Notes

I am one of those people who function better by writing things down. One day, I realized that most of my notes don’t have to be private, so here they are - my second brain. Be warned that, if you stumble upon something here that doesn’t make sense to you, it isn’t meant to!

Coffee

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.

Investment health checks

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

What to do if or when I FIRE

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?)

Coffee beans in Seattle

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: ...

Stuff to get after moving to a new place

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.

Cost difference of 529 vs Admiral fund

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.

Tax loss harvesting

Fund partners Recommendations from the web: Betterment. Schwab. Wealthfront. Bogleheads wiki. International total stock market: VTIAX/VXUS, VFWAX/VEU and IXUS. The former two are a perfect pair. Almost feels like they were made to be TLHed! US total stock market: VTSAX/VTI, SCHB and ITOT. Mutual fund vs ETFs Mutual funds: TLH only makes sense within Vanguard because other funds distribute capital gains, so not tax efficient. Only need one “exchange” transaction with Vanguard. Check if Schwab allows something similar with ETFs though. - Schwab doesn’t allow exchanges but does allow 1 trade with unsettled funds. ETFs: I can do everything in one place, i.e. my Schwab account. (Mutual funds, on the other hand, aren’t all available for free on one broker.) I can put limit sell orders. This alone might be the biggest reason to go this way because it won’t require me to track prices closely. Also, alerts. Resources https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=296553 - best clarification on strategy and how to handle the before part of wash sale rule.

Convert Callgrind output to dot format

gprof2dot --format=callgrind --output=out.dot ~/callgrind.out dot -Tpng out.dot -o graph-RCF.png The above uses gprof2dot.

Untar a file

Choose the right command based on file type: tar -C /myfolder -zxvf file_name.tar.gz # Or tar -C /myfolder -xvf file_name.tar

Whenever I change addresses in US

Both our offices. Amazon: https://atoz.amazon.work Financial institutions: Chase. First Tech. Vanguard. Schwab. Capital One. Fidelity: may automatically update through work. Bright Start (or whatever we currently use for 529). Vehicle related: Driver’s license - can happen online. Car insurance provider. Immigration, so for both of us: H1B - Form AR11. Fragomen (or whoever our attorneys are). USPS. Global Entry. Treasury Direct. Priority Pass.