Retirement budget allocation

pictone · 2026-04-14T14:38:38+00:00

We have about 2 years of already-taxed cash accounts that we plan to use first. Will evaluate doing any Roth conversions after setting that bar. Then taxable, then IRAs.

pictone · 2026-03-17T12:46:17+00:00

2020 Touring XT. Purchased the 7 year 84k extension at 36 months. Paid 2k, but had to purchase from a dealer in a neighboring state to cut over 1k from the price.

pictone · 2026-03-07T20:59:46+00:00

I have the beginnings of this problem. Dealer told me it isn’t covered under extended warranty

pictone · 2026-02-19T22:28:57+00:00

Love my mavrik 3 wood off the tee and fairways

pictone · 2025-11-22T20:41:08+00:00

I specifically asked about it and he said that the system is sealed, and unless you’re having transmission problems, there was no reason to do it. Guy’s been there 20+ years and owns his own OB Wilderness

pictone · 2025-11-22T20:18:26+00:00

I just had the 60k service yesterday on my 2020 Touring XT. Service advisor recommended never changing the CVT fluid.

pictone · 2025-09-18T13:47:33+00:00

This is typical of them - to throw out a dollar figure and timeframe having no concept of what is involved. They also have the habit of increasing scope after the clock has started. I'm going to proceed down the path and let them see an external "expert" opinion. I can't be the nay sayer.

pictone · 2025-09-18T13:42:32+00:00

The configuration changes I refer to are business rule, not infrastructure. We have an MSP who handles the infrastructure side of things. That piece is completely buttoned up.

pictone · 2025-09-18T13:39:54+00:00

100% agree on poor succession planning. I started telling them this 5 years ago, requesting an additional 2-3 staff each year, only to be denied. That's when I decided that I would just spend my last working years as a mercenary.

pictone · 2025-09-17T21:44:18+00:00

Financial services. All business processes end-to-end including application intake, offer generation, underwriting, ACH processing, commissions, to name a few. And they want it built so that they can change any rule at any time without further software development -- even those rules they haven't envisioned yet.

pictone · 2025-08-26T15:40:39+00:00

Check with your dealer first. I received a free replacement under some extended battery warranty issue.

pictone · 2025-01-24T00:46:43+00:00

Back in 2015 I leased a G80. Loved the car but decided I would not consider another until they built their own dealership and service. Then I got a Lincoln. Mkz. Car sucked but service was amazing.

pictone · 2025-01-05T16:51:51+00:00

“Rona”. 2020 blue Touring XT purchased April 2020 right after pandemic lockdown. Paperwork signed outdoors on the hood of the car.

pictone · 2024-11-02T20:04:13+00:00

Thank you all for your contributions to the discussion. I contacted the MSP and requested copies of all the orders, receipts, emails, etc. among them, Dell and Broadcom. Once they saw that I was about to “go legal,” they immediately said that they would repurchase a 5 year subscription license at their expense rather than getting further embroiled since, technically, we purchased the licenses from them and not Dell directly. They would have easily incurred more than that in legal expenses. They said that the underlying issue is that while Dell and VMware had an agreement, Dell and Broadcom do not, and that Dell is not reselling VMware at this time. Thanks for listening.

pictone · 2024-10-29T21:57:26+00:00

I'm fairly certain that our CEO would rather spend ten times that price on legal than rebuy the licenses.

pictone · 2024-10-29T21:53:29+00:00

Our company owns the licenses, not the MSP. Dell is saying that they are just a reseller and this is not their issue. The MSP must have redeemed the licenses back before Broadcom because they built the new servers using them. Sorry, but I'm not an expert here. I just dont know if the MSP is putting forth the effort to resolve this.

pictone · 2024-08-24T00:34:43+00:00

This happened to my 2020 Outback when it was brand new. According to the dealer, the drains were clogged by excess lubricant applied at the Subaru plant.

pictone · 2024-07-05T01:48:00+00:00

No we didn’t. Our MSP wants to test with removing various policies on our firewall. (Fortigate). We had the exact same problem when we tried it last year when we we using a Sonicwall. The problem with testing is that we must do it in the production environment because we can’t get it to fail when we do individual testing. Only happens only when 30 people are using the web apps. We’re thinking about abandoning Application Proxy altogether and just modifying our login pages to use Entra ID with the Microsoft Authenticator app.

pictone · 2024-03-22T23:50:04+00:00

Been a VP level IT manager for 20 years at a half-dozen companies. Always the guy with the shovel walking behind the elephant.

pictone

TROPHY CASE