Re: General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.
 

Not sure...my 7 year old is still in Potter land, and i am picking up Encyclopedia Brown soon....

Re: General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.
 

my daughter gave me Choke when she was 13, so you might want to get your favorites in soon.

Re: Or grandfather
 

Hello there. I have also been away from the board and seeing really old posts, sorry. I ended up not putting Vietbabe on meds. She's in her second year of kindergarten and the teacher says she is somewhere around the low to mid range in terms of understanding the stuff at school. She is still COMPLETLEY confident and happy/giggly and she also behaves for me (and pretty good at school too). So while she is definitely ADHD, I'm not going to do the meds. Truth be told...I don't even care if she is at the bottom of her class (someone's gotta be) as long as she is progressing and is happy and confident. When she's working age, she can be an artist, or marry well, or live at home with me forever. I see the hell my sister is going through with her bipolar kid (suicidal thoughts at 7?). Then I look at my own kid and she wakes up singing songs and kissy kissy and makes me "surprise" art projects with hearts on them all day. Goes to bed every night at 8 pm with no fuss. I'm not going to do ANYTHING that messes with that. I'm just sick about my poor sister and her daughter. They've tried meds and when things continued badly (just in a "different" way), they took her off all meds thinking they'd just "deal with things." But then she wasn't even able to function, so their lives are a never ending experimentation of upping this med, decreasing that med, adding this med, etc. I wish I could do something for her.

P.S., I'm worried about finances these days. If you had a 5.5% 30 year fixed mortgage (with around 300K in principal), would you use your extra money to pay it off since savings plans are absurd, like $.002% annual interest? Thanks.

Re: Or grandfather
 

If one is not averse to the risk, it is probably a good time to be investing extra cash instead. But it is really a queston of personal preference.

Re: Or grandfather
 

I think it's more of "having a long investment horizon", than risk tolerance, but it's sort of the same thing.

I wouldn't necesarily pay of the mortgage b/c future financing will likely be more expensive, if you need to monetize your house, but it depends a bit on whether you have a robust emergency fund and whether you get any actual tax benefit from the interest deduction.

Re: Or grandfather
 

2. Paying down a mortgage reduces liquidity. Long term that's a great rate (although you could refinance for something better perhaps). And after taxes the real rate of return is more like 3.75% on that investment. So go find a CD that gives you 2% in the short term if you want something that's about as secure as you can get (up to the FDIC limit of $250k).

Re: Or grandfather
 

I'll answer differently than the rest. I like to pay down the mortgage with extra cash. Because I don't like owing nobody nothing.

Note that I've also never bought a share of public stock, because I like to only invest in businesses I can understand and deal with on a personal level, so take this as investment thoughts from a fiscal curmudgeon.

Sounds like your daughter is a charmer.

Re: Or grandfather
 

You know my feeling on meds from the get go. I'd rather have healthy and middle of the class than ticks, heart problems and cancer but have As. Also, note that this list of people with ADHD puts her in an enviable group. http://www.adhdrelief.com/famous.html
Basically, the top 100 people of all time. I think that unless you could pay your house off completely, hoard cash until things get better economically.

An emergency credit line could get closed in a second. Having cash to weather a storm gives a secure feeling.

You may want to consider getting a 4.25 or so 15 year mortgage.

Re: Or grandfather
 

No, no, no. 18 months from now we will have 20% inflation courtesy of Obama and the Dems, and you will only be paying 5.5% interest on the home, in essence making 15% a year on it while the mortgagee watches their 80% interest in it wither away.

Re: Or grandfather
 

Even if you think Less is overstating the future level of inflation (he likely is, but who knows), he is certainly right that some inflation, and therefore rising interest rates, is on the horizon.

Re: Or grandfather
 

Not unless you think you're likely to lose your income before you've paid the mortgage.

Don't know where you are, but most housing markets will likely start to pick up in value again by the year's end -- the equities markets are likely to do the same only sooner. You will make more $$ long term by investing it than if you pay off a 5.5% mortgage.

To avoid declines, if it makes you sleep better you can hold it for a while in cash -- short term -- or you can invest in a relatively low risk investment like the right kind of bond fund until you're sure things have turned around. [PIMCO Total Return is passe, but it made 4% last year and is ahead this year as well -- slow and steady.]

S_A_M

Re: Or grandfather
 

You should just change your screen name to Malthus.

S_A_M

Re: Or grandfather
 

Makes this the best investment: http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:...om/ticket1.gif

Re: General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.
 

Wow. Thanks for all the advice. I didn't even think of the "real" interest I'm paying after taking into account taxes. And whew...I definitely need a cushion. Right now, besides 20K in a college savings acct for Vietbabe (courtesy of my Dad) and 70K in my 401K that tanked, I have zero. No savings accounts or cds. Just now starting to save (bc of the adoption and buying house) and I'm past 40. BTW, I should have been able to figure out the after tax aspect of my house payments. Why do I spend 3 hours on the internet trying to find a "recipe" for making candles and other stupid things and don't even bother investigating my own finances? Maybe it's just avoidance.

Anyhow, to thank you all for your advice I bring you this INCREDIBLE PREVIEW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--N9klJXbjQ

Re: General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.
 

Beeswax or parafin plus a hardener plus a tiny bit of scent and/or dye.

At least that's what I remember from childhood. We'd collect our scents and dyes from the herb garden, put them in the melted parafin on low before adding the hardener, and then go fishing them out after they did their work.

See, we have all the answers here.