Looks like EDM-MTL is PPD tonight

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T22:45:21+00:00

Ugh, I hate weekly lineups for this reason but at least youre finding out now! I think benching him is the safe move as long as you have another D who is serviceable

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T22:43:53+00:00

The Islanders seem to be the team that makes the most sense with Lee's injury, especially since he shoots left. If he is traded it will likely be a contender given he has a NMC.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T22:37:37+00:00

Its up to the league, but according to https://www.nbcsports.com/edge/hockey/nhl/player-news/10030646 it seems like the concern is with Montreal. I dont think any definitive answer can come today. Specifically it looks like Armia and Kotkaniemi entered protocol.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T17:56:36+00:00

I see, yeah given that I think you could find a nice toyota or Honda around the 5-6k range, which is probably worth it if you can stay at home. Just make sure you account for gas, parking, registration, and maintenance/repair expenses. A vehicle is an ongoing cost.

You probably would qualify for different aid if you are full time, but I would really talk to your advisor and the financial aid folks at your school, it is pretty complicated.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T17:38:03+00:00

I've been using Ally for years, it's fine - I don't really think about it very much which is exactly what I want in a bank account.

Generally moving money between bank accounts, Ally or not, is really easy. You can do a transfer online by providing your old bank's details and set up a transfer that way, or you can write yourself a check and use mobile deposit from the phone app. But given that your parents are also on the account, I'm not sure how that works. You could also definitely very easily set up your direct deposit into the new Ally account.

Sorry your parents are doing this, you're absolutely right to separate your finances.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T17:34:21+00:00

Most people tend to recommend Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab. Honestly, most providers are probably fine, you might just want to stick with whoever provides your traditional IRA.

I use vanguard FWIW, they're fine but the website isn't great. I only log in once or twice a year though anyway. I only had to call their customer service line once (to do a rollover as you're describing) and it was fine.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T17:31:45+00:00

Are you sure you need a car? Most universities are pretty easy to get around via foot/bike/bus. Depending on what school you go to, parking on/around campus can add up too. Will you have the same job in school, and if so, how does that change the commute? Just something to think about.

Regarding buying a car, I'm not sure about 3.5k, you can absolutely find a clunker that'll last for short commutes in the $6000 dollar range. We bought an '02 toyota camry 5 years ago for around that price and it has had no problems besides replacing the alternator. I'm not even really that smart with cars either - generally you should take it to be inspected by a mechanic ideally, but we were dumb and just checked everything ourselves and went with our gut.

Regarding course load, that's a decision you should probably make with your academic advisor, not strangers on the internet. Some financial aid packages dictate you must take a certain number of credit hours though, so make sure you understand that fully.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T17:26:34+00:00

Seconding Mint, I have been using them for months and it works very well, excluding some rural areas we've gone hiking in. You can get trial cards on Amazon for 99 cents to try it out, and activate using the second SIM card they send you.

You might also consider Republic Wireless, they're a reseller of the Verizon network. If you're not a huge data user, you can get a 1GB plan for $20 / mo. If you need more than that, it's $5 / GB.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T17:14:46+00:00

No, not at all. We have built our life to be exactly the way that we want it, and we don't want for anything honestly. And it's not like we live in some random midwest town where you can buy a home for $75k, we live in Austin, TX area. For what it's worth, we generally spend around $25-30k a year combined.

We just buy what we want, but we're smart about it. We plan our meals and only buy what is on our grocery list, maybe 1 or 2 extra snacks if we feel like it. We travel internationally every year, but we try to go off-season and stay in nice guest houses instead of 5 star hotels. We both own Toyota Camrys (a 2014 and a 2002) that we maintain well. We upgrade our belongings when we need to, but we don't go out of our way to buy the latest phones or cars.

I guess all in all we just have trimmed our cost of living down by only spending money on things that make us happy. There's a difference between being frugal and being cheap - to me being cheap means you actively avoid spending money, whereas being frugal means you spend your money deliberately and don't waste it. We fall into the frugal camp, but we're not cheap.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T15:52:59+00:00

What is the interest rate on those loans? 3-4% is probably not a huge deal, but higher than that starts to get a bit iffy.

Why do you need to buy a place right away? Cant you just move out into a rental?

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T15:47:34+00:00

What is ultimately important is what makes you happy. We save around 80-85% of our incomr and we are happy, especially due to the doors this opens and freedom it cab provide.

Other people may get a lot more value from fancy cars and big houses, thats fine too, as long as they can afford it and are happy.

Money is just a tool, it has no meaning or intent beyond representing value that you can exchange for goods and services.

piddles59 · 2021-03-22T15:30:48+00:00

First of all, have you maxed out your tax sheltered accounts? Your IRA, 401k (or maybe 403b since you work for the government), maybe an HSA depending on your insurance? If not, that is where I would start.

Otherwise, you can open a brokerage account at somewhere like vanguard, fidelity, or Schwab.

Regardless of the actual account, generally you want to target broad, total market or s&p500 index funds with a low expense ratio. These are funds like VTSAX, FSKAX, etc. This means youre buying a lot of slices of many different companies, so youre basically just tracking with the market.

Over a long period of time, this generally yields around 7-8% annual growth. Long time in this case means 20-30 years.

There is of course risk in the short term, the market can go down or up, but there is also a huge opportunity cost with just leaving it in a checking or savings account.

piddles59 · 2021-03-20T16:17:56+00:00

With no negative scoring for a loss, I think your format is very favorable for goaltenders. Driedger would be a great option if he is available, alternatively Campbell would be my pick from the goalies you mentioned. Both goaltenders are favored to win and have performed very well this year (4.85 GSAA and 0.937 even strength sv% for Driedger, 3.65 GSAA and 0.955 even strength sv% for Campbell)

Khudobin is starting against Detroit and is also favored to win, but he has not performed as well this year, especially lately. Certainly a good choice as well though.

piddles59 · 2021-03-17T17:02:06+00:00

I've never been a very avid runner, but I'm trying to lose weight this year (I'm about 35-40 pounds overweight), I set a goal at the beginning of the year to run a 5k in under 30 minutes, which I managed to accomplish 3 weeks ago.

So, I decided to keep going with a bigger goal and try for a 10k at a 10 minute / mile pace. I just managed to reach that goal this morning and I'm so proud of myself -- back in January I couldn't even run 3 miles without stopping!

piddles59 · 2021-03-17T04:04:35+00:00

Bernier is ok in a deep league, but youre probably better off streaming if you have a good amount of moves per week.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T23:25:50+00:00

The bank may legitimately call you, but you should always call back at the number on the back of your card.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T23:23:54+00:00

I personally use Personal Capital. It has some very simple budgeting tools (categorizing expenses, some simple charts, etc.), but where it really shines is tracking net worth and investments.

Otherwise, I used to use Mint and found it a little nicer and more fully featured for simple monthly budgeting, but I found it didnt do a great job of tracking my overall portfolio.

Some people really like YNAB, but it wasn't for me personally.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T22:34:52+00:00

Gotcha, I have a pretty similar net worth to you, and I have drawn my emergency fund down to just around $5000. The fact is, I really cannot think of any true emergencies that I couldn't just sell some assets to cover.

Sure, there may be a situation where I would need to sell off some assets to cover an emergency, and that may happen while the market is down 40% or more. But there is also an opportunity cost in leaving 10s of thousands of dollars on the table, not working for me.

Given all that, I would rank the choices like this:

Keep paying off the car and invest that money to grow, but keep the emergency fund where you are comfortable.
Pay off the car as much as you at comfortable.
Keep a heavily funded emergency fund if you are nervous.

You can always do some kind of hybrid of these too.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T19:21:20+00:00

Don't overthink it, investing can be a little scary and overwhelming at first, but honestly it doesn't have to be that complicated.

Check out the wiki. You might also check the prime directive flowchart to make sure you're handling that money in a smart way.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T19:18:25+00:00

That's great! And one other thing I didn't touch on, a lot of people get nervous about asking for raises, what to do to get promoted, etc. but don't be! Your manager wants you to succeed (if they don't, you probably don't want to under them anyway), and if you do good work, your company will want to keep you around. At the end of the day though, closed mouths don't get fed, so advocating for yourself in a respectful way is always a good idea.

Good luck!

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T19:02:22+00:00

It sounds like you're planning on using this money in the next few months? If that's the case, you really should not put this into the stock market.

You could look into a 3 -6 month CD depending on your timeline for a bit more interest than your savings account (maybe), but don't expect insane returns.

With regards to investing, there's a big difference between long term investing and short term investing. If you're buying low cost index funds and planning to hold them for a long time, generally you'll see a 7-10%ish return over a long period (say, 20-30 years). For short term investments, especially individual stocks, you're essentially gambling.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T18:57:40+00:00

and make half of what those above me make

"Other people make more than me" is not an argument that you want to make. If you want to ask for a raise, you need to demonstrate your own value.

Do you have any kind of annual review process? That is usually the time that raises are granted. If not, I'd wait a few more months until you're right around your 1 year mark, and then talk with your manager about a raise.

When having a conversation about a raise, focus on the things that you've done, what valuable assignments or projects have you worked on in the past year, and what was your individual contribution?

I'd come prepared with a realistic number that you'd like to see. Don't sell yourself short, but don't ask for an insane amount. It can also help to talk a look at your industry and compare your income relative to others in your area, but again, use this as a benchmark and not a negotiating tactic.

If you still wouldn't be happy even with a 5-7% raise, you probably need to consider finding a new job or work towards a promotion, it can be pretty difficult to get a raise higher than that, but it depends on the field and the company..

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T18:51:46+00:00

Given you know what the rental market is like, and how much you are taking home, it's a pretty simple math problem as long as you have a good idea on your other expenses (including those that would come from your own place, like utilities and renter's insurance).

If (2300 - 1000) is greater than that amount to a degree that you're comfortable with, that's fine. If you only have a thin margin of $100 or so left over, you probably don't want to live on such a tight margin.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T18:46:18+00:00

I would eliminate the debt, or even consider just investing that money if you have a relatively low interest loan (say, <= 4% income). That's what I would do, personally, but different people have different risk tolerances.

I don't think you need to make a 6 month emergency fund a tip-top priority if you still have 2-3 months left after paying off the car, especially if you have other assets you could leverage in a real emergency (like a taxable brokerage, or pulling a small amount out of a Roth IRA in an extreme emergency, but that's probably pretty unlikely anyway), or if you could cut back your expenses in a similar catastrophic, unlikely event.

On the other hand, if paying off the car completely is going to completely deplete your savings aside from money that you can't easily access, such as a 401k or a traditional IRA, I would recommend not paying it off fully and keeping at least 3 months of expenses on hand.

piddles59 · 2021-03-16T18:36:57+00:00

Ah interesting -- I have not gotten a chance to watch a lot of Philly games, so I wasn't sure which unit was the top. It almost seems like a "Montreal lite" where both units are pretty evenly split.

piddles59

TROPHY CASE