Sanjib Saha

Comments:

• Costco has been our favorite store for years. We buy most of our household items here, including clothes, electronics, appliances. We have used the travel services quite a bit. The choices are usually limited but if there is something you like, it'd be hard to find the same deal and service elsewhere. The hearing aid center is also great - both my mom and I were very happy with our respective sets. Over time, I've developed a bias towards Costco in thinking that if something that I needed was available at Costco, I didn't need to look elsewhere. Occasionally, this complacency hasn't served me well and I skipped adequate research a few large purchases before buying them from Costco. Our Air Conditioning system was installed through Costco, and it was quite expensive. I realized later that there were other options to suit our needs at a much reasonable price. We are also careful about buying fresh flowers, vegetables and fruits. We carefully inspect if they are really fresh or not, and still find ourselves picking up stale or rotten stuff. Over time, we've started to get some of the vegs/fruits from elsewhere. I don't mind the membership price increase as the "real" (inflation-adjusted) price of the membership is in the decline.

  Post: Best/worst deals at Costco

  Link to comment from July 20, 2024

• There are several good articles available online about managing the "sequence of returns" risk in retirement. Here's one, but there are many others. The idea is to have enough liquid stable assets to weather a downturn of X years. The idea is, if the market remains depressed for up to X years, you can avoid selling in this period, and instead use your non-stock, stable reserve. For risk-averse individuals, X can range from 5 to10 years, though 2 to 3 years appeara to be more common. If the market stays down longer than X, then another option might be to start social security sooner than planned, although this could have negative long-term consequences for overall retirement spending. Another common approach is turning to dividend-paying stocks, with an underlying assumption that companies generally avoid cutting dividends. However, in a down market, reinvesting dividends may be more beneficial than spending it. Strictly speaking, there isn't much difference between receiving dividends and spending them versus selling a small portion of the shares held. I'm a new retiree, but prior to retirement, I worked part-time for 6 years with a mindset that I'd quit if I didn't enjoy the work. Consequently, I've always had a stable cushion for the last few years, although I haven't needed to touch my buffer yet. I'm risk-averse, and for me, X is 10 years. I plan to reduce it with passage of time. Allocating a large portion to non-growth assets has an adverse effect on my long-term, but a beautiful and positive effect on the quality of my sleep :).

  Post: Perils of market downturns early in retirement 

  Link to comment from July 20, 2024

• I have two definitions: Mathematically, a millionaire is someone for whom the liquidation value of wealth exceeds a million. Psychologically, a millionaire is someone whose sense of financial security won't change even if they end up spending a million dollars from their assets for some reason or the other.

  Post: What is your definition of a millionaire?

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• Most of my bond investments are in individual TIPS maturing at different years, but I do have some in inflation-protected Bond funds. Until last year, my only bond fund was VTIP, but I also have started to shift some money from VTIP to SCHP which has a higher duration than VTIP. I've been thinking about adding some corporate bonds in the mix using the target-maturity funds (e.g., Bulletshare ETFs), but the small spread isn't worth the credit risk for my taste.

  Post: Which Bond Funds are you investing in right now?

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• When I was working, I took this strategy to front-load my 401K contributions. A side-effect was that, my paycheck would be ridiculously small in the first half of the year, and would go up once I reached my limits. I didn't have any problem in getting the employer match, but apparently some employers don't put more than a certain % in each pay period, and they won't put in their match amount when the employee reaches the limits. In those cases, aggressive contribution would lead to leaving employer match money on the table.

  Post: Completing 401K Contributions Early

  Link to comment from June 22, 2024

• Thank you, DrLefty. We loved French Polynesia - the most beautiful place we've ever been to. None of us had diving experience, so we couldn't enjoy the place to the fullest, but the snorkeling was amazing in the islands. Almost felt like swimming in a giant natural aquarium.

  Post: Honeymoon At Last

  Link to comment from June 15, 2024

• Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

  Post: Honeymoon At Last

  Link to comment from June 13, 2024

• Thanks, Andrew. I'm neither missing the work emails nor the occasional morning meetings, but I do miss my team, especially those whom I had managed from their early career stages and watched growing into seasoned engineers. I did meet my team last month for lunch, and a few other folks 1:1 a couple of times. I wish to stay in touch as much as I can.

  Post: Honeymoon At Last

  Link to comment from June 13, 2024

• Thank you, mytimetotravel. Great to hear that you had a brief exposure to Indian wedding, albeit a stripped down one. The rituals and ceremonies vary from state to state, but I guess the one you saw in Bhubaneswar might be very similar to a typical Bengali wedding. Odissa and Bengal are neighboring states with overlapping food-habits, language and culture.

  Post: Honeymoon At Last

  Link to comment from June 13, 2024

• Thank you, Rick. After my initial exploration, I haven't had a chance to practice the ukelele any further. We went to French Polynesia recently and during the trip, I realized I should've kept up with the instrument. I saw many islanders playing it at various places, and it'd have been a nice experience to take part in a casual playing together. I want to find time to practice it some more, so that I do not forget the chord formations at least for the basic chords. I do enjoy trying out various musical instruments, and of late, I'm trying my hands on bamboo flutes that I stopped playing some 20+ years ago. It's fun for me, but apparently not so much for my wife and daughter to hear the occasional squeaks and off-tune sounds :). I play only when I'm home alone ;).

  Post: Honeymoon At Last

  Link to comment from June 13, 2024