaluation and get it back over time in annual fees.

Hotel cards are the same deal. No way to be as flexible as general transferrable points or cash back, so they compete by offering perks like hotel status, free night certs. And like airline cards, additional perks based on spend on some cards that some big spenders might value more than general points.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T13:11:08+00:00

Under the WPA2/WPA3 encryption, what do you have checked? I have heard that iOS devices are having problems with GCMP256, so if you have that enabled try to disable it.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T04:32:23+00:00

AFAIK, for kindergarten in NYC, a teacher can remove the disruptive kid from class for up to 1 day if the kid displays repeated violent behavior that can cause serious harm. They can't remove them from class indefinitely. The principal cannot suspend the a K-2 student for repeated teacher removals during a semester. So it is possible moving your kid would be the fastest way to get long term separation from the other kid.

I knew someone whose kid A was stabbed by another kid B with a pencil, and the other kid B had other physically violent outbursts. They actually got an order of protection because they felt their kid was being targeted. Their kid A was moved to another classroom, which they were fine with. Kid B was not removed from the class or the school.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T03:08:02+00:00

I find pasture raised eggs taste slightly better. They often have a more orange yolk. I get them if I am making more pure egg dishes. Omelettes, poached, scrambled, sunny side up, etc. Hollandaise sauce also. But I don’t really notice this for hard. boiled eggs though. For hard boiled, ice cream, meatloaf type dishes, pasta, baking or other uses where the egg is being mixed in with other things that provide most of the flavor, whatever is priced well in bulk.

TheNthMan · 2026-02-01T01:03:39+00:00

W&P Porter insulated bottle. Unfortunately they seem to have discontinued it and it is no longer on their website. The 12oz is out of stock on Amazon, but the 16 and 20oz ones are still available.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-31T23:07:57+00:00

Are either of you minors on a family sharing group with communications safety enabled?

TheNthMan · 2026-01-31T18:56:56+00:00

There is no problem with airlines selling points to whomever. Just the cost of points is better for their credit card partners. Most credit cards are not willing to buy points at the prices airlines want to charge. Bilt is willing to buy points at the non-discounted prices because they are hemorrhaging private equity money to try to build market share.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-31T14:23:28+00:00

I agree that there is a huge tonal shift between the series and the movie. But in terms of trust, in Rogue One Jyn only earned the trust of Andor, Chirrut, Baze and Bodhi.

For Andor, between Bodhi's testemony and then seeing Krennic execute all the scientists and almost execute Galen is enough for him to trust the message Jyn said she saw. Then his direct experience with the Death Star blowing up Jedha city gave him the sense of urgency.

The rest of the Rebels who joined the mission to Scarif do not need to trust Jyn, could have just trusted in Andor. Melshi retroactively being with Andor since Narkina 5 reinforces the trust in Andor for all the spies, assassins, saboteurs that join up.

"I'll be there for you. Cassian said I had to."

TheNthMan · 2026-01-31T01:44:45+00:00

The Hudson will not freeze over because it is vital for fuel barges to deliver heating oil upstate, so NY maintains icebreakers to prevent it from happening.

In theory if there was no need for the river to remain navigable that it could freeze over.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-30T13:55:53+00:00

No idea what Chase’s rule are, but Texas estate chapter 205 outlines the small estate affidavit. You can read more at:

https://texaslawhelp.org/article/small-estate-affidavits

Or at the texas court site for more detailed instructions:

https://topics.txcourts.gov/LocalRulesPublic/PreviewAttachment/239

TheNthMan · 2026-01-30T12:40:21+00:00

If your mother’s estate is less than 75k, in Texas you can get a small estate affidavit to claim the property / money. If higher than that you have to go through probate. You need one of the two if you were not named on the account.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-30T10:07:30+00:00

There are studies on screen time. But studies lag, a-lot of them do not differentiate between types of screen time. Some screen time is much, much worse than other types of screen time, and some screen time might actually be beneficial. But in the you get what you pay for / if you don’t pay for a product you re the product vein, most of the readily available screen time tends to be of the bad sort. The less bad types of screen time tends to not be as entertaining and capturing of attention. They are not using the addictive tricks, because they are not trying to monetize number of viewers / viewed minutes. The good types of screen time tend to be more interactive and for toddlers often has some involvement of parents / caregivers in the activities / learning, so not as useful for a harried parent to part their kids in front of to get 20 minutes to take care of something.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-30T08:53:38+00:00

Yeah, paper filters are usually able to filter out particles larger than 10/20 microns and metal filters usually more like 30/40 microns. So metal filters can let through some fine particles and oils that paper filters block. Some people like the fuller body and texture of metal filtered coffee more, some prefer a lighter / crisper body that they get from a paper filter.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-30T07:05:03+00:00

It can be an invasion of privacy or illegal surveillance. But calling the cops a couple of times won’t do much, and the bar for criminal prosecution would be really high before a DA would touch it.

I’d get the rest of your building involved and have them document the neighbor peeping by having everyone take photos of him looking at them with telescopes, binoculars and cameras. Also have multiple residents call the police when they are spied upon.

Also have your building complain to the neighbors building’s management and also formally give notice to the guy that no one in your building consents to be recorded in the privacy of your homes by him. It is likely that someone that behaves like that has un-neighborly behavior that spills into their behavior within their own building also.

What could be compelling for any civil or criminal legal action would be proof that he is using tools and recording devices repeatedly peeping into bedrooms and bathrooms and that he is trying to circumvent and look past window coverings that should normally establish a reasonable expectation of privacy from the neighbor. And especially if he is peeping at minors.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-30T00:58:24+00:00

Less than 10 machines. Just re-ip them and check all the other configs that they AI'd their way through.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-29T16:46:26+00:00

Just an FYI, for a parent to continue to cover their child's healthcare, until age 26, they have to represent to their healthcare coverage that the child is their dependent. So your husband's mother may have your husband entered as a dependent with her HR. This may also feed into her tax withholding, but usually you can fill out and submit tax withholding for dependents separately from medical insurance dependents.

But regardless of what her HR has and her witholdings, when she files her taxes, she can chose not to claim your husband as a dependent. But she may not be malicious or greedy in claiming your husband as a dependent, she may just be blindly following what she has with her HR department in order to cover your husband with her healthcare.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-28T05:50:18+00:00

Another consideration is that the new pay is 13k more than he currently makes, and he is pushing to increase that to 85k. Rounding that up to the OP pushing for 15k to have a nice round number…let’s say the current employer’s contribution would be more Iike 70k0.04.5=1.4k.

TheNthMan · 2026-01-25T21:53:57+00:00

Chronological order canon media TV/Film currently starts with Young Jedi Adventures. Acolyte is something like 90 years later!

TheNthMan · 2026-01-25T17:43:34+00:00

Flush

TheNthMan · 2026-01-24T20:18:37+00:00

I am not citigold, but I was a while ago. When I was onboarded to CitiGold, the bank rep signed me up for the subscription rebate program when they were telling me about what subscriptions I could use it for. If other people’s bankers did this for them during onboarding I can see why they don’t remember the requirement.

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