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Go buy a house that makes people say "I wonder who lives there?" when they drive by. It's the ulitmate ego booster. Or they might say, I wonder what tasteless person owns that McMansion that's a blight on the neighborhood. I can assure you such a house is hardly a "blight on the neig...

Go buy a house that makes people say "I wonder who lives there?" when they drive by. It's the ulitmate ego booster.

i just get a small whiff of elitism/snobbery from the tone of your post, that's all. i think there have been some incremental quality improvements in US made cars, but far and wide there still is a reliability/quality gap. Yes, there's elitism....but that's what this board, and especially this thre...

sounds like a lot of overpriced stuff, just sayin' for the cars: isn't high quality and American made an oxymoron414k To address your two points: 1. Overpriced is a very subjective term. As you progress thru net worth thresholds, fewer things are overpriced....so maybe we're at different thresholds...

As I've gotten older and more affluent, I buy higher grade of quality including: Yard tools: I recently bought the "Cobalt?" brand shovel and rakes at Lowes. They are heavy duty, but materially more expensive. I also bought a $420 Stihl trimmer/blower combo (it f'ing rocks). Beer: I buy Am...

I didn't like the HR person using the word "zeal" to describe the OP's interest in adding Index funds to the 401k. It implies a level of excessive interest bordering on irrational. They could have used a more respectful descriptor such as "strong interest".

My wife got her's last week. $6k of interest alone.

Wow...they've shot up a lot in the past 2 weeks...from approx 3.30% to 3.90%. Glad I fixed mine at 3.38% in December. Companies hedge their interest rate exposure via derivatives......they're forward looking though....so they probably anticipated these rate increases for a few months.

This is a very valuable retirement tool especially for those who can pay healthcare expenses out of pocket (IMO, it's every bit as valuable as a Roth IRA...maybe even more). My CPA just informed us of HSA's a couple years ago. I need to call my HSA provider, but right now, it appears I can't invest ...

Bond bubble

double post

I agree with the Harvard MS poster above who said if you're interested in clinical care take the free ride at Penn, but if you're interested in business, and academia go to Harvard, especially if you have a weaker undergrad school name on your diploma. Harvard will expose you to a higher caliber of ...

We enjoy having meals at nice restaurants. Unforturnately, with 2 young kids, we don't get out that much!

My In-laws are facing this situation. Here's their 3 kids: 1. Son: CFO of a Fortune 200 company. Makes $4 million per year, and will likely be CEO someday. Lives like a king. 2. Daughter #2 (my wife): Pediatrician....and me who does fairly well.....solidly upper middle class. We just built a new hou...

I agree that we're in the final stages of bond bubble created by unrivaled Fed manipulation that will burst like the real estate bubble did. Like a couple posters have said, it would be unwise to move higher in stocks given higher interest rates might lower corporate profits, but instead go to CD's,...

No I'm not a minimalist, but my wife and I unload things as we no longer use them. We just built a 5,200 square ft house though and have filled it with beautiful things----and I'm in process of installing a putting green in the backyard with a huge fire pit and outdoor grilling area. My wife and I w...

1. 25%

2. We've been paying about $1k extra month towards principle....mortgage will hopefully be paid off in 20 years when it's time for me to retire.

Appears like there's a lot of apples to oranges comparisons on this thread.....the people who've paid off their mortgages aren't including property taxes in their mortgage payment and people who have a mortgage balance are including property taxes. My property taxes are 1/3 of my mortgage payment......

Approx. 16%.

My CPA suggested maxing out our HSA contribution (approx. $5,250 annually) as a means to reduce our AMT exposed taxable income. The funds grow tax deferred and are considered 100% taxable income upon withdrawl as it had previously been used to reduce taxable income. To maximize the value of this acc...

You are correct in that this is an upper middle class number. I had written upper middle initially, then changed it because most people who are upper middle-class don't think they are. I was trying to adjust "modest" to what I believe someone who reads this board would consider modest. Le...

Flashes1, why doesn't a backdoor to Roth sound appealing? I would think it does because investment growth and withdrawals would be tax free… I just don't want to pay anymore taxes right now than I have to. I have to already cut a check on April 15 because of the AMT and it would be considerably big...

Janus, a blast from the past for me, too. I used to play around with Janus Overseas (man did that make some money a few years) and Janus Global Technology.........then the Tech Bubble burst and I nearly lost it all. Very expensive lesson.

We contribute to our non-deductible IRA's because we're in a high tax bracket. I prefer to keep "after tax" accounts as low as possible because I dislike paying taxes on year-end mutual fund distributions and capital gains. The tax deferrel aspect of Nondeductables are attractive, and, no ...

Deliberately chose Short Term Investment Grade Fund rather than Intermediate with our 2012 IRA contributions precisely because I'm leery of higher interest rates. The Federal Government has to pay off this massive debt someday, right? How will they do that? I just don't see a scenario where rates ca...

Rick Ferri writes. I find that most people who have lived an modest middle-class lifestyle can live well in retirement if they accumulate $2 million in an investment portfolio (2012 dollars). The latest numbers I looked at showed that about 3% of American households at retirement have portfolios of...

I'm 45 with a 7 and a 5 year old (and a 38 yr old wife)......I'm hoping to retire at age 62 with my 5 year old graduating college. I'll hopefully have $2.5 million saved and my $700k house paid for. I have a small pension right now worth $16k annually (praying that my company keeps accruing benefits...

This segment is exactly why 60 Minutes is the best show in the history of American television. Every couple years a segment like this one, produces significant changes in society. Could a bursting bubble in Chinese real estate be the impetus needed to topple the communist government? I also wonder h...

We just sold a house in December with really high radon (buyers paid for the test---came to 20x).....we put in a remediation system-----I think it cost us approx. $900. If it's any comfort to you, my wife is a physician, and she had no concerns regarding the high radon.....she said you would have t...

We just sold a house in December with really high radon (buyers paid for the test---came to 20x).....we put in a remediation system-----I think it cost us approx. $900. If it's any comfort to you, my wife is a physician, and she had no concerns regarding the high radon.....she said you would have to...

I live in south Texas, too. I'm against the spraying because it seems to kill everything. No more fireflies. No more dragonflies. No more butterflies. Does a number on birds too. We put up a couple of bat houses -- bats like bugs and they work at night. I'm going to try the bat houses. I think the ...

I would consider it a gift and learn from the experince. At this point, it's not worth getting worked up over $10K spent in this manner. What's the saying? "Don't go away mad. Just go away."

What are you trying to accomplish in life? You'll never contribute anything to society if you're looking to "coast."

How feasible are hikes thru animal country? I understand an armed ranger is necessary but can the tourist be armed, too? Don't want to shoot aniamls necessarily, but just want to get be close to them and with them. The thought of sitting in one of 5 SVU's with 10 strangers in each SVU watching a lio...

We just spent $17k on landscaping for our new $705K house......inclusive of an irrigation system, lighting system, sod, 4 large maples, bunch of various smaller trees and shrubs. It looks sharp. And I'm finishing up a plan for our backyard with the landscaper as we speak-----$3k for Natural Gas Fire...

Wow.....what kind of residency do you have to save that kind of money. My wife made a whopping $50k/year including moonlighting ten years ago, but no way she could have saved $22k.

What's the good hiking areas around Napa? Something easy to get to under 45 minutes.

Cleveland Clinic has aggressively bought surrounding blighted areas to push unsavory characters away from the campus. But it's a great hospital, but sad they have to devote so many resources to move people to other parts of town rather than to research and patient care.

It's in a tough part of towm. My sister used to work there. Police told her not to stop at traffic lights at night. They might pull you over, but let you go after seeing your socio-economic status.

Well, I already have the cheap safe. I could leave it sitting around as bait with nothing in it but rocks if I installed something higher quality and hidden. Or better yet, some of those explosive dye packets if they can be purchased some place and put in a safe to go off if the door is opened or t...

Any cool WW2 sights?

I just recently assumed a lease of a 2012 GMC Acadia about a month ago. It was kind of a pig in a poke, and I am really surprised at how much I like it so far (coming from a BMW 335i sedan). It has room for 8, which you don't need, BUT, you can fold down both sets of rear seats and the space is 7' ...

Key West is awesome.....a very memorable family vacation would be to fly into Miami-----drive your 4 door convertible rental car along Hwy A1A across one of the longest bridges in the world connecting the Keys to mainland U.S. You could also take a quick detour to the Everglades as another poster su...

We just closed on our new custom built house two weeks ago. A few observations/points: 1. Do it because you want the perfect house that fits your needs and tastes. In other words, buying an existing is much cheaper. 2. Number 1 advise: if possible, choose a builder only after speaking to several peo...

Invest in your offspring with what all kids use these days.....Apple. Don't be cheap....

Carl53, what brand of heater do you have, and did you feel the need to use the solar cover in the summer?

MoneyBagsRx wrote:No matter what you do, get a solar cover!

Did you need the solar cover in the summer months? Or is it something that's really only needed in the spring and fall?

My European friends are shocked at how often we lose power in the US - but at least our electricity is relatively cheap! I expect there is a correlation? I think it depends where you live in the U.S. I live in the Midwest and haven't lost a second of power in over 10 years. But if you live in hurri...

My parents in the rural Midwest have a "whole house" generator because the electricity goes out once a week or so for no reason. It comes on so fast that they hardly know it's on. And it does come on once a week at a set time to verify it's still working. It's enough to power their AC, lig...

BBT is one of the most conservatively run of the large banks. They don't even have any real participation in national corporate banking....although I think they have plans.