Stock Market Thread

[Mike]

I'm crushing that. Thank you, buying a house in the right place at the right time... Otherwise I'd only be meeting it.

[.RJ]

I don't include equity because people rarely liquidate everything in retirement.

Liquidate, retire, move to mexico.

[Apoc]

...get beheaded.

Being a one income household has slowed us down, but we wouldn't have it any other way... especially now that we have a kid.

[Apoc]

I'm crushing that. Thank you, buying a house in the right place at the right time... Otherwise I'd only be meeting it.

How has buying your house helped if you don't count equity as retirement?

[BLINGMW]

I'm 38 but retirement savings currently is closer to one year income. :|

[HAULN-SS]

33 here..alone i'm at like 1x cash + retirement, and another 30% tied up in home equity. If you count spouse (got engaged earlier this year), looking at like 70% combined income in cash, another 70% in retirement funds, and then my same 30% tied up in my current house.

Unfortunately almost all the cash is about to be put into a house in nova whenever we find what we're looking for =( Makes me sad because we could easily pay off my existing WV house and have no debt for a while but she doesnt want to do the commute

[Mike]

I'm crushing that. Thank you, buying a house in the right place at the right time... Otherwise I'd only be meeting it.

How has buying your house helped if you don't count equity as retirement?

oh, missed that. i'm on track then :/ divorce definitely gonna f me a bit, but looking at inheritance it won't matter. i've always found it odd that retirement planning doesn't include inheritance.

[Apoc]

I think maybe because families don't talk amounts. I'm probably due a decent chunk of change, but I've never talked about it with either parent.

[HAULN-SS]

or because people like me will probably just inherit the land and a few guns

[Mike]

I think maybe because families don't talk amounts. I'm probably due a decent chunk of change, but I've never talked about it with either parent.

when you get to one left, you talk about it.

also, i can probably consider my house liquid since i'll be plopping a for sale sign on it in the near future.

[Apoc]

I think maybe because families don't talk amounts. I'm probably due a decent chunk of change, but I've never talked about it with either parent.

when you get to one left, you talk about it.

As far as my parents are concerned, they are the only parent. :lol:

I have both their wills, but I've never read them. All I know is I'm in charge of pulling the plug.

[WRXtranceformed]

Another issue with equity is that for the vast majority of people, the real gains on real estate are usually pretty low, I'm told less than 1%. It makes sense if you think about it, if you finance and pay a house off you have to think about all the interest you paid into it as well as taxes, repairs, upgrades you didn't get your money back out of, maintenance, the original down payment you're basically just getting back, etc. There are a few rare cases like if you buy into a bubble and sell shortly after, or become a slum lord and get low income renters to pay for your place. I see some well to do people try to get involved in mid market rental purchasing but you have to have a lot of cash for that to make any sense to me. Plus, commercial real estate is where the money is, some of the wealthiest people I have met are investors in that space.

[Apoc]

My grandfather made a ton of cash buying land and new homes in up and coming neighborhoods, but that was 30 years before everyone and their mother tried to flip houses. He also sat on empty land for 20 years, so his long game was pretty strong. I'm just not sure there's land sitting around like that any more.

[WRXtranceformed]

My grandfather made a ton of cash buying land and new homes in up and coming neighborhoods, but that was 30 years before everyone and their mother tried to flip houses. He also sat on empty land for 20 years, so his long game was pretty strong. I'm just not sure there's land sitting around like that any more.

Yeah that's a great sort of bubble example. It's hard to find land in a lot of the most popular growing metro areas that is cheap and desired. If you could get in years ago and had the cash to do it you are made. My father is still living on our 100 acres outside of Leesburg that my grandfather bought in the '50s too raise his race horses on. Can't wait until we sell that someday

[WRXtranceformed]

OUR TOWNHOUSE FINALLY WENT UNDER CONTRACT!!!!

I'm pretty financially conservative and it was a big calculated risk buying a house when I still owned another. Due to HOA issues it stood on the market for longer than most in this price range and market do, but the other day an investor came in and laid down a cash offer that was only $2k off our asking price, was right in line with recent comps, with no concessions and it will close before the end of the month if all goes well with inspections Huge load off of my shoulders and needless to say I am not in a hurry to sell another house any time soon. Although I am pretty close to our family finances, carrying two mortgages (and associated costs with two houses) even for just a month definitely made me put everything under a microscope. So hopefully all goes well and by Oct. 28th this old thing will be off the books and I can take a mini-vacation and start buying more stuff we need for the new place :thumbup:

Side note: I was in a business meeting in Dallas with our CEO when I got the text and email offer from my realtor. I told him about the offer and he was stoked for me. When I commented on how I wasn't real excited about carrying two mortgages without a renter for much longer, his response was "mortgage? what's that, I haven't seen one of those in a really long time" (says the guy who owns a beautiful chateau on 65 acres in Idaho). My response: "I hate you... hopefully someday!" :lol: :lol:

[WRXtranceformed]

And closed yesterday on the old place in about 10 minutes at the attorney's office, big wire transfer hit my bank this morning signalling the end of the process. New buyers were investors scooping up another rental property...rolled up in a Range Rover and paid cash, that's cool with me! I netted out from the transaction pretty much exactly what I withdrew from my roth 401k to cover the down payment, safety net for expenses and inspection repairs that I couldn't fix myself. So it couldn't have worked out any better! To say that is a load off of my shoulders is a huge understatement though...daddy doesn't want to go through the home buying / selling process again any time soon.

Now on to furnishing this place (double the square footage = double the furniture) and projects (debating an irrigation system in the spring)

[ScottyB]

so what's the skinny on APL after the latest hype-hype event? the "Pro" line ethos seems muddied up and innovation has been relatively stagnant and disjointed (keeping headphone jacks on the new MacBook, so brave! :lol: ). what is making buying a shiny new apple thing a strong proposition over keeping an old one?

(debating an irrigation system in the spring)

not to get too off topic but do you guys have bermuda grass up there? we run irrigation here in augusta and we do have to use it a couple times a year but bermuda will take some insane heat without issue if its mowed sparingly and left to get high enough.

we also have water catch barrels in the back yard which are great for keeping potting plants happy if you don't want to run hose water all the time in the heat. you can get those for <$85/piece at Lowe's Depot or wherever.

[WRXtranceformed]

not to get too off topic but do you guys have bermuda grass up there? we run irrigation here in augusta and we do have to use it a couple times a year but bermuda will take some insane heat without issue if its mowed sparingly and left to get high enough.

we also have water catch barrels in the back yard which are great for keeping potting plants happy if you don't want to run hose water all the time in the heat. you can get those for <$85/piece at Lowe's Depot or wherever.

We do have Bermuda and that's the debate I have been having is whether it really needs a regular watering schedule. During the late spring / summer heat we will have to water but I don't think it will need a regular watering schedule like some of our neighbors do. We've been watering it regularly since it was just laid down a few months ago but I've been watering less and less as the grass has started to take. I love the idea of rain catch barrels but unfortunately I think our HOA doesn't allow them, I need to look into that too.

[ScottyB]

bermuda needs water, but if you're getting rain once every 5-7 days or so in the summer it'll be OK. i don't know how much precip Charlotte gets but if you guys are away from the house a lot, and there's a risk you could be over 8-9 days without rain in 95+ heat, you'll start to lose the yard.

we get hammered with storms every 3-4 days in summer so its fine, but right now for instance, we're still 85 degrees down here and we've gone over a month with no rain so i'm running the irrigation every other day now. sucks but its saving our ass.

[Apoc]

Fun fact: We're likely to install irrigation in our yard. In Seattle. Because the summers are so dry.