Hi graywings, I started reading this thread without noting the dates the posts were written. Dave, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I am wondering how the accounts you spoke of in 2007, the 72c Guaranteed Savings accounts (equity-indexed fixed life contract, or annuity contract) have weathered over the last three years. Heh... you can "put me on the spot" in this regard *ANY* time ;~) Both the equity indexed life & annuity products have *VERY* strongly outperformed the unprotected stock index markets over the same periods of time (since 2007. In fact, going back from today to almost as far as you'd like.) Their design is that they capture & credit any annual upside (to a maximum gain,) and lock that amount permanently to your credit. On any years with a downside, your account sits tight with no losses at all (guaranteed by the insured backings of the company reserves and the state's guarantee association (each state's equivalent of a regional "FDIC" in essence.) If you put $100,000 in the S&P 500 for the last decade, you'd actually be holding a bit LESS than $100,000 today (not deducting the tax or management fees that may also be applied.) The same $100,000 in an insured indexing account would be approximately $211,768, net of everything (taxes & fees,) *OR* about an average annual tax-free rate of return of 7.06% Alternatively, those folks who decided to take their working capital OUT of growth, and put it into their real estate equity, have been double-stung; Not only have they gained nothing toward retirement, their equity values have decayed from 10-30% (depending on the area.) The clients who've been with us the last 3-5 years have been rather relieved, ecstatic, and pleasantly bored, all at the same time. Its a very nice financial reality to provide. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner (PS. to re-paraphrase celticmoon; When everyone else's retirement nest-egg is drowning deep underwater... its kinda nice to be riding on the back of a "duck" ;~)

As U.S. homeowners can deduct mortgage interest, if your mortgage interest is 6% and you're in 33% marginal (i.e. top, for you) tax bracket, 33% of that 6% is 2%, leaving you with a net cost of mortgage of 4%. In Canada we can't deduct mortgage interest - but when we sell owner-occupied home, capital gain is free of tax. If you own a bond (taxable-interest type) paying 5% and you're in 20% tax bracket, your after-tax rate of return is 20% less than your apparent earnings, or 4% - outside of tax-deferred IRA. The costs of owning a home are larger than was originally suggested: there's higher insurance rates (if you're in an apt. you insure only your furnishings), costs of a new roof on occasion, repairing cracked basement wall, replacement of furnace, etc. Many financial advisors in Canada say that every worker should own our tax-deferred retirement plan - but some of us are less than enthusiastic about them, for reasons that relate to lower tax rates on certain types of return on non-retirement-related investments, both in terms of current income and on cashing of assets later. Some homeowners seem to forget that, were their money not invested in a home, it could be earning (whatever) rate of return invested elsewhere. Out of which they would need to deduct their costs of rental. Plus (expected) increased value of their home on sale after a number of years. Many clergy in our country used to live in church-owned homes and some felt that such homes did not relate well to familes with 4 kids and empty-nesters, plus they said that they wanted to profit from the increased value of homes, over a number of years ... so they wanted to own their own homes (and the church pays tax-free rental allowance). I said that they'd profit a lot lower than they figured ... for clergy move fairly often, and each move would usually require sale of their current home ... with the real estate people pocketing a substantial portion of the increased value of the home since the last move. If I'm a renter and get transferred ... or downsized, with no current local job prospects, requiring a move to secure satisfactory employment, if I rent an apt., all I need do is hire a moving truck. Not so if I own a home. There are many nuances that relate to the wisdom of buying a home or renting, or paying down a mortgage rather than ivesting for retirement, one of them being having enough asset on hand that one can survive fo half a year or so with no paycheque, if required. I don't always have it, but I have a line of credit at the bank, unused at the moment, that costs me nothing to maintain,which I can draw on as I choose. Some years ago when I asked a local bank whether I could make a loan, using strong assets as collateral, they said that would be O.K. - so I moved about 2,500 miles to take a commission sales position. When I went to that bank for a loan and they wanted to know what rate of income I'd have ... they turned me down for the loan! So ... I had to withdraw some of my tax-deferred retirement asset (on which I paid minimal tax, having low income that year). Good wishes as you pursue greater knowledge about how money works: not only does enhanced knowledge increase one's power ... it pays well, on occasion . ole joyful

9 active cards may be a temptation, but the fact is that the credit companies look at how much of your available credit you've used up. So, say you have 10 cards that have a limit of $1000 each--total $10,000. You owe $800/card--total $8000. You pay off one card, so your total owed is now $7200. That's 72% of your credit limit. Now, if you cancel the card you just paid off, your total credit limit is $9000, and the $7200 is 80% of that. The percentage of unused credit has gone down. This makes you look like a worse credit risk than if you had left that card account open--even though you're improving your handling of money by paying off cards. Don't cancel any cards unless you're really a serious shopping addict and will spend the day buying on QVC using account numbers off your old statements out of the file cabinet. Instead, freeze them in a block of ice, put them under the mattress, even cut them up--just keep the accounts open. At least until you've gotten several cards paid off. I actually like Karla's system a lot. As an aside, i'm always surprised at how many cards my credit report shows i have. There are a couple of store cards that I haven't seen in years, but they're still on there. To say nothing of the fact that AMEX for some reason has me down as having had something like 5 cards, when I've only ever had 1 at a time. Go figure. They must have counted each time the acct number changed or something. So 9 cards isn't really too bizarre. To make it even more confusing, I've gotten 'adverse action' notices a couple of times (that's where they send a form letter saying that something in my credit made me get less than the absolute best deal). In the 'reasons' section, it said both that I had too many credit accounts and too few. Huh? WTF? Be sure before you start house-shopping to pull at least one copy of your credit report (DH's too), and pay the extra money for your credit score. Make sure you've gotten any errors handled.

Wow!! Carol, I'm happy for you. Heel to toe for 8 steps takes a lot of coordination, and YOU DID IT. When my kid was 4 years old, she would be so happy when I lost weight on the scale ... health for my friends cheer me up more than roses. I'm elated when I heard Garran home & healthy, and I'm happy about rain for Jess & no more thorns in her toe. I am happy when my daughter is happy. I'm sure that's how God, our Father in heaven, feels .. He's happy when His children (us) are happy. My kid has a friend came over today (same age). The friend was on Ensure (canned nutrition with soy milk) .. her skin was clean this past summer. I did research on soy milk and thyroid disorder, yes, there's a slight link, esp. with carrageenan added. So I e-mailed this teenager info., and her nutritionist switched this gal from Ensure (soy-based) to Kefir (fermented cow-milk). Fast forward today, this friend gets pimples on her face. I feel bad since the bad news about dairy didn't come out until this year. I google thoroughly when I switched my child from soy-milk to cow milk .. could not find a link between cow milk and acne until recently. But I learn something: always look at how many people are involved in any study. The thyroid & soy link are just a few personal testimonies, versus the below: " The famous Nurse's Health Study examining health habits of 47,000 nurses found that those who drank more milk as teenagers had much higher rates of severe acne than those who had little or no milk as teenagers. In other studies of over 10,000 boys and girls from 9 to 15 years old, there was a direct link between the amount of milk consumed and the severity of acne." Today I'm back to the diet that I was on when I was skinny: soy milk (new formula without carrageenan) & high fiber cereal ... I feel so much better & more energy. My kid loves her cereal & soy milk. She could NOT handle cow-milk either .. she's lactose-intolerant. I checked on soy milk again before I switch back: if the soy-protein is concentrated, like soy Isolate in faked meat, then it will screw up the thyroid. If the soy is concentrated and made on aluminum equipment, like tofu, then that will UP the risk of Alzheimer's. But soy milk in low dose with cereal, isn't bad ... at least it's freed of hormones, antibiotics, feces, and pus like in cow's milk. Soy milk is easier to digest, plus zero cholesterol. What I like the most is: it smells clean, NOT strong like cow-milk.