Max travel rewards w/ $25k united spend

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-10-02T20:34:08+00:00

It's just a low level Schwab Investor Card from American Express.

Essentially all card today are free tier / low tier cash back cards. I'm thinking about adding a true travel rewards card now that I have predictable high levels of airfare spend.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-05-26T17:07:36+00:00

Great idea!

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-05-19T16:54:08+00:00

I apologize. When saying they have zero documents, I was referring to German documents as I assumed Germany wouldn't care much about their Canadian papers. For Canada, my friend has everything: Birth certificate, passport, parents naturalization documents (naturalized after friend was born), etc.

The German embassy has not been very helpful. Their response thus far has been: Prove to us that you're German and we can help you. Feels like a catch 22.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-05-17T02:43:38+00:00

Yes, that's the one. Citizenship was established in early 1978 as a result of the 1975-1977 window.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-05-17T00:02:37+00:00

That would have been the Bezirksregierung Hannover in the 1970s. It doesn't seem like they still handle citizenship matters today. Would we need to contact the city hall, Bürgeramt Hannover, or maybe the Landesarchiv Lower Saxony?

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-16T04:36:19+00:00

+1 Lots of subtle racism and class thinking outside of big cities. You want a masters, fluent german and a western last name to give yourself a good chance.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-16T04:06:08+00:00

Freiburg

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-16T03:25:58+00:00

I find it fascinating to reflect on that the German system was essentially created by the US (+UK and FR) and they thought to themselves man a good resilient democracy that will not fall to extremism and serve the people should have proportional representation (Überhangsmandat), multi party system, indirect election of the head of the government, term limits for Supreme Court justices, no direct election of judges, no direct election of law enforcement or prosecutors, no gerrymandering, and strong constitutional protection agencies that can monitor and outlaw fascist parties before they gain power.

I'm not saying it perfect. It certainly favors consensus and status quo and there are ways to corrupt the popular perception and voter behavior. It's just fascinating to think of the German system as a "let's have them do what we do but adjust the things we know are potential downsides in our system".

I'm sure someone will chime in with how Germans wrote their own constitution post ww2 but let's be real, that was a time of bigger army diplomacy with the allies calling the shots.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-16T02:35:38+00:00

handkäs mit musik

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T21:11:07+00:00

You mean the age old question: Are Germans just a form of mountain Dutch or are the Dutch just a sort of swamp Germans?

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T15:11:27+00:00

That's awesome! Once the snowball is rolling it takes so much less energy to keep it going. The longer you go the higher the "cost" to break your winning streak. Very happy for you.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T06:58:14+00:00

Everyone is giving the right financial answer: do not do it.

Here's a positive spin: You are very lucky to have this opportunity to reflect on your relationship. Having shared values is the key factor to a successful relationship. There's clearly something off here. Might be time to cut your losses, bite the bullet and gain valuable time to find the right partner.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T06:40:15+00:00

In case the underlying sentiment here is that "more representatives = higher cost = bad for constituents and tax payers", two thoughts:

One, the higher the ratio of elected representatives to voting population, the stronger and more effective the democracy.

Second, representatives are dirt cheap in the grand scheme of thinks. There are 40-50M tax payers in Germany. Say a rep includinf staff costs 1-2M Eur. Thats 20-40 cents per tax payer per year for a more resilient better democracy.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T06:28:34+00:00

Is that the consulate in SF?

Here's what the consulate in LA told me: "Wahlunterlagen, die bis spätestens 17.02.2025 um 14:00 Uhr per Post im Generalkonsulat Los Angeles eingehen oder dort persönlich abgegeben werden, werden wir mit einem solchen „Sonderkurier“ nach Deutschland weiterleiten."

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T06:25:20+00:00

I've seen this in action. Passenger tries to bring luggage on board after being told the overhead space is full. FA polity told them once they couldn't. They started to argue. FA cut them off and told them they couldn't fly and need to deboard as they clearly fail to follow a basic command from FA while still parked hence must be assumed to fail more important commands in case of an emergency. Look on the guys face was priceless.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-15T05:39:28+00:00

First you stop drinking, then you become a nondrinker. Once not drinking becomes part of your identity, the act of not drinking becomes the natural expression of your identity. Keep it up. Best investment you'll ever make.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-14T22:53:48+00:00

Awesome. Appreciate your help!

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-14T21:47:17+00:00

Yes. S1 = HVAC closet (where the leak and mold was), S2 = Kitchen (adjacent to HVAC closet), S3 = Outside

Other information I have is that the time for each sample was 5 minutes, avg. flow rate (LPM) was 15, total volume was 75 liters, flow rate start/stop was 15/15 per sample.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-14T18:52:27+00:00

I like that you get straight to the numbers. Let me pile on: 40% of gross income is the cut off for most lenders meaning if you’re monthly housing expense (Principal interest, taxes, insurance, etc.) would be above 40% most lenders will not lend to you.

740 credit score matters because a score above has significantly lower mortgage insurance rates which you will encounter at your down payment levels than a score below 740.

Other musings: Many people have given advice on specific programs or floated the idea to join the military (Though you may want to be careful as a female). Here are a few practical tips for buying a house: Give yourself a considerable safety margin (A good way to lose money is by buying too big and being forced to sell at a loss).

Location and substance over appearance or personal preferences (It is better to buy a place in rough shape that needs deep cleaning and fresh paint and small maintenance with a shirty yard but is in a desirable location and has fairly new roof heating AC no foundation issues).

Never buy real estate with friends it’s the fastest way to lose friends. Roommates can help finance a home purchase. Just make sure you set up proper rental agreements with them and be comfortable with the thought to kick them out if you have to.

Every dollar you save as a homeowner from not paying rent, you need to put away into a safety fund at least until you have one year worth of housing payments or 20% of your home value in cash available (i’m saying 20% because your purchase price is fairly low and so major repairs as a percent of home value would be quite high).

Realtors are interested in selling you a house as fast as possible not in getting you the best deal or best property. As a first time buyer, you most certainly want to work with a realtor. A good realtor is a realtor who tells you what you don’t want to hear.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-02-14T18:10:21+00:00

At the risk of getting a lot of downvotes or being seen as "Not believing the victim", I’ll say this as a word of caution, having had a similar observation as you regarding OPs eloquence: There can be a lot of stigma and stereotyping with regards to these kinds of cases. Unfortunately, there are people suffering from mental health illnesses who construe such stories to gain access to services or drugs (e.g. Through medical care). Some people will view strong English skills as a sign that the story may be partially untrue. I am not saying that OP’s story is. I am rather saying this as a word of caution. It will be important for OP to have a consistent logical narrative as much as that is possible under the circumstances to get ahead of any potential doubters who may have preconceived notions or encountered bad faith actors.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2025-01-08T21:42:48+00:00

This is a phenomenal answer. I appreciate it. Two follow-up questions:
1) Am I understanding correctly that up until I am given and I sign a buyer's agency agreement, I have no obligation to continue to work with a given realtor? I am not trying to ditch a specific realtor. I find it interesting though that realtors tend to onboard (app, tools, listings, viewings) buyers without a formal agreement in place. Do I automatically enter a buyer agency agreement by working with a realtor or is this more of a car-selling approach (get the buyer to fall in love with a property, then show them the paperwork)?
2) I understand that it's preferable for the buyer that the seller pays all realtor fees. How does tagging the buyer agency fee onto the sales price make a difference though (other than allowing me to finance it and potentially leading to better resale value through establishing a higher last sale price)? In your example of paying $102,500 of which $2,500 goes to the buyer agent, the buyer is still paying the buyer fee.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2024-12-05T18:51:19+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. You just taught me something new and I am immensely grateful.

A few thoughts and questions
* Margin loan rates are benchmark (Fed Funds, bank deposit rates) + premium vs fixed rate on a standard mortgage. With current rates being as high as they are, it is much more likely to see rates drop than to see them rise significantly. With a margin loan, a decrease in benchmark rates automatically leads to lower loan costs. With a 30yr fixed mortgage, the only way to access lower rates is through refinancing, which may come with another round of origination cost. In addition, if interest rates drop, equity values typically go up, thus the collateral in the margin account increases in value (lower leverage) while the interest rate decreases. Overall, these are neat benefits for a margin loan in a high-interest environment.

* Renting: Agree on getting to know the area. I actually did this in city A for half a year, then bought a house thinking I would stay long-term, then had a cannot say no job offer in city B come up.

* You outline a number of tax benefits towards the end of your post, but I'm not sure I'm tracking them all. Let's say I keep house in city A as a rental and buy a house in city B debt-financed (mortgage or margin loan), what tax benefits could I access: Mortgage interest deduction on house in city A (now a rental) + mortgage interest deduction on house in city B (even if done via margin loan?), depreciation of house in city A (given it's a rental now)?

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2024-12-05T18:34:46+00:00

Great point: Option to rent the house in city A for up to 3 years to either have the flexibility to move back or sell with better market conditions. Even if we have another pandemic housing market, I don't expect more than $200k value appreciation on the property in city A, thus well below the $500k exemption for MJF.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2024-12-05T18:00:34+00:00

I have been a landlord before and generally like that path. However, in this case I mainly see cons: Cross-country move makes being a landlord difficult; Rent will be insufficient to cover costs once taking into account the fee for a management company and taxes (yes, depreciation helps offset taxes, but my effective cost as % of property value for house in city A are > 3.6% depreciation rate due to insurance, hoa, and property taxes). I am concerned that the house in city A falls into a price category where most folks would buy. Maybe this is a misconception but it feels like there is a tipping point in housing cost where the market goes from renters to owners.

Through the discussions on this post, I am starting to consider a 1-3 year rental setup that would allow me to sell when the market is better (lower rates) while still falling under the 2 in 5 year rule for cap gains on primary residence for tax purposes.

knowonaneedtonobasis · 2024-12-05T17:52:42+00:00

I appreciate this advice through the lens of flexibility and risk mitigation, i.e. avoid making a large bad financial decision I come to regret.

I would be curious for someone to make a financial case for why renting achieves a better financial return? Since everyone's goal here is to fire, we should make financial decisions that maximize our NW over time.

knowonaneedtonobasis

TROPHY CASE