I’m not sure why but when we travel - abroad or even, sometimes, within the USA - somehow people think we’re French. When we are walking around people will approach us and in their halting French ask us questions. What’s wild is that I never took any French language courses. My wife, however, took lots and lots of French and has been in a “French Language” Club for decades. So she’ll respond and I’ll just utter the occasional “Oui”.
I don’t think the financial situation of Humble Readers reflects that of most Americans. Unfortunately, lots of people (non HD lurkers) are struggling to pay for shelter and to feed their families. Because we’ve been lucky we have the luxury of discussing how best we can invest our “nest eggs”. We are very likely unrepresentative of tens of millions of voters whose PRIMARY concern is how well they believe the economy will do under a specific leader.
Douglas, great post! While we have always been condo or house owners your perspective is 100% spot on. We have never considered our shelter to be an investment. Way too many upkeep costs and so many other ownership expenses. We own because we stay put. Except for college, neither of us have never lived more than 50 miles from where we were born. In this, and other aspects of life, I firmly believe that there is no right or wrong. There is only personal preference.
Which is what we did. Our reasoning, though, had nothing to do with taxes. We figured our children can inherit our investments. As far as I know, Social Security payments cannot be inherited by your children.
What about the tax implications of taking capital gains vs. Social Security payments? That might matter to people in States like Illinois which doesn’t tax retiree Social Security payments. But does tax capital gains.
Mike, What usually happens when the minimum wage is increased is that the business is no longer profitable. So the owner closes the business. And all the workers lose their jobs.
Hopefully we’ll run out of TIME first. Our plan is not to be a burden on anyone - children or society. And then leave a hopefully large sum to be split between our children.
I rented when I was single. We bought our first condo together BEFORE we got married. A few years later we bought our ‘forever’ home and started our family. The interest rate was something like 16%. We refinanced a couple of times down to a 15 year mortgage at about 7%. We paid that off in 2008. Since then we’ve had no mortgage. We sold our ‘forever’ home a couple of years ago right about when I started having issues walking up and down steps. We bought a condominium for cash with the equity in the house and selling some investments. No mortgage. But we do property taxes and HOA fees. I believe that renting vs. owning is an individual choice with no right or wrong answer.
Dick, Our retirement income is on “autopilot” too. We both separately get Social Security. My wife ‘kept’ her last name at work. And we both get pensions. That’s the vast majority of our income along with a bit of some interest and dividends too.
Comments:
Adam, another excellent post! Please keep them coming!!
Post: Reality Check
Link to comment from January 19, 2025
I’m not sure why but when we travel - abroad or even, sometimes, within the USA - somehow people think we’re French. When we are walking around people will approach us and in their halting French ask us questions. What’s wild is that I never took any French language courses. My wife, however, took lots and lots of French and has been in a “French Language” Club for decades. So she’ll respond and I’ll just utter the occasional “Oui”.
Post: Limits of Power by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from January 18, 2025
I don’t think the financial situation of Humble Readers reflects that of most Americans. Unfortunately, lots of people (non HD lurkers) are struggling to pay for shelter and to feed their families. Because we’ve been lucky we have the luxury of discussing how best we can invest our “nest eggs”. We are very likely unrepresentative of tens of millions of voters whose PRIMARY concern is how well they believe the economy will do under a specific leader.
Post: Limits of Power by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from January 17, 2025
Douglas, great post! While we have always been condo or house owners your perspective is 100% spot on. We have never considered our shelter to be an investment. Way too many upkeep costs and so many other ownership expenses. We own because we stay put. Except for college, neither of us have never lived more than 50 miles from where we were born. In this, and other aspects of life, I firmly believe that there is no right or wrong. There is only personal preference.
Post: Home Free
Link to comment from January 16, 2025
Which is what we did. Our reasoning, though, had nothing to do with taxes. We figured our children can inherit our investments. As far as I know, Social Security payments cannot be inherited by your children.
Post: Open Social Security – interesting finding on optimization and mortality tables
Link to comment from January 14, 2025
What about the tax implications of taking capital gains vs. Social Security payments? That might matter to people in States like Illinois which doesn’t tax retiree Social Security payments. But does tax capital gains.
Post: Open Social Security – interesting finding on optimization and mortality tables
Link to comment from January 14, 2025
Mike, What usually happens when the minimum wage is increased is that the business is no longer profitable. So the owner closes the business. And all the workers lose their jobs.
Post: The Twenty Billion Dollar Problem
Link to comment from January 10, 2025
Hopefully we’ll run out of TIME first. Our plan is not to be a burden on anyone - children or society. And then leave a hopefully large sum to be split between our children.
Post: Focusing on the Real Threat
Link to comment from January 10, 2025
I rented when I was single. We bought our first condo together BEFORE we got married. A few years later we bought our ‘forever’ home and started our family. The interest rate was something like 16%. We refinanced a couple of times down to a 15 year mortgage at about 7%. We paid that off in 2008. Since then we’ve had no mortgage. We sold our ‘forever’ home a couple of years ago right about when I started having issues walking up and down steps. We bought a condominium for cash with the equity in the house and selling some investments. No mortgage. But we do property taxes and HOA fees. I believe that renting vs. owning is an individual choice with no right or wrong answer.
Post: Rent Forever?
Link to comment from January 9, 2025
Dick, Our retirement income is on “autopilot” too. We both separately get Social Security. My wife ‘kept’ her last name at work. And we both get pensions. That’s the vast majority of our income along with a bit of some interest and dividends too.
Post: Obsessed with a financial stress-less retirement
Link to comment from January 6, 2025