Multigenerational living: seeking wisdom *UPDATE - see Featured Answer
jakabedy
last year
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Birds and other mobile features in the garden 2013 #8
Comments (89)Kind of funny story - a couple of years ago the guy across the street trotted over to show me this mysterious worm he found on his tomato plant. He wondered if it was something very rare because he had never even heard of a worm with horns and perhaps UCONN might be interested in having this specimen and maybe, just maybe, he had discovered something that could be beneficial to some plants here in tobacco valley and he could breed them and make money! He said there were many of them on his three patio tomato plants. "Whatta ya think, Jane? Should I put it in a jar?" I asked to see it in my gloved hand and as this guy was envisioning $50 bills, the silly worm reared it's head with horns and mouth seeking something to bite. I dropped it on the driveway and with a flash of my right foot, the mysterious money-making dream shrank into a bite-less green blob as my neighbor went into one of the most shocked and crestfallen expressions I'd seen in a while. I told him he had lost the horn worm lottery and to go home and squish all the others. I have a feeling that my reputation as a nice neighbor lady turned into tough old broad that day in the driveway. Squish 'em, Pixie, Squish 'em - unless you're going into the horn worm raising business. Jane (aka Hard Hearted Hannah)...See MoreSeek 'Wisdom of Crowds' re CD Rates
Comments (26)If you figure that you're going to need that CDIC back-up, better put your money into a small bank, for several banks have failed and I think that quite a few feel that if a fair-sized bank goes broke, the CDIC till will be bare. Being a gov't. agency, there'd likely be back-up, but that would cause substantial delay, quite likely ... and incur more debt for the U.S. gov't., which has taken on far too much, now. As most of that debt is held abroad, they'll have to start paying higher rates in order to entice lenders to buy their debt instruments ... and have been printing money, with the likelihood that they'll be printing a whole lot more, soon. These mortgage-initiating rascals in recent years sure make a bank robber carrying his loot in a pillowcase look like pretty small potatoes. I remember as a kid, when I learned to ride a bicycle down our country road, wishing that the gravel on the road would become gold ... but it didn't take me long to realize that if it were gold for me, it would be for everyone else, as well ... and that soon it would take more than a pocketful of gold to buy a loaf of bread. How long has it been since the U.S. Dollar was backed by gold? Or silver? Our Dollar - same game. And - when your economy gets a cold ... ours gets pneumonia. What's the expected time-frame when you'll need to use those assets? Almost 10 years ago, when I was 70, I called a financial planner on a phone-in radio show to say that I felt that I should plan to fund my life to age 100, which was six blocks of five years each. Fortunately, I was able to live on somewhat less than my three pensions, and expected to be able to do so for some time - now, 10 years later, same story. But it seemed to me that were I to need some of the assets to live on, I should not eat up all of the first block in the first five years, for it would no longer be there to earn some income for my future needs. In fact, I thought that I should try to avoid using any more than that first block of the six in the first 10 years ... especially considerig that inflation would cause me to need more dollars to live the same lifestyle, a few years down the road. You know - that "inflation" that has shrunk the value of each one of our dollars-in-hand in every year since the late 1930s. And money in the bank is like money-in-hand: each dollar of the principal doesn't grow (but it sure does shrink). Which means that I would not plan to use up 83% of my asset during that first 10 year period, and that a number of financial advisors feel that purchasing stocks for more than a 10-year time horizon makes sense. He said that my plan made a lot of sense, in his view. Short-term, if we fear losing capital, we need to invest in guaranteed dollars ... but long-term, those guaranteed dollar investments, after paying tax, and adding some to principal in order to maintain purchasing power, leave little for the investor. If anything. Now, at 80, I carry about 80% of my assets in equity-based investments. That would make many people have a hairy ... but I feel comfortable with it. Yes, I have some losses, but I have some gains, as well ... and the tax structure here encourages holding equities. A single taxpayer with no income but dividends on Canadian stocks can earn over $46,000. before being required to pay ONE CENT of income tax (and having a low-income spouse with transferrable credits, or gifts to charity or a political campaign, or eligible medical/dental bills over 4.5% [in that case - 3% ordinarily] of net income will push that $46,000.+ tax-free income level even higher). Some time ago, I wrote a thread either here or on "Money Saving Tips", I think, asking which ordinary person gained from inflation, and who loses. When you put your money in the bank, say $10,000., 15 years ago, they guaranteed to pay you back every dollar, in addition to the rent on the money. There's another guarantee, that they never mention - they won't pay you one dollar more, either. And the value of each of those dollars has shrunk, in every one of those 15 years ... as it has every year since the 1930s. That $10,000. would have bought a nice car, 15 years ago ... not now. I figured a while ago, when I could borrow at 6.25%, that most of the time I could come close to breaking even on such a loan, using it to purchase quality stocks. So ... now, when I can borrow for 4.75%, breaking even should be an even greater probability, no? If I'd borrowed your $10,000. from the bank, 15 years ago and paid only the interest in the years since (which I would never recommend, on a consumer loan) .................................................................................................................................................... ................................... when I go into the bank to pay off the loan, now, how much will I need to pay? Yes - $10,000. Which they will give to you, to pay off your CD, if you ask. I gained from inflation, because I paid off the loan in depreciated dollars - you lost, since each of those dollars would buy less than when you loaned it out to the bank, 15 years ago. The only value that your money would ever produce, relative to each of those years, was made right then ... and it was taxed - then ... and, in Canada, it's taxed at top marginal rate. When I used those borrowed dollars to buy quality (retirement type) stocks, and since I came close to breaking even each year on the loan that I made, on average, over the last fifteen years, my investment in stocks grew quite a lot, so now, when I sell them, after paying off the loan, I have quite a lot of money left in my pocket. Which asset was built with your money, not mine. Granted - if the stocks went down in value - I had to find the money somewhere else to pay back to the bank. But, as you know ... they didn't. And, over a time horizon of 10 years or so, they haven't. And a bonus for me - as the value of those quality stocks went up ... so did the annual rate of dividends that they paid. When I bought shares in a Canadian bank 41 years ago for $4.20 or so (also referred to below), they produced annual dividends of about a dime or 12 cents per year: now they pay $3.48. As the number of dollars in a CD doesn't change over the years ... the amount of interest that they produce doesn't change much, either. But - my investment in shares of a Canadian bank have gone from $106. in May, 2007 to just over $62.00 now ... why? They put substantial amounts into those sub-prime U.S. mortgages ... and that "asset-backed commercial paper" ("acid-backed commercial paper"??) that some of the U.S. financial scoundrels were peddling. That now the U.S. government, which can't afford to, is going to partially bail them out of. As some say - socialism for the rich ... private enterprise for the low-level guys who get stuck with the bill ......................... when the rich guys pull a big-time goof (but the rich guys get to keep their previously ill-gotten loot). Remember the savings and loan fiasco of, what, 20 years or so ago? Have you given thought to how much it has cost for the Mccain-Obama campaign over the past couple of years? Where do you figure that money came from? Apart from the costs associated with running for Congress or the Senate, etc. Good wishes for increasing skill in managing your income ... and your assets. ole joyful...See MoreBirds and other mobile features in the garden 2015 #4
Comments (73)In a week's time, I'm counting fewer Juncos after their Red Baron aerial pursuits last weekend, am seeing a tad more dead grass as the snow retreats, and Mrs. Cardinal has gone from flakes on 3-21-2015 to chatting with a young female Finch under sunny skies on 3-23-2015. Found a Titmouse looking depressed in a cold rain on 3-26-2015. So we're progressing. I'm still wondering if there is a male Purple Finch here - could this be him? because she's still here. She has the white lines over her eyes. The possum is still eating cat food everyday as Ivy was elevated to higher protein whole foods. This is funny - last week I cored a Bosc pear with a melon baller and gave the core bits to the possom on the side of his cat food. Next morning, food all gone, plate licked cleaned. A few days later, I had some leftover celery chunks, so I put 3 small pieces on the side of the dish with his cat food. Next morning the dish was whistle clean and the 3 celery chunks were stacked up in the dish untouched. Possom prefers sweet apparently. Jane...See MoreHouzz TV Wants to Feature Your Inspirational Story
Comments (21)Hi Houzz! You've been saving me professionally for years - helping me find contractors, designers and vendors across the country for a slew of home renovation shows that I produce. Now I'm in the midst of my biggest project yet - my first houzz! It's a nearly 100-year-old home in Oak Park, IL, just outside of Chicago. Trust me, it took a lot of convincing to get me to leave the city, but this house is worth it! A turn key dream home was never in the cards for us. My husband is a Landscape Architect and I've developed an appreciation for design over the years, so when it was time to find our house, the more the house needed us, the more we needed the house. Aka - bring on the ugly, poorly planned, never-updated house! We've owned our new home for 3 weeks and have been going full speed ahead - new roof, refinishing flooring throughout, removing decades of wallpaper, installing all new HVAC...etc. The list goes on forever. We've never hustled so hard to make a project work. Our original plan was to do the project in phases, but with a 4-year-old and a 4-month-old we're realizing that living in dust just isn't an option. We've been able to stretch our budget and use our resources to get pretty far... but we're at a standstill with the Master Bathroom. It's original and it's small and has TONS of potential to be opened up into a great space. We even locked in the design after I posted to the Houzz Design Dilemmas and got some great feedback. On one hand, we're already breaking down walls and have all of the right people in the house to get the job done, so we want to go for it. On the other hand, our budget is so tight at this point, we're not sure we can afford the fixtures and tile and fun things that would go into the bathroom and make it ours. We're really hoping our Ideabook can become our reality - but we need help! Rachel Fobes (contact information is in email I sent to casting)...See Morepricklypearcactus
last year
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jakabedyOriginal Author