u/Joey9999

Have had to get my sewer line rodded a few times since moving in. Last time they told me I had an crack at the connection between my line and the city line. That was 4 years ago and I guess it slipped my mind to do anything about it, but haven't had any issues. Recently had someone out that rodded the line and told me about the same crack. He said that as long as I'm fixing it (which he recommended), he said I should replace the entire pipe throughout the front yard since the tree is giving the entire line issues.

I was quoted $12K for this, which seemed pretty high to me. As far as jobs go, it's relatively easy access in the yard, no concrete cutting, no crossing the street, no sidewalks, no curbs. The only thing he said would make it challenging is connecting to the main sewer since it's roughly 10' deep. Other than that, my line was fairly shallow.

I'm in the NW Indiana area by the way. Is this high? I was expecting maybe something more in the range of $6-8K.

I just started getting into points travel, but feel like I'm not doing it right.  I have a family of 5, so I've basically just been accumulating points on Chase Ink Preferred/Chase Sapphire Reserve and then transferring them to either Hyatt, Southwest, or United.  Our trips are basic family trips, all domestic, during pretty peak travel times.  

If I have the points, I will just use them even if I'm not getting extreme value.  I have heard that points are devalued so you want to use them sooner rather than later.  However I do feel like maybe I'm missing out.  Do you use them or save them?  How many will you let accumulate before you force yourself to spend them? 

I signed up for Ink Preferred and got a pretty large bonus (100K) and then  just did the Sapphire Reserve for 150K.  I also own a business that does a lot on advertising so I'm accumulating points fairly quickly, right around 40-50K/month.

The kids will be in college in a couple years so we’ll have a lot more flexibility with travel and maybe better chances for good deals. Do I just sit on them until I can see good deals?