Do you have tsa pre?

I’d look at Reston town center and see if anything strikes your fancy. That def easiest from a parking perspective.

If you go into DC you may just need to drive around a bit to find parking. If the van is too tall for garages then I imagine finding a spot on street parking might be a challenge. If you do go that route I’d check out the areas on H St NE just east of Union Station. Or Union Market.

Salsa with Silvia

I’d sit at the bar to make it more casual vs a sit down

That whole area was a giant surface lot (same w city center) a few years ago

I’m guessing there’s plans for development but they haven’t started

You can email your council member for the ward and ask

If you don’t need the money for 5 years you’re much better off investing in a broad market index fund like the vanguard total market index.

Go through the flow chart in the wiki, that will help you figure out what the money should be for

Why do you want/need i bonds? That’s the first question.

They serve a specific purpose.

Some ppl use it as a long term bond holding part of their overall asset allocation needs in their portfolio

Some people layer it in for their emergency fund bc the rate was higher than a HYSA

Some people use it for sinking funds that are 1-5 years out (you lose some interest in this case).

there’s not a blanket statement of “get bonds”

You’re being taxed at the 20% federal tax rate. And 8% state.

The rest are other taxed and deductions.

I’d teach them the prime directive flow chart. At least so that they’re aware it exists. But that’s not inflation specific.

To me the inflation specific advice may be to not pay a mortgage off sooner than needed, especially if your rate is low.

I’m not shopping around anually. Rates will change all the time. It’s not worth the hassle to me.

I also focus on not having excessive cash. Everything long term is invested, anything under 5 years and my emergency fund is getting rolled in to a i series bond.

So the value of the interest is get by switching for some small difference isn’t worth it to me.

Dc fray Kick ball

Yep that’s another category.

Some people call it “life events”. For things like, weddings, baby showers, graduations, funerals, etc

YNAB really has an AWESOME system of how to think abt this stuff. Bc it forces you to amortize over time so that you’re saving bit by bit for things you KNOW will happen, you just don’t know when.

It has a bit of a learning curve and the tool is a glorified spreadsheet however for me it took using it for everything to click. And now I keep paying the subscription bc I like the sync w my bank and app access.

I highly recommend it. It really helps you not dip into things that are a priority for you. And let’s you pretty seamlessly move money between categories.

Like say in a given month you spent your eating out budget but your wife hits an amazing milestone at work and you want to celebrate. Before YNAB I’d just go and say “it’s worth it a $100 dinner isn’t gonna break the bank”. With YNAB I can get specific and say “it’s worth it, a $100 dinner isn’t gonna break the bank, I’m going to move $100 from the category where I was saving for a new TV and delay buying the TV”.

When life gets complicated w kids and tons of transactions it’s really hard to see that granularity and make that call. Anyways, try it out, it’s really made me feel like I can spend more, save more, without actually making more. The sub is great too r/YNAB

I really love YNAB as a budgeting tool. It’s ~$100 a year, which is steep for an app. But it’s the only thing that got me into actively engaging w my budget. Like you I also feel like I live frugally and save well

YNAB has allowed me to supercharge that.

The thing that jumped out at me is no set aside monthly sinking funds for vacation and for gifts (Xmas, bdays, etc)

5-10 years id invest

I’d just watch it and decide when to start pulling out of the market or maybe I don’t have to pull it out bc other windfalls met the goal for what the money was for

However you don’t mention other revolving sinking funds…

Car maintenance

House maintenance

Vacation

Are those covered by your regular budget?

Yeah that was my understanding too

W YNAB I never budget more than one month into the future bc there’s way too much risk that the budget gets out of whack. Ppl always post abt that on the sub.

If I needed to do what you described I create a temporary category called “December mortgage”.

It just keeps things simpler for me to have an easier overview of what “jobs” my money has. Vs having to toggle into the future to see

That’s even better! Use this extra paycheck to be the “next months” pay

I use YNAB for budgeting but your system can probably support this.

I have a category/bucket called “next month”. So during say October, my two paychecks went into that bucket.

Then on Nov 1… I take everything from “next month” and I assign it to the spending I will do in November

The two paychecks in November go onto the “next month” bucket

Repeat

Also, look at your pay calendar so that you can figure out which months will have the 3rd paycheck so that you don’t forget and spend it

Pull one paycheck from savings (one time thing), so that you have a full months worth (2 paychecks) available for first of the month for your monthly budget.

Then during the month you set the two paychecks aside for next month.

Since the increase is significant, I assume 2 paychecks >= one month salary from before

Use your 2 extra paychecks a year to fund sinking funds like vacation, or maintenance funds or emergency

For the kit: one one of those air blowing things

It probably depends on expectations. I assume it’s likely to take me all day. So I go at the crack of dawn, with all my paperwork.

DMV is no worse than any other DMV I’ve dealt with

Tax implications will be the biggest impact. Someone else will know more but I assume your taxes might be less bc you’re currently paying Montgomery county tax on top of state and federal.

Not quite what you asked but if you don’t have this already - Sign up for USPS informed delivery… you get emails w scans of your upcoming mail

I don’t necessarily think it’s an amazing blender but the Ninja blender we have has a blade you can pull out.

So we make a giant batch of smoothie, pull the blade out and put it in the fridge. Without the blade it’s basically a pitcher

Same. Same

Not sure of the vibe you’re looking for, but I’ve seen people have them at The Brig beer garden.