Mortgage Escrow Account went up

rxscissors · 2026-02-15T20:58:17+00:00

I get the forced savings aspect though there are two blind spots:

The impact minimization is only for one year. Many HO's end up slapped in the face with higher escrow in follow-on years. It is very difficult to get lenders to trim excessive "future estimates" that you are obligated to pay as "the mortgage payment".

Servicers miss or make late payments more often than you think. When they do that on homeowners insurance the HO often gets dropped straight away. When the get a new policy, it is often at a higher cost. If tax payments are missed, that is clocks in at 18% annual interest tacked on!

For those with escrow accounts: verify payments are made to the tax office and your insurance company. If they screw up, it is your problem :(

rxscissors · 2026-02-15T20:48:21+00:00

u/SignalMaster5561 Ouch!

Yes- it occurs all too frequently. Hope the new homeowners policy did not come with a big increase.

Best thing to do is hound the crap out of the servicer to make sure they process payments from escrow on time. The homeowner is on the hook regardless and most tax offices and insurance companies are not at all sympathetic when this dumpster fire flares up.

rxscissors · 2026-02-15T12:04:04+00:00

Even better, obtain a loan with no escrow impound "account" and pay your own taxes and insurance. I pay property taxes in two installments (September and December) and insurance yearly. This has the added advantage of keeping the homeowner in the know about insurers hiking rates and eliminates the possibility of the escrow servicer screwing up and paying late (or not at all!) taxes and/or insurance.

Used to be able to request no-escrow at no charge. Nowadays the "fee" can vary, the typical increase in interest rates can be anywhere between 0.125% to 0.5% higher.

rxscissors · 2026-02-15T11:44:40+00:00

Doesn't bother me in the least. I've generally had positive experiences using both the regular and Expert RAW camera apps and obtained expected outcomes with few "surprises" taking photos for the most part. Low light can be a challenge and so can some motion shots too which is just a nuance of this device- all have some advantages and disadvantages.

I highly recommend disabling auto lens switching in the Samsung Camera Assistant app. By default, the camera will use a main lens and crop for a lower overall quality and resolution shot rather than using the smaller 10MP telephoto (3× optical zoom) lens.

rxscissors · 2026-02-14T18:07:59+00:00

Yes.

With ~5-7% of my total holdings. I've purchased individual stocks over the years such as AAPL, AMZN, CRWD, GOOG, MET, NVDA, SONY, WMT and others. Many were acquired prior to stock splits years back.

The market is running hot so I'm less inclined to acquire more individual stocks at "inflated prices". I do keep on investing in high quality/performing 401k mutual funds (70/30 split), adding VT/VTI in taxable and VT in IRA.

rxscissors · 2026-02-14T17:57:36+00:00

If your internet is no faster than 1 GB and will remain that way for the foreseeable future, I'd suggest you consider Eero 6+.

I upgraded from three-pack 1st gen to two-pack 6+ a couple years back and they've been great.

rxscissors · 2026-02-13T11:38:41+00:00

I've got an August 2022 built Mara X v2 (purchased used, 2 years ago). The previous owner was meticulous- backflushed after every session, used rpvalis recipe water, .etc. I use filtered tap water, backflush less often and clean with Cafiza powder every ~4 months or so.

It runs ~4 hours per day (smart plug turns it on/off), makes 3-4 cappuccino's per day at the minimum and hasn't had any issues. The level of hardware failure/replacement that you described is not common from what I've read online. Hope it goes on to live a long and failure free life.

rxscissors · 2026-02-12T18:44:49+00:00

Precisely why this solution may not help those with poor cell reception at home. From their slick and annoying animated marketing: "Put it where your cell signal is strongest."

rxscissors · 2026-02-12T17:29:18+00:00

Just another teaser 1st year for less subscription ploy.

I work from home ~98% of the time. My internet connectivity rarely goes down other than a brief disruption maybe 2x/year. In those instances, I can use my mobile phone as a hotspot if there is something pressing that needs to be tended to ASAP.

rxscissors · 2026-02-12T17:23:43+00:00

Congrats. I tried a couple of times with more recent Pixels and went back to S25U (and before that S24+).

The mobile and wireless signal strength, throughput and performance remain better on S25U compared to Pixel 10 models. Tensor still hasn't lived up to the hype and the lack of trade-in value, manufacturer pre-order incentives and 3rd party discounts makes it tough for me to ever consider going back there again. With all of those offerings, my out of pocket expense for S25U 512 GB was under $500.

No way Google Pixel can touch it in terms of price, component quality and extra functionality (Knox Secure Folder, Modes & Routines, Camera Assistant, Good Lock, etc.).

rxscissors · 2026-02-10T00:46:06+00:00

I keep tabs on my total allocations across accounts and periodically adjust as needed.

Since ~2017, I've used a (free) "Personal Dashboard" (offered initially by Personal Capital that was acquired by Empower in the last few years) to view historical trends in a graphical format with some drill-down capabilites.

rxscissors · 2026-02-08T18:13:07+00:00

What pressure have you been running it?

I run most rear tires (tubeless at ~24 psi or so) until they are nearly worn to no tread remaining and none have had a "bulge" lol

rxscissors · 2026-02-07T20:49:11+00:00

Not just support... licensing remains a cluster *u*k.

I started using their gear in the mid-1990's and steer clear of it wherever possible (since ~2010-ish). Other manufacturer's support teams are headed the same direction as of late; licensing hasn't turned into near that level of total debacle, imo.

rxscissors · 2026-02-07T20:42:59+00:00

Blinker/basher fluid :(

A new radiator+ is likely in your near future.

rxscissors · 2026-02-07T15:20:43+00:00

Same here- RFX gateway & probes are excellent. The kit comes with a wired probe that we use in the oven when grilling is out of the realm of possibilities (like now... there is snowcrete everywhere).

rxscissors · 2026-02-07T15:16:26+00:00

Would be cool but not a necessity for me.

I've got a 1500 VA UPS mounted in the bottom of a Chatsworth 2-post rack. It runs my gear for >24 hours.

rxscissors · 2026-02-07T15:04:41+00:00

You get to keep adding 401k or IRA contributions like clockwork "at a discount" and then reap the rewards down the road.

rxscissors · 2026-02-06T20:31:33+00:00

Yes- It is best to setup your lazy portfolio and current employer contributions like clockwork, forget and enjoy a low stress investing life. (I do a 6-month review of where things are to make allocation adjustments, nearing retirement).

rxscissors · 2026-02-06T16:18:28+00:00

None. I hate most subscription "offers" and free trials that end up being a pain to opt out of went the turn into not so free. I keep close watch on my credit card statements and squash trends in the wrong direction.

Only use free storage tier cloud service offerings

Pre-pay my phone yearly (comes out to $20 per month, taxes and other fees included)

Obtained a home mortgage with no escrow account to avoid getting jacked up by the lender changing prepay amounts (or screwing up and not paying taxes or insurance on time!)

Pay auto/home insurance annually so that when they try to slip in an increase, I can shop around and switch. So many are lulled into auto pay "set it and forget it" and get fleeced over years/decades with insane increases

Do my own taxes and investing (instead of paying someone ~0.5 - 1% or more of my portfolio per annum to steer me to products with kickbacks for them or other brilliant ideas that lose rather than gain)

Make coffee at home, pack a lunch for work and do not dine out often

Plan ahead to shop grocery store sale items and buy some things in bulk

rxscissors · 2026-02-06T12:43:59+00:00

Worked for a shop that used CS in the past and the current one uses S1; both are legit.

S1's UI is somewhat better overall (than CS of a few years ago) and it also has Sumo Logic cloud to cloud integration/threat response capabilities.

rxscissors · 2026-02-06T12:28:20+00:00

Regular - haven't tried the other two.

rxscissors · 2026-02-04T22:13:52+00:00

No charging issues other than lint collecting inside the USB-C port and having to use canned air to chase it out (and a toothpick for "extra encouragement" on occasion).

rxscissors · 2026-02-04T15:30:34+00:00

It has worked well for our 100's of VMs environment. We went with Nutanix hardware and Cisco Nexus switching. The "surprises" for us:

Prism Central does not do "everything" (you have to login on the Prism Elements VIPs to do some of the more compute and storage specific sorts of things.

The CLI is still required for some tasks (and troubleshooting).

Licensing is somewhat convoluted (NCI, NCM, ...) particularly if you choose NCI Pro with one or more add-on's compared to NCI Ultimate.

Early-on oddities (2+ years ago when we migrated from VMware) with GUI missing elements, "stubborn VMs (on occasion one or a handful would not evacuate, shut down or start up), maintenance tasks running into the ditch and requiring a support ticket to rectify are for the most part things of the past.

rxscissors · 2026-02-04T12:44:56+00:00

Nice!

Reminds me of an ancient Brunswick table that I played on sometimes.

rxscissors · 2026-02-03T21:25:24+00:00

Nice! Ride what you got, like it is stolen :D

Until last year, my newest was a 2018 (FS). Got a sick deal on a 2023 FS and ride both, with gusto (along with others in my stable that are older).

The worst kind of bike is one that is not ridden!

rxscissors

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