Post Your Wins

[srblanco7]

Some small wins over the weekend.

Did an oil change and tire rotation on both cars.
Installed a door in the basement.
Ran gas line for a stove I'm installing.
Did some minor electrical work at our cabin.
Fixed a non running chainsaw.

No way of figuring out what all that would have cost if I paid someone to do it all for me, but I saved a lot by doing it myself.

That's an impressive list of tasks requiring a varied list of skills. Impressive that you have the skills to take care of all of that on your own.

[crazyliblady]

My daughter and family spent last weekend at our place. They live out of town now but have always banked with a local bank here. Anyway, they went down to the bank and paid off their mortgage free and clear while here, did it in only 5.5 years.
I'm pretty happy for them. Not may pre-40 families have a paid off home.

They don't have any car loans or other debt either. I'm guessing their house is in the $400k range of value.

That's awesome! It takes a lot of focus and discipline to remain so committed to paying off debt. Please tell her congratulations from me!

[disneysteve]

I saw a curb alert post in our local Facebook group yesterday afternoon. I hopped in the car and went over and got a huge tote with 2 sets of china. One set will get listed on eBay. Most of the other set is getting sold to Replacements Ltd for about $300. Postage will be about $50 so my profit should be right around $250 plus whatever I can sell on eBay.

[bjl584]

Some small wins over the weekend.

Did an oil change and tire rotation on both cars.
Installed a door in the basement.
Ran gas line for a stove I'm installing.
Did some minor electrical work at our cabin.
Fixed a non running chainsaw.

No way of figuring out what all that would have cost if I paid someone to do it all for me, but I saved a lot by doing it myself.

[kork13]

Not really a "win" per say ... but I couldn't find the old thread talking about companies that really do customer service right. So I'll just put it here.

I'm a devoted water drinker, almost to the exclusion of all else ... generally at least 3 quarts a day. And so, my water bottle is always at my side, sometimes jokingly referred to as my "security blanket." I've had my 40oz HydroFlask water bottle for something like 5 years, with 3 military deployments, countless flights & road trips, and hundreds of thousands of miles under it's lid. It's always reliably kept my water ice cold all day, even in the sweltering desert heat. Unfortunately, it recently stopped keeping my water cold -- tragic! Admittedly I'm not totally shocked, because a steel bottle with that much "experience" has naturally picked up plenty of bumps & dings over time, which I assume somehow compromised the vacuum contained within the bottle. But with a bit of research, I learned that apparently HydroFlask has a stellar warranty program -- if it ever fails they'll replace it, no questions asked .... and that's basically just how it went. With a couple emails back & forth, now I just need to ship it back to them for a free replacement. They even let me pick a new color of choice, because my current bottle's color is no longer in production. The only sad part is that I'll lose all of the stickers that it's accumulated over the years from my various adventures. Oh well, I guess I'll have a blank canvas to start over with.

So, I just wanted to call out a great company that really stands behind a truly great product. HydroFlask has my stamp of approval!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

My daughter and family spent last weekend at our place. They live out of town now but have always banked with a local bank here. Anyway, they went down to the bank and paid off their mortgage free and clear while here, did it in only 5.5 years.
I'm pretty happy for them. Not may pre-40 families have a paid off home.

They don't have any car loans or other debt either. I'm guessing their house is in the $400k range of value.

Congratulations what an accomplishment and amazing feeling!

[Fishindude77]

My daughter and family spent last weekend at our place. They live out of town now but have always banked with a local bank here. Anyway, they went down to the bank and paid off their mortgage free and clear while here, did it in only 5.5 years.
I'm pretty happy for them. Not may pre-40 families have a paid off home.

They don't have any car loans or other debt either. I'm guessing their house is in the $400k range of value.

[disneysteve]

I got the payment receipt for a set of china I sold. It was for $144 more than I was expecting. Turns out I thought I had the 6-1/4" bread plates when I actually had the 6-5/8" bread plates which for whatever reason are worth twice as much (probably older and more rare is my guess). That was a nice surprise.

[crazyliblady]

Picked a whole bunch of beans out of the garden last few days. Blanched, cooled, then vac sealed for the freezer.
Can't beat these good summertime garden eats !

I also like to blanch and freeze veggies, but I have not done that this year. I have chopped and frozen onions and I have dried, ground, and frozen basil. In the first year I did that, there was a very cold winter day where I could not go anywhere and work was called off. I had all of the ingredients for making bean soup (beans, onions, carrots, celery, herbs, seasoning, homemade broth). It was very liberating realizing that I don't have to depend entirely on grocery stores.

[crazyliblady]

Got a $4900 quarterly dividend from a stock that we own today.
I typically cash these checks and keep the cash for spending money.

That's not chump change! Congrats!

[QuarterMillionMan]

[srblanco7]

There is something nice, especially in retirement, about having that automatic withdrawal from your account every quarter, which is what a dividend is. As long as you understand what it actually represents, that's fine. Not everyone wants to have to manually sell shares each time they need cash even though financially that's usually a wiser option.

I know exactly what it is when it hits my account, and yet it still feels like “free money”.

[disneysteve]

Just to add to Disneysteve's comment here - its entirely correct that total return is what you want. And, for some people they enjoy the psychological satisfaction of counting their dividend income.

There is something nice, especially in retirement, about having that automatic withdrawal from your account every quarter, which is what a dividend is. As long as you understand what it actually represents, that's fine. Not everyone wants to have to manually sell shares each time they need cash even though financially that's usually a wiser option.

[james.hendrickson]

Exactly. If you invest in a diversified stock portfolio you get dividends whether you want them or not. In retirement spending those distributions first makes sense. We do it too. I turned off dividend reinvestment for all of our funds and let the money accumulate in the settlement account. I use that for my IRA RMD and in our taxable accounts use it to rebalance and buy CDs and Treasuries.

Ultimately total return is what really matters, not dividends, but you still are going to get dividends and need to deal with them.

Just to add to Disneysteve's comment here - its entirely correct that total return is what you want. And, for some people they enjoy the psychological satisfaction of counting their dividend income.

[disneysteve]

Though dividend investing is not a primary goal for me, I still receive dividend/cap gain payments from my brokerage account that will provide approximately $70k/year in retirement. Not too shabby and it’ll be the “first money” that we’ll spend each year since we’re going to have to pay tax on it regardless.

Exactly. If you invest in a diversified stock portfolio you get dividends whether you want them or not. In retirement spending those distributions first makes sense. We do it too. I turned off dividend reinvestment for all of our funds and let the money accumulate in the settlement account. I use that for my IRA RMD and in our taxable accounts use it to rebalance and buy CDs and Treasuries.

Ultimately total return is what really matters, not dividends, but you still are going to get dividends and need to deal with them.