I don't like earning interest. Interest results when one listens to the bank's promise that you'll get every dollar back ... but they never mention the reverse, that, apart from the agreed rent on the money, you won't get one dollar more, either. The only money that your dollar of principal will earn is earned now ... and it's taxed now ... at top rate. When I buy Canadian stocks, they pay dividends, that used to be taxed at a lower rate ... and they reduced the rate even more, a couple of years ago. As the number of dollars of principal can't shrink and can't grow, either, I need to hold some of the interest to put with principal to offset the shrinkage in value of each dollar each year due to inflation. Which much of the time leaves nothing for me. At age 70 I said that I wanted to fund my living till age 100 - 30 years, or 6 blocks of 5 years each. As each dollar of the first block that I ate would no longer be available to earn, as the value of the assets would be eroded due to inflation every year, and as I expected to have increased need of funds in my later years to pay for retirement and nursing home fees, I figured that I should avoid spending much of the first block in the first five years - in fact, I'd better stretch it to ten years. That meant that I'd want over 80% of the asset still present after ten years ... and I've been used to putting funds that I didn't expect to use for 10 years into equities: mainly individual stocks, as I don't like the management fees charged by mutual funds, as only the rare one of them outdoes the relevant market averages. Now, at 80, I had 80% of my assets in stocks, last year ... and have suffered a loss of 30% or so since. No - not a loss, or at least a realized one. It's only a loss if I sell when the value is down. I expect the value to recover, though I doubt that the recovery will be as fast or as high as after earlier recessions. The governments are deep in debt ... and going far deeper, every year. Plus, they're printing money. Plus, many of our high quality jobs aren't just suffering a temporary lay-off: they're gone. What would I do with a $50,000. maturing CD? How soon do I figure that I might need the money? If within the next five - ten years, I'd keep a good portion of it in stable-dollar asset. If I didn't expect to need it for some time, probably loan about half out in a CD or GIC for about 6 mos. - but not a bond, for there may not be a commission, but there's a spread of often 1% or more between buy and sell prices ... which is substanttial, given current rates. Figure to buy some stocks each month or two for the next year. As many advisors say, no one can tell when the bottom of the market occurs, and prices bounce up a bit, then drop, then up again, then down some, then up some more ... for some time. It's only after a year or so that one can see where the bottom was. By which time a fair portion of the increase has taken place ... which folks sitting on the fence missed out on. Advisors tell us not to try to time the market - no one has succeeded. Warren Buffet says that stocks are on sale, and he knows a lot more about how to manage money than I. Some said that when he said that last fall, he turned out to have been wrong, and a few days ago he said that he hadn't been wrong, that stocks were on sale then ... but that he was out by a few months. Stocks have turned out to have been on fire sale, more recently. In a couple of years, maybe three or four ... those who said Mr. Buffet was wrong may wish that they'd followed his advice. I'd bought some stocks recently, which have gone down. I expected a buyout that was planned just before the financial debacle to have put some fresh money into my hand ... early last year ... then mid year ... then fall ... then just before Christmas. Then the potential buyers' auditors told them that the deal was a bad one ... so they aborted. I'm still holding those stocks (Canada's biggest telecom) ... now saleable for about $24.00 ... when the deal was to have gone through for $42.75 - some difference! But the only way that I can have appreciable money available to keep buying through the bottom of the market ... ... is to take some of the certificates to the bank and borrow some money in order to keep putting the seeds into the ground ... for many of us figure that it's spring-time in the stock market: time to put seeds into the ground. Maybe some'll get frozen off (this is the north part of our continent) but one needs to plant over a period, to allow for some losses. In the stock market, however, usually a quality stock doesn't die, like a plant does after frost ... it gets delayed for a while, but recovers after while. It makes its owner feel pretty chilly in the meantime, however. I bought a bank stock 42 years ago for about $4.20 ... in about June 2007 I could have sold it for $107.00, and it had paid me about a dime dividend in the beginning, that grew to $3.48 in the fall of '07, which in Canada is taxed at a low rate. Now, due to the economic troubles and their being involved directly in the stinky mortgage game in the U.S. ... the stock is under $50.00 (was under $40.00 in late Feb.) but I'm not about to sell. Wasn't about to, at $107.00, as it had doubled 4.5 times or so ... but now it's doubled 3.3 times or so. That wouldn't have happened if I'd put that money into the bank. What's better, long term, than putting our money into the bank? BUYING THE BANK! I'm considering buying more Canadian bank shares (but not that bank) as some international agencies are saying that the Canadian banking system is about the safest in the world, right now ... and paying 5 - 10% dividend. Some oil patch stuff, after price correction, is paying over 20% (not dividend), these days (and they may be dropping their payout, oil prices being what they have been, lately). When you pay a high price for gas ... it doesn't hurt as much if you own some oil stocks. Good wishes for increasing wisdom in managing your income and assets. At 80 - I'm still learning. ole joyful P.S. Living frugally, by choice, I can save some of my pension income ... so do not need to draw on my assets for living ... and if I die next week ... there'll be tax to pay on unrealized capital gain ... but my kids don't need the money in the near future, either ... and know how to avoid cashing in the asset over the short term. o j

I took a rock fireplace out of our two story house. the chimney part was just metal. Still we had a cement foundation to JACK HAMMER out of the floor and it took me ten days to beat the rocks out of the fireplace. My husband repaired the holes in the floors and we carpeted over . A wood floor would have also worked we just happened to choose an industrial berber carpet. I think you will be glad it is gone. Made such a huge difference for us and if you miss the division in the room then add a cabinet. Like small china cabinet or buffet. You can always paint the back side or do some thing decorative on the back side. Even hang a picture.

Let's assume for a minute that you are a store owner. You have had the same guy cleaning your windows for 20 years. He's a nice guy, does a good job, always has a nice smile and asks how your wife and kids are. A few years ago, someone smeared something on your windows and you called him and he came right out and cleaned your windows. Now, along comes a new guy who has just started his own business. He has no track record. He might be there a year from now but he might become discouraged and quit, forcing you to call the old guy back. Why would you start doing business with the new guy?

Arcy, it was not the 80s when the interest in antiques became huge - it was the 70s. In the early 70s there was a huge interest in Art Nouveau; in the 80s there was a renewed interest in Art Deco. At least that's what I noticed in San Francisco and northern California in those decades. In fashion, there was an interest in clothes from the 40s in the 1970s and in clothes from the 50s and early 60s in the 1980s. I noticed that antiques were much more popular in the 70s than in the 80s, but that varied geographically. Antiques have always been popular in places like New Orleans and Charleston but less so in places like Houston, where new and modern were more appreciated. In the early 1970s Houston received a lot of antiques from Europe because there was a lot of money in Houston at that time from the oil boom, and Europeans thought they could sell their antiques there, but there was little demand, and therefore you could get European antiques for very low prices. If you went to New Orleans at the same time, the prices for antiques were considerably higher because the demand was higher. One thing I especially liked about Houston was the way it embraced new and modern design and styles in art and architecture. Another of my favorite designers from the 80s was Nathalie du Pasquier.