ChunkyMunky

I am moving to Walnut Creek, CA and staying on a street that has about 30-40 separate apartment complexes all in a row. This town is considered relatively safe compared to the rest of CA. You must be buzzed into the complex and all apartment entrances are out of a hall, Seinfeld Style. There are exterior doors to the patio and I'm not sure what is on the other side of the fence. I am on the first floor. Also, the parking has a remote to open the gate. Is it worth the money to get rental insurance? It may be inexpensive, but how do you justify the expense if there is very little threat? Do you get multi policy discount?

I'm selling my house and moving closer to work, significantly less commute but too expensive to buy. I am having the appraiser early next week and it should take 3-5 weeks to close as long as nothing falls through. How soon should I start my apartment hunt?

I feel like it's too early as they won't know what will happen 1 month from now, prices may change, or many tenants renew leases. Or is now the time and what questions should I ask? Prices, potential vacancies, get on waiting lists?

This is for Walnut Creek, CA in the East Bay area about 30 minutes north of San Jose if there is no traffic. I work in Pleasanton

Thanks for the help

I bought my house a couple years ago and had to remove a big tree from the front yard because many of the roots growing visibly on the surface and began to crack the driveway, walkway, and likely the slab but I can't see to verify that. I recently laid sod and am now looking for another tree. I've heard of putting an open bottom plastic trash container to force the roots to grow down. I also heard that any tree will have shallow roots because it is easy to get water there since I am watering my lawn quite often, California heat. Are there any trees that are good for shade and have roots that grow down regardless of the situation? I'm not necessarily concerned with fruit or nuts but I would definitely prefer no spikes and thorny balls of any kind. Also, I've heard the water table where I live is quite high, San Joaquin Valley. Thanks for any help

I just took microeconomics and I understand how to find an equilibrium price when I know how many people would buy at a specific price and how many a seller would sell at a specific price. How is a price set without seeing these numbers first, such as what happens in the real world where we don't get perfectly accurate numbers prior to setting a price? These values are hypothetical or not a given when you are about to release a new product and the data needs to be generated over time.

Say you start a car wash, do you ask a bunch of local people how much they would pay for the various degrees of service before opening? Go off the price other similar businesses set their prices? Those 2 ways, or a combination of those and other methods, or other methods altogether?

I would think it would frustrate buyers if you constantly tinkered with the prices in the beginning of operations as you determined what price you want to settle on.

Obviously this doesn't apply to fixed markets where all those involved simply buy or sell at the current market value, such as the wheat market. I am more concerned about price givers. One more question, do the same methods apply for small and large businesses?

If I press the home button on a tab to go back to google.com, the page first goes to an annoying page with multiple tabs, and I must select google out of those tabs to actually go to my home page. I'm not sure what google is trying to accomplish by making you press two buttons to go to your home page, does anyone know how to make the home button actually go directly to the home page?

I remember my mom balancing her checkbook when I was younger. While it is likely a good idea in case the bank makes any errors, I don't balance my bank accounts or credit card. I occasionally check to make sure there are no transactions I didn't make. Do most people take the time to balance their accounts and if so is there a convenient way to do so? Thanks

Plan Destination is hosting my 401k and my portfolio is currently 100% invested in the very aggressive plan. I am 31 years old. The plan costs $5.60 per $1000 invested annually. Is this going to kill my plan? The one option that stands out is the VINIX vanguard institutional index which has a $0.40 fee per $1000. Gains in my aggressive plan has been 9.1% annually for the past 3 years, basically I rode the stock market's return up after it's recession lows and I don't plan on that lasting forever.

The VINIX has done comparable during that time, maybe a little better and should be diversified enough. Would this be a good option to switch to? Or should I just leave it alone?

I'd prefer to not let this be an angry question, so don't answer if you aren't going to be productive. Also, I'm not a Republican so please don't associate me with any groups. I'm just looking for opinions on a sensitive subject. If the private sector can implement Medicare for less money than the government, shouldn't it? The vouchers from the government should of course cover the full price of coverage and the same benefits as Medicare currently gives. Is there any benefit to allowing the government continue to administer Medicare?

I bought my house a year ago and the next door neighbor put up a cinder block fence between our houses before I bought. The installer let a lot of the filler spill over the edge on my side(some on hers side as well) and let it harden. I'm pretty sure it's not the adhesive that holds the blocks together, but the filler for the hollow parts. I am just getting around to this as my next project, but I don't think it's possible. I tried chipping some off with a flat head screw driver and a hammer but the bond is very good and it can't be done without damaging the wall. Does anybody have any experience with this? Any help would be appreciated.

Sriracha has become merely adequate for my hot sauce needs. I am looking for something to take it to the next level but still keep a similar consistency/viscosity. Nothing that is going to hurt me, just a normal progression. Preferably readily available as well would be nice. Thanks for the help.

I bought a house a 18 months ago and pay pmi because it was fha with 3.5% down. I am making extra payments monthly towards principle to gain equity. I am trying to figure out what pmi is based on so I can have a target to shoot for. I bought the house for 160k but it has gone down in value about 10k since I bought. Will the bank ask for a new appraisal since it was bought a while ago? Or am I just shooting for 20% off of the purchase price, 128k? I just put a 50 year roof on it and will be painting the exterior in summer, there are many other small upgrades I've done such as tiling the bathrooms and kitchen.Thanks for the help

I am busy with work and school but want to get back to when I was active. I don't want to lift, I'm okay with my physique and diet so I'm not interested in a gym. I want to get introduced to things like rock climbing(indoor and outdoor), hiking, rafting, etc. None of my friends like to get out and I want to know where to meet people into this kind of stuff, online or in person. Thanks

As a new homeowner, 18 months, I was wondering what is supposed to come of the 25 billion dollar robosigning settlement with 5 big banks supposed to go. It was big news a month ago and now it has gone away. Isn't this money supposed to go to current homeowners? What are the requirements? Every little bit helps.

We have about 100 people at work, 85 men/15 women. I am good friends with all the females I've pissed off. I try to be friends with everyone and that involves a lot of work and culture mixing. I am not very politically correct, honest, but don't cross any lines. I have pissed off 4 of the women so far in basic conversation, actions/comments taken absurdly far out of context, sharing of "opinions" on job related tasks, or things I consider trivial in nature. This is a medium to high level professional job and not wal mart/high school. Am I missing something? What's with all the drama? With the ratio of male to female, I would expect to constantly be offending males as well, not the case. This is a very serious question and not bashing females, female input would be very welcome as well as male experience. Thanks for the serious answers

I've loved baseball for years but it has begun to wear on me about how some teams are habitual "also ran" waiting for the trade deadline teams. My team luckily isn't one of them(pirates, A's, orioles), but it really takes away from the game. Football has it better with a hard salary cap and is much more competitive. What do the owners say to the fans in their defense? Suck it? Why is the league okay with this?

My home is going to need new windows soon and a neighbor mentioned simply replacing the glass instead of the whole window. Is this really an option and is it cheaper? Do contractors that replace windows also give quotes for replacing just glass? Thanks for the help

I have a mortgage payment of about $1100 and would like to use my credit card with 2% cash back. I pay off the credit card monthly and have for years, is this possible?

My car(RSX) was backed into yesterday(Escalade). She said the beeping that should let her know something is behind her didn't beep and she thought it was ok to go. Surprisingly the damage was very little and not hugely noticeable. The car is my daily driver and commuter with 150k miles. It is a type s but still almost worthless due to the high miles. I have already been looking into getting a newer car and keeping the RSX as a daily driver because it's so reliable and gets good gas mileage. My question is should I pocket the repair money and just ignore the damage on the car? Is that even an option and how would I go about doing that? Or am I forced to get it fixed? Thanks for the help.

I am looking into further insulating my home which was built in 1989, the year they originally banned asbestos before it was overturned in 1991. I don't have much insulation currently and I'd like to add what I can to the attic. Is there any way to determine what kind of insulation I have? I don't want to do anything before I understand my safety issues. I live in California, is there any public service to help me do this? Thanks for the help

As with most situations in life, there's 2 sides to the story. I assume that somebody/the government put them in this economic situation. Who is responsible for the situation getting so bad? The news just makes it sound like the people are protesting because the free ride is over. Are the Greeks really lazy people, do they have extremely short work weeks with great pay and benefits? Or is there more to the story?