Posts By Carter

Straightback Mountain to Mt. Anna loop.

Another hike and another couple of mountains checked off our Belknap Range list! The parking for this hike was at the end of a dirt road. We parked and hiked a bit down what looked to be a service road. Yes, we were going down hill. Found an old metal sign along the way. It leveled out near a pond/swampy area that some beavers had overtaken and the water was flooded across the trail with no way to get across without taking off your shoes and wading through the water. Once on the other side the trail came to a T and the choice was left or right. To the right was the taller and steeper Straightback Mounting. Left was…

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Whiteface Mountain

This post is actually going to be a two part series. The smallest mountain in the Belknap range we didn't make it to the top on our first attempt. A severe storm (high winds and lightning) was coming down upon us and we were trying to make it up and back before the storm hit. We reached the trail split for Piper and Whiteface and decided that the winds were picking up too fast and the radar looked like we were not going to make it and made the decision to turn around there. Whiteface Mountain's peak is only 1,664 feet and is the smallest of the peaks in the Belknap Range. The trail head is just down a dirt…

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Time to Rethink Our Emergency Fund

After paying off the houses and contacting the insurance companies to get the bank taken off the binder, I was wondering about the next steps. I called and increased the umbrella insurance policy but that may need to be revisited. Other than that, the next thing that came to mind was the emergency fund. I'm a huge proponent of having $1000 in cash at home. That the true emergency money. I live in an area where ice storms have taken out power for a week. No ATMs, no internet connection, etc. Having cash was the only way to do transactions and if you didn't have cash prior to the event, you were going to have a tough time getting it…

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Today’s Fitness Fail

It high time I get back into shape. I have a good workout program, but wanted to add along something to keep it interesting. Queue me remembering all of those Crossfit WODs (workout of the day). Great! I'll go to crossfit.com and see what today's WOD is and get greeted by this: Of course today is a rest day! So the day I decide to workout, I find out is a rest day. Am I good, or am I good!? Time to work on plan B

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Own vs Rent – Here is the Math

I got tired of all the arbitrary rent a house versus own a home posts and comments in the world, with everyone spouting their opinion but really had very little information to back it up. I opened up my excel sheet and went to work. I ran the numbers via made up data and also real world data using my personal experience (as a home owner for 20 years using my real world relevant numbers). In almost every scenario it was better to own than to rent. Yes, you read that right. Ownership has its perks. Rentals do have their place but it truly depends on time frame (how long you will live there) and the size of the rental.…

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Ivory Mortgage Button

During whaling times, the custom of fashioning a small round button from a section of Sperm Whale tooth and having it mounted to the top of the newel post of your home became popular. The presence of a Newel Post Button told visitors that there were no liens on the property. Hence, over time, the name changed to Mortgage Button. I ordered one a month ago as we paid off the house. It is installed now and while very few visitors go there or will even understand it, all that matters is that we know what it is and what it means to us, so we can smile every time we go by.

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Acorns, It’s Not You, It’s Me.

When I originally started my robo-investment experiment that I wrote about here: https://carterbrown.com/betterment-vs-acorns-vs-robinhood-an-experiment/ I had no idea how long it was going to go on. Betterment lost out early on as their side by side returns were much lower than Acorns and Acorns had the better (in my opinion) platform and app. Then their debit card and spending account, they also had the IRA feature. In the end, I already have all of this. My accounts are at Fidelity, I have a core spend account there, IRA, Trust accounts, etc. There is just no need to duplicate it. Which is where I found myself: Having way too many accounts and little bits of experimental money in too many different pockets.…

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