Sleeptrain Pricematch Experience

I recently went through the process of buying a mattress and wanted to share my experience. Short summary: sleeptrain.com "LIVE CHAT" can do pricematching. I pricematched a mattress/box spring that sleeptrain.com wanted $950+tax to us-mattress.com and got it for $639 all inclusive! And they delivered the mattress the same day. So price matching online retailers works at Sleep Train!

WiseBanyan Account Opened

I opened my account at WiseBanyan.

Timeline:
3/19 (Wed) - Received invitation email, opened account
3/24 (Mon) - Money withdrawn from linked account
3/25 (Tue) - Shares in ETFs purchased
3/27 (Thu) - Received email that everything is ready

From 3/19 to 3/24, I was able to login, but there was nothing to see as my account wasn't ready. On 3/25, I was finally presented with the dashboard, but my money was supposedly in cash. It was not until 3/27 when I got the all clear email that I was able to see that my money had been invested according to my asset allocation. I was glad to see that they actually invested my money the day after withdrawing it. Kudos to WiseBanyan for not sitting on my money and earning themselves some extra interest.

All in all, it took a bit longer than I hoped/expected. There's not much to see once you login, so don't get too excited. This is MPT after all. Screenshot below (blocked out some personal information and numbers)

The screenshot also shows the ETFs that they use:
VTI, VEA, VWO, LQD, VNQ, TIP, VGIT

Let me know if you have any questions! I'll post another review at a later date once I've tried adding more money.

WiseBanyan

WiseBanyan will be offering free investing. They invest in ETFs for you using Modern Portfolio Theory. Similar to Wealthfront and Betterment, your answers to a survey are used to gauge your risk tolerance. A variety of Vanguard and iShares ETFs are used.. They will also do automatic rebalancing.

Sounds similar to Wealthfront/Betterment, but no fees.

Here's my referral link if you would like to help me get to the front of the list!

https://wisebanyan.com/?ref=XrLQ51
Opened my account already.
Check out my report on account opening here!

Homeowner's Insurance: Cancelled Personal Property Replacement Coverage (HO-29)

I cancelled Personal Property Replacement Coverage (HO-29) on my homeowner's policy recently. WHY ?

1) Having HO-29 increased my annual premium by 25%.
2) I do not have expensive personal property.

Prior to canceling, I researched a bit online but was not able to find any analysis. There was analysis on choosing replacement coverage or actual value for a house. The consensus for that seems to be replacement coverage is better for a house, since if it burns down, you want to be able to reconstruct.

Does the same logic apply for personal property ? I'm not sure, but the coverage seems to cost a lot more.

Let's say we pay $500 a year for coverage on a $250,000 house. Now if you have some personal property worth.. $25,000, then I would expect the premium to be only $50. But it was costing $150! Not worth it to me. In addition, I don't have expensive personal property. Washer, dryer, refrigerator. Perhaps if I get better furniture.

Am I being penny wise and pound foolish?

Correction on CA SDI

Yesterday's post contained some wrong information regarding the CA SDI withholding. I realized my company actually withholds part of my paycheck towards CA VPDI instead of CA SDI. What's the difference? VPDI is Voluntary Plan Disability Insurance run by private companies. Private plans are required to match the California State Disability Insurance benefits, and may surpass them. For example, some private plans may pay more than 55% of earnings, with no cap. Another difference is CA SDI is a federal itemized deduction while CA VPDI is NOT! However, watch out for being penny wise and pound foolish. Opting for CA SDI so you can deduct the cost will at most save you around $400/year (assuming you are in the 39% federal tax bracket). However, if you ever have a disability, CA SDI would only pay you up to $1075/week while your companies plan COULD have no weekly maximum. Please also note that this is talking about Disability Insurance and not Paid Family Leave. Check your plan documents and make an informed decision yourself if it is worth it. If your company gives you a choice, keep in mind that going with the California plan may require you to fill out paperwork yourself.

California SDI Tax

According to this page, the tax is 1% per year, up to $1008.80 per employee.

The 2013 SDI tax rate is 1.0 percent (.010) of SDI taxable wages per employee, per year. SDI is set by the California State Legislature and may change yearly. This includes the rate for PFL. The maximum tax is $1,008.80 per employee, per year ($100,880 x .010).

In other words, if you work approximately 6 years, and then have only 1 child, you are merely "earning" back the SDI tax you paid in when you take the 6 weeks of paid leave. (This is ignoring any other possible disability claim.) Hopefully, everyone is healthy and has no other need for paid family leave.

Assuming a flat income, and X years of work,  0.01XY of yearly income Y would be paid into the system. Then, when you have a claim, you would get the minimum of (6/52*0.55Y,1075*6) = minimum(0.06346153846154Y, 6450).

0.01XY = 0.06346153846154Y

0.01X = 0.06346153846154

X = 6.346 years

If you are paying the max every year (LUCKY YOU!)

1008.80X = 6450

X = 6.393 years

In conclusion, if you have a child more often than every 6.3 years, you come out ahead! (This ignores taxability aspect of the pay. This is an exercise in theoretical terms and is not meant to be used as advice in planning for child birth.)

California Paid Family Leave : Newborn Bonding

Having just come back from 4 weeks of paid family leave, I thought I would write a post with some details about this paternity leave. Males, in the great state of California, in most circumstances, you get paid for 6 weeks of bonding time with a newborn baby! Here are some details, caveats, and pointers.

• Six weeks of paid leave, must begin with 1 week of unpaid leave. 
• Max of 55% of salary, up to a max cap of $1075/week (per CA EDD pdf) This means if you earn more than $101,000 a year, you still earn at most $1075/week. 
• Do NOT have to use it all in one go. For example, I took 3 weeks when the baby was born, and then 4 weeks just prior to my child's 1st birthday. 
• Use it or lose it by 1st birthday of the child 
• Federally taxable 
• CA state tax-free 
• Note: You funded this benefit through paycheck deductions already. Look for CA SDI. Sad, there is no free lunch. More on this below. 
• Some companies fill out the forms for you and can even direct deposit to your usual checking account, while others will require you to fill out the forms and give you a loaded debit card. Currently, the funds are placed in Bank of America (BoA) branded debit card. Note that without an account at BoA, we were limited to withdrawing $1000 at a time at a BoA branch. However, we were able to withdraw and deposit the entire amount at a Wells Fargo branch. 
• Check the CA EDD website here. 
• Check the EDD debit card website here. 

New Blog

Here is my blog. What motivates me to write this? I want to write down my reviews/ideas. If the ideas are interesting or original, maybe I will get a following. I wonder how blogs are advertised? That will be a topic to revisit. I plan to write about the following topics, with more to come.

• Being a dad
• Personal finance
• Technology
• Things I buy

Some upcoming posts include: 

• California Bonding Time with Newborn for Dads (also known as Paternity Leave)
• Travel tips in the San Francisco Bay Area