We are extremely conservative when it comes to finances. Besides our retirement funds we have after tax investments. Those after tax investments are about 2 1/2 year’s worth of our normal monthly expenses. We tap that for emergencies or other big ticket items. We have very little debt. Just stuff we’ve put on our credit cards, which get fully paid off each month. We have no mortgage or car loans. We know we could be more heavily invested …. we know we have too much in cash or cash equivalents … but we sleep well at night knowing our bills won’t bother us.
Don’t know about anyone else, but the amoun of the increase in my medicare deduction was greater than the amount of the increase in my overall Social Security payment. So my 2026 net payout is actually LESS than my 2025 net payout was.
Robert, You are doing the right things. We have decided we want to be able to see our children enjoy some of their “inheritance”. Rather than have to wait until we’ve died.
“Just in case” we always had a HELOC on our forever home.
Even after the mortgage was paid off. It had a $75 a year service fee. Silly us. We found a Condominium we really liked and using a combination of savings and the HELOC we were able to make an “all cash” offer, which was accepted. 9 weeks later we closed on the sale of our forever home, paid off the HELOC, and had a profit. The HELOC saved us the stress of a “bridge loan”. No HELOC on the condo now. If needs be we will sell some investments when we move to a CCRC.
Comments
Our HELOC was very useful when we downsized. We used it to help pay cash for our CanDoMinimum instead of a “bridge” loan.
Post: Advice I give to anyone who’ll listen!
Link to comment from January 26, 2026
I only give advice when I’m asked. 😜 I was charged $75/year to keep an open HELOC. It was our local bank.
Post: Advice I give to anyone who’ll listen!
Link to comment from January 26, 2026
We are extremely conservative when it comes to finances. Besides our retirement funds we have after tax investments. Those after tax investments are about 2 1/2 year’s worth of our normal monthly expenses. We tap that for emergencies or other big ticket items. We have very little debt. Just stuff we’ve put on our credit cards, which get fully paid off each month. We have no mortgage or car loans. We know we could be more heavily invested …. we know we have too much in cash or cash equivalents … but we sleep well at night knowing our bills won’t bother us.
Post: Retiree emergency expenses-how to cope
Link to comment from January 24, 2026
Don’t know about anyone else, but the amoun of the increase in my medicare deduction was greater than the amount of the increase in my overall Social Security payment. So my 2026 net payout is actually LESS than my 2025 net payout was.
Post: Social Security is not going bankrupt, but that is not the full story
Link to comment from January 24, 2026
Robert, You are doing the right things. We have decided we want to be able to see our children enjoy some of their “inheritance”. Rather than have to wait until we’ve died.
Post: Children / grandchildren accounts
Link to comment from January 21, 2026
We downsized to a CanDoMinimum 😄 Now, at 71 and only in fair health, I have to wonder if we should have directly moved to a CCRC.
Post: “Too Much House” vs “Not Enough House”—But Through the Lens of Aging in Place
Link to comment from January 20, 2026
“Just in case” we always had a HELOC on our forever home. Even after the mortgage was paid off. It had a $75 a year service fee. Silly us. We found a Condominium we really liked and using a combination of savings and the HELOC we were able to make an “all cash” offer, which was accepted. 9 weeks later we closed on the sale of our forever home, paid off the HELOC, and had a profit. The HELOC saved us the stress of a “bridge loan”. No HELOC on the condo now. If needs be we will sell some investments when we move to a CCRC.
Post: The $8,000 Cost of Peace of Mind
Link to comment from January 20, 2026
Same here. Anything under $10 is OK.
Post: Are you and your spouse synchronized?
Link to comment from January 18, 2026
Why would someone downvote that?
Post: The “Mean Girls”/Junior High Bullies at HumbleDollar
Link to comment from January 11, 2026
I agree with both your taste in beers AND investment philosophy. I happen to like lagers best of all. Then Ales. I really try to avoid IPAs.
Post: No Such Thing as Easy Money
Link to comment from January 10, 2026