LOL that's funny!! it takes forever!! waiting can feel like forever!! man i know it too!! LOL ~Medo

The proper conditions will speed the digestion of these up just as it does Walnuts, Acorns, and all the other seeds and nuts. If you bury one of these in the soil and keep that soil relatively moist how long before you see a new tree sprouting from the seed? Walnut, Acorn, Liquidamber, Osage Orange seeds I have plunked in the ground germinate and grow the following year, and the Walnuts and Acorns that have ended up in my compost have been digested in about a year.

Mrs Pete talk to your pension coordinators about how much each option will cost if you reduce both of your pensions to give the other person a benefit if/when one of you dies. It may not be that much. I've done it. We're 95% sure we'll go with max-pension for me alone -- but we have until March to decide for certain. I'm younger than my husband, I'm in better health, and I come from a family with super long-lived genes (seriously, we joke that we're part vampire 'cause we're kinda un-killable). We're in agreement that naming my husband as beneficiary isn't the wisest choice; yes, it's a gamble, but isn't everything in this discussion a bit of a guess? What I've played with is the idea of naming one of my daughters my beneficiary -- or, and this is the one that really intrigues me -- naming my grandson (who will be born October 2021) as my beneficiary. What intrigues me: I started teaching in 1992. If I were to name this new grandson as my beneficiary and he were to live to 100 (not unlikely), the state would have paid me (or my beneficiary) for 129 years. 30 years of work = 129 years of pay. No wonder companies are distancing themselves from pensions. Why I've decided not to do this: I drew out a timeline including my retirement year, my children's likely retirement years, this grandson's likely retirement years -- and the bottom line is that IF I were to name one of my children as beneficiary, she wouldn't get the money until after her retirement -- money would be nice, obviously, but it'd come late in her life. If I were to name this unborn grandson, he would be well entrenched in his career. I think I can serve them better by maxing the pension and saving /investing a part for them -- and although some assumptions are involved, math supports this idea. My youngest just finished college, and I'm of the opinion that the best way we can help our children is to educate them -- then they have the tools to provide for themselves for the rest of their lives. I'd rather save /invest and be prepared to help that grandson earlier in his life -- see him well educated in his youth rather than feather his middle years /retirement. Also, I can only name one beneficiary. I'd trust either of my daughters to "share nicely" with the rest of the family -- but the grandson is a total unknown. He literally isn't born yet, and IF I left the pension to him, I'd want him to share it with the family (not keep the benefit to himself simply because he has the good luck to be born first in his generation). My goal for my grandson is to invest a lump sum for him (once he's born and has a name and SS number) that will grow so he can have $2000/semester + $2000 as a college graduation gift. We're thinking this will be for his books and incidentals. A good friend of ours just died, leaving 2-year old and a 5-year old grandchildren behind; that's why we're determined to invest a (fairly small) lump sum for our new grandson NOW. If we should die unexpectedly, that money would already be set aside for him, and we'd leave a letter in our Death Notebook explaining our plans for him to have money for each college semester. Good luck on your retirement and be glad that as a teacher you can receive social security as many states do not allow that or the SS is offset by part of the pension. Thanks! Teaching is a job that "pays" only if you stick it out for a whole career (in the same state), and our retirement benefits are good. Yes, I'll be able to collect SS too (not for some years). Yes, I'm in a state that gives teachers SS -- well, I say GIVE, but that's not true. I've paid in quite a bit over the years. Ditto for my pension. What if chasing status gives them happiness? Truthfully, I don't think chasing status can every bring happiness because -- perhaps excepting the Queen -- someone will always have more. Status is a moving target. I myself was turned down for a car loan two years ago with a 800+ credit rating because I had no active credit usage on my report.That would be solely based on income, as no credit use would lower your score a bit anyway. You can have a 500 FICO and get a car loan if you have income that covers the payment. Some 20 years ago -- the last time we financed a car -- the person at the bank jokingly said, "We don't see this often." Our credit score wasn't just good: it was perfect. Some time later -- after we paid off our house -- we found out our credit score had dropped. We were more financially secure, but our credit score was lower. That's when I decided I don't care a fig for credit scores; instead, I care about financial security. This incident really illustrated to me that they are not the same measurement. I think credit scores are important when you're young, but once you're solidly established, their importance diminishes. People are actually pretty crap at putting their money where it will make them the happiest. I do believe that, and it's usually due to poor planning and spur-of-the-moment choices. New clothes and fast food, for example, are short-term pleasures. There are lots of things that I can afford that I probably shouldn't buy. This is definitely true. For all of us. Mrs pete, you say your husband is older than you, he will be 65 in eight years, which will make him 57 now. So you must be retiring at 55 or 60, is this correct? Your sleuthing is quite close to the truth. And when you say should "WE" take social security early do you quality for benefits? Some teachers retirement systems don't pay social security tax and aren't eligible for social security benefits. I live in a state where teachers pay into both teachers' retirement AND SS, so we can collect from both. After one more year of school I'll have 30 years, and I can begin to collect my pension regardless of my age. It'll still be years 'til I can collect SS. If all the above is true I'm going to be honest, I don't see any reason to not say your husband will need to work until he's 66, pay for medicare part B and a supplement. He's already retired, and he's on my teacher insurance. I can continue to insure him after I retire next year, though it's quite expensive -- I'll "get a raise" when he qualifies for Medicare. With cash flow being a concern Not so much a concern as a decision that must be made. Once I retire, we will need to dip into savings of some sort (as long as I'm paying my husband's $$$ insurance and we aren't yet collecting SS). We have investments; the question is, which accounts to use /how logistically to start this process. the difference between 62 and full retirement age is about $500 a month We've "mathed it up" and have decided to take SS at 62. Our thought process: we'd rather take SS and maintain our savings /investments. Once we're gone, SS stops; whereas, if we maintain our actual money, it can be passed on to our children. And we feel that money/investments is more sure than future SS checks. We are seriously considering a credit card like the ones that gain points. Assuming you're not tempted to over-spend, credit card rewards points are the best! We buy every loaf of bread and every gallon of gas with our credit card -- and we "play the game" of paying attention to which spending categories are paying extra this month (so if grocery stores are paying 5% next month, we might put off a big stock-up shopping trip), and we get a couple hundred free dollars every year. We typically use them to buy generous restaurant gift cards for our senior citizen parents for Christmas -- being retired and needing nothing, that's what they love to receive. The dealer will not go down as far on the price for a 0% manufacturer subsidized loan compared to a bank interest loan. I think I'm pretty good at negotiating a car's price. I start by telling the dealer which car I want /insisting that we will discuss one thing and one thing only: the total, out the door price. I never trade in my old car, and I say I'll discuss financing once I know the total price. Thing is, car salesmen do this every day, all day, and they will beat you -- if you allow them to start throwing around multiple numbers. I sit there and say it to the point that they might think I'm simple: - I don't want to talk about payments. I want to talk about the total out-the-door price. - I don't want to talk about financing. I want to talk about the total out-the-door price. - I don't want to talk about add-ons. I want to talk about the total out-the-door price. Only after I have the final price will I say HOW I intend to pay for the car (though I've known from the start). When we bought my new car 12/31/2019, we'd emphasized total out-the-door price, and we'd emphasized that we were tight on funds because we were paying college tuition. I am sure the dealer thought we were poor as church mice (and we were in jeans and sweatshirts), but they were sure they were going to "make up" the low price to which they finally agreed in financing. The guy's eyes just about popped out of his head when I wrote a check for full price. I could see, "Well, damn" in his eyes. We should have had our kid get a credit card, not a debit card, as her first "card" -- she ran into the "you have no credit history" problem when renting her first apartment and had to pay an extra month's deposit.) Yes, I started each of my girls on a checking account and a (small balance) credit card -- not a debit card -- when she was a senior in high school. During that year I encouraged her to use the credit card rather than cash, and I monitored her use /helped her balance her accounts every month. My girls went away to college comfortable using something other than cash. BUT they both needed me to co-sign when it came time to get them an apartment. I have used a debit card for years because I could not see the need for a second credit card although I now have one. We prefer Discover -- it gives the best rewards and we have a long history with them, BUT it isn't accepted everywhere. So I have a second credit card; I change it out every year or so depending upon who's offering me money to take a new card. One of the advantages of using a national bank is that I can find their ATMs almost everywhere so there are not ATM fees. Yes, when my husband was still working /traveling for work, we kept our checking at a national bank. Now that he's no longer working, we use a local credit union (where I've had accounts since I was 17), which treats us much better. When we travel, we stop at grocery stores fairly often for this or that, and it's easy to get "cash back" from them instead of ATMs. Years ago that wasn't a choice. Doesn't this depend on the survivor benefit? When my dad dies, his pension dies with him. A friend who has been widowed is not able to specify another survivor now that her husband has passed--he would have gotten a 50% survivor benefit if he outlived her, but now the pension dies with her. If my husband dies, I get his entire IRA and if I predecease him, our two daughters get the whole thing. That's why it's so important to choose carefully -- once you're retired, you're locked into the choices you made. I did not understand but based on my age at the time of his retirement it reduced by $35. Was not going to complain. But then he selected 100% spousal death pension benefit. My pension increased because the offset to provide him a 50% pension ceased. Neither amount that the pensions were reduced was very much. Couples do need to look at what both parties have as far as pension's and death benefits such as life insurance and can you continue with the employee health coverage. Yes, and since all of us have a different set of assets as we approach retirement, we have to study our choices -- and what's right for one couple may not be right for another.

Thank you so much, Meg. Caramel Antike's blooms did last a long time, but she took lots of rests between bloom periods. Her blooms were about 5 inches in diameter and the deer loved them, poor thing. The plant itself was about 4 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide, a typical smallish hybrid tea. I was patient about the stingy blooming because usually the blooms were so beautiful. I assume she was grafted on Huey. Last summer we broke all time heat records, and she produced some wonky blooms during the heat. I believe I got my rose in 2007 from Wayside Gardens, probably my only rose purchase from them. I think that was the only year she was offered by any well known seller. To me, she was more of a collector's rose than a good all round garden rose, but I didn't mind. I should mention that the gophers left a small lonely cane that is still in the ground and alive. I'm letting it stay in its spot to see if Caramel can do any regrowing. Of course, just before our last snow a couple of days ago, I noted a new vole hole not far from this little cane. I wish the weather was better, so I could send Finn out to do in the vole (that's my sweet kitty who changes into a cruel hunter when mice and voles are around). I'm assuming you garden in western Oregon, which is about the best place on earth in my estimation. Are you still having this awful weather? Diane