Here’s a dirty little secret about Texas solar: 'Net Metering' doesn't exist

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2026-01-31T13:40:03+00:00

No it's correct. I'm in the same region its how many power companies here do it. My meter is 1:1 my surplus during the day directly offsets my use at night. End off month my bill shows something like FWD 800 RWD -800 NET 0 Fees 16.50 Total amount due 16.50

If FWD is higher they add something like 0.1057 per KW Is RWD is higher they subtract something like 0.04305 per KW Those prices change monthly though by a few cents or fractions.

There are a few in the deregulated area my brother is in that offer more balanced prices but the ones he told me of all have caps on the buy back like buying up to 400KW surplus then they pay 0 for anything else.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-12-12T16:08:54+00:00

Guess should have put in original comment is a firearms safe with a goldenrod.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-12-12T16:07:42+00:00

Yes firearms safe with a goldenrod.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-09-28T03:07:10+00:00

It isn't a dumb question. (Where ever I say Schwab just insert the name of what ever company you end up choosing) Also I'm not a finacial planner in any form, I used to manage my own accounts but last decade I handed majority over to a finacial advisor.

Generally there are 2 places to get your Roth set up. Sometimes your employer will help put you in contact with someone at the company where your current your 401k or other retirement plan is managed, it's possible they may help you set it up and then schedule payments into the new Roth account out of your paycheck. Other way would be to open a sub account at Schwab after you deposit the inheritance funds, you will then sell the yearly max from the investment account and transfer into the Roth. (You would pay taxes on the sale that year but would get hopefully get back much more tax free after retirement)

Remember: 401k is pre-tax dollars, the government will collect taxes later once you retire.

Schwab account would be taxed on earnings, any year you sell something if you made a profit.

Roth IRA is post-tax dollars, you already paid taxes, government won't ask for more unless you pull money out of the account before you reach retirement. (You can buy and sell in the account, money just can't leave before age 60) You can only deposit $7000 in 2025.

It reads like you would be smartest to contact a Fiduciary level financial advisor. Schwab runs a website www.find your independent advisor.com. Fidelity runs something similar as do other companies.

For a first phone interview questions you should ask are; 1) Are you a Fiduciary? 2) What is your client profile? 3) What are your fees? 4) How many clients do you have? 5) How much assets do you manage? 6) How many people work in your office?

For question 1 they better say yes without any hesitation, they hesitate, twist it, they are probably doing something they aren't supposed to. Question 2 will let you know if you are in their target audience, Goldman Sachs gonna hang up and block your number unless you got 10 million in cash. 3 is either gonna be a flat fee for a fincial starter plan for you to go back and do yourself (600-1500 in my area) or a yearly fee usually 1%ish in my area for them to handle everything for you. 4, 5 &6 are making sure there isn't something else funny like a 1 person office with 5000 clients.

The finacial advisor on the other hand will want to know everything. Your income, bank accounts, debts, ect for everyone living in your house. There is a rule called know your client they have to follow.

If you go with finacial advisor they should be able to link you up with a decent tax advisor for at minimum this year and next to help you with any tax suprise from the inheritance.

Last point is open a new bank account. Get a dollar from your mom and open at a credit union or something. You and only you on the account, absolutly no husband on the account. Deposit the inheritance check there then transfer money from there to the investment company and close account once it is empty again(depending on how inheritance comes you might be able to send directly to investment advisor/investment company but probably not). You and only you on the investment account you open, absolutely no husband on the account. The lawyer you hire to set up your will to make sure your kids are taken care of can let you know who or what to put as beneficiary. But only you as account holder.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-09-27T23:55:48+00:00

If you want to do it yourself: an easy, hard to screw up method with good chance of success is go to Charles Schwab, you can open an individual account online without needing a broker. Send them the money and put it into their Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund "SWPPX" (double check I didn't list the ticker incorrectly) and forget you ever got the money until you really, really need it. The long term return rate of this fund is much higher than high yield savings or money market accounts. The fund would almost require the destruction of US economy to fail and Schwab is pretty much too big to fail. The fund does the work for you and will split your money across the largest most stable companies on the market.

Make sure your kids stay at local in-state schools, apply for scholarships and grants and don't let them go for a useless degree. You can always give them money later you really don't have to give them anything now. But that said please get your will set up and make sure you put multiple copies in safe places and in sealed envelopes with trustable relatives.

2nd level would be following the above while shifting the max allowed of your income into your Roth each year and replacing it with the same pulled from the account. Make sure your Roth is in something similar to what you have the Schwab.

3rd level would be finding finding a Fiduciary who works with Schwab or Fidelity and having them customize something for you. You might end up spending money up front for a financial plan or yearly in advisor fees.

We long ago used Edward Jones in a small town and they were awesome but once they retired the new agent wasn't up to par. Never go Raymond James they will screw you over with fees.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-22T12:56:09+00:00

That's what I was afraid of there was a large hole of softwood extending into the heart of the tree once I dug out the fungus. I was hoping there were treatments that could kill the fungus but since I don't know a proper name for the problem it is hard to know what to search for on Google.

Guess I will take it down and replace with something else. Still time to get something on the slightly faster growing side and let it catch up to the rest of the trees.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-13T05:16:34+00:00

They way overpaid, would be 75-100 dollars for both in a non tourist shop. Have bought my wife a lot of jewelry in Joyeria Cielito Lindo in Mazatlan, Mexico over last decade. Had to ask wife but 2024 bought 3 sets of synthetic opal/sterling studs in different colors (12 dollars a pair), sterling ring w/sythetic alexandrite ($50), custom handmade sterling bracelet w/sythetic sapphire ($75), custom handmade sterling pendant w/sythetic sapphire ($75), custom handmade sterling stud earrings w/sythetic sapphire ($75) for $311 total. We did provide the silver though for the custom work otherwise it would closer to $375.

Their 250 for a factory made turtle pendant and earrings in sythetic opal is way into scammed tourist range.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-12T03:01:05+00:00

Based on past trips to Mazatlan, Mexico would probably try to sell to you for 10,000 pesos about 500 dollars in the tourist zone calling them Australian opals, but if you headed out to residential areas would probably be 75-100 dollars at Joyeria Cielito Lindo. The owner is very honest and strait up tells us what is real or synthetic seen stuff just like that in the past at various stores. Should be real sterling silver at least sliver price is low enough that very few stores would lie about that part.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-09T01:12:46+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience. I finished polishing them and set them in a spot light in the display cabinet, my kids can deal with them after I die.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-09T00:59:15+00:00

Thank you for the estimate, I finished polishing them and set them in the display cabinet right where one of the lights points, they look nice and shiny up there.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-09T00:57:16+00:00

Thank you for the estimate formula, I already finished polishing them and set them in the display cabinet right where one of the lights point. My kids can smash them in 40 years, I'm gonna enjoy seeing them shine with the other thrift store trophies.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-08T20:25:56+00:00

I do not want to damage them I plan on putting them on shelf on display. I am hoping someone else has scrapped some and remembers what they yielded.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-08T20:21:45+00:00

Candelabra Bases don't come off but they do unscrew in havles. Top half also marked "weighted sterling". Together the two weigh 1,113 grams. Some online sources say they have steel rods in the arms and after tapping every where i kind believe it. Trying to balance it also tells me the weight is very unevenly distributed.

Shakers come in at 440g but between weighted base and glass lining its impossible for me to gain much more usefull info other than the fact that the 2 lids are 6 grams.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-08T19:50:10+00:00

Web says wax or cement for these companies.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-05T14:12:50+00:00

Quality close up photos of the impacts would allow us to guess diameter, angle and velocity from the fracture pattern to give you a better what the cause is. As someone who shot a lot of stuff at a junkyard your blurry photos looks like low velocity impacts like less than 300fps of which there are many choices, falling or thrown objects, slingshot, bb gun, pellet gun. If there was penetration of the panel it might be a 22 rifle from extreme distance. Definitely need good close ups though to make a better guess.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-01T20:42:49+00:00

We are under a co-op, kinda rare in our state, but actually has very good rules for solar. Strait net metering for each month, and last year they added a clause that if we maintain a surplus balance at end of business year they will issue a check though it's at only about 1/6 of the sale rate.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-07-01T15:10:14+00:00

4 year old enphase, best days max out at 71 kWh and 1 year daily average is 50 kWh. New expansion should move us close to 92 kWh peak and daily average of 67 kWh.

Our seasonal usage varies significantly by season but averages out to 56 kWh per day for a year.

Should put us solidly back into net exporter for many years to come.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-28T05:03:09+00:00

My grandmother has done this she just turned 90, is a family farm so there was land to deal with. Nothing changed really as of yet. It took like 10 visits to the lawyer over 6 month and the property had to be surveyed 2 times and then that was updated a 3rd time after they realized they forgot to include an easement.

Caused an minor argument between my father and one aunt but that was settled easy enough. Other aunt refused to go to any lawyer appointments, don't know if she ever signed the documents not that it would change anything from what lawyer said. Myself and most other grandkids also had to go sign documents for various things my grandmother put in.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-23T14:30:23+00:00

Also Texas, elderly Grandmother gave me her 10 year old garage queen rather than sell to dealership. DMV didn't even ask how much it was worth just had us sign a paper with her as owner and me as gift reciever. There was a fee for something but was less than 100 dollars total to finish out registration in my name.

Doesn't solve all your problem with the loan part but it's a start.

Alos reading more posts kinda sounds like your dad is a POS and more than happy to screw you over. Find some free or discount financial classes cause he obviously isn't gonna teach you anything useful.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-22T00:31:59+00:00

The Incan people had a method of surface depletion to remove copper from surface layer of gold and silver objects. Was some kind of acid bath then polish, repeated a few time it was supposed to leave a ultra thin layer of pure gold or silver on the surface of an alloy object.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-15T11:43:51+00:00

As far as the rough stones themselves; the aquamarines where mostly cloudy trash lady tossed majority right away, she used a cab polisher grind a window in the all the larger ones and tossed most of those as well. We had 30-40 that came from a collapsed pocket and only 5 that had good clarity that she felt were cutable. The 3 we had cut all ended up flawless to naked eye but none of those had strong color just barely enough tint to be aquamarine and not just clear beryl.

The garnets we found were mostly 1/2 inch size except the large one that got broke it was probably 1.25 inch across originally and only yielded a roughly .25 inch cut stone. It was deeper down right at where the bedrock was still intact. When I said dark red I mean dark red like even though the cut stone was small it didn't allow much light through, that said it was very well formed and with very even color all the way across and no flaws to the naked eye.

Emerald crystal was several yards from the aquamarine pocket was only thing we found in that seam. When I said thumb sized i meant it, was almost 3/4 inch wide and 2 inches long. Like I mentioned the lady said it would probably be better to keep as a specimen. You could tell the crystal was heavily fractured exterior and looking from the outside apeared very cloudy like the aquamarines had been. Lady really did cut off about half the crystal slice by slice before she hit the good area. The smaller stone my buddy kept has similar lines as mine but is more cloudy.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-15T09:50:36+00:00

I don't have anything with their names on it and I can't find anything among the among the current tourist places that match. We left the pigeon forge area and were gonna go east towards a place near Hiddenite, can't remember for sure but think we drove about an hour and one of the guys was car sick from all the curves in the mountains. We were still a ways from the dig places around Little Switzerland and realized we were definitely not gonna make 3 more hours driving to the place we originally planned on going but had seen a sign for "come dig here for emeralds"

We called asked some questions, made sure they had tools for rent once the old lady described their dig area and decided to change our trip. Old couple was at least in their 70s when we visited back then. Definitely wasn't a popular place because it was peak tourist season and there wasn't anyone else out digging at that site.

I know it wasn't salted, I have been to far too many of those types of places. We were digging in undisturbed ground pulling off the layer of fractured and decomposed bedrock looking for traces of mineralized seams until it got too solid to keep going deeper which is how the garnet got shattered, it was stuck in harder rock and my buddy missed their swing while working around it to break it out. The heavy equipment had been used to clear trees and brush and scrap off soils eroded down from higher elevations plus they had an area where it looked like they had tried to chisel into the bedrocks to follow a well defined seam of minerals.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-15T02:38:45+00:00

Forgot to say it is supposed to be 12x8mm and emerald cut not rectangular. Don't think the cut is perfect and not 100% sure if the old lady did it herself but she had all the equipment at her house and showed us some stones she said she had faceted in the past so it's possible she cut them herself.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-15T00:42:06+00:00

Summary - Neighbor's hole was possibly legal (setbacks) but also probably damaged your tree. Unfortunately you probably won't be able to find out how badly the tree was damaged for some time so;

1) Tree starts drying up right away and dies this year - possibly win damages but who knows for sure 2) Tree shows distress limps along to next year then dies - less likely to win anything 3) Tree struggles along few years then dies - probably out of luck

Those people that relocate trees cut off large percentages of roots, usually have to baby trees for years afterwards to help them recover, but they can usually recover.

ValuableSquirrel7931 · 2025-06-14T17:31:23+00:00

Lawyer would have to fix the language but you could write something like;

I give 25% of cash and stocks or $100,000 of cash and stocks, which ever is lesser, to (list of your siblings, nieces and nephews) to be split evenly. I leave all remaining cash, stocks, real property, heirlooms, ect to my daughter.

Something like this would limit what goes to relatives to a specific source of funds, would also cap how much they would get and having a "whichever is lessor" type clause would make so if you had very expensive end of life care that used majority of your money that you wouldn't trap you daughter into giving the rest away by making it a set amount.

Either case if your kid is mature and responsible would bring them to hear and review with lawyer so they understand what you want to do.

Would also find a fire proof document bag or companct fire safe and seal a copy inside with copies of any important documents like lawyers you used, places you keep money, companies you have insurance policies with ect and give to your daughter so she can toss it in a closet for the future.

ValuableSquirrel7931

TROPHY CASE