My wife and I ordered orchids from Houserman a year and a half ago and we were send orchids that were in very poor condition and not the sizes we ordered.Several were in such bad shape that we immediately contacted them and was told there was nothing they would do.We took all of the orchids putchased from them to the N.C.S.U Lab for testing due to the feat that they could be infected with a virus.I was contacted in a week and told that infact the orchids we delivered to them from Housermans orchids infacted tested positive for virus' and it was recomended that they all be distroyed.We had contacted them first by phone and informed them of the poor condition of the orchids they shipped us along with the fact that the 2 Angracieum Sesquipedial in spike was not shipped as ordered as was not the 3 Vanillia Planifolia or the 5 assorted Neofinetia's we had ordered.That was when we were told there was nothing they would do.After we recieved the information from the lab we contacted them again and again we were told that they were not going to do anything about refunding our money, replacing the plants and that they never shorted shipments therefore we could forget recieving the missing plants from them.We have been growing orchids in my family for 40 years and never had such a problem with a grower or fellow orchidist before and we have contacted them on several occasions since but no replies to our problem. So they have given me no choice but to let everyone know to Stay away!!!!!!!!!!!! Chris Perhaps with the word getting our Housermans will start treating customers better. Returning their calls and emails would be one place to start!

Hi Saphire, Very easy for you to say without concrete examples. I can try to post case examples for you as available and permission is granted. I have a significant portfolio of such cases... but I do need to get permission, and then put them in a postable format. May take me a bit, but I *WILL* do it... had been on my list anyway. So assuming I am trading up in value and will be financing 80% (because no one will give me the house at 100% and I do not have enough cash to buy it outright) Do you mean no bank will LEND 100% on that house? Be aware, you ARE financing 100% of the purchase. Apparently you'll be taking 80% from the bank at the cost of their interest charges, and 20% from your family at the cost of the safe returns available. There's no free lunch... ALL of the money comes at a cost, including the money you take away from your family's safety reserves and growth investments. if I buy an expensive house (for me) you are right that this affects my portfolio as a whole so how do I get the least expensive rate or product that also is nbot subject to rate increases if the market changes Fortunately for you, right now the expense premium on longterm fixed loans is very small above the more timeframe realistic 5 and 7 year fixed intermediary programs. You can likely get the risks completely bank-carried at just 1/4% or so above the 5 year terms. I'd suggest being a little 'suspicious' of ol' Mr. Market, however... when Mr. Market makes longterm fixed loan costs extremely attractive relative to shorter term periods, the Market knows that the shorter term programs are more likely to become significantly cheaper as they adjust (thus the "market trickery" to entice the consumer into the more expensive programs permanently.) Without concrete examples or references, either as to stradegies that work or references to formulas or analysis it all sounds very ambigious, mysterious and a bit glib. It certainly takes an open mind for numbers, and the ability to visualize offsetting growth or cost curves. The bases of the entire conceptual issue are; Rates are relative; When costs of borrowing increase, yields on savings/investments increase, and vice versa. Cash Is King; The costs of being illiquid in emergency can be catastrophically worse than the costs of staying liquid (in carrying costs on the leverage to do so,) It is very easy to say a FMR is expensive but without providing either alternatives or examples or references as to why that is so, I have to question it Currently the immediate face costs on a 30 FRM versus (as example) a 5 yr ARM are minimal... very financially unusual, which DOES definitely call for suspicion. The more obscure costs on a Fixed are the ongoing higher carry costs incurred when rates shift to the downside on the loan, but you are stuck at the higher rates unless/until you incur another round of transaction costs to reset the financing. Eliminating uncertainty is more efficiently done by matching income yield instruments (savings & investments) to leverage instruments (mortgages.) Properly placed and managed the spread continually works in your favor, and you remain much safer as you are not locked away from your liquidity. CLEARLY explain how this works or various stragies that might work for a trade up house that is intended to be held indefinitely How long you intend to OWN is irrelevant, (what DOES matter is how long you intend to take to reach financial independence,) but I do have a few cases that reflect the same situation. I'll see if I can get them illustrated to present as soon as feasible. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Strategic Equity & Mortgage Planner

I was a booking agent for 4 years with Cheap Tickets, until they sold us to another company and closed our call center. :0) Coach class tickets start out with a class, a letter. There are generally 5 of those letters and then they sell the next letter.....and it's a few dollars more, then after those 5 are sold the price goes up with the next letter, until you will eventually pay almost double for a coach class seat when the plane is almost full. Some airlines charge more for seats next to exits because of the extra leg room. Or more for an aisle or window seat on a plane with 3 on each side and 5 seats in the middle. If a flight isn't filling up an airline might reduce the price. OR.....for instance Quantas will give last minute deals about 3 days before a flight is scheduled to leave. Some airlines discount flights stopping at hubs they own for refueling. Booking with multiple airlines can sometimes same you money if you don't mind the multiple stops. I use "Travel Zoo"....to compare prices. And the program "Side step".

moonie, I did come to terms in a way...Things changed between him and my mom when they moved in together. Before they moved in he took her out a bunch, they went on a couple of trips, etc. As soon as they moved in, he stopped courting her. He became controling and she became unhappy in the relationship. We only stayed there for about 2 years before she grew tired of the relationship and we moved out. That is when we moved across the country. I was on board with going, but it was still a rough adjustment for me. I was 17 by that time and had just finished high school. I finished a semester early, so I was just planning to work until August and start college with the rest of my classmates. The move was hard for me because I was no longer in school, so I didn't have a way to connect to my peers. It was a lonely time for me and took a while to adjust. This is why I suggested that stressedmom move at a time when the kids will be going straight into school, so they don't have to deal with not having anybody to connect with. I was never against the relationship with my mom and her boyfriend, I was just so used to it being just the 2 of us and living by my mom's rules alone. With him I wasn't allowed to have my friends over very often. He always went to bed very early in the evening, and the master bedroom was next to the living room, so it made it impossible to entertain when he would get angry if there was much noise like the TV or talking after about 8:30 pm. That was the part I didn't like, but all in all, I got along with him alright. I just wanted my mom to be happy and I was warry that this wasn't the right guy for her. When I was a teenager, I just had a need to be included in decisions that involved and affected me. In the end though, I knew that I could always trust my mom to use her heart and although she didn't always make the best decisions, I know that she always had my best interest at heart. It has occured to me since then that part of my reluctance about moving in with him had to do with the problems I was going through with my dad and his girlfriend. He ended up married to her, and she has never been much of anything, but hateful to me. It's hard to trust the mate of a parent when you are going through hard times with another parent. A little note to stressedmom, do you think it would help if you told your son that if he gave it a shot and if he worked hard in school next year that you will buy him a plane ticket to come back home for a week or 2 over the summer and stay with his best friend back home? This way he doesn't have to feel as if he will be completely losing touch.