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It's our year to spend XMAS with the oldest son and family and they wanted to go to Hawaii, so DW spent about 10000 for renting a big condo for 8 days, the flight, and a van to get us all around over Christmas. They're paying for their own flights. I told her we were mostly just pulling forward...

Sorry. A utility or ENI might make the most sense then.

I've looked at ENI, as well as an Italian telecomm, and a few banks. Someone posted a list of stocks. I'd probably buy 4 or 5 to meet the minimum investment. There are probably more possibilities, but I don't watch many Italian stocks other than ENI. My stock play account is about 8-10% of...

As a poly-sci (and English) major, I would feel negligent not to access the news, but I use Google News feed, the NYTimes and about a half hour on Sirius radio each day. We use streaming TV and don't even have cable news, I prefer to read. I don't judge, but I've always disliked TV news...

I often think along the lines of the OP because I realize I'm hanging out with the "fast crowd" here, even though our nut horde is more than sufficient and puts us firmly in the top 10% (apparently) of Net Worth. I probably wouldn't have considered ER without the example of my paternal...

Welcome IntheBasement! I was in your position about 8-9 years ago. I also semi-retired at 57 (in 2015) with approximately your assets. A few thoughts and differences 1) As many seem to note, nailing down your heathcare options/cost (and a budget although you seem to have a grip on that) is...

I'm really impressed by many of you, although I knew since 2010 or so that I was hanging out here with the 2%ers. Which is cool. We semi-retired (at 57 and 52) at 1.4 million in 2015 and despite drawing 6% or more are at 2.2. I'm about to draw SS at FRA so maybe in 5-7 years we might hit 3...

17k on a heatpump and high efficiency furnace (after the 2k fed tax credit). Long story but current furnace coil in the attic was installed when the house was built in 2005) without a drip pan and on days over 96-98 the condensation drips on the ceiling of the top floor and on the stairs. 2k...

We're in the midst of replacing our AC with a heat pump but found that, for financial reasons, we still needed a gas furnace for backup on the coldest nights (below 25 degrees or so). Heat pump only would have cost about 1.5-2x more, unfortunately, although that may be the unfamiliarity of...

I do scrape gains from some funds during the year that have shot up surprisingly, rather than selling funds that are lagging; those I will have to add to unless they catch up. One of my core funds, Fidelity Contra is up 45% year over year (a surprising overperformance over the S&P), and I have...

No-one rings a bell at the top. I don't mind scraping some gains each quarter or half year. The last two days may make you feel better. But you never know. I just sell and don't look back. You could argue waiting until the same day every year is a better method, but I doubt it. You're going...

I'm trying to (slowly) do a book for DW (or our sons) on what to do after one or both of us dies. We just had a Nevada will made to replace our Texas will and the question of what happens to my 403b from Texas State Employers and whether it was different from IRA rules has been on my to-do...

Off and on, I've read Swedlowe for about 20 years and, while I don't always agree with him, I've found him generally to be pretty level-headed. I think he tries to be pretty much fact based, although that means his writing is based in past data (Like FireCalc). I had concerns in 1997 about...

I told DW that we could spend about 20% more at least per year. So she decided, for the first time, we would fly first class to Scotland on the Ft Williams to Inverness hike in June, which is about 4x what the flight would be, but she can't sleep on airplanes, and suffered when we flew to the...

I will point out that it is likely if you sell over several/3-5 years, the tax (on gains) will be long term capital gains at 15%, which is only 3% over your 12% max, which to my mind is unimportant, although you may well disagree. So you can steadily sell 1/4-1/3 of these positions and move the...

I try to slip one in, now and again, just to keep the community on point.

I went to jr high and high school in Western Oklahoma (in the 70's), with a wheat field behind our home. You could tell whether beef/wheat prices were high or not because if beef was high, the farmer would run cattle on the wheat. If wheat was high no cattle. It was a a low-grade hedging...

We're up almost 50% in 7 years but a a ways below the 500k exclusion. My study and two bedrooms are on the lower floor accessed by stairs (it's a basement home) so if the yewt moves out and one of us has trouble with stairs, it might make sense to sell and buy a smaller one story. Or move out...

I've invested in Fidelity Select Biotech since 1996 for this reason, since it is able to spread the risk. I buy after the price slumps (and average PE or values slump) and sell after the price shoots up. The chart is a bit of a sine wave. It is up 11.5% YTD and and 20% Y/Y, after two tough...

Hee, I was self-taught in tennis, recruited in 10th grade to fill out the team in a small town in Oklahama and always 5th or 6th on my tennis team in Western Oklahoma.Everyone above me had had lessons for 5 or 6 years. But there was the immortal day we went to play (at Woodward--maybe Edmond?)...

I kind of admire the columnist for sharing her story, despite the obvious humiliation since it could be helpful to her readers. My AgedP got a call about 12 years ago that her grandson (at Carnegie Mellon) was in jail and needed bond. Luckily, she called me. Dad had died about a year or so...

Everyone has their moments of experience, but for me, hiking with DW and some of our friends in Tuscany, Ireland, Scotland, and the Alps reminds me of my childhood, which was in small rural areas, rather than LA and Houston where I spent my professional life (and met a lot of good friends and...

One of my favorite cars was a Subaru Outback manual--but it did get tedious shifting in stop and go traffic in the Houston commute, as much as I liked the car. The oldest son/winemaker in the Central Valley CA inherited it and used it for another 10 years, but he finally sold it to a friend...

I did a back of the envelope calc in December, but the Schwab brokerage numbers will determine how close I was--ordinary vs. qualified dividends versus ROC, etc. It's a lot of what used to be small numbers but now getting much bigger in the taxable brokerage. I think I will be within 2-300...

I'm sure a lot of you have good anecdotes but about 20 years ago when I was in my mid 40's the Dish satellite signal was breaking up. Luckily, the Antenna was on the lowest subroof--not the roof 25 feet up. The kids weren't there--playing soccer (not sure why I was not there)--so I put the...