Notes

I recently setup a Samba share on a Raspberry Pi on my home network. As part of that, I used a 5 TB Western Digital My Passport Ultra as the storage layer. I wanted to encrypt it since it’s going to store a lot of personal content. That way, I won’t have to worry about leaking any of that data if I lost the disk. The following post lists down the Linux commands I used to turn on that encryption. And while I tried this on a Raspberry Pi, the commands are generic and should work on any Linux system. ...

At $550 a year, Chase Sapphire Reserve is pretty expensive for me, especially when we aren’t going to travel or eat out all that much (or probably even if that weren’t the case). - Maybe not. After the $300 travel credit, think of the remaining $300 or so (i.e. $250 plux taxes) as purchase protection and travel insurance. Some alternatives: Fidelity: Free, with 2% cashback. (So, no need to track categories or anything.) Foreign transcations aren’t free. While I can have the money go directly into a Fidelity account, don’t think I can have it invested too automatically. So, a bit of hassle. No Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, so major blocker. Alliant: Flat 2.5% cashback. (That’s pretty high.) All other goodies such as no foreign transaction fee, rental car collision coverage etc. $99 fees 2nd year onwards. Check if they allow another card for Sneha for free. If so, that’d be cool. Current card from First Tech: 1.6% cashback for some categories, 0.8% for others. So, pretty miserable. Free though. Current Chase’s Freedom: 1.5% cashback. It does have it higher in some categories. It may be a bit of hassle to track that. Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is secondary whereas Sapphire’s is primary. Amex Platinum: Travel rewards highly coupled with Uber and they’ll likely go to waste for us. Overall: ...

Note: Grind setting on Baratza Encore: 10-12. Water temperature: little over 200 F. TODO: Fill in rest of the instructions next time.

Note: 1:16 water to coffee ratio. (I usually do 30g coffee with 480g water.) Grind setting on Baratza Encore: 18-20. Water temperature: little over 200 F. Steps: Wet the filter with hot water and throw that water away. Put ground coffee on the filter. Bloom the coffee with water for ~45s. Use 2-3 times (but closer to 2) the amount of coffee and ensure you wet all the coffee. Slowly pour rest of the water. First, make concentric circles and immerse all the coffee, then finish off with a middle pour. Shake the Chemex just a little and then let the coffee brew. Warm up the coffee cup, using hot water, before pouring coffee in it. The entire process should take 3-4 minutes. Adjust grind setting accordingly.

Techniques Coffee connoisseurs recommend only the following ways to make coffee: French press: Aeropress, which I use right now, is pretty close to this. Pour over. I’ll try it next, using a Chemex. (An alternative is to go with a Hario V60, but the Chemex looks better.) Espresso: expensive, so maybe when I am older and have more money to spare! Resources Reddit wiki. Guide to brewing: Brew Methods. Coffee Geek.

Financial reminders for the start of every year: Contributions to: Backdoor Roth. I-bonds? Property taxes (which I usually pay lump sum).

What will I do if or when I FIRE? (I am not someone who can just sit at home.) Travel and work for myself, maybe build something new. This is what they call a nomadic lifestyle. Volunteer with a local community. (What’s stopping me from doing that right now though? Lack of time outside work and family?)

Good ones: Caffe Ladro. (Seattle || Capitol) Coffee Works. (Seattle Coffee Works in Downtown is probably closed these days.) Anchorhead, near Alexandria building. Elm Coffee Roasters. Armistice on Eastlake. Eastlake Coffee & Cafe. Try next: Caffe Fiore. Hagen Coffee Roasters and Bakery. Closed these days because of Covid 19: Street Bean Coffee Roasters. On east side: Third Culture, Bellevue. River Trail Roasters, Redmond. Issaquah Coffee Company. (Seemed to be a good place to hang out, especially if traveling on I-90.) Thruline in Kirkland - also a good place to hang out. Not that great: ...

Buy the following once we move out of our Denny Way condo: Glass set. For example, glasses for beer, wine, cocktails etc. Also, mason jars. Couch. King size bed and mattress. Wall art. Dining table. Bookshelf. Bike. (Just get one.) Projector. Karaoke. Newspaper or magazine subscription for at least a few months to begin with.

We are currently invested in Illinois 529’s Index Equity Portfolio. It’s expense ratio: 0.12% If we were to buy individual Admiral funds from Vanguard, the overall expense ratio would be: (57 * 0.04 + 36 * 0.11 + 7 * 0.12) / 100 = 0.07% This is surprising because I originally assumed the former to be cheaper.