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I didn’t read the whole thread but I have been to DC twice, once we stayed near Georgetown and once at the Hilton Capitol Hill. I much preferred the Hilton as we didn’t have to use the metro at all, not that there is anything wrong with the metro, but it was nice to walk for 10 minutes and be on the mall. There’s busses on the mall that are free if I recall, they run a loop so you don’t have to walk 3 miles each way or whatever if you don’t want to.

Friends went a few years ago and it took several hours to exit the track, so I’d plan on traveling home on the Monday following. They drove and it made for a VERY late (maybe all night?) drive home.

I have a kodiak canvas truck tent and the quality is very good in my opinion. I would assume that translates to their ground tents as well.

Yes it is heavy, yes you have to dry it, but it will keep you warm and dry unlike many nylon tents.

There is a lot of demand for behavioral health nurses, if going the RN-BSN route is something she would be interested in, and being a nurse generally means a decent wage.

I think open plan is a fashion, and will go out of fashion. Conversely, I think walling off every room was an artifact from European aristocracy trying to stay separate from the servants IMHO a more communal/open house is more “Lindy” (to use a Taleb-ism) Also probably of structure - the limit to the size which could be spanned? The problem is one of acoustic privacy. I certainly know people with open plans who regret it when they have teenagers. Having that one room that can be closed off - either to contain the chaos or to preserve sanity. (Open plan you do need servants - or at least a cleaning person). I don't know the word Lindy. But I do observe that things come in and out of fashion in houses. I see Victorian houses being remodelled...

You said you were going to get rid of the porch, but I would suggest you do the opposite - build a full length front porch! Think southern plantation house.This will make a notable difference in thermal transfer to the first floor, and sitting out front and watching the world go by is a joy. Plus, without a front porch your packages will get soaked in the rain! You likely can’t fit a 3 car garage, but try and give yourself an extra 8-10 feet of depth on the right side where you can set up storage and a workbench or whatever you need. A 10x12 space would be a huge help. Interesting idea. Something like this? https://cdn.houseplansservices.com/product/898eed6c8256abdeb8397da04ace5b362951e8cc79991fce9ae1a8c1f3ceaed2/w800x533.jpg?v=11 That’s e...

You said you were going to get rid of the porch, but I would suggest you do the opposite - build a full length front porch! Think southern plantation house.This will make a notable difference in thermal transfer to the first floor, and sitting out front and watching the world go by is a joy. Plus, without a front porch your packages will get soaked in the rain!

You likely can’t fit a 3 car garage, but try and give yourself an extra 8-10 feet of depth on the right side where you can set up storage and a workbench or whatever you need. A 10x12 space would be a huge help.

Porsche Cayman is the answer to this question IMO. Starts in the 60s and in the top trim is about as fast (in some cases faster) than a 911.

They are surprisingly, almost unbelievably reliable. It is a Porsche so it’s not cheap to maintain like a Honda, but people put 150,000 miles on Caymans.

You don’t need an architect but you do need detailed plans for the permit, which mainly means the framing structure, electrical and plumbing. A competent contractor can take care of this for you in consultation with you.

I think if you can't pay cash, you can't afford it. I'd keep saving and do it when you can pay cash. This may be the 20s but it ain't the 1920's. We have fully transitioned in to a debt based society and current costs of labor and goods reflect it. Also, considering rampant wage stagnation there aren't any alternatives either. If we kept "saving up" for everything we'd never have anything on time (eg: affording a basement finish AFTER kids are grown up and gone). Ask those who kept saving for 20% down and then saw prices sky rocket during the pandemic. Most missed the boat on purchasing their primary residence. I'm not saying it's best practice but let's not try to impart age old wisdom that hasn't been applicable for decades at ...

Is this something you just decided to do? If you have $2,500/mo in cash surplus and planned ahead, you could easily save up sufficient funds to tackle your project. In fact, you can do the project in stages which may be advantageous in several ways. Waterproofing and egress window first. (Don't forget, if your children are young and you plan to just "throw the kids down there", the window needs to be low enough that they will be able to exit the home safely without having to climb up to it.) Now you can put a rug down and the kids can play there if you'd like while you save for the next part of the project. Once funds are available from cash savings, do the rough framing. Next would come plumbing rough-in. Then electrical rough-i...

I think if you can't pay cash, you can't afford it. I'd keep saving and do it when you can pay cash. This may be the 20s but it ain't the 1920's. We have fully transitioned in to a debt based society and current costs of labor and goods reflect it. Also, considering rampant wage stagnation there aren't any alternatives either. If we kept "saving up" for everything we'd never have anything on time (eg: affording a basement finish AFTER kids are grown up and gone). Ask those who kept saving for 20% down and then saw prices sky rocket during the pandemic. Most missed the boat on purchasing their primary residence. I'm not saying it's best practice but let's not try to impart age old wisdom that hasn't been applicable for decades at ...

HELOC or a full-on refinance is probably the best option.

FYI… you may be low on your estimate. I’m currently DIY (re)finishing my basement, which is about 650 square feet. It was already framed, I added new drywall on top of the old paneling. I haven’t added it up, but I’m likely at $7500 or so just in materials + the one outside service I did was having the drywall finished (I hung and taped) for $2500.

Off the top of my head, LVP $2500, Sheetrock $750, Rockwool $750, lumber $300, and many many miscellaneous other items, and I haven’t even bought paint or trim carpentry/door materials. It adds up so fast.

You could reasonably expect $20,000 in materials cost alone for 1200 square feet.

I don’t know that it really matters all that much, but I put a windshield reflector in my truck since it faces east. That keeps most of the sun off the dash/interior. Plastics probably don’t crack like in the “olden days” as much but it certainly doesn’t hurt anything. Otherwise, I just keep up on wash/wax to try and extend the life of the exterior plastics.

One thing to consider is the effects of UV on tires, you may need to replace a bit sooner if it’s a 24/7 outdoor vehicle. But if you put on the typical 10-15k per year, you’ll be at 40-50k and time for new ones before you really need to consider that, whereas I work from home so my mileage is pretty low.

This is an absolutely terrible idea. You’re kneecapping your financial future. You have a great leg up and you’re talking about completely throwing it away AND going into debt on top of that!

You need to add something like a 12x32 foot rectangle on a slab, connected to the house somehow. Two 12x12 bedrooms and an 8x12 Jack and Jill bathroom in the middle. That will get your the space you actually need for probably 100-150k or so (384 sf at $250/sf new build cost)

This type of project can be done start to finish in 2-3 months, too.

A couple of examples: Joe and Laura have income of $100k and will owe $10,000 in tax due after all deductions. They had $8,000 withheld from their pay via W-2, so they will owe $2,000 to the IRS at tax time. Steve and Lisa have income of $100k and will also owe $10,000 in tax due after all deductions. They had $13,000 withheld from their pay via W-2, so they will receive a refund of $3,000 from the IRS. Both couples would qualify for the $4,000 tax credit for 2 children as both had tax liability ($10,000) that was greater than the $4,000 tax credit. Whether they owe money or get a refund at the end of the year does not matter. The tax credit is based on their total tax liability . I also want to say thank you for this example, as I was str...

Rigid plank (snaps together) or glue down? Both are impacted by how level your floor is. A rigid plank product will need your floor to be level, and without peaks or significant cracks. You can initially put the product down over these kinds of imperfections, but the seams will get stressed over time and will eventually pop. A glue down could go down over a floor that's peaked, because the product will bend more easily and doesn't have a locking mechanism that will get stressed. However, these products can be like the princess and the pea - small imperfections in the concrete will become visible through the vinyl over time. You'll see bumps. Borrow a 6' level from someone and see how level your floor really is. Both are great with water, i...

My vote is: hurry up and wait. No need to make major changes now. Wait until the kids are settled and start talking about grandkids. You’ll know when the right time to move is, when it’s time.

Being a parent of young kids, I will say this - when you do move, get a place with a basement recreation room where you can send the grandkids when they all come visit. My in-laws have 6 grandkids with likely more to come, and visiting their 100+ year old house (more of a cellar than a basement) drives me crazy because there’s nowhere to send the kids to play so it’s loud everywhere all the time.

OP, another option may be to stay in Grand Lake, Granby, or Winter Park and come into RMNP on the west side. I do not know the status of timed entry from the west entry into the park, if I recall, I don't remember an entry station on that side of the park the couple times we went up that way. Much less crowded on the west side in the summer, awesome hiking in it's own right, I can't speak of options for a 6 yo however. I stayed in Grand Lake this past august and it was nice and chill but it did burn not long ago so not that scenic. You can get in without a timed entry reservation if you are at the west station before 8, if I remember right. At 8 though, it’s only by timed entry I entered at gate open mid-week, I think probably at 6 AM, and...

I’m on day 6 of hanging/finishing Sheetrock by myself in my 650 square foot basement remodel. My shoulders are on fire and my knees hurt bad. Reminded me of this thread. I can’t imagine a full year plus!

I am currently doing a basement remodel myself, so I added 4 8-inch in-ceiling speakers to the TV area to make a surround sound system. Removes clutter from the room and they sound awesome. $120 for speakers (you can also get enclosures, but not required) from Monoprice plus another $30 or so in speaker wire.

Well, I suppose like anything, it depends! I would guess that of the people you go drinking with in your 20s, only 20% of them are still close friends in your 30s, and of those only a few would be the type of friends to come help you move a sofa or drop off meals when you have a baby. That doesn’t mean you can’t reach out for help to all those drinking buddies to get your resume higher on the pile, but I wouldn’t call them friends, per se. This is all somewhat patronizing. People in cities have “real” friends too, not just drinking buddies and social climbers. People grow and change over time. Did you know that, sometimes, people go out to bars together, and later they grow older and some of them also have good jobs, kids, and meaningful l...

Well, I suppose like anything, it depends! I would guess that of the people you go drinking with in your 20s, only 20% of them are still close friends in your 30s, and of those only a few would be the type of friends to come help you move a sofa or drop off meals when you have a baby. That doesn’t mean you can’t reach out for help to all those drinking buddies to get your resume higher on the pile, but I wouldn’t call them friends, per se. This is all somewhat patronizing. People in cities have “real” friends too, not just drinking buddies and social climbers. People grow and change over time. Did you know that, sometimes, people go out to bars together, and later they grow older and some of them also have good jobs, kids, and meaningful l...

I wanted to test my home ownership theory :) Let’s say OP works for 40 years, age 23-63 100,000 salary in hometown vs 130,000 salary in Top 5 $2500 rent vs $2500 30 year mortgage on a $500,000 home OP lives to age 90 Hometown earnings: $4,000,000 Top 5 earnings: $5,200,000 So, OP nets out to $0 at age 53, when the clock resets. Rent from age 53-90 will run him $1,110,000, functionally breaking even with his lifetime earnings in hometown, but now he has a home that has appreciated to $1M (very conservative, likely it would at least 3x over 60ish years) and he actually comes out way ahead by owning. Let’s subtract $250,000 in maintenance and such from the home, he’s still ahead $750k. Now, this is simple math but it does illustrate the point,...

The social life you had in Top 5 is mostly superficial anyways, although you don’t yet have the benefit of hindsight to see that. Um, I don’t know how you could possibly say that. Sounds like it was for you, not necessarily for the OP. OP, this is the life thing. There are always trade offs to every decision, none is perfect. Just right for you at the time. Personally, I’d give it at least a year, and see if you can make changes to your social life there. It takes time to do that. But if you do decide to move back, don’t feel bad. I have left the DC area “permanently” twice and ended up coming back both times. Those smaller cities - which were very different - just because suffocating after a while for a number of reasons tied mostly to ho...

Will you ever be able to buy a home in Top 5 city versus hometown? I am 33, and certainly wondered about the same things you are wondering at 23. Job offers making good money fell into place in hometown for both my wife and I, we were able to buy a starter house, and now have been in our raise the kids house for 6 years. I say that, because I didn’t fully comprehend how important owning a home outright (ideally on a 15 year mortgage) is to your financial independence in the long term. It’s a foundational piece of being able to exit the workforce when you choose to, not when you’re forced to. I have thought about this many times and now in retrospect I am SO glad we set down roots in our affordable MCOL Midwest home city. Many of my peers ar...

On one hand, I want to encourage you because I appreciate your tenacity and spirit. On the other hand, I have done enough renovation work to know that even I am not capable of building a home on my own. You will need a helper, but the smarter idea would be to act as your own GC. You literally cannot finish a 1000 sf slab by yourself before it cures, if you don’t know already know that (your very first thing to do) then you are not ready to take this whole thing on. You definitely need to sub out, in this order: Excavation/site prep including plumbing, concrete foundation pour Framing Roofing Gutters Install the windows yourself Install the doors yourself Siding/exterior trim Then, you have a dried-in shell where you can do all the interior...

On one hand, I want to encourage you because I appreciate your tenacity and spirit. On the other hand, I have done enough renovation work to know that even I am not capable of building a home on my own. You will need a helper, but the smarter idea would be to act as your own GC. You literally cannot finish a 1000 sf slab by yourself before it cures, if you don’t know already know that (your very first thing to do) then you are not ready to take this whole thing on. You definitely need to sub out, in this order: Excavation/site prep including plumbing, concrete foundation pour Framing Roofing Gutters Install the windows yourself Install the doors yourself Siding/exterior trim Then, you have a dried-in shell where you can do all the interior ...

You and me are somewhat similar! We round trip 40 miles per day for daycare, which is funny because we both work from home, but our wonderful, reliable daycare provider is worth the drive. Anyway, I hunt and fish and work on my house etc too. We own a 22 Highlander Hybrid AWD (33-35 mpg) and my Tundra. We use the Highlander for 80 percent of the miles driven, I would guess. Truck is used when I’m hunting, fishing, hauling or my wife is also going somewhere when I am. Anyway, if I were you, I’d get a 2023 Prius, 50+ mpg and then just drive the diesel 65 mph to the farm on work weekends or when you’re hauling hunting gear or a freshly dead deer. With your 100 mile round trip, MPG really makes a difference. If you need more space (understandab...

Due to the current slowdown in my field of real estate, I'm having to pull back on my savings temporarily, and feeling disappointed, as I have a goal to retire somewhat early (at 57, in 10 years) Working in cyclical parts of the economy for your income, what you are experiencing is fairly typical. The first 12 years of my career was very much tied to the cyclical nature of the business cycle. Not sure we had chosen an actual target retirement age while we were working during our 30's and 40's such as you have chosen to retire at age 57, but one should include flexibility regarding your retirement age as there is a lot of the journey still in front of you over the next decade or so. We've been aggressive savers the past 10 years and have ov...

What a thread, I sure am thankful to have avoided many of these mistakes. Fortunately, with the gift of hindsight, when we bought our “raise the kids” house (I don’t say forever home) in 2015, we got a 3.875% 30-year fixed rate. We refinanced to a 2.375% 15 year at the bottom of the interest rates in summer 2021, but I could have had a roughly 3% 15 year from the start and been halfway through the mortgage (7 years, ish) instead of 14 years to go. At the time I wanted to be cautious and told myself “we can always pay it like a 15 year”, not knowing what our family situation would look like in terms of children. We are about to have our third child and are having no issues paying the 15 year, and would have been fine paying it all along. Har...

Man, that’s a tough call. From an outsiders perspective, living in postage stamp suburbia where my neighbors are 25 feet away, I can’t imagine privacy being worth 300k + interest + lost retirement contributions and their future growth. I suppose the land isn’t a total loss as it should increase the value of your home, but that requires a buyer who wants at least 5 acres, narrowing your pool. This is a serious amount of money and is borrowing from your future. We don’t have expense figures or details surrounding your retirement plan/goals, though. Do you already live on a few acres? Can you put $10k into landscaping that will create a visual border around your property? I tend to think if you can’t afford the land in cash you probably should...

I work in this world but on the technical side as an analytics engineer, meaning I manage databases, build data warehouses, and do ETL work, primarily on SQL server, (but not to the depth a DBA does) and produce data that is often reviewed by data analyst-type people. My opinion is that you should focus on technical skills like SQL, or at least Python, and pair those skills with a visualization tool (PowerBI seems to be the juggernaut these days) as they are more in-demand than being an Excel-based data analyst. Good soft skills paired with average technical skills will take you into the 100-150k range as an individual contributor at “normal” F500 type companies. FAANG pay is an outlier. You’ll start below that, but can usually get there in...

I think the 5/1 or 7/1 ARM, combined with some extra principal payments or lump sums during good bonus years that puts you on an advanced payoff schedule, is the best move, assuming we stay in a higher interest rate environment.

That hedges you multiple ways, and if we head into a recession and the Fed drops the funds rate significantly and you can get a 3-4% fixed rate on a no-cost refinance, you’ve also won.

Boat ramps are generally poured/finished onsite and then pushed into the water using heavy equipment. Just FYI.

I haven’t seen anyone ask this yet - do you have a deep interest in statistics and a mathematically oriented mind? That’s really what “data science” is at its core. If yes, proceed if interested. If no, consider data engineering and study up on SQL/NoSQL concepts. You can build a few SSIS packages and see what you think. All the pipeline apps are just another different take on SSIS but they all more or less do the same thing. Python is also used quite a bit, just look up the different data libraries. I work in the data engineer world and I enjoy my work a lot. I don’t think I’d want to be a data scientist, my math skills aren’t quite there and statistical modeling isn’t something I have a major interest in, although I do really enjoy seeing...

You can pretty easily resell kayaks or canoes on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, so if it isn’t something you end up doing much you can get 2/3 of the price back. I have bought and sold 8 or 10 small boats over the years because I like duck hunting and never had a problem reselling so long as the price is reasonable.

Not having to register, tag or insure paddle power boats keeps the cost of ownership at pretty much $0.

You will be enticed by $200 cheapie kayaks but don’t fall for it, a decent kayak should be about $500. Light is good, but too light means thinner hull. A 9.5 foot kayak is about perfect for recreational use. You want a rotomolded kayak for durability.

We needed a 3rd row seat vehicle due to a 3rd kid, and I had the same predicament as you. I really wanted a PHEV but my wife is adamantly opposed to minivans. Budget was 45k-ish. I prefer to buy a new vehicle and keep it for 8-10 years (don’t like the used car headaches) We ended up with a 2022 Highlander Hybrid and are very happy with it. 32-36 mpg depending on season is great for a large vehicle and it’s a very well built vehicle with 20+ years of Toyota quality engineering on hybrids, they make the best and most reliable hybrids on the market from what I can tell. Only “complaint”: the 3rd row is really not meant for long rides for adults. I think minivans and Suburbans are about all that really can do that well. Not a problem for us wit...

It's not always "all about the money". If your wife is happy, fulfilled and has a passion for her business, and it is not a drain on your financial picture, I would not change it just because some BH's say get a W-2 job. I agree but....as long as you are consciously choosing between that 'less about the money' business and the laundry list of items in the very first post that require more income. Your choice... choose wisely. I see this as well, as an unbiased outsider. I have great respect for business owners, but it’s been at least 6 years since she started and it’s barely profitable. Know when to hold and when to fold. Your problems would be completely solved if she got a 50k/year position, which is basically a starting salary...

For distances that short, you might consider electric scooters like the companies such as Bird use. No fussing with gas and much easier to store.

If you’re set on gas scooters, Honda is certainly top quality and will last for many years.

Edit: a quick Google search reveals Bird uses a variety of Segway scooter models. Hop on their site and see what might work for you.

What about bulldozing the current house and building a new one? It might actually not be that much different in cost, a lot of your $1.1M is eaten up in retrofitting everything. Remodel work is 3x harder and more complicated than new build.

If you buy a smart TV, which you shouldn’t, turn off the Wi-Fi and don’t use the smart TV functionality (privacy and security concerns). Stick with a Roku or Apple TV dongle as they will be continuously updated and are more secure platforms. Do you really want the Chinese parent company of TCL to know what you’re watching and have access to a camera and microphone in your TV? I don’t…

U ever notice what a 10 year old Chevy truck looks like in the Midwest? Ok, now how bout a Tundra of the same age? Rust holes on the Chevy anyone? I’ve owned several trucks (both gas and diesel) over the years from several different makes. Both my 2011 1/2 and 2013 3/4 Chevy trucks (both new) had fairly irritating problems right off the bat. I’m a Chevy guy at heart (old cars). However, I’m on my 4th Tundra (never a single prob with any of them) and now wouldn’t have anything else...I’m very unforgiving of issues...unlike Ford truck guys 😀. By a stroke of luck I purchased a brand new 2020 crewmax for $5k under msrp midway through last year. If a new truck purchase with cash isn’t worth it to you then don’t buy it. Justifying the purchase w...

Enjoy your new truck, although I’m partial to Tundras. Might look for a 20-21 as it’s the super reliable generation that will last for 15+ years, who knows what the new generation will be like with turbos. The larger cab model will be great for you! Thank you! I always liked the tundras too but having the family connection at the Chevy dealership has always made the buying process or getting work done a little easier! 15+ years out of a truck would be awesome. There are guys with 07-21 era Tundras on forums who are active posters with 400,000 miles on them. MANY have 200,000+ reliable, trouble free miles. They are actually 15 year trucks. I love the way Silverados look but they just don’t run for 200,000 miles with only routine maintenance...

Enjoy your new truck, although I’m partial to Tundras. Might look for a 20-21 as it’s the super reliable generation that will last for 15+ years, who knows what the new generation will be like with turbos. The larger cab model will be great for you!

Trading in a 2015 CR-V for a 2022 Toyota Highlander Hybrid XLE. There was no negotiation, MSRP. That said, high demand model Toyotas didn’t seem to sell much below MSRP even before the pandemic and supply chain problems anyways. It was time for a 3rd row for our family and the dealer has the exact color/trim/features combination my wife wanted scheduled to be built in a few weeks, so we went ahead and committed to purchase as it was available. Production problems are forecast to last at least another year, and the plan was to replace in about another year (CR-V would be 8 years old then), so it made sense to go ahead now despite not getting a deal. We will keep the car for at least 8, probably 10 years anyway. Have you considered selling y...

Trading in a 2015 CR-V for a 2022 Toyota Highlander Hybrid XLE.

There was no negotiation, MSRP. That said, high demand model Toyotas didn’t seem to sell much below MSRP even before the pandemic and supply chain problems anyways. It was time for a 3rd row for our family and the dealer has the exact color/trim/features combination my wife wanted scheduled to be built in a few weeks, so we went ahead and committed to purchase as it was available. Production problems are forecast to last at least another year, and the plan was to replace in about another year (CR-V would be 8 years old then), so it made sense to go ahead now despite not getting a deal.

We will keep the car for at least 8, probably 10 years anyway.

I’d go for the raise the kids house now and bite the bullet. You should have quite a bit of stability in your career. We did the starter house thing, it worked out to be roughly a wash for us after some remodel expenses but we did make a couple thousand dollars on it. This was a similar situation, inner ring suburb in a cool area but subpar schools. That said, we did certainly exit the house with more cash in our pockets than we would have had we rented during that time which assisted us with our down payment. But - here, a starter house (this was 2013-16) cost us $143k and the mortgage was within $100 of our rent, so it was a no-brainer to buy. That house is now worth $225k or so! In your situation, a “starter” house is substantially more ...

Focus on raising them to be resilient, independent and self-determined. The rest will fall into place.

I went to a high school full of wealthy upper middle and upper class kids. The ones with the characteristics above are successful, which is not always measured by wealth or title.

CyclingDuo, great update. I am years away from my 50s, but this thread has been very valuable not just in considering the financial aspects at that life stage but also is informative in distancing our sense of self-worth from the work we do to earn money.