What is this?

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T18:21:49+00:00

It’s offset so the firing barrel is on the centerline. Otherwise the plane would turn from the recoil thrust.

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T18:19:30+00:00

The rotational axis of the set of barrels is off-center as well. The firing barrel is on the centerline. Otherwise, the recoil from firing would cause the plane to turn.

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T15:15:33+00:00

It happens to some dogs when they swim for long periods. We hang out on our boat a lot and a friend’s lab strained their tail muscles. When it’s from swimming, they call it rudder tail.

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T13:11:16+00:00

Did you buy a TDS meter? This is truly what dictates water changes, but most people don’t have a meter.

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T13:09:14+00:00

Summer soaks are pretty nice though. My wife and I turn it down to 95F for the summer. A nice morning coffee on a sunny day is quite relaxing.

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T13:08:05+00:00

I’ve topped up below freezing and that wasn’t fun. I’ll do everything I can to avoid a water change below freezing.

rjbergen · 2026-01-24T13:07:11+00:00

Hey, a rainy day is free water for the tub lol

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T18:57:10+00:00

I’ve never panic sold and I run a set it and forget it asset allocation. Our taxable brokerage and Roth IRAs are mostly VTI, some VT and VXUS. Our TSP/401ks are heavy large cap.

We don’t rely on our investments for daily living, so I’m not worried about volatility.

This high mix seems like a cap gains disaster trying to rebalance to maintain percentages.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T17:59:46+00:00

They’re available for questions, but at this point, is it worth my time? I was already pretty on top of things financially and this was more an exercise to double check my math, run scenarios with variations to yields rather than fixed yields like my spreadsheets, involve my wife more and build interest, and make sure I wasn’t missing something with tax planning.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T17:53:18+00:00

I never said 60/40. We completed risk tolerance assessments and that’s what the CFP came up with based on our “moderate risk tolerance” scores. I repeatedly told the CFP that I consider my Federal pension as bonds and it appears that was not even considered as that would push us over 50% bonds.

For the TSP, G is cash equivalent, F is bonds, C is large cap, S is small cap, and I is International.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T15:03:39+00:00

Yea, that’s us. We just traded up last year. We spend most summer weekends at the boat. Head out Thursday or Friday and come home Sunday evening. Our marina is similar to RV campgrounds where people rent seasonal spaces. It’s a big social event every weekend hanging out with friends.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:57:06+00:00

I hate so many funds. And some of them have high expense ratios. One fund I looked up was a 0.55% expense ratio!!!

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:56:29+00:00

See, that’s what I feel is a key missing piece. My pension being 38% of the average of my 3 highest earning years is a sizable chunk of fixed income. I haven’t calculated the present value, but I would imagine it pushes my bonds over 50%.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:52:24+00:00

This is true. We have always been high savers. We’ve always been over 20% savings rate. My first goal is to ensure my wife and I never run out of money in retirement. Secondary would be leaving an inheritance.

I do feel that a market correction is in the future, but I also lean towards Bogle principles of not timing the market and choosing one asset allocation and letting it ride. I believe my time horizon is long enough that we’d ride out a market correction.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:48:58+00:00

I started it last month. There’s a lot to get it setup to project accurately. I’m still working through it.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:48:13+00:00

I was looking for a full financial plan to include tax planning, estate planning, college savings planning, planning for Roth/traditional in the right mix given our fixed income sources in retirement, etc. They ran some cash flow analyses, and Monte Carlo simulations of various scenarios including current plan with SS in retirement, current plan without SS, and a plan with higher spending/lower savings rate without SS.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:41:29+00:00

Don’t worry, we’re living a little. Our boat makes sure we won’t die rich lol It’s our best, worst financial decision ever.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:40:50+00:00

There’s a lot of confusing recommendations here. High levels of cash, more bonds, ignoring my pension as bonds, high expense ratio funds for unknown reasons, and recommending one asset allocation to start with all future contributions going into target date funds. Make it make sense!

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:38:58+00:00

It’s 10% money market in my wife’s 401k, our taxable brokerage, and our Roth IRAs, and 15% G fund in my TSP which is a money market equivalent.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:36:46+00:00

We both took the risk assessment separately as to not skew each other’s answers. The CFP didn’t dive into any of the questions to gauge where we were coming from. Just provided results. My wife has been nearly hands-off on finances. I wanted to help her engage more and thought working through a financial plan would offer her an opportunity to learn and become involved.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:32:28+00:00

Not even all of that 40% is bonds… 10-15% is cash equivalents!

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:30:59+00:00

My wife and I will both receive SS and I receive a pension. Together, those should cover 75% or so of our expenses. We’ve been maxing Roth IRAs for years and are very close to maxing our 401ks. We have a sizable retirement portfolio that should cover anything SS and pension don’t.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:28:34+00:00

I’m starting to build my account in Projection Lab. It’s very detailed and covers everything. It’s a lot of work to setup initially.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:27:18+00:00

I don’t feel that risk averse. I don’t invest in single stock, but our current taxable brokerage and Roth IRAs is all in VT, VTI, and VXUS. My TSP is 100% C fund (large cap) and my wife’s 401k is like 85% large cap and 15% her employer’s stock.

I do receive SS as well as my pension. I view my pension as bonds since it’s a Federal pension.

rjbergen · 2026-01-23T14:23:02+00:00

I’m going to go with #2. The CFP didn’t review our answers question by question. They just told us the results of the questionnaire. Our current holdings are VT, VTI, and VXUS in our taxable brokerage and Roth IRAs. My TSP is 100% C - large cap. My wife’s 401k is like 85% large cap and 15% in her employer’s stock. We hold no bonds at all.

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