gpburdell

I was in Maui this past fall and did road to Hana. Was at Grand Wailea as well. We did the private guided tour as it would have taken 2 cars and no one wanted to deal with driving.

Is it worth it? I don't regret doing it but in no hurry to do it again. I did really like the black sand beach though. However it will basically kill an entire day. You mentioned you're not there long and have other excursions planned. I'd say skip it and wait for a longer trip. An alternative would be doing sunrilse/sunset at Haleakala which won't take an entire day.

We also did snorkeling trip to Molokni this past fall with Trilogy. Haven't been anywhere else, so can't compare. I'm not a big fan of snorkeling to be honest. I only went as our whole group was going. The rest of our group seem to enjoy it.. The next time, I'd rather do a whale watching trip assuming it's the right time of year.

I've been to Mama's before. Pricey and food is average imo. You're paying for that amazing view which you might not even get to see during dinner.

I liked Monkypod alot and will go there again on my next Maui trip. Food was good and place was lively.

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f you want to use Hilton points, I suggest these Hilton resorts.
Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island or Grand Wailea on Maui

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I stayed at Grand Wailea (Waldorf) this past fall and it was great. While I didn't use points, my brother did without any issues.

With Fidelity, you are better off using FDLXX over SPAXX. For 2025, 98% of FDLXX interest is exempt from state taxes where SPAXX is only 60% exempt.

Also FDLXX is technically safer than SPAXX as it's almost all t-bills where SPAXX has alot of other things in it. Though the risk difference is probably insignificant.

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Thanks, we have stayed at the Venetian before and wife was wanting to stay at the Cosmo for some reason. I'm leaning toward the Wynn but might do Cosmo if rideshare works this well.

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The first year Sphere opened, they didn't have rideshare setup like now. They dropped you off away from Sphere and there was no dedicated pickup area. I still remembering having to walk 20-30 mins to one of the hotels to get a ride. Also it didn't help that I was there the week before the first F1 race and construction was a nightmare.

Now they drop you off and pick you up right in front of Sphere.

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1. Does every 401k have to participate ?
2. Do you have to take a 1 time lump sum?

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1) Yes; it's an IRS regulation. The rule of 55 just negates the early withdrawal penalty before age 59.5

2) Depends. You need to check if your 401k plan supports partial distributions in general. This has nothing to do with rule of 55 and it's up to each 401k plan to decide. If your 401k plan doesn't support partial distributions, then you'd have to take a single distribution for the balance of your account.

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I am coming to the Money Board for some input on whether we should buy a new house.

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How old are you and what age do you plan to retire?

Imo I'd say go for it assuming you aren't trying to retire crazy early. As someone else mentioned, you are way ahead of most. If you work another 20 years without adding another dime in contributions to the $1.3M and assume 6% growth. That nest egg would be ~$4.2M in 20 years.

If it was me, I'd still keep maxing the 401ks and stop the $5k/month contributions to the taxable account. If you do that, in 20 years it would be worth ~$6M. Or you could do a mix and reduce both the monthly 401k and taxable contributions by $2.5k each.

More than likely, you'll be able to refinance to a lower rate in the future and free up more cash for investing etc. Also if you do get big raises in the future is just icing on the cake.

Just make sure you increase your emergency fund to account for the increased house payment.

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It was absolutely amazing. It’s almost an entirely different movie. However, I think the cuts and additions make it a better movie. It’s a lot tighter, and comes in at a quick 1:20 or so. The effects, visuals, and sounds are just over the top.

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I saw it a couple months ago and loved it too. I went in with below average expectations and very surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

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I was unaware of that. But even if you can, why would you? It’s such an advantage to have the freedom to invest your portfolio.

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This is very common for people who do back door roth. Otherwise they killed by the pro rata rule.

Also, for accounts that allow named beneficiaries like IRAs, 401ks, HSA, brokerage accounts etc. If there are named beneficiaries, a will will not supersede those in most states. Though I guess there could be exceptions.

So make sure the beneficiaries are correct especially regarding "per stirpes" if the account allows it.

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I really love my Unifi In-wall APs and their regular APs I have had now for 5 years.

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I have 4 in wall Unifi APs and AC lite that are going on 7 years now without issue including gateway router and couple switches. I don't think I ever had an Netgear/Asus wifi router last more than 3 years before issues would start.

I've thought about upgrading but what's the point. As someone else mentioned earlier, peak throughput doesn't really matter if you're just using wifi for streaming. Anything that I need serious bandwidth I hardwire.

Also using 80 or 160MHz channel widths to achieve the higher throughputs, makes your signal that much more susceptible to interference. Where I live, the spectrum is very crowded by residential and I'm only a few miles away from Lockheed/Dobbins ARB.

So I stick to 40MHz channels and have no issues with buffering, dropouts etc.

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I understand the basics of the wash-sale rule

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:rolleyes: