I don't see this month's chase sapphire reserve $10 non-restaurant doordash credits on doordash. I only see the $15 credit. Is this happening for anyone else?
For 2027, I (dad) will have a HDHP plan. His mom will likely have a HDHP plan as well, but it's possible she'll opt for a non-HDHP plan, so that's still TBA.
We're trying to figure out how coverage works, and whether it makes sense for him to be on my HDHP plan. The main benefit to him being on my plan is I get an employer contribution to the HSA for dependent and it doubles my HSA contribution limit. One downside is it's a higher premium.
The other downside may be from which insurance acts as primary. There seems to be a set of rules to follow to determine primary. There's a coordination of benefits process that seems dependent on a number of things. In our case, his mom and I are not together, and he's with me for the majority of the year so I believe mine will be primary. But even under the birthday rule, mine would still be primary as my birthday is earlier in the year.
The problem is if we both get a HDHP. My deductible will be higher than his mom's, and once we meet the deductible, all medical services, excluding prescriptions are covered in full (yes, you read that right. i believe this is unusual as it sounds like what would happen if we meet the maximum OOP), so I don't think her insurance will ever be active... It seems only beneficial to have her insurance if she takes a non-HDHP plan.
Now if she doesn't get a non HDHP plan, then I think it would be advantageous as the the amount that I pay towards my insurance's deductible will be processed by her insurance and may result in a lower amount.
Is all of this understanding correct?
edit:
some other info:
i don't have the 2027 insurance and HSA contribution info, but in 2026, employer contribution was $1.5k for family and $750 if it was just me. premium was about $282/mo.
from a personal finance perspective, it's also relevant that i'm a high earner and i'm in one of the higher marginal tax brackets, so those premium values (e.g., someone with a 50% marginal tax rate would mean that $282/mo is more like $141/mo) and HSA limits are much more advantageous.
Hey guys. I received the below email from the DOS today. I submitted a passport renewal application on September 20th. I received my passport in the mail on September 25th.
What supporting documents are they referring to in the below email? I didn't submit any of the things they listed (previous passport, birth cert, naturalization cert, other citizenship/identiy docs).
Here's a timeline of events:
September 3rd: I picked up a rental vehicle with enterprise from Tampa airpot and opted out of their since because: a) my Michigan auto insurance covers rentals b) my credit card has rental insurance, but acts as secondary
September 7th: I returned the vehicle to Tampa airport. Two enterprise reps walked around the vehicle and said everything looks good. I also did the same and saw no damages. They removed the temporary hold on my credit card the same day.
September 17th: I received this letter from Enterprise Damage Recovery Unit via email (it's a legit email so let's not litigate that here):
The email didn't state what the damage was nor did it include any pictures. Idk why they were so cryptic about it.
September 18: I called them to ask what concrete damage they're claiming I caused. They said there was damage to the rocker bumper. I requested pics. I also disputed the claim, and explained there was no damage at the time of return. They opened a dispute that day.
September 23rd: Tampa branch manager called me, claiming they checked cameras and the vehicle didn't leave with the damage. I told them that I'm not disputing that the car was already damaged when I picked up the vehicle, but that I'm disputing the car was returned without this damage - I made all of this this quite clear when I disputed the claim on September 18th so idk why i'm having to repeat myself. I told him I need pictures and videos of the vehicle at the moment the vehicle was returned. The branch manager said they can definitely get that footage (they explicitly said footage from when the vehicle was dropped off, and when it entered the entrance) to me, but it would need to be sent to the damage recovery unit and I can call them again to get the pics/footage.
September 24th: I received another email from the damage recovery unit:
https://imgur.com/3IZRpBg
I called them again and told them about the conversation I had with the branch manager and requested the pics and footage from the moment the vehicle was dropped off. The rep at the damage recovery unit said he doesn't know why the branch would have told me that because it is against enterprise policy to provide pics and videos of this sort, and the only photos they can provide is the ones taken by their repair facility and that they're not time stamped.
This seems awfully convenient....?
I continued to deny causing any damage and kept telling them two reps inspected the vehicle when it was returned and there was NO damage then, and in the even that this was somehow missed by multiple reps and myself at the time of return, that I would need photos and videos from the moment the vehicle was returned, not some pics taken by some repair facility at who knows what date and time....
I got nowhere with this.
I did ask them to also send me the photos taken by the repair facility.
They sent me these pics:
https://imgur.com/HcWDUTv
I don't really know what i'm supposed to look at in these pics, but it looks like there might be some dent or scratch??
I contacted my insurance agent about this, and he said if I report this to state farm, my insurance will go up. I was confused why if I didn't cause this damage and explained that I just want state farm to fight this for me instead of me doing this myself. He said I can call the claims department and see what they say, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot in case state farm just goes ahead and agrees to admit fault for this despite me stating I'm not at fault.
They sent me some pics of damages to some car and claim it was caused by me but refuse to provide me with any pictures and videos of the vehicle at the time the vehicle was returned and stated its against their policy to do so. So wtf am I supposed to do? What happens if I just don't do anything? Can they send me to collections?
I owe my kitchen remodeling contractor about $17k. On his payment page I see an option to use Affirm and Affirm is giving me the following payment options:
$5,563.44 every month for 3 months
$0 interest·$0 due today
$1,587.83 every month for 12 months
$2,363.69 interest·$0 due today
3)
Lowest monthly payment
$665.77 every month for 36 months
$7,277.47 interest·$0 due today
I would not choose options 2 & 3, as i have the funds to pay them immediately, but I love free interest loans even if it's for a short duration like option 1, but what is the catch of using this?
We will be on North Island for about 6 days in mid December. Our time is limited, and we know we'd like to visit Hobbiton, Rotorua, Taupo, and hopefully Tongariro.
One of the things Rotorua is known for is its redwoods, and we're trying to figure out if that's a unique experience compared to the redwoods in California - we've been to many redwoods state parks in California, and given the limited time, we would want to allocate time elsewhere if the experience isn't particularly unque
I'm a parent myself, in my 30s. My son is 11 years old. My parents are in their early 60s and are divorced. My sister is turning 19 soon (large age gap between us) and is in college. We're all spread out across the US.
I haven't spoken to my dad since October 2024. I also haven't spoken to my younger sister since around the same time. My parents are divorced.
My parents are Chinese and have a lot of the typical toxic traits that you might hear about Chinese parents. My mom is worse and has mental health issues. Neither of them have much emotional maturity. Neither did I until I had some rude awakenings in my 20s.
I'm hoping to keep this post about just my relationship with my dad, and I'll probably make another post in the future for my mom. For context, I have not spoken to my mom since May 2018.
My relationship with my dad was a bit better. He's less aggressive, we we've had years of unresolved issues, and for quite some time, I was considering cutting my dad off too. I was building up a lot of resentment, feeling judged, feeling like he would take my sister's side, and he would badmouth me to my sister and others in private.
I'm definitely not innocent in all these struggles with my parents, and I've yelled/gotten very impatient/sad unkind things with/to both parents over little things.
The breaking point happened in October 2024 when I invited my dad to come on a Thanksgiving trip to Greece with me and my son. My dad invited my younger sister. She initially wasn't sure she wanted to come, so I went ahead and made the arrangements, and I wasn't too interested in continuing to pay for vacations for her as I have done in the past. About a month before the trip, she decided she wanted to come, and I got very irritated about this situation because we brought this up with her long before that.
Regrettably I got angry and berated her via text, calling her inconsiderate/selfish. she tends to do this "decide" at the last minute thing all the time, and I feel like a lot of pressure is put on me by my dad to accommodate her, and if i don't, i'll feel guilty and made out to be the bad guy. My dad got angry with me about it. Eventually I told him that if he kept this up, I would stop talking to him just like I had stopped talking to my mom, and told him that I have been thinking about our issues for years, and I really don't think our relationship is getting better.
He responded, "Do it!!!!!!!"
I said, "ok good bye."
And that it. We haven't spoken since.
My son was seeing his grandpa multiple times a year prior to this, and just went over 2 years without seeing him. I felt horrible about that and decided to have my son spend labor day weekend with his grandparents. I flew him to Tampa where my dad lives, and I went elsewhere in FL to spend the weekend.
I don't think my dad is harmful to my son, and I want my son to be able to have his own relationship with his grandfather, and it breaks my heart that he hasn't seen him in so long. I saw my dad at the airport when I dropped my son off. We didn't speak. I didn't even make eye contact.
But the entire situation made me emotional after I dropped him off. I have considered talking to him again in the past couple of years. I'm also realizing that I don't know whether I actually want to spend the rest of my dad's life not speaking to him.
Part of me thinks the problems were serious enough that I needed to get away from the relationship. Another part of me is wondering whether they were really serious enough to permanently lose my father over.
I'm considering reaching out and rekindling, at least for the sake of my kid. I don't have confidence that our relationship will get better, but my dad is more passive and won't continuously harass you (unlike my mom), so it's easy to get him to shut up about something -- i mention this because it's easier to tolerate.
I'm not looking for people to simply tell me that my dad is toxic or that I'm completely justified. I know I had my own faults in the relationship. I'm genuinely trying to figure out whether I should leave things as they are or try to improve the situation. Even though I don't have much confidence that our relationship will improve, us talking would make it easier for my dad to have a consistent relationship with his grandchild.
Really hoping for some suggestions on this situation.
I'm a parent myself, in my 30s. My son is 11 years old. My parents are in their early 60s and are divorced. My sister is turning 19 soon (large age gap between us) and is in college. We're all spread out across the US.
I haven't spoken to my dad since October 2024. I also haven't spoken to my younger sister since around the same time. My parents are divorced.
My parents are Chinese and have a lot of the typical toxic traits that you might hear about Chinese parents. My mom is worse and has mental health issues. Neither of them have much emotional maturity. Neither did I until I had some rude awakenings in my 20s.
I'm hoping to keep this post about just my relationship with my dad, and I'll probably make another post in the future for my mom. For context, I have not spoken to my mom since May 2018.
My relationship with my dad was a bit better. He's less aggressive, we we've had years of unresolved issues, and for quite some time, I was considering cutting my dad off too. I was building up a lot of resentment, feeling judged, feeling like he would take my sister's side, and he would badmouth me to my sister and others in private.
I'm definitely not innocent in all these struggles with my parents, and I've yelled/gotten very impatient/sad unkind things with/to both parents over little things.
The breaking point happened in October 2024 when I invited my dad to come on a Thanksgiving trip to Greece with me and my son. My dad invited my younger sister. She initially wasn't sure she wanted to come, so I went ahead and made the arrangements, and I wasn't too interested in continuing to pay for vacations for her as I have done in the past. About a month before the trip, she decided she wanted to come, and I got very irritated about this situation because we brought this up with her long before that.
Regrettably I got angry and berated her via text, calling her inconsiderate/selfish. she tends to do this "decide" at the last minute thing all the time, and I feel like a lot of pressure is put on me by my dad to accommodate her, and if i don't, i'll feel guilty and made out to be the bad guy. My dad got angry with me about it. Eventually I told him that if he kept this up, I would stop talking to him just like I had stopped talking to my mom, and told him that I have been thinking about our issues for years, and I really don't think our relationship is getting better.
He responded, "Do it!!!!!!!"
I said, "ok good bye."
And that it. We haven't spoken since.
My son was seeing his grandpa multiple times a year prior to this, and just went over 2 years without seeing him. I felt horrible about that and decided to have my son spend labor day weekend with his grandparents. I flew him to Tampa where my dad lives, and I went elsewhere in FL to spend the weekend.
I don't think my dad is harmful to my son, and I want my son to be able to have his own relationship with his grandfather, and it breaks my heart that he hasn't seen him in so long. I saw my dad at the airport when I dropped my son off. We didn't speak. I didn't even make eye contact.
But the entire situation made me emotional after I dropped him off. I have considered talking to him again in the past couple of years. I'm also realizing that I don't know whether I actually want to spend the rest of my dad's life not speaking to him.
Part of me thinks the problems were serious enough that I needed to get away from the relationship. Another part of me is wondering whether they were really serious enough to permanently lose my father over.
I'm considering reaching out and rekindling, at least for the sake of my kid. I don't have confidence that our relationship will get better, but my dad is more passive and won't continuously harass you (unlike my mom), so it's easy to get him to shut up about something -- i mention this because it's easier to tolerate.
I'm not looking for people to simply tell me that my dad is toxic or that I'm completely justified. I know I had my own faults in the relationship. I'm genuinely trying to figure out whether I should leave things as they are or try to improve the situation. Even though I don't have much confidence that our relationship will improve, us talking would make it easier for my dad to have a consistent relationship with his grandchild.
Really hoping for some suggestions on this situation.
I'm flying to Tampa tomorrow night and will need to rent a car for 4 days as I'll be driving to south FL. I reserved with national for around $275 for the 4 days. No add-ons. I don't need insurance since my amex CC will cover it.
I saw ace car rental is substantially cheaper at < $100 for the 4 days. They might try to harass me with add ons but if I decline all of them, are there any other gotchas I should be aware of? I'm considering switching
I am having my kitchen remodeled and got a new 32x19" sink with a 39" sink cabinet. I know nothing about garbage disposals, and my contractor's subcontracted plumber will be the one installing it, but I need to pick up a garbage disposal myself. Any suggestions?
I have an 100 year old house. I'm having some remodeling done and my contractor told me he doesn't think my exterior (brick siding all across) is waterproofed. I'm not sure how one can tell without the ability to look behind the brick but he said something about that if it's waterproofed, there should be some stuff at the bottom of the brick along the perimeter - it went over my head so idk what he was referring to.How is the area behind a brick exterior wall waterproofed?
I have an 100 year old house. I'm having some remodeling done and my contractor told me he doesn't think my exterior (brick siding all across) is waterproofed. I'm not sure how one can tell without the ability to look behind the brick but he said something about that if it's waterproofed, there should be some stuff at the bottom of the brick along the perimeter - it went over my head so idk what he was referring to.
I have an 100 year old house. I'm having some remodeling done and my contractor told me he doesn't think my exterior (brick siding all across) is waterproofed. I'm not sure how one can tell without the ability to look behind the brick but he said something about that if it's waterproofed, there should be some stuff at the bottom of the brick along the perimeter - it went over my head so idk what he was referring to.
I have a 1927 brick tudor.
I'm having an exterior door in the kitchen filled in as part of a remodel. Part of that door will be replaced with a window and the rest with brick.
I found some reclaim bricks. The size matches, but the color and texture are bit different. The reclaim brick i found is more textured whereas my house seems to have a smoother brick.
For the newer bricks, I found some bricks that match the color a bit and texture better, but the size is off.
Here's are a pics for context:
the top 4 bricks in each pic are the same. the difference between 2 and 1 is in 2 i flipped over the top brick. it's darker on the back than the front, idk why.
it seems impossible to find something that checks the box for all 3 of {size, color, texture}... i can definitely get at least 1 of the 3 to match, and half-ass #2, but the 3rd is a mismatch.
Now, i think color could be corrected with staining?
Textured brick could be corrected with a smoothing process?
Size seems impossible to correct so i think i should make sure to get the right size, or at least use mostly the right size brick and blend with some smaller ones if needed.
I am not DIY'ing this, but I do have to purchase the bricks myself, and my GC's masonry sub will install it.
I first got my northface borealis backpack in may 2024. I got a warranty replacement a year later after I noticed the bungee cord system snapped off (i've never used that feature), and it's now a little over a year later and the same thing happened again....i've never used that bungee cord system, so i could make do without it instead of try to get another replacement (i'm sure the same thing will happen on the next one)
Has anyone had this issue before?
I'll be diving in Jupiter this Friday and will dive with Jupiter dive center. I scheduled 3 nitrox dives in the morning. The dives will be "Explore the Jupiter goliath grouper aggregation sites on a 3-tank dive. These dives will be on the MG111, Tunnels and one of our beautiful reefs. Site depths will range from 60 to 75 feet."
I really want to do another 2 dives in the afternoon. The logistics work out as its the same boat, but all of these are deep dives. I've done 5 dives in a day before on Roatan, but they weren't as deep as these dives.
I think I'll need to really watch my NDL for those 2 afternoon dives if I go?
Also, I've never dived in Florida before, and I believe they're all current dives. I have done a strong current dive before and don't think I got any more tired than a regular dive (I just flowed with the current and got picked up for that dive). I heard people can get really tired from these dives, and not sure if I'll experience the same.
Any thoughts/recs on what to do here?
This is going to be my last dive trip until next June, so I really really want to get as many dives as I can.
I will also be doing 4 nitrox dives on Saturday and another 4 on Sunday.
I have an international trip coming up on December 10th, and need to renew my passport before then. I think if I submit the online renewal any time in september, even if it's late september, i should be good? Are there any gotchas I should be aware of?
I booked a Doubtful Sound overnight cruise that starts on December 23rd with realnz. I have to be in Manapouri by 11:30AM on the 23rd, and will be driving from Queenstown central.
On Google maps, it shows the current drive time is about 2 hours, but I'll probably leave quite a bit earlier just in case, and idk how accurate google maps is for that route. Do you guys think I'll be fine if I left at 8:30AM? That gives about 3 hours to get there + find parking (realnz told me parking is easy to find)
I have a lot of questions on this topic, so please bear with me.
Some preliminary details:
I have a 1927 house. It doesn't currently have AC, but does have central hurting so all the duct work is there already.
I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It's hot and humid here in the summers, so AC would certainly be beneficial. However, I'm gone a lot in the summers. Assuming I am in town all year, I think the number of days I'll need AC is < 70 days. I'm usually out of town for 5-8 weeks in the summer, and because of this, i probably only need AC for < 20 days a year.
I will probably sell this house in 2033 ish (my son will go to college then). I think having AC installed could add some resale value -- I may not recover all the costs though.
I don't think it makes much sense for me to install mini splits since I already have the ductwork to run AC off of?
So the question is whether it's worth installing AC, if we only need it for a few weeks a year? We could use window units. Another motivation for installing AC is increasing resale value and attracting a larger buyer pool in the future since some people won't look at a listing at all if it doesn't hav eAC.
Then there's a question of when to install AC. I imagine it'd be good to install it ASAP so I can reap the benefits of it before I sell the house eventually.
Perhaps it would be cheaper for me to get installations done in the winter?
This is possibly a stupid question, and I haven't actually dove with nitrox or been at 100 ft / 30m for more than 10 minutes, but I'm having some trouble seeing the benefit for nitrox for people who are more limited by air consumption rather than NDL?
At depths, we consume a lot more air, and I feel like I'm going to burn through my air so fast that I'll never have a chance to exceed my NDL. I will know for sure this coming labor day weekend when I go diving in the Jupiter area in FL, where we will be doing some deep dives (wrecks and goliath grouper aggregation) on nitrox.
Edit: apologies, I don't think I worded this properly. I do understand the benefits of nitrox. I am just not sure that one of the benefits "stay at depth longer" will be relevant for people who are limited by air consumption as opposed to ndl
