Richard, I know your love your Fidelity brokerage account (for good reason, I have one too). All you need is to get their debit card and attach it to the Cash Management area (you can limit the funds available as you choose). Then you can use any ATM (there may be some rare exceptions), and Fidelity will reimburse the ATM fee (usually the same day). I also use Cash Management to autopay my mortgage and any bills that I cannot charge to credit cards without incurring a fee. This is a great perk that Fidelity offers that you are missing out on.
The various policies one needs, especially wind and flood, do take quite a bite. For the former, we've mitigated with new hurricane-rated doors and windows. For the latter, we seem to have lucked out by being in what's known as the "X-Zone," meaning our bill is some 1000s lower than our friends just a couple blocks away. It is unfortunate that state government seems more concerned with "culture issues" than skyrocketing insurance rates. Not sure how high things have to get for those priorities to flip.
Have done that, when we had a cat and could not use the Amtrak AutoTrain (no pets allowed). Lately we've used the train, which leaves Lorton, VA, ca. 5pm and gets into Sanford, FL, near Orlando, the next morning ca. 10am. We sleep in a roomette and have meals on the train. That still leaves about a 7 hour drive to KW. We stay with friends when leaving NH, stopping in relatively close by Sturbridge, MA, and then either family north of Philly or friends in VA about 10 minutes from the train station. Reverse that on the way back. Nobody minds coming to KW in the winter as compensation!
We started wondering where a good place to retire might be in the mid-teens, agreeing that we both had had our fill of New England winters, with their ice, snow, and darkness. Visits to friends in Key West during Christmas-New Years in 2017, 2018, and 2019 allowed us to fall in love with the island and buy there in 2020, several years prior to my retirement. To deal with the heat and humidity of the summer months, we held on to our NH lake house, which for the prior two decades served primarily as our excuse not to spend every waking hour working. In Key West, a tank of gas can cover me for five months or more. One can walk everywhere (at least from our location). You can choose from a hundred or more restaurants, when you feel like going out. Plenty of cultural events and institutions, and quite an international crowd in the touristy areas. But a couple blocks off the main drag, it’s a restful spot to read a novel by the dipping pool in January.
Thirty-five some years ago it was the affordability factor you mention that applied for our first house purchase; our rate was about 10.35, as I recall. Twenty years and a bunch of refis later, when we sold out of the "affordable" area, as outlined above, both our situation and the overall market were at different points in the cycle. Cheers!
I confess ignorance about the UK housing market, but would be surprised if there was not a basic similarity mutatis mutandis regarding the higher appreciation of more valuable properties. To be clear about my situation, the property move was made for lifestyle, not portfolio, reasons. My wife and I for years maxed out all tax advantaged plans, invested closer to 70/30, and also saved in taxable accounts. The move to the more expensive area cut my commute from 35-40 minutes each way to 10 minutes or less. We did not think of the new property as an investment, but it turned out to be a pretty good one. Mostly good luck, selling near the top of the market in the lower cost area, and buying into a somewhat depressed "high value" area. Only in hindsight did it turn out to be a great way to diversify our total financial picture. So, to get back to the point I was attempting to make, buying in an area that stretches your finances "can" result in a much more advantageous overall financial situation (i.e., it is not an obvious mistake). And regarding the superiority of the 60/40 portfolio over any given period, as I'm sure you'll agree, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
And to add to this, the value of properties in higher cost areas can also appreciate at a much faster rate than low cost areas. I moved from a moderate metro-Boston area to a high cost metro-Boston area in the latter 2000s. Selling twelve years later brought quite the windfall, in comparison to what I would have had had I stayed in the original "lower value" house (no where near the same appreciation there). So, property can be quite an asset to one's overall portfolio, and higher value properties can exponentially "outperform" lower value properties, granting that one has to make the asset liquid if the funds must be tapped.
Fidelity 's Cash Management account can be set up as though it were a bank with routing and account numbers (it shows up as UMB Bank). So, all the things one might do with, say, Capital One, can be done with Fidelity's stand-in for a bank account. For instance, insurance bill's that don't allow a payment by credit card without a fee, I pay by EFT from my Cash Management account. It all works very smoothly.
Comments
See an earlier discussion of this topic at https://humbledollar.com/forum/can-annuity-income-be-used-to-offset-rmd-obligations-from-other-accounts/
Post: Do taxes paid from a qualified annuitized annuity offset RMDs from another ira account?
Link to comment from August 21, 2025
Richard, I know your love your Fidelity brokerage account (for good reason, I have one too). All you need is to get their debit card and attach it to the Cash Management area (you can limit the funds available as you choose). Then you can use any ATM (there may be some rare exceptions), and Fidelity will reimburse the ATM fee (usually the same day). I also use Cash Management to autopay my mortgage and any bills that I cannot charge to credit cards without incurring a fee. This is a great perk that Fidelity offers that you are missing out on.
Post: Have you seen your money lately?
Link to comment from August 13, 2025
The various policies one needs, especially wind and flood, do take quite a bite. For the former, we've mitigated with new hurricane-rated doors and windows. For the latter, we seem to have lucked out by being in what's known as the "X-Zone," meaning our bill is some 1000s lower than our friends just a couple blocks away. It is unfortunate that state government seems more concerned with "culture issues" than skyrocketing insurance rates. Not sure how high things have to get for those priorities to flip.
Post: Let’s revisit the pros and cons of relocating upon retirement
Link to comment from July 30, 2025
Have done that, when we had a cat and could not use the Amtrak AutoTrain (no pets allowed). Lately we've used the train, which leaves Lorton, VA, ca. 5pm and gets into Sanford, FL, near Orlando, the next morning ca. 10am. We sleep in a roomette and have meals on the train. That still leaves about a 7 hour drive to KW. We stay with friends when leaving NH, stopping in relatively close by Sturbridge, MA, and then either family north of Philly or friends in VA about 10 minutes from the train station. Reverse that on the way back. Nobody minds coming to KW in the winter as compensation!
Post: Let’s revisit the pros and cons of relocating upon retirement
Link to comment from July 30, 2025
We usually pass by it the first Sunday of each month on our way to the Aquarium to take advantage of free admission for locals on that day.
Post: Let’s revisit the pros and cons of relocating upon retirement
Link to comment from July 30, 2025
We started wondering where a good place to retire might be in the mid-teens, agreeing that we both had had our fill of New England winters, with their ice, snow, and darkness. Visits to friends in Key West during Christmas-New Years in 2017, 2018, and 2019 allowed us to fall in love with the island and buy there in 2020, several years prior to my retirement. To deal with the heat and humidity of the summer months, we held on to our NH lake house, which for the prior two decades served primarily as our excuse not to spend every waking hour working. In Key West, a tank of gas can cover me for five months or more. One can walk everywhere (at least from our location). You can choose from a hundred or more restaurants, when you feel like going out. Plenty of cultural events and institutions, and quite an international crowd in the touristy areas. But a couple blocks off the main drag, it’s a restful spot to read a novel by the dipping pool in January.
Post: Let’s revisit the pros and cons of relocating upon retirement
Link to comment from July 29, 2025
Thirty-five some years ago it was the affordability factor you mention that applied for our first house purchase; our rate was about 10.35, as I recall. Twenty years and a bunch of refis later, when we sold out of the "affordable" area, as outlined above, both our situation and the overall market were at different points in the cycle. Cheers!
Post: Our Homes, Our Wealth: A Tale of Two Property Paths
Link to comment from July 25, 2025
I confess ignorance about the UK housing market, but would be surprised if there was not a basic similarity mutatis mutandis regarding the higher appreciation of more valuable properties. To be clear about my situation, the property move was made for lifestyle, not portfolio, reasons. My wife and I for years maxed out all tax advantaged plans, invested closer to 70/30, and also saved in taxable accounts. The move to the more expensive area cut my commute from 35-40 minutes each way to 10 minutes or less. We did not think of the new property as an investment, but it turned out to be a pretty good one. Mostly good luck, selling near the top of the market in the lower cost area, and buying into a somewhat depressed "high value" area. Only in hindsight did it turn out to be a great way to diversify our total financial picture. So, to get back to the point I was attempting to make, buying in an area that stretches your finances "can" result in a much more advantageous overall financial situation (i.e., it is not an obvious mistake). And regarding the superiority of the 60/40 portfolio over any given period, as I'm sure you'll agree, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Post: Our Homes, Our Wealth: A Tale of Two Property Paths
Link to comment from July 24, 2025
And to add to this, the value of properties in higher cost areas can also appreciate at a much faster rate than low cost areas. I moved from a moderate metro-Boston area to a high cost metro-Boston area in the latter 2000s. Selling twelve years later brought quite the windfall, in comparison to what I would have had had I stayed in the original "lower value" house (no where near the same appreciation there). So, property can be quite an asset to one's overall portfolio, and higher value properties can exponentially "outperform" lower value properties, granting that one has to make the asset liquid if the funds must be tapped.
Post: Our Homes, Our Wealth: A Tale of Two Property Paths
Link to comment from July 23, 2025
Fidelity 's Cash Management account can be set up as though it were a bank with routing and account numbers (it shows up as UMB Bank). So, all the things one might do with, say, Capital One, can be done with Fidelity's stand-in for a bank account. For instance, insurance bill's that don't allow a payment by credit card without a fee, I pay by EFT from my Cash Management account. It all works very smoothly.
Post: Breaking Up 2
Link to comment from July 2, 2025