Rather than double jeopardy, that looks like a double bonus, to me. Plus, if you live in northern climes in winter where rules that forbid smoking inside of buildings apply, avoiding the teeth-chattering experience of standing outside for several minutes to smoke a few times daily. Plus, if you value your kids' best health opportunities, doing the same when you go home. And in the car en route. Not my idea of fun. Apart from the stinginess. Plus, gonativegal, there'd have been even greater value, while you were paying off the mortgage earlier, had you started a hobby of learning at least some things about how money works. While using part of the saving to pay down the mortgage earlier, you might have chosen to use part of that savings to build an emergency fund, for it sure feels good if you have a major financial emergency, e.g. mechanical failure on your car, to be able to pay for the repairs with cash rather than using high-interest credit cards to cover the bill (and maybe a rental to get to work while yours is being fixed). After you'd made the last mortgage payment, that would have meant that you could have continued to save and invest in ways that would make the asset work better: getting a better rate of growth, getting tax advantages, including deferrals and lower rates of tax. I offer my thanks to your husband for his wise choice to quit smoking. I hope that when cravings come, he can keep strongly in mind the many advantages that go along with keeping that quit intact. He can quite likely find some wise advice, support and empathy on the forums at www.quitnet.org, should he choose. If he'dlike to come here, or on the Kitchen Table forum here, where there are many participants and some really good friendships, plus support in times of trouble, he'll be welcome. Good wishes to you through the coming days. ole joyful

Whoa, I think the conversations are going OT here - let's get back to Phoggie's concerns, which in re-reading I note she mentioned wanting to sell her house, but nothing in town is selling. It's pretty clear the current environment is to the buyer's advantage, not the sellers. You can certainly sell your house, but you will have to take much less, in some areas up to 25-30% less, than it was worth two years ago. If you can afford to take the hit and absolutely must sell, then find the very best RE agent you can, and make sure you take their advice about how to best market your property. If you can hold on instead, you will be a much better position in a couple of years. The real fall-out is not banks failing or home prices falling, it's the tightening on mortgage applications. A rather large percentage of folks can no longer qualify, as excerpted below from the WSJournal (a link to the full article is provided as well, but you need to be a subscriber to read it): "...But even borrowers who think they're well positioned to be approved for a mortgage "can't assume anything," said Guy Cecala, of Inside Mortgage Finance. And they'd better be prepared to shop around to get the best rates "Cecala estimates that a third of the people who were able to get a loan in 2005 and 2006 no longer qualify for financing today. That takes into account the disappearance of subprime and Alt-A loans as well as the tightened requirements for getting prime mortgages, he said. "Mortgage credit is as tight as we've seen it in a generation," said Cecala, publisher of the industry newsletter. "When does it get looser? When people feel that the housing market is stabilized, and that's really not going to happen until we start seeing an end to rising defaults and foreclosures, and housing prices have stabilized in markets throughout the country." "If he had to guess, it'll be another year before getting a mortgage becomes any easier. "In some cases, lenders are even looking beyond the numbers for proof not only that an applicant has a job with a steady income stream but is also likely to keep that job, said Bob Moulton, president of Americana Mortgage Group on Long Island, N.Y....." It's a rough time for many. Watch your expenses, take care of your health (maintenance being many times more cheap than procrastination). Talk to your neighbors or friends about ways you can save money together, even in little ways. Look at your town/city with new eyes, there might be free events you passed by before - if you give them a try, it will at least be something different, and you won't be out any big $$. And you might find something new and interesting this way, that you would have missed otherwise. Get together with a friend, take a walk in good weather and just talk. Come back home for coffee and a home-made coffeecake. Someone posted on the Caregivers forum about a friend whose DH was just given 2 months more to live - it reminds you that truly, the best things in life have little to do with money. Here is a link that might be useful: WSJournal article (subscribers only)

>> I think that there are CFPs out there who charge by the hour to do a plan and make recommendations, and who do not sell investments or insurance of any kind. That is what I would look for. Not to say that there aren't good, ethical brokers out there who will put your interests up there with theirs. I just haven't encountered one myself! There are certainly CFPs who charge by the hour. However, all CFPs have broker licenses. And there is nothing wrong with affiliating oneself with a brokerage, any more than you need be nervous about taking your car to a factory-authorized dealership rather than an independent garage. There are good and bad in both sectors. You need to remember there is a substantial legal difference between "investment advising" and "financial (estate) planning." It sounds like many of you folks posting have used "investment advisors". They have NO fiduciary responsibility to you. None. Nada. Zip. They are NOT legally obligated to put your personal interests FIRST. I cannot emphasize this enough. It is a critical, crucial, legal difference. A CFP must, by law, put your personal interests first. And yes, there is little profit for them in doing so unless you have a portfolio of assets to manage. Do you grudge them a living, any more than your doctor or carpenter or mechanic or gardener? When I worked at the independent CFP's office, there were many people who came for their first introductory no-cost meeting. Most of them were not suitable clients, for varying reasons. It might be something as simple as a personality clash (such as the couple who came in and spent two hours contradicting one another with every answer), or as basic as a differing risk assessment (clients who wanted options, offshore leases, or anything risky were politely declined). But surprisingly often, it was because people couldn't adequately define their goals, yet thought they could still somehow afford everything they wanted without saving sufficiently for it. They got offended when they were told they couldn't retire early, travel around the world, fund four children for college and graduate school, and pay off their mortgage in five years, on their current debt-to-assets ratio. Now, I am certainly not saying anybody involved with this current discussion is like that. What I am trying to explain is that any advisor, whether a CFP or not, cannot make you something out of nothing. What a CFP can do is help you define your goals, and determine if they are achievable. This involves MORE than diversifying your portfolio. A lot goes into your complete financial picture, and everyone's situation is a little bit different, because their goals and risk-taking factors are individual. Life being as changeable as it is, it can be handy to have someone there with the professional knowledge to help you and your family analyze and cope with changes to your financial/legal situation as the years progress. Many couples have differing views about money and any good CFP will tell you they spend a lot of time "counseling" couples so that everybody stays "on the same page" together. You don't have to have a CFP, and many of us can't afford one. But for those who can afford it, a CFP can be an invaluable resource. And I say that, even though I handle all the investments in our family and have done a very good job of it. There is a world of difference between an amateur and a professional - this is even more true of finance and investing than it is of most areas.

I have had the Thermador cook top a little over a year and I think I've had about 25% down time. When it works, this cook top is great but the combination of untrained service people and really bad service policies at Thermador work to make this unit unusable unless you hardly cook at all. The unit has 36 little Hobbs under the glass, a mother board and 4 other boards to make it all work. The 36 Hobbs are very stable and haven't caused any problems. So there's only 5 parts that can go down. Sounds simple, no? Think again. Thermador has not done anything to train their techs on this stove top. So when the computer on the unit puts out an error code a tech may not even recognize what the computer is trying to say. I've had to look over the shoulder of some of these dummies to point out the error code the unit puts out. When you finally figure out which of the 4 support boards needs replacing you find that the replacement parts are not available and have to be back ordered. This is a matter of weeks, not days. Lastly, the telephone support from Thermador is no picnic either. It's basically a call center staffed with people having only the ability to take messages and pass them to a non-responsive 2nd level. Presently, my unit has been down since early December 2015. It's now January 6. Thermador has decided to replace my unit. As mentioned in previous posts, getting your cook top replaced is a nightmare in itself. I had to do that in my 1st month of ownership. There's a mysterious 'AR department' that is accountable to no one that outsources the replacement activity to a 3rd party. That process can take months. In California there's a lemon law that applies to appliances as well as cars. I think that is my next step.