I found a cost estimator tool from the hospital group he’s having the surgery at. I just need his health insurance plan member number and the cpt codes the lady at the surgeon’s office gave me. I’ll try it when he gets home. Hopefully it’ll agree with me and you.
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I hope so. I find all medical insurance stuff so confusing.
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@Gdogg @druidessie the cost estimator agrees with the $700!!! Aw yeah, now we can relax a little bit.
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Yeah Tiny Nephew is a million dollar baby for that reason. 4 months NICU. 
Thank god the ACA nixed lifetime maximums.
Good luck getting this sorted Amanda. It’s awesome you’re able to help your bro with this. :))
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I hope so!
Hospitals are infamous for having some professionals who are not paid through the hospital and bill separately, like anesthesiologists, or sending labwork to an out of network lab. I don’t know how to check for those things. I really hope the surgeon’s office is right.
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I’m just in awe of a $700 out of pocket max. Mine was $5,400 this year. And I reached it 
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Yeah it’s amazing how he only pays $50/month for that plan. He gets like a $300/month subsidy.
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Even at the full price of $350/month that is amazing! I don’t think I can even get (unsubsidized) insurance for less than $400.
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Damn seriously?
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Well I am about 20 years older than your brother, so my rates are higher.
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I paid $537 a month with a $5400 OOP max this past year. Just for me. Didn’t qualify for any financial help because I can go on my husband’s plan which is considered affordable (for him, they don’t care that adding a spouse adds an extra $700).
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Ouch
Assuming someone isn’t doing the traditional 20% downpayment, what’s considered a decent percentage to have saved up before getting serious about house shopping, especially when it comes to mortgage terms? 5%? 10%?
We’d really like to move before we’d be able to have a full 20% but I’m trying to decide just how much we really need saved up before getting serious.
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Partially it’ll depend what you qualify for. We did 5% down, then the money for closing (~$6k?), then wanted money on hand for immediate repairs/improvements. For us that was another $25k because we had to replace the roof and flooring throughout.
But in short I’d say, 5% down payment if that can get you a house in your market, then closing costs, then “shit always comes up” fund of at least a few thousand (water heater failing, so on). It’ll all depend on age and condition of house how big that needs to be as a minimum though. (And how much access to credit, on what terms, and with what willingness to use it)
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Thanks 
Our credit is very good and we have a separate emergency fund that’s currently $15K. Mainly looking at houses that wouldn’t need significant investment right away (unless something unforeseen happened).
Edit: A big unknown is what exactly our house will sell for. Comps I’ve been adding to my spreadsheet indicate anything from zero or slight negative equity after sale costs to 20K so I think my current savings target is probably good. It would be enough to do 5% plus a decent cushion on the upper price range of what we want in our neighborhood.
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My Dell computer is almost a year old and the “Support Services” that came with it are about to expire. What I’m being asked to extend is referred to as a Warranty and Service Extension for Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis.
Do I need this? I generally don’t buy extended warranties with anything; is this any different?
Every so often I run this page that downloads updates, etc. Will these continue if I don’t purchase the warranty extension?
What should I be doing to back up files? Do people generally back up to the cloud, or a stand-alone drive of some sort? I keep a lot of stuff on the second hard drive in the computer. I’m especially uncomfortable keeping things like taxes on the cloud because of the personal information they contain.
What’s the best way to destroy DVDs I no longer want to keep that contain confidential information?
Thanks in advance!
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I’m buying a house right now, and putting 5% down and it’s about $5k for closing costs (under $200K house). I was really nervous about mortgage insurance, and then I got my loan amount and it’s like…$30 a month, so that made me feel much better about not saving up the full 20% down (which would take me like…5 more years, and the market could be even more ridiculous by then)
After all of the money at closing + downpayment, I will have about $8K left in an e-fund, which feels ok but not great, and I do need to use some for paint/other projects, so hopefully will build it back up right away by getting a roommate for a few years
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I sync most files to a cloud drive and back up financials to an external hard drive. I wouldn’t pay for an extended warranty but then I buy refurb computers with only a 30 day hardware warranty to begin with. I make sure none of my data depends on a single device and replace hardware cheaply when it fails.
Edit- on the dvds, you can make them way too much trouble for data theft with just physical damage- breaik or warp them so they won’t go in a drive and the bad guys will find someone else’s tech to mess with. If you want secret agent level, overwrite, then run a strong magnet over then, break them in half, and throw out the halves on different trash pickups. But that’s basically what the military does with TS files,and it’s overkill even for them.
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I am getting ready to buy a few appliances for my house, and wondering if anyone here has tried and true brands, or recommendations of brands/models to avoid? I am specifically getting a refrigerator and washer/dryer. I want a top fridge style refrigerator, but not necessarily French door. I get so overwhelmed reading reviews, because it seems like literally every brand/model has some catastrophic problem that someone experienced. My thinking for now is to buy the simplest model I can find that has what I want…like no digital things, no water dispensers, wifi connection, etc.
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The only one off the top of my head for fridges that I know to avoid is Samsung. They’re currently being slapped with a class action lawsuit and they’re trying to dodge a recall. And apparently they’re just a pain in the ass if you have that problem with them.
ETA It’s a compressor failure issue too, so not an easy or cheap repair if you have it happen.
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