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exodusNH wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 12:21 pm

CPA_RIA wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 11:29 am I received a call yesterday from a gentleman at Gulf Coast Western offering an opportunity to invest in an oil well. They specialize in exploration and development of domestic oil and gas reserves. Currently partnership opportunity is for 4 wells in Colorado. Minimum $50k.

My interest is strictly academic at this point but has anyone ever heard of this entity? Has anyone on here ever ventured into a partnership opportunity like this? If so, how was your experience?

If it's such a great opportunity, why are they calling strangers rather than having friends and family invest?

My thoughts exactly

I received a call yesterday from a gentleman at Gulf Coast Western offering an opportunity to invest in an oil well. They specialize in exploration and development of domestic oil and gas reserves. Currently partnership opportunity is for 4 wells in Colorado. Minimum $50k.

My interest is strictly academic at this point but has anyone ever heard of this entity? Has anyone on here ever ventured into a partnership opportunity like this? If so, how was your experience?

To answer most of the questions:

I was too proud to come out and ask my real question, which is "am I being crazy/irrational by worrying that we moved into this new house?" It sounds like I am. I must be overreacting to recent life events. I appreciate the responses as it's genuinely giving me some ease.

PITI = $3300/mo

Quick question for the group as I'm re-examining some personal financial decisions for my family. My wife and I are both 43yo and we have two boys, ages 7 & 9. We live in the Midwest. Until 2019 we lived in a modest house that we liked, but didn't love. We needed more privacy. So, we decided to move into a larger home that had more sq ft and a better yard. We sold our old home for $450k and bot a new one for $655k with a 3.5% 30yr fixed. It's in a township with modest property taxes and no city tax. Great schools but a catholic education for our boys is important to us. Tuition is ~$5k/yr each. So far all good. However my oldest son was hospitalized with a severe staph infection for 6-days last fall. It was very scary - especially the f...

DoctorE wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:56 am

CPA_RIA wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:40 am waiting for a VERY LONG time.

I recall reading that the 'worst' case if rates keep rising it would take holding (2x duration - 1) in years to break even in nominal terms.

thanks for that! That's the formula to which i was referring but I couldn't remember it precisely to quote it here & didn't have time to research. ha. The link you provided was better than what I would've come up with anyway.

This is starting to echo a big misconception in fixed income, imo. Holding bonds in a separately managed account means the duration of your holdings will decline as time passes and your individual holdings with naturally pull to par (ceteris paribus). This function doesn't work in the same way in a bond fund because the manager will need to keep the holdings, maturities, and duration within the funds objective. They'll be selling positions instead of letting them season to maturity and recover capital losses.

I think the philosophy of "hold your position and wait" is correct. But you may be waiting for a VERY LONG time.

My employer is an investment management firm specializing in Corporate Bonds. Since my salary is so heavily tied to the corporate bond market I'm not comfortable with a typical bond fund like VBTLX. So...I need to do some homework on a better alternative to mix with ITOT (my total stock market pick).

Suggestions?

If you expect interest rates could fall, or even if you just don't know but want to be assured of the interest rate over some time period, buying longer term bonds allows you to lock in that interest rate for the term of those bonds. Many speculate that the Fed will "pivot" for a recession, lowering interest rates, which will raise the value of longer term bonds promising a higher a yield. The "distribution yield" you're looking at for the bond fund isn't the expected return for the bonds in the fund, many of those bonds were issued at much lower rates with a lower current distribution, but the expected yield to maturity when the principal value is returned will be higher. The "SEC Yield" for the fund is a bet...

intermediate corporate bonds will produce a greater total return over a L-T investment horizon than MMF's. sure, there will a modest amount of additional volatility - but outside of a 6-month rainy day fund there's little reason for MMF's in a L-T allocation

Please excuse me for asking what will most likely be a dumb question, but ask I must... Right now, BND has a duration of 6.8 years according to Vanguard. Now let's say Jerome Powell goes on a bender and raises the fed fund rate by 1% tomorrow. I know the fed fund rate doesn't define the overall interest rate wholly, but let's say it kind of did...then BND would go down about 6.8%, correct? And now let's say Powell, recovering from his bender, says the following day, "Hey, I think we're good for the next 7 years." And he doesn't mess with the fed fund rate at all, as promised, for the next 7 years. So if you were a holder of BND yesterday and kept it for another 7, you'd break even, right? Pretty much guaranteed, all things equal,...

Maxifi is apparently the (newer) web-based version of ESPlanner, with some slightly different capabilities... https://economicsecurityplanning.com/esplanner-maxifi-comparison The former is no longer available for sale/download, and future development will focus on Maxifi. Here's a recent review... https://www.doughroller.net/personal-finance/maxifi-planner-review/ I'm thinking of taking it for a "test drive" (comparing to PersonalCapital and eMoneyAdvisor/PlanVision) but their refund policy is a bit nebulous... https://economicsecurityplanning.com/order-fulfillment-policy FWIW I tried it out a year or so ago, I decided to cancel, and don't remember any issues getting my refund. From what I can remember, there were lots of things ...

yog wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 10:27 am Strengths:
Most tax accurate planner that I've used so far
Tax-optimized planning when using the Maximizer, which is my preferred method of planning vs. goals-based used by almost all other tools
SS claiming engine is the most accurate I've used, more so than openSS since you have tax & growth info included

Weaknesses:
No ACA support (may be important for some)
Roth conversions can be planned & compared, but not automatically calculated

They also have features we don't use, like Monte Carlo, spending & investment glide paths, etc., and annuity planning

Thanks for that - I think I may splurge and get the Monte Carlo simulations, too. So I'll let y'all know how helpful that feature is.

That's great - thanks.

Basically, I'm trying to get some objective feedback on what my savings/retirement strategy will produce. I want to know if I need to make any tweaks.

I'm considering subscribing to the below financial planning software for a year. Has anyone tried it? If so, any feedback would be helpful. Do they need PII? Did you find them to be secure? Was the information helpful? Are there competing products that do it better?

https://maxifiplanner.com/

Good point. Now that I continue to think this through... If I do a 60/40 equity/FI split, this means about 11% of my TOTAL PORTFOLIO's exposure is to Corporate Bonds....that's not really a scary amount.

**Corporate Bonds represent 26% of the VBTLX....just FYI!

I have a unique question about this investing approach. I have about $650k in investments, $500k is in a 401(K) that is invested in a Vanguard Target Date fund (2045 - I'm 40yo). The remaining $150k is in a High Interest Taxable Savings account earning 2%/annually. I want to get this taxable portion to work in a 3-fund portfolio but would like some feedback on my AA. I have one striking caveat - I'm the CFO of an Asset Management firm that invests exclusively in US Taxable Corporate Bonds. Thus, my career is entirely linked to this asset class! The CFA Institute would advise that I limit my portfolio's exposure to Corporate Bonds as a result. Being of a conservative persuasion I don't want to simply increase my equity exposure to compensate...

You can afford it, easily. But to make you sleep better at night, this is what I'd suggest: see if you can knock the price of the home to $675K or less. Unless there are multiple bidders or there is absolutely nothing wrong with the home, you might be able to get them to that number. Roll the home equity of $330K plus $100K from either your bank account or taxable brokerage, finance a $250K 15 year mortgage. ($250K is approximately 1 years gross income) That would leave you with close to 3 years gross income (after accounting for closing costs, window treatments) between bank and brokerage accounts. If you can't afford to pay a 15 year fixed rate mortgage for $250K, then don't buy the home. A 15 year mortgage at 250K @ 3.50% is $1,787 plus...

I'd say go for it! I'm currently struggling with a similar situation. Net worth is about $400k less than yours ($925k - including equity in home). I've done myriad cash flow studies and we actively searching for a new home up to $650k that has the things we don't have in our current home. I'm 39 with two kids, so we're in pretty similar circumstances. I consider myself a saver - not a SUPER saver - just above average. If I'm going to take the plunge you can too! My rationale is as follows: 1) My wife keeps asking to change things in our current home: more hardwd floors, bigger island, covered porch, etc...etc...by the time we do all this we'll put too much into this home and we'll worry about getting the $ out. 2) Age: I've discussed this w...

Hey gang. I have a question that I'm going to call my tax accountant about later this week, but want to post it here in the meantime. Scenario My wife and I have AGI >$200k. We file taxes Married/Joint. I max out my Employer 401(k) but my wife works at a (very) small non-profit and they don't offer one, which is a real bummer. (Don't get me started!...haha). I investigated a backdoor Roth - but we have an existing SEP-IRA with pre-tax money in it, and the backdoor Roth could trigger the IRS to levy income taxes on the overall value of the account. So, for my personal situation, it's not worth the risk. Question Are there any other options that would allow me to contribute to a traditional IRA strictly in my wife's name, since she doesn't ha...

Peter Foley wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 4:55 pm There are a few examples of the following on the web. You might try searching under financial milestones if this is the type of information you are looking for.

FWIW, data points from May, 2013 issue of Money magazine:

Age 30: Savings = 0.6 x Income
Age 40: Savings = 2.4 x Income
Age 50: Savings = 5.2 x Income
Age 60: Savings = 9.4 x Income

Is this Total Savings, including Home Equity? Just curious....

Question: Do you contribute $750 / mo to each 529, or $750 total split between the two 529s?

I understand bro, you think you are a big shot since you have a high income and want to live like a big shot, and you want advice, but only if it confirms what you want to hear, so you are hiding the things you don't want to hear like there is no need for private school, expensive vacations and a private country club membership, but you probably think you "deserve" it and you will buy the bigger house and fill it with more stuff that you deserve and will work til you are 67 instead of living like a normal person, banking all that income and retiring at 55 or earlier. No, asshole. I'm trying to be open and honest with a situation for which I genuinely want objective advice. You've jumped to conclusions and judged my character very...

What you WANT, boss, and what you're going to GET are two different things. Understand? I understand bro, you think you are a big shot since you have a high income and want to live like a big shot, and you want advice, but only if it confirms what you want to hear, so you are hiding the things you don't want to hear like there is no need for private school, expensive vacations and a private country club membership, but you probably think you "deserve" it and you will buy the bigger house and fill it with more stuff that you deserve and will work til you are 67 instead of living like a normal person, banking all that income and retiring at 55 or earlier. No, asshole. I'm trying to be open and honest with a situation for which I ge...

I'd suggest you try to budget monthly expenses to see where you could save for additional mortgage expenses if you really want the upgrade. As someone pointed out you spent ~$162K last year with a $420K house (~3000 sqft). As a comparison my family lived a in a VHCOL area in CA with a ~$1.3M townhouse (<2000 sqft, PITI: ~$4K/m) and 1 kid in private school ($2K/m), we spent ~$120K last year out of which ~$15K were spent on international and domestic family travels and ~$5K for various gifts to relatives. IMHO your family's income is not a major concern but you need to make some trade-offs for the house upgrade by cutting spending significantly. This blows me away! So net of big ticket items, school, and PITI, in CA, you spent $2,300/month i...

1. OP, if you buy the larger house, you will perhaps be happier for the first month or two, but then we as humans "level off" and the house will just kind of fade into the background. Your sense of normal will become the house and it won't be that new, special, awesome house anymore. Regardless of all the talk of whether OP can "afford" the new home (it would be past my comfort zone, but they certainly can afford it - more than probably 90% of home buyers), this is what I think is the real issue. The reasons listed for wanting the new home were very minor. If I were OP, I would be spending quite a bit of time pondering how significantly increasing my housing expense would improve my happiness/quality of life (if at all)...

[ quoted posts removed by admin LadyGeek] Thanks for that. I'm calmer now :D The private school tuition is $4300 each for two kids. Not wild & crazy. It's also important to my wife, so we're going to suck it up. I love golf. Despite having a 17 handicap, it's therapeutic for me. (The ROI is measured emotionally, not financially.) I joined an "every man" country club with no initiation and $400 / month dues. I can kill it with 60 days notice. What I'm hearing, from a lot of great feedback, is the following: 1) Get the wife's 401(k) opened up ASAP. Check. Gonna do it. 2) A Rep from Fidelity told me a few years ago that a backdoor Roth would create a taxable event for me b/c I have an old SEP-IRA (long story). I should vet this ...

Something to consider if you should take on more debt or focus on your retirement savings until you are in a better financial position that is, perhaps, not quite so tenuous. FIDELITY CHART/ARTICLE – ARE YOU ON TRACK TO RETIRE? https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-do-i-need-to-retire https://i.imgur.com/zMzx8xi.jpg?1 You know, we love that graphic with the salary multiple journey to use as a starting point before getting into more of the particulars. The OP, if using that chart and their current $295K combined household salary, is currently $310K behind if we include the 401k balance and throw in the cash balance as well when using the 3x factor for age 40. As income increases in one's career, there are always "catc...

Something to consider if you should take on more debt or focus on your retirement savings until you are in a better financial position that is, perhaps, not quite so tenuous. FIDELITY CHART/ARTICLE – ARE YOU ON TRACK TO RETIRE? https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-do-i-need-to-retire https://i.imgur.com/zMzx8xi.jpg?1 You know, we love that graphic with the salary multiple journey to use as a starting point before getting into more of the particulars. The OP, if using that chart and their current $295K combined household salary, is currently $310K behind if we include the 401k balance and throw in the cash balance as well when using the 3x factor for age 40. As income increases in one's career, there are always "catc...

Thank you all for the comments! Honestly. I wanted to be challenged on this - and these comments have really been thought provoking!

The more expensive your life style becomes, the tougher it is to save adequately for retirement - while at the same time you will need a larger nest egg to fund the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed! OP responded: ...and what amount would you expect I'd have to show for it? Dear OP: Perhaps reading the late, great John Bogle's book, ENOUGH, will help you find your way toward true Boglehead values. And be sure that your wife is on board too. It's not what you earn but what you keep. And it's especially NOT what you spend! You should get that tattooed somewhere. As others have pointed out, at this stage you are not keeping much. You might end up looking wealthy in a big house, but you won't end up being wealthy if you acquire tha...

I usually don't agree with KlangFool on anything related to housing. But, there is always one time... I'm assuming, given where you work and your wife's low income, that you don't have any pension waiting for you at age 65, so you're on your own for retirement. So you really need to be saving 10-15% for retirement. You seem to be saving something like 9%, but 1/3 of that is going towards college for the kids. If you could pay for the house and still manage to save 15% of your gross, I'd say go for it. But you don't seem to be doing that now, with a less expensive house. Right. No pension. My Employer contributes 13% to my 401(k) on my behalf. So total 401(k) contribution is about $50k annually. (It was epic stupidity to leave that out of t...

Can you break down the expenses? Something is off to be spending $160K a year in expenses. I think you can afford a bigger house, but I fear you will just buy more stuff for the house. Yes you have a high income which is great, but you don't need to spend that much. I am sure you can take that $160K in spending easily down to $80K and put that into investments or cash or paying down current mortgage and then wait another 2-3 years and buy the bigger house but put down like 50%. I saw one item that can immediately go, country club, easily throw that out, hit the local public course for a hundred bucks a year... $162k is total spending, both expenses and discretionary. My income statement still had me saving $28k per 401k and 529s, $22k in c...

Can you break down the expenses? Something is off to be spending $160K a year in expenses. I think you can afford a bigger house, but I fear you will just buy more stuff for the house. Yes you have a high income which is great, but you don't need to spend that much. I am sure you can take that $160K in spending easily down to $80K and put that into investments or cash or paying down current mortgage and then wait another 2-3 years and buy the bigger house but put down like 50%. I saw one item that can immediately go, country club, easily throw that out, hit the local public course for a hundred bucks a year... $162k is total spending, both expenses and discretionary. My income statement still had me saving $28k per 401k and 529s, $22k in c...

Can you break down the expenses? Something is off to be spending $160K a year in expenses. I think you can afford a bigger house, but I fear you will just buy more stuff for the house. Yes you have a high income which is great, but you don't need to spend that much. I am sure you can take that $160K in spending easily down to $80K and put that into investments or cash or paying down current mortgage and then wait another 2-3 years and buy the bigger house but put down like 50%. I saw one item that can immediately go, country club, easily throw that out, hit the local public course for a hundred bucks a year... $162k is total spending, both expenses and discretionary. My income statement still had me saving $28k per 401k and 529s, $22k in c...

I usually don't agree with KlangFool on anything related to housing. But, there is always one time... I'm assuming, given where you work and your wife's low income, that you don't have any pension waiting for you at age 65, so you're on your own for retirement. So you really need to be saving 10-15% for retirement. You seem to be saving something like 9%, but 1/3 of that is going towards college for the kids. If you could pay for the house and still manage to save 15% of your gross, I'd say go for it. But you don't seem to be doing that now, with a less expensive house. Right. No pension. My Employer contributes 13% to my 401(k) on my behalf. So total 401(k) contribution is about $50k annually. (It was epic stupidity to leave that out of t...

I'd suggest you try to budget monthly expenses to see where you could save for additional mortgage expenses if you really want the upgrade. As someone pointed out you spent ~$162K last year with a $420K house (~3000 sqft). As a comparison my family lived a in a VHCOL area in CA with a ~$1.3M townhouse (<2000 sqft, PITI: ~$4K/m) and 1 kid in private school ($2K/m), we spent ~$120K last year out of which ~$15K were spent on international and domestic family travels and ~$5K for various gifts to relatives. IMHO your family's income is not a major concern but you need to make some trade-offs for the house upgrade by cutting spending significantly. This blows me away! So net of big ticket items, school, and PITI, in CA, you spent $2,300/month i...

Elsebet wrote: ↑Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:24 pm Just for some perspective, at age 42 my husband and I have more money than you in our 401ks, Roth IRAs, and HSA and about the same home equity yet we make half of your income, and it's only half as of this year. It was less than half before then.

That said, you have more cash. We have about the same total net worth.

In my opinion you should save more and skip the lifestyle creep.

Do you have kids? What is your total annual spend?

Balance Sheet Cash ~$175k 401k - $400k 529s - $40k Home Equity: $190k Cars are paid off -- no debt other than mortgage Income Me: $195k base + $65k bonus (Total $260k) Wife: $35k A big red flag to me is that from what you have said you have an income of around $300K but your net worth is only about $800K at the age of 40. Something is going on that causes you to have such a low net worth, you really need to figure that out. I don't think that you can afford a house now. If you really want it then you should be able hunker down and save around $100K a year(including retirement accounts) for the next two years then between the extra savings and having adapted to a less expensive lifestyle being able to afford it then would look better. I wou...

Can you break down the expenses? Something is off to be spending $160K a year in expenses. I think you can afford a bigger house, but I fear you will just buy more stuff for the house. Yes you have a high income which is great, but you don't need to spend that much. I am sure you can take that $160K in spending easily down to $80K and put that into investments or cash or paying down current mortgage and then wait another 2-3 years and buy the bigger house but put down like 50%. I saw one item that can immediately go, country club, easily throw that out, hit the local public course for a hundred bucks a year... $162k is total spending, both expenses and discretionary. My income statement still had me saving $28k per 401k and 529s, $22k in c...

CPA_RIA, Let's assume that is correct, it is reasonable to assume at least 3%. Aka, right at the inflation rate. KlangFool Inflation is below 3%, actually. 2.2 ex food & energy. 1.9 including them. Okay. Still does not change the question. Take 2.2% and/or 1.9% and check your numbers. KlangFool My growth rate of 4% is likely conservative, too. Private school tuition plus cash savings are what will close the gap. CPA_RIA, Let's assume that you got this settled, how do you plan to pay for your retirement? What is your planned retirement expense? KlangFool Absolutely. Here's my scam. **Obviously assumes no layoffs. (Thought I'd disclose that up front b/c I'm beginning to see how you think :D ) Retirement age = 67. Gives me 27 years to sav...

CPA_RIA Don't take the comments as an attack on you, remember they are only trying to help. People on here are older and have seen or lived thru things that you have not. Some would call it a black swan event I call it life. My apologies if I came across as defensive! Trust that I don't feel this way at all. I threw my life out to be challenged! I genuinely appreciate everyone taking a moment to comment! I see you joined this forum 6 years ago, but rarely post. So, I am not sure if you have spent much time reading various threads here. What you describe in your financial situation is probably quite typical for most high earning families. If you went and asked the typical mortgage banker, loan officer, and probably most financial advisors, ...

CPA_RIA, 1) You are assuming no tuition increase over 13 years. I am paying 120K now. <<My target savings is 80-85% of total tuition.>> 2) Do you plan to pay 100%? KlangFool Of course. My current private school tuition will be rolled into the cash stream. And, something we may not agree on, is that I don't think higher ed tuition will be increasing at the historical 6% pace that it has been - something is going to break or it's only going to be available to the HNW crows... CPA_RIA, Let's assume that is correct, it is reasonable to assume at least 3%. Aka, right at the inflation rate. KlangFool Inflation is below 3%, actually. 2.2 ex food & energy. 1.9 including them. Okay. Still does not change the question. Take 2.2% and/or 1.9% and ...

CPA_RIA, Do the math and tell me why that is enough. KlangFool FV Annuity: $400/month at 4% compounded for 13yrs = ~$81,000 for my oldest. (Will be a bit more for my youngest.) Add in the $20k that I already have (per kid) and thats $100k. You said it costs you $240k for 2 kids - my rough estimate is $120k/each as well. My target savings is 80-85% of total tuition. Seems okay, right? CPA_RIA, 1) You are assuming no tuition increase over 13 years. I am paying 120K now. <<My target savings is 80-85% of total tuition.>> 2) Do you plan to pay 100%? KlangFool Of course. My current private school tuition will be rolled into the cash stream. And, something we may not agree on, is that I don't think higher ed tuition will be increasing at the hist...

CPA_RIA, Do you plan to pay for your kids' college education? It costs me around 240K for 2 kids' college education. KlangFool yeah, that's what the $10k/year is for... CPA_RIA, Do the math and tell me why that is enough. KlangFool FV Annuity: $400/month at 4% compounded for 13yrs = ~$81,000 for my oldest. (Will be a bit more for my youngest.) Add in the $20k that I already have (per kid) and thats $100k. You said it costs you $240k for 2 kids - my rough estimate is $120k/each as well. My target savings is 80-85% of total tuition. Seems okay, right? CPA_RIA, 1) You are assuming no tuition increase over 13 years. I am paying 120K now. <<My target savings is 80-85% of total tuition.>> 2) Do you plan to pay 100%? KlangFool Of course. My curre...

Tough dilemma in my family currently. I'm married, 40years old, with two young kids: ages 3 & 5. Good income and I tend to lean towards the conservative side of investing. We own a $420k house on which we owe about $230k. It's 3,000 square feet plus finished basement, and we generally like it. HOWEVER, it lacks a few key features that we want: a bigger lot, a bigger island in our kitchen, and a 3-car garage. I'm caught between a "stay or go" decision. If I go, I need real world feedback on how much house I can afford. Given the below statistics on my savings and income, can those with similar financial positions weigh in? It'd be really helpful! Balance Sheet Cash ~$175k 401k - $400k 529s - $40k Home Equity: $190k Cars are pa...

It's just one 401k - we're phased out of IRA's. Still a good question...but not as dire as you make it. Again, the future value of a $50k annuity invested at a 4-5% modest return for 27 years, assuming retirement at 67, will meet our Retirement goal. CPA_RIA, Do you plan to pay for your kids' college education? It costs me around 240K for 2 kids' college education. KlangFool yeah, that's what the $10k/year is for... CPA_RIA, Do the math and tell me why that is enough. KlangFool FV Annuity: $400/month at 4% compounded for 13yrs = ~$81,000 for my oldest. (Will be a bit more for my youngest.) Add in the $20k that I already have (per kid) and thats $100k. You said it costs you $240k for 2 kids - my rough estimate is $120k/each as well. My targ...

Balance Sheet Cash ~$175k 401k - $400k 529s - $40k Home Equity: $190k Cars are paid off -- no debt other than mortgage Income Me: $195k base + $65k bonus (Total $260k) Wife: $35k A big red flag to me is that from what you have said you have an income of around $300K but your net worth is only about $800K at the age of 40. Something is going on that causes you to have such a low net worth, you really need to figure that out. I don't think that you can afford a house now. If you really want it then you should be able hunker down and save around $100K a year(including retirement accounts) for the next two years then between the extra savings and having adapted to a less expensive lifestyle being able to afford it then would look better. I wou...

KlangFool wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:53 pm OP,

It is very simple.

If you assume that you will be fully-employed continuously over the 20+ years, you can afford the 700K house. Your annual expense is 162K with the 420K house. it does not take much unemployment for you to lose everything. With the 700K house, it will only get worse. You will live in fear in every round of lay off and/or recession. Is this the life that you want to live?

KlangFool

Amen, my friend.

That's EXACTLY the type of thinking that prompted me to post on here.

GMCZ71 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:06 am CPA_RIA
Don't take the comments as an attack on you, remember they are only trying to help. People on here are older and have seen or lived thru things that you have not. Some would call it a black swan event I call it life.

My apologies if I came across as defensive! Trust that I don't feel this way at all. I threw my life out to be challenged!

I genuinely appreciate everyone taking a moment to comment!