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HomerJ wrote:

Rodc wrote:Still a tough choice, $0 vs $200K.

That''s a ridiculously easy choice.

I agree. There would really be no choice in this situation.

Did you wife co-sign for the loans? If so, she is liable for the debt. If not, you have nothing to worry about and I would send them a letter asking them to stop harrassing you.

Carry cash instead of credit cards. Can you elaborate how this reduces monthly bills? There are peole like Dave Ramsey who often cite studies that claim you spend around 12% on average if you use cash instead of credit cards. The theory goes you can only spend the cash you literally have on you at ...

Skim milk costs less than 1% or 2% where I live, but I still won't drink it. Groceries are a part of my budget, and I try to only buy what is on sale. If it's beef this week, I buy beef. If it's chicken next week, I buy chicken. My refrigerator has a freezer* section, so I use it. If no meats are o...

I was just looking at my funding for my 401k plan for the year of 2012 through my employer and I'm seeing that my account was overfunded by $950. I made the incorrect assumption that the payroll software would track the funds and stop when the 17k level was reached. Part of the additional funds are...

To clarify, she is "leasing" her mineral rights not "selling" them. I belive that is an important distinction and determines how they are taxed. According to several sources I found, it appears the $700K upfront payment will be ordinary income. http://ohioagmanager.osu.edu/wp-con...

What does your farmer/uncle say about all this? Is the hydraulic fracking going to damage his irrigation water? No, they are not worried about that. There is risk from any drilling but the actual occurence of what your talking about are extremely rare these days. If the ground water (spring) were t...

Random Poster, As far as your lease specifiction questions are concerned, my grandmother is not leasing her land individually. She is part of a group that is leasing thousands of acres. They have oil and gas attorney's representing them as well as people in the industry itself. I feel good about the...

The math is obviously pretty simple ($700,000 / 7 kids = $100,000 each). Grandma is going to have to pay capital gains tax on the $700,000. Depending on her basis, and also on how much of the cap.gains tax rate falls over the cliff, this could be a significant amount. Interesting that you say this ...

I should add that my grandmother wants to know why she can't ask for cash when she get her check and simply hand over cash to each of her children? I didn't have a very good answer handy for her other than I was sure the bank would require her to fill out some sort of forms and the IRS would likely ...

Farmers usually have children. 7 children 7 farmers x 4 kids = 28 grandchildren 10 great grandchildren (most of the grandchildren haven't had children yet, but there might be more in some farm families). That's 45 descendants. Include 6 spouses in the children's generation and 24 in the grandchildr...

I would think she can simply gift it immediately. It would count towards the lifetime gift exemption (currently a little over $5 million but due to revert to $1 million on Jan 1) but there would be no tax. However, I wonder if it might be a good idea to explore options that help protect not just th...

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses everyone! Really helpful. I would pay the loan off. The feeling of being totally "debt-free" was something I thought I would enjoy but it is a much better than I ever thought it would be. As others indicate, it is hard to describe the sense of peace...

I am trying to help my grandmother, father, uncles and aunts figure out the most efficient way to quickly pass along some money from my grandmother to her kids. Background: My grandmother is 85 years old (grandfather died 10 years ago). She has steady income from pensions and social security to more...

I think you are very safe to retire. My own "plan" has me retiring when I reach $1.25 million and my planned expenses are a good bit more than yours. I would suggest deferring Social Security as long as possible to have it sort of work as an insurance or hedge against "low risk" ...

Like a few others, I am currently using my HSA as another IRA. I contribute the max per year allowed as a single taxpayer. My company adds another $500 per year to incent me to take this option. I do not withdraw any funds from it for out of pocket medical expense, which for me, averages less than $...

For me, ALL savings is retirement savings. The only reason I am saving money is so I can quit my job. I am on pace to save about 40% this year.

Anybody know whether the same cost of living indexes are used to set the cap on income taxed for SSI purposes? (It seems to rise when the 401k limits do)

I am 45 years old and looking for a 60/40 stock vs bond allocation within my 401k. I am comfortable with my allocation on the stock fund side of things, but much less knowledgeable and comfortable with which bond and fixed income funds to invest in. Thought I would get some input on the limited opti...

I bought a Cruze 9 months ago. Prior to purchasing it I was leasing a Cadillac CTS. The Cruze is a noticeable "downgrade" in terms of comfort, how it drives, etc...but is also less than half the cost of the CTS. Part of the reason I went with the Cruze (versus other similar cars I drove) ...

I bought a Cruze 9 months ago. Prior to purchasing it I was leasing a Cadillac CTS. The Cruze is a noticeable "downgrade" in terms of comfort, how it drives, etc...but is also less than half the cost of the CTS. Part of the reason I went with the Cruze (versus other similar cars I drove) i...

I wouldn't buy an investment condo if I didn't have the money to pay cash for it. I think it makes more sense to finance that than a primary residence (not that I have anything against that either). If things go bad and the property is foreclosed, then all you lost was some investments rather than ...

Dave Ramsey would advis you need to find a small community bank or credit union that will do what he calls "manual underwriting". Bascially somebody who will take the time to look at your whole financial situation rather than run your numbers through a formula. Personally, I would never bo...

$50K only "helps" with a down payment?? That must be some kind of starter home (unless you live in NYC or San Fran)

I wouldn't buy an investment condo if I didn't have the money to pay cash for it.

sscritic wrote:Note that if she is on her mother's policy, a new car will increase the premium. Are you going to pay the increased premium? If not, you shouldn't be making this decision by yourself (my suggestion).

Good point. Her mother and I are in conversation about premium increases.

My son is out of college now but a few things you might want to add; 1) Make sure she has plenty of spare keys. I don't know about that model but some models have anti-theft features built into the key so to make a duplicate you have to have some numbers that came with the paperwork when you bought...

My bigger issue would be giving a young person a relatively new vehicle. As a parent with two teenagers and one who lives in a neighborhood with lots of young drivers I am constantly reminded of the many accidents kids seem to get into. I have had to deal with four accident involving just my kids. ...

No, she is on my ex's policy.

I am divorced and my 17 year old daughter lives with my ex in a different state (Mass) than me (ohio). She is going to a private school that is 23 miles from her home so she needs to have some reliable transportation. I bought a 2011 Chevy Cruze a year ago. Rather than me buying her a car I am think...

I guess I'm old fashioned in that I still believe customer loyalty will be rewarded (or at least not punished) by companies I patronize. But auto-insurance companies seem to take the opposite view: You sign up with a new company because they give you a better rate than your existing company (the ba...

Not the question you asked or likely want input on, but if I had significant assets (over $1 million) I would be very hesitant to marry anybody with negative net worth or no assets. That's just likely my personal views coming through though. For me, I would not care how much money my potential spous...

Thanks everybody. Looks like I will have to make two moves: home to apartment and apartment to retirement home. I also recently checked the real estate listings in my subdivision. Two houses look to be short sales. They are listed at 20% discount to what was paid in 2007. Yikes! My advice....hire m...

I don't think money makes one happier all the time, unless of course they don't make enough to satisfy the life they want or think they should have. It's all relative I guess. I make over 20% more than I did 4 years ago and I am not 20% happier, but I do realize that I think about money less, which...

Having a paid off home it not house poor in my mind. In the situation you describe, you could sell the house for $200K or whatever it is worth and rent until you get back on your feet. It isn't whether you can sell for what it's worth, can you sell for what you have in it? At the very least, you'll...

I have yet to meet anyone who regretted paying off their mortgage or other loans to become totally debt free. You never heard of "house poor"? People who were illiquid because they sank their money into paying off the mortgage just to lose their job and any ability to tap equity. Brian Ha...

I have also read in other articles that happiness from making more money does end once above the $75K threashold (at least in most typical/average cost of living locations). I think of my own experiences and pretty much agree. At that level, I am able to own a modest home, buy a reasonable new vehic...

Every so called expert I have read or listened to has always said fully fund your own retirement needs before saving for your kids college. As they say, the kids can also borrow for college if necessary but your can't borrow for your own retirement.

If you have $70K why not completely pay off your student loans? I would rather be debt free. +1 While I understand that some people prefer to be debt free, I don't see some debt as a problem. I would rather live my life now than try to get rid of my student debt completely especially given the rela...

If you have $70K why not completely pay off your student loans? I would rather be debt free.

No way. I would never buy a home until all other debts are paid off, I had 20% to put down, an emergency fund of 6 months of expenses in a savings account and enough money to furnish the place. In addition, I personally would not advise a 26 year old to rush into buying either. Keep your options ope...

I have a degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering. The first 5 years of my career I was more of an Industrial Engineer but the last 15 have been in IT. I am currently a Senior IT manager at a Fortune 500 company with 85 developers/analysts reporting up through me. My role is to develop and mai...

Just had lunch with a financial planner friend and he said to retire by 50 with your house paid off and college for the kids paid up you and your wife need about a $10M nest egg to call it quits. He said most people think that # sounds high but when you factor in inflation you will see its not that...

I hate any "rule of thumb" that is a percentage of "income". This makes no sense to me. If you were to use a rule of thumb it should be a percentage of "expenses" from pre-retirement. What is hard with simply sitting down and examining your current expenses, then puttin...

The way Dave Ramsey answers this question when a caller asks it is "Would you borrow money at 4% , to put it in the stock market?". Most people of course answer "No", to which he then replies that is what your doing if you not paying off your mortgage when your capable of doing s...

You can reference other threads on here to see there is a highly personal question. How much does having debt bother you? What are you doing with the money you would use to pay it off? All these things plus many more make it a highly unique to each situation. If you funds you would use to pay it off...

I like the concept of the imputed rental income that one accrues from owning a home. You have to live somewhere, so owning a home allows you to live there nearly rent free (less property taxes, upkeep, etc.). If you have a mortgage your imputed "income" is offset by the mortgage interest,...

Less than whatever I take in from all sources including investment income. I subscribe to the thoughts of the late John Scheurer who had a radio show for many years in the New York area. He said never invade principal. I assume I am in the minority on this point of view but I am not comfortable wit...

In my current retirement plan I have budgeted $80K in today's dollars for the first two years of my early retirement because I plan to travel a lot. After the first two years, I have $48,000 per year (today's dollars) in my budget for the rest of my life. I am single and will have no debt so this sh...

5 years ago I was a debt-free renter who was very happy with my finances. Friends, family and peers were all commenting things such as "I can't believe your wasting your money on rent". I had enough money in the bank to put 20% down, furnish a new place and still have some liquid emergency...