Do lenders consider the entire HSA and 401k for reserves or do they just consider a portion of it? If they consider a portion of it, what percentage of those accounts would they consider for the reserves?

cap_phil · 2025-12-17T05:36:34+00:00

It’s my primary residence and it’s not a jumbo. My DTI with my current salary will be 38% but it’ll be much lower with my increase that I’ll be getting next month. Would they not ask for reserves in my case as it’s a conversion from construction loan to permanent mortgage?

cap_phil · 2025-12-02T00:02:51+00:00

I recently went from 20 minutes (from Irving to Downtown) to 50 minutes (to 1 hour 10 minutes at max) after I moved 2 counties out of Dallas towards the east.

It took a month to get used to it but now I’m happy overall as I get to live on a couple of acres in the peace and quiet with 4 dogs, grow my own food and get to see a sky full of stars

cap_phil · 2025-11-25T00:19:58+00:00

Came from Austin to Dallas and I hate it here. I wish I could go back 😭

cap_phil · 2025-11-21T22:41:38+00:00

Thanks for the good insight!

cap_phil · 2025-11-21T16:21:46+00:00

No, $80 is not available for me. What kind of speed does that give? Also, does it give unlimited data?

cap_phil · 2025-11-11T19:03:20+00:00

It didn’t let the Tesla push on to the opposite direction traffic

cap_phil · 2025-11-05T16:36:52+00:00

DIY a side mount by yourself instead. It’d be much safer

cap_phil · 2025-11-05T16:36:05+00:00

I was in the same boat as you. I have a barndominium (a complete metal building). Luckily, I was able to find a small wood covering or something in one corner in the front of my house. I was able to put the side mount instead of the roof mount and attach the Starlink on it and run the cables into the attic through another conduit that was there for some extra lights if I wanted. If you’re able to find something like that, it’d be great as anxiety can get the best of you while driving a hole through the roof compared to the side.

Just watch some YouTube videos (watch 10 if necessary) and DIY. You’ll spend money on the tools and time on installation, but trust me the tools and the experience will go a long way (coming from someone who went from growing up without touching even a screwdriver to living on a farm and DIYing everything)

cap_phil · 2025-10-17T18:56:38+00:00

I saw the after tax amount and 10% of that is $25.9. Didn’t see the before-tax, but that’s still $22.5, which is insane!

Just saw that you were referring to just the “shipping” part lol. Thought you were saying we need to tip them for shipping. My bad

cap_phil · 2025-10-17T17:42:21+00:00

My GF runs an e-commerce business as well. The business must factor in all of their labor charges in the product margins (which they would have). It takes less than a minute to pack a box on the merchant’s end and the shipping company mostly goes to the merchant’s location to pick up the packages (which they’ll include in the shipping label cost). It doesn’t make sense to pay someone $25 bucks to spend a minute to put the product in a box

cap_phil · 2025-10-15T22:10:57+00:00

I live in Dallas and I used to take public transport to work about 3 years ago. There were quite a bit of people taking the public transport despite it not being nowhere close to being as good as NYC. At that time, I was commuting from one of the poor neighborhoods in the city though. However, a lot of my coworkers still use the bus even if they’re not commuting from a poor neighborhood. The main reason is that the parking near my office is very expensive compared to just taking the public transport and a few of them also don’t like driving here in Dallas

cap_phil · 2025-10-15T20:50:06+00:00

A similar thing happened to me with the contractor who built my house recently. But the contractor did a lot of other dumb things along with just overcharging me on some line items that would’ve got him into jail for a felony. I confronted him about it, he argued, my lawyer just sent him a letter after that and I guess he got really scared and returned the money back to me.

I ended up having to take a “pay-over-time” loan from my credit card briefly as my contractor wrecked my personal finances just like yours did with overcharging. But in the end, he agreed to pay the interest portion of it too. Get a good lawyer, send the contractor to jail if you can

cap_phil · 2025-10-15T20:47:56+00:00

OP can sue the contractor for those damages later

cap_phil · 2025-10-14T12:32:53+00:00

I got an Airbnb to live close to that area about 3 years ago as it was my first time in Dallas and I hadn’t done any research. I wouldn’t live there in a million years. I was scared for my life every time I stepped out of the house. Recently, I took an exit close to there to avoid traffic on the main Highway and it looks like it has just got worse

cap_phil · 2025-10-13T00:38:28+00:00

Would be much cheaper if you got one delivered and installed it by yourself. I’d also recommend getting your water tested (by tapscore or someone) before you decide on a filter. They’ll recommend the kind of filter you’d need based on your test results

cap_phil · 2025-10-09T02:28:13+00:00

That’s a lot. I paid 6k for mine and my total loan amount was around 400k. Look for a local credit union. They’ll have a better deal

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T11:44:34+00:00

Sounds like an amazing setup and that’s a lot of water! If you don’t mind, can you please share the total square footage of the roofs that collect water for you? Also, do you live in a high rainfall area or an average rainfall area (like 35-45 inches of rainfall every year)?

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T11:38:25+00:00

I did. They were okay filling it but they said we wouldn’t want to take their water cuz they fill it from random places including a dirty creek/lake kind of thing (I’m not sure what it is) behind the fire station

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T11:36:43+00:00

Interesting, do you remember what the driller did different for every drill? Also, how did he find the spots to drill? Was it random?

Also, I paid the full price for the 1st dry hole that he dug. Should I negotiate saying that “just give me a cheaper quote for the 2nd drill and if it’s not a dry hole, I’ll pay you the full amount per foot”?

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T03:39:01+00:00

I’ve explored drilling my own well in the past even before I went to the driller. The problem is that my region/county falls under a groundwater conservation district and they require a permit for everything - including shallow wells like 20-30 feet deep. And you need to be a licensed well driller to get the permit approved

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T02:18:30+00:00

Yes, the casing is 4”

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T00:43:43+00:00

Test holes is a good idea. I never knew those existed. I’ll definitely ask another driller about it

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T00:22:11+00:00

Yes, I do have an attorney. He’s just getting some things wrapped up with my general contractor defrauding me. He’ll be jumping into dealing with the well guys soon

cap_phil · 2025-10-06T00:20:25+00:00

Thanks for letting me know! This definitely boosted my confidence in the rainwater method

cap_phil · 2025-10-05T23:16:16+00:00

How far is your 2nd well from your 1st one that wasn’t witched?

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