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walden ,

Sorry, could you provide a little more information? You say it leaks from the “valve”, but there are 3 different places it could be leaking from, and all are part of the valve – the valve being the whole device from pipe to pipe.

If you’re thinking of replacing the whole thing, I’d focus more on the type of pipe, which looks like Pex coming from the house, and probably some sort of standard dishwasher feed line on the other side.

Ideally you could buy a replacement valve before starting the project, but you might have to remove this valve and take it to the hardware store to make sure you get the correct thing.

I’ve never worked with Pex, but I believe you can either crimp it with a special tool or use the sharkbite system.

walden ,

I agree it’s an odd looking crimp, maybe just an older style of what we have today. I’d guess that’s the least likely thing to leak.

Best case scenario the dishwasher line just needs to be tightened. Worst case you can replace the whole thing with a sharkbite type valve, but you’ll probably need to cut back the previously crimped section of PEX (note: I really have no clue about that).

walden ,

Lavender likes sun. It also likes well-drained soil and a neutral to high pH, so add lime to the soil and sprinkle more lime every year.

Source - we have Lavender in front of our house, and it didn’t die yet. It’s less than a year old, though.

walden ,

Yeah it seems pretty fickle, but it sure is nice. There are different varieties, too, which makes it even more compelling.

walden ,

I worked with a fellow once who said something to this effect right after the market went down during the pandemic. He said something like “I lost $50k yesterday”, and I asked him “oh really? Did you sell a bunch of stuff? If you still have it it’ll go back up eventually”.

He said “No I didn’t sell anything, but in 5 years everything is going to be lower than if the market hadn’t gone down”.

That take is also wrong. As you can see in this graph, things bounced back, and in general continued on the same trajectory.

https://sub.wetshaving.social/pictrs/image/76c34de1-a3be-4032-80b1-c6de50ea52ed.png

Just like there was a sharp decline, there was also a sharp increase. Without the decrease, the increase wouldn’t have happened, so the fellow I was working with was wrong, because his take would have meant the sharp increase would have happened even without the sharp decrease.

should the US consider a currency redenomination?

Prices of things are becoming absolutely insane. $800+ rent, $30,000 cars, $10 sub sandwiches, etc. It would be nice to do a 3/1 split and cut everything by 2/3. Then we would have $266 rent, $10,000 cars, and $3.33 sub sandwiches. Wages, debts, everything would drop to 1/3 what they are now. It would also make coins useful...

walden ,

I don’t really see a point in doing that. I dislike coins.

walden ,

I went “awww” until I read wikipedia about them and saw that they’re invasive. They’re native to South America, and have been introduced to other places around the world by fur traders.

12% 401(k) Contribution - What to do? [USA] ( kbin.social )

Hi everyone, I recently landed a new job where the base 401(k) contribution for all FTEs is 12% of your salary. This is regardless of your contribution, with no additional match. I realize that this is unusual for most people and it is for me as well. In my last job, I got up to a 6% match so I maxed that out and didn't think on...

walden ,

It happens. Mine was 16%, and just went up to 17%. Next year it’ll be 18%. Yes it’s unusual, yes it’s a great thing.

walden , (edited )

If there’s an option for the company contributions to be Roth I’d make sure to do that. Roth is a “suffer now, collect later” type of thing. You pay taxes now, and NOT during retirement (good because you’re young, likely in a lower tax bracket than you’ll be in during retirement, etc.). Even the earnings are tax free in retirement.

Anything extra you put in should also be Roth. There are IRS maximums for personal contributions, and a higher maximum for combined personal/company contributions. At your salary you likely will not encounter these maximums unless you are saving $1,875/month (which would make you hit the maximum in December) in addition to company contributions.

To 401k or not to 401k – I say 401k. With Roth you pay now, not later. With traditional you don’t pay now, but pay later. Outside of 401k you pay taxes now AND later (on the earnings).

walden , (edited )

I just skimmed, but noticed one small discrepancy in one of the pictures. It shows an inverter connected to the “load” terminals on the solar charge controller. This is not the way to do it, because the inverter draws way too much power.

The inverter should be connected directly to the battery with low gauge wire.

walden ,

Sorry, are you saying to connect a standalone inverter directly to PV panels? They can have very high voltage.

walden ,

I was so nervous that it’d get sucked into the grate at the bottom. I’m happy to report that it didn’t.

Your ‘Set It and Forget It’ 401(k) Made You Rich. No More. — WSJ ( apple.news )

For four decades, patient savers able to grit their teeth through bubbles, crashes and geopolitical upheaval won the money game. But the formula of building a nest egg by rebalancing a standard mix of stocks and bonds isn’t going to work nearly as well as it has.

walden , (edited )

Things are down right now, so of course your balance will reflect that. If you keep investing on a regular basis, the dollar-cost averaging will come into affect over time.

I didn’t read the article, but it seems like they are saying that the way money works is changing. Money, stocks, mutual funds… it’s all the same as it has always been. The risk/reward can change, but there’s no way to predict that.

walden ,

Is it easy to use and import transactions from credit cards?

I wouldn’t say it’s easy to get set up. If you don’t mind exporting transactions from your bank, and importing into Gnucash, that part isn’t too difficult. I like Gnucash a lot, although I’ve fallen behind with keeping up with it in recent years. I was never able to figure out the online banking side of things, but that’s ok. I also never used it for budgeting.

walden ,

But, but,… it works so well for Donald!

walden ,

I switched. I like buckets a lot but it isn’t nearly as refined as YNAB. Still, it meets my needs. I use beta-bridge.simplefin.org for bank sync and I find it to be less buggy than YNAB used to be.

Pros: inexpensive/free, good bank sync (for me) Cons: not browser based, finding out average spending for categories isn’t as intuitive, reports not as nice, etc.

walden ,

Water softeners often don’t have a shutoff valve. The valve on them is a bypass valve. Water will still flow, just not through the softener.

walden ,

Just keep a budget. Simply seeing where your money goes will make a big difference in spending.

There are lots of budgeting apps, but most of the good ones have switched to a subscription model. YNAB is very good.

walden ,

A debit card is not recommended for day to day. If it gets picked up by a skimmer or otherwise used in a fraudulent manner, your bank account gets debited until the investigation is done.

This can take months and can involve large sums of money.

With a credit card, no money leaves your bank account during the investigation.

walden ,

You can get email reminders when your statement comes out. You don’t pay interest on anything until a month after the statement.

For example:

Buy an apple on Jan 1st. Statement sent to you on Feb 1st. Interest starts March 1st unless you pay it off before then.

You can set up autopayment, but it’ll be for the full statement balance once a month.

walden ,

I do this, too. Anyone with any sort of self control should do the same, unless they prefer cash.

Using a debit card is too risky.

walden ,

I’m glad that your one single experience trumps the experience of hundreds of thousands of other people who’ve gotten in a jam with a debit card. Good for you.

walden ,

I didn’t miss that part. I was responding to your main point about “propaganda from the credit card companies”. If it’s not propaganda and you got your money back almost instantly… then why are you still jumping through hoops to protect your money? 🤔

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