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We have a similar set up as you, we each have $X per month of "allowance". But we also have an "eating out / date night" budget. If we eat out alone (such as buy lunch at work) that's allowance. If we're together, it counts against the eating out / date night. This really helped my spouse come to terms with us having allowances but not feel like we could never spend money on ourselves. I think you could definitely do something similar with any category, doesn't have to be date nights. It could be $100/ mo on furniture / decorating. That way if she wants that $1k bedroom, you two have to save for 10 months, or alternatively start looking for cheaper options.
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Apr 4, 2016 13:50
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I LIKE COOKIE posted:When you make your lunch for the day why can't you just make 2 lunches instead of one? Maybe switch off so she makes lunch for you some days also. That would apply some pressure since it's much harder to leave you lunchless. Eventually the habit will form and the lunch spending problem will be no more. I make all my partner's lunches to take to work since he is not so good at remembering to do it and it doesn't take much more time since I'm making my own anyway. He does other things for me that I'm not so good at or don't like. I recommend this method in general. Partnership is awesome but if I we broke up I don't think he would know how to feed himself and I'd probably never have a clean bathroom again so there's that downside. We also do allowance ($50/month each) and "date" money ($150/month total). Sometimes the ratio has been different but we really like each other right now I guess
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Apr 8, 2016 19:41
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T. J. Eckleburg posted:Partnership is awesome but if I we broke up I don't think he would know how to feed himself and I'd probably never have a clean bathroom again so there's that downside. What's up I-cook-and-they-clean buddy? It works well for me and my wife. She does make her own lunches of crackers and cheese and similar things on that level, but I cook all the actual meals. I hate cleaning above any other chore, so she basically does all of that and I just help move furniture as needed. She does laundry too (I'm happy to but I don't do it right apparently), and I do 90% of the outside work and all the "poo poo is falling apart" maintenance work.
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Apr 9, 2016 00:45
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Thanks for the input all. We ended up bumping the allowance up which should take care of most things. I don't actually make lunches, I just bring a giant bag of apples, container of nuts, and yogurt. Trying to get her to start doing something similar on that front. I am also the cook in the relationship, so making extra at dinner for leftover lunches is working as well, but we also don't make a full dinner every night (drat you Trade Joe's frozen pizzas). Building a great relationship goes hand in hand with FI right? Since you are going to be stuck with that person a lot more of the time when you both don't have jobs! The kitchen is my domain in terms of cooking and cleaning, she does the laundry, and we split everything else. I try to do more than her when all is said and done, as her job is a lot more stressful than mine.
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Apr 9, 2016 02:29
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Dustoph posted:Building a great relationship goes hand in hand with FI right? Absolutely, especially because disagreements about handling money are the motivating factor behind so many divorces.
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Apr 9, 2016 05:26
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Question about how I should be looking at dividends in my savings plan. I went into 2016 with a goal to save a set amount this year, say $X. I'm maxing out my 401k, putting as much as I can in a Roth, a small amount in a regular savings account and the remainder in index funds in a taxable account. All of these contributions will add up to $X by the end of the year. My taxable account generates dividends, which I've been leaving as cash in the account and incorporating into my mutual fund purchases each payday (basically reinvesting them), so actually the total amount of cash I'm adding to my investments/savings is $X + dividends. But I'm starting to wonder if this is the best approach, since my budget is pinching me a little tighter than I was hoping and my taxable account contributions dwarf my dividends. So my question is, if this were you, would you look at the dividends as additional income on par with your paycheck which contributes to your set $X savings goal, or would you look at them as part of your investments, like I've been doing, such that investment purchases at the end of the year are $X + dividends?
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Apr 10, 2016 19:03
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fartzilla posted:So my question is, if this were you, would you look at the dividends as additional income on par with your paycheck which contributes to your set $X savings goal, or would you look at them as part of your investments, like I've been doing, such that investment purchases at the end of the year are $X + dividends? Well the government considers it investment income for the purpose of taxes so it would be reasonable for you to do the same.
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Apr 10, 2016 19:21
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fartzilla posted:Question about how I should be looking at dividends in my savings plan. While you're still in accumulation phase I think you should 100% separate your investments (including dividends) and your employment income - so yes always reinvest and never spend them, and don't consider them income. Think of dividends as simply the second component of investment returns, with the first being capital gains. You would never sell 2% of your portfolio a year as a second source of income while still employed, right? A 2% annual dividend (other than the tax implication) would be the same thing as doing that if you don't reinvest it. Your investment accounts should be a black hole where money goes in and then never goes out until retirement. Consider that from 1929 to 2012, the S&P 500 had a total return of 9.4% annualized. 4.2% (almost half!) of that was from fully reinvesting dividends. So if you're spending any/all of your dividends, you are crippling your portfolio's long-term expected return. Source: http://www.advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/loomis_41812.php
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Apr 10, 2016 21:05
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Swingline posted:While you're still in accumulation phase I think you should 100% separate your investments (including dividends) and your employment income - so yes always reinvest and never spend them, and don't consider them income. Think of dividends as simply the second component of investment returns, with the first being capital gains. You would never sell 2% of your portfolio a year as a second source of income while still employed, right? A 2% annual dividend (other than the tax implication) would be the same thing as doing that if you don't reinvest it. Your investment accounts should be a black hole where money goes in and then never goes out until retirement. Thank you, this was basically what I was thinking when I originally planned this out so it's good to hear I was on the right track. But what would you recommend that I do about taxes? For comparison, say I realized a capital gain in my brokerage account. I would set aside some of the profits to compensate for the reduction in take-home pay after adjusting my withholding. I would feel justified in doing this because the tax portion of my gains was never really mine to begin with, and no matter where the money comes from it's still a chunk out of my net worth. Additionally, I don't feel like there's any way I can budget for the capital gains tax because, while I know what I'd like to do with my investments this year, it's hard to say what will actually happen. I feel similarly about dividends. Is this a bad attitude to have? Should I accept the slightly lower take-home pay and budget as though I have a "black hole maintenance" category?
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Apr 11, 2016 00:13
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Put aside what you think is a reasonable budget to pay taxes on capital gains. As you've said you have no way to predict it so just set aside a reasonable amount, it's all you can realistically do. Any revenue from dividends reinvest. It's a part of the gain and the compounding effect of investments. The difference over 20-30 years could be many hundreds of thousands or millions by the time you retire. You seem to be doing all the right things for now.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:32
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Devian666 posted:Put aside what you think is a reasonable budget to pay taxes on capital gains. As you've said you have no way to predict it so just set aside a reasonable amount, it's all you can realistically do.  good to hear!For some more background, I'm budgeting based on what my checking account receives, which is my take-home pay minus brokerage contributions. There is no room for additional withholding for more taxable events beyond dividends, but I wasn't planning on making any sales year and I got a small CoL increase at work that I haven't factored in yet so it should be OK if I end up selling something. It's kind of funny, since I started this saving spree there were a few times I've thought too hard about it or considered deviating or changing the plan for one reason or another. Every time I always came back to "stay the course." Nice to know the Internet agrees with me on that one.
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Apr 11, 2016 01:20
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I added a small number on my W4 to have my employer deduct a little extra each paycheck to account for taxes I receive on dividends held in a taxable account. I can ballpark how much my dividends will be annually and back calculate how much tax I should be paying bi-weekly to come out roughly even at the end of the year.
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Apr 11, 2016 01:20
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fartzilla posted:Thank you, this was basically what I was thinking when I originally planned this out so it's good to hear I was on the right track. But what would you recommend that I do about taxes? If your taxable account is generating meaningful capital gains before retirement, you're probably doing something wrong. Index mutual funds/ETFs are incredible tax-efficient as a result of low turnover, and therefore very rarely have noticeable capital gains distributions (in contrast to actively managed funds). Since you are still in accumulation phase, you shouldn't be selling anything to generate capital gains either. If your taxable account portfolio gets out of balance due to market swings, rather than rebalancing by buying/selling funds (as you would in a 401k/IRA), you should simply redirect future contributions to the underweighted fund(s) to get back in balance without realizing capital gains. If you find that you regularly need to cash out of your investments for emergencies or big purchases, then your financial plan is out of whack (I.E. emergency savings bank account is too small / you should be saving for major purchases like a home with something besides stocks). To answer the question about dividend taxes, ideally the tax bill would be small enough so that you can adjust your W-4 withholdings down (from 2 allowances to 0 or something, or if you're already at 0 you can tell your employer to withhold an extra $25/paycheck or whatever to cover your estimated taxes) to still get a small refund at filing time. If your taxable account is so large that this is not possible, then yes you can set aside money from every dividend distribution to pay the tax bill (shouldnt be more than 15-25%, depends on your tax bracket). For reference, even for a $100k taxable account earning 3% in dividends, that's only a ~$600 annual tax bill assuming you're in the 20% dividend tax bracket. Hopefully the bulk of your investments are in 401ks/IRAs. Edit: One other thing to note is that you should put your international equity funds into taxable accounts, and US funds into your 401k/IRA due to the foreign tax credit. So if you have a $200k portfolio among all accounts, $100k taxable $100k 401k/IRA, and are targeting 60%/40% US/Int't equities, put the $80k of int'l funds based on that target in your taxable account. Swingline fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 02:44
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Quit my job 2 weeks ago. I'm half-FI. Gonna take 2 or 3 years off, then finish the marathon in (hopefully) a different company. Zero regrets so far. I'm baking more, working on my hobbies more, seeing friends and family more, biking more, reading more, and am just generally more contented.
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Apr 30, 2016 23:42
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Congrats. How old are you, if i can ask? My goal (as the sole earner for my family) is to be there by 45, having just started a couple years ago at 28.
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May 1, 2016 20:57
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Guest2553 posted:Congrats. How old are you, if i can ask? I'm under 30. Worked for just under 6 years, average salary in that period around 80k (chem engineering). What phase are you in? Drawing down expenses and getting the habits, or holding steady?
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May 2, 2016 02:28
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Mofabio posted:I'm under 30. Worked for just under 6 years, average salary in that period around 80k (chem engineering). Wow, that's really impressive. A lot of the success stories I see are people making well into the 6 figures so it just doesn't seem achievable. It's encouraging to see someone do it on a salary not too different from mine. Do you mind if I ask what percentage of your salary you lived on during that time? Are you bringing in cash with any side jobs or rental properties or just living off investments?
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May 2, 2016 03:07
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Mofabio posted:I'm under 30. Worked for just under 6 years, average salary in that period around 80k (chem engineering). I hated engineering so I dropped it for a history/psych major  Degree didn't have any bearing on my (federal) job so I went with something I liked, plus I should end up with a decent pension from it.I'd say I'm holding steady at the moment. My expenses have always lower than my salary so I was saving, just not doing anything with it beyond dealing with significant expenses without going into debt (wedding, wife's student loans, two vehicles, furniture for a house, having a babby). Habits haven't really changed, I'm just a lot more aware about my spending and invest rather than just save. Having an early retirement goal to work towards also helps keep me caged. I have about 2-3 years of expenses in liquid assets at the moment, and enough bonuses coming in that I should be up to 4 by end of year. I won't be able to save as aggressively over the next few years for a host of reasons, but it will still be at a rate I'm comfortable with. My pension should cover my annual expenses by the time I'm ready to pull the plug, but a) I don't want to pin all my hopes on that and b) I want to have some gently caress you money to do more than just get by. E. I started at 40k, currently pull in about 85k and might hit low 6-figures with a promotion or two, for reference. Guest2553 fucked around with this message at 04:07 on May 2, 2016 |
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May 2, 2016 03:56
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Wow, that's really impressive. A lot of the success stories I see are people making well into the 6 figures so it just doesn't seem achievable. It's encouraging to see someone do it on a salary not too different from mine. Do you mind if I ask what percentage of your salary you lived on during that time? Are you bringing in cash with any side jobs or rental properties or just living off investments? Thanks man. No side hustles or any investments except cash and index funds. I'm living on 25-30k in the Bay Area. The only thing I probably do differently is that I love DIY/engineering, so my commodities are forever 80% off. If not DIY, then I buy broken and repair, or just look for used deals. I'm pretty weird, but I like being surrounded by things I built myself, rather than things built by workers in jobs they probably dislike. Guest2553 posted:I have about 2-3 years of expenses in liquid assets at the moment, and enough bonuses coming in that I should be up to 4 by end of year. I won't be able to save as aggressively over the next few years for a host of reasons, but it will still be at a rate I'm comfortable with. My pension should cover my annual expenses by the time I'm ready to pull the plug, but a) I don't want to pin all my hopes on that and b) I want to have some gently caress you money to do more than just get by. That's awesome dude. The peace of mind of 2-3 years of savings is one of the finest things you can buy yourself. For me it was a turning point to stop being such a passive child at work, and start taking more risks. I really don't understand the lifestyles of my ex-coworkers. The guy next to me, before I left, had just gotten back from a $10k vacation in Fiji. They're always complaining that they're out of money, that $200k/yr household isn't enough to live on in the bay. Median income in SF is $70k, meaning HALF OF SF is living on less than that. And that's the richest that SF has ever been. I just want to grab them and be like, don't you have enough? Mofabio fucked around with this message at 07:15 on May 2, 2016 |
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May 2, 2016 05:16
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quote:I'm living on 25-30k in the Bay Area. So for curiosity's sake (because I'm about to move out there), where are you living that you can get rent even close to living on that amount? It feels like everything I find is $2.5K-3.5K regardless of size or distance from work. Clearly, I'm missing a neighborhood or something.  I'm nowhere near the point of "oh god, $200K isn't enough to live on" but I'm always game for spending way the gently caress less rent.
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May 2, 2016 15:54
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Sundae posted:So for curiosity's sake (because I'm about to move out there), where are you living that you can get rent even close to living on that amount? It feels like everything I find is $2.5K-3.5K regardless of size or distance from work. Clearly, I'm missing a neighborhood or something. Get housemates / rent a room in an apartment or house for $1k-$1.5k. I've been lucky; I found my first room for $720/month on padmapper in a niceish area of Fremont (cheaper area than the peninsula) and currently pay 500 from someone who just doesn't care. It's worth it to spend a lot of time padmapper hunting. If you insist on having your own place, there were Fremont apartment complexes starting at $1800 to $2100 from January 2015, but that may have gone up now. Research public transit options to your work as well. There are a lot of different busses and commuter rails and such so it's not very user friendly for someone new to the area. edit: my friends are looking at a 4BR in Redwood City for ~$6,000/month. They used to rent a 3BR in Palo Alto for $4,400 which they converted into a 4BR for $1,100/person but I think they got lucky as well. Everything around their old place in palo alto is ~$1,500/room/month. Blinky2099 fucked around with this message at 19:52 on May 2, 2016 |
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May 2, 2016 17:20
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Fremont is kind of depressing, but I'm glad you got a good deal. It's good to keep in mind that one can still live in an expensive area if one is willing to compromise.
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May 2, 2016 19:55
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Sundae posted:So for curiosity's sake (because I'm about to move out there), where are you living that you can get rent even close to living on that amount? It feels like everything I find is $2.5K-3.5K regardless of size or distance from work. Clearly, I'm missing a neighborhood or something. Basically we got super lucky. $1000/mo for 1bd inlaw unit in (edit: north) Oakland (on the Berkeley border), which I split with the gf. Found it on craigslist. We THINK there's rent control, but even if there isn't, the landlord doesn't give a poo poo so long as we keep sending the checks. I think he wrote the lease himself, it's pretty informal. Market rate for a place like that 4 years ago was probably ~$1200, with fancy condo-like poo poo going for ~$1700, and now like you've noticed, it's doubled. I think I remember you're pharma? There's cheap stuff out in Vacaville if you're moving to the Wherever you end up, bike commuting in the Bay is so goddamn pleasant, that it's worth living <5 miles from work. Especially with this drought on. Winter 2015 I think I only needed to suit up in rain gear like, twice. My thought is, there are people in the Bay Area for whom the new $15/hr minimum wage means something. That's $30k/yr in a lovely, exhausting, full-time job. Somehow they've found food and housing, so us lucky sons of bitches should be able to, as well. Mofabio fucked around with this message at 21:21 on May 2, 2016 |
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May 2, 2016 21:11
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I have a rent controlled apartment in lowland Berkeley with a huge garden and two bedrooms, and you would have to set it on fire to get me out. $1720 is still considerably more than $1000, though, good find! I made a job switch to working in the city for a significant pay bump to $80k and now I am officially down to my car as my only debt (5k and 1 year left if I don't pay it off early). I contribute about 20% of my income to a pension and deferred compensation account, but am still fighting with my budget for additional savings. I struggle to reduce my "social spending" though - restaurants and bars in the bay are very expensive. Kid spending is hard too, though my 16 year old is pretty conservative in her wants. It feels so much harder to deprive her than to deprive myself. And of course she just made the cheerleading team 
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May 2, 2016 21:19
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Mocking Bird posted:I have a rent controlled apartment in lowland Berkeley with a huge garden and two bedrooms, and you would have to set it on fire to get me out. $1720 is still considerably more than $1000, though, good find! V. nice. $1720 with space to raise a kid in Berkeley is awesome, dude. I got lucky with social spending too, I guess just by having poor friends who are happy to smoke weed and chat and watch movies. With my rich friends, we built a robot bartender, which is a great excuse to stay home and do "reliability tests". I usually get some bread going if I know friends are coming over. Fresh, warm bread and homemade butter is another good excuse to stay in, and it's not much work so I can still hang out, too. Homemade delicious bread for like 30 cents a meal is like, an FI cheat code, IMO.
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May 2, 2016 21:41
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I second that. Making your own bread is one of those things that saves money and takes more time but had a amazing end result. Also the smell as it bakes is awesome.
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May 3, 2016 06:52
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Making your own bread doesn't really save money to be honest, just as cheap to get some fresh bread at your local market, and you save a bunch of time and mess. I mean, unless you're trying to save 5 cents a loaf or something.
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May 3, 2016 16:31
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On the other hand, your apartment smells like freshly baked bread. 
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May 3, 2016 16:32
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I think the point is that it is fancy and cheap and you can serve it to guests while hanging out at home rather than going out to eat appetizers at some restaurant. "Wine nights" are a staple of my social life, so I do indeed bake bread or pastries and have people over, especially since it's so beautiful outside now and I have a large garden/patio/fire pit. The issue with overspending on social activities tends to be dates or going out after work in the city, since no one wants to come to the east bay to hang out when they can walk two blocks to get an (expensive) drink instead 
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May 3, 2016 16:34
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I love bread. I've often said that if I had to choose between meat and bread I'd be a vegetarian tomorrow, and I really like a good steak or some carnitas (Taco Tuesday's meat is in the slow cooker right now.) My wife got me a bread machine for my birthday a few years ago and I made a bunch of different types of bread, but I came to the same conclusion Kontradaz did: It really wasn't saving me any money. It's fun to mix things up and make weird breads (pb&j on jalapeno mozzerella bread is amazing), but even with the bread machine doing all of the work we still end up buying loaves of bread. The bread machine also makes pizza dough, and we use that every week. That saves a ton of money.
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May 3, 2016 17:52
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Hm, I was basing it on cost of flour, but maybe there's more to it? I'm gonna publicly do this math. I buy bread flour for ~$3/5# bag, instant yeast is $8/lb, and I use .58oz yeast per 5# of flour, salt is $cheap, 57oz water is $cheap. Looks like maybe $0.50 to run the oven an hour to bake 5#, based on internet calculators. I let it rise in the fridge, let's say 1600g water * 4.19 J/g*K * 25 delK * 20% cooling efficiency = 0.25 kWh * $0.2/kWh = ok, a nickel, just making sure. $3 flour + $8/(16/0.58) yeast + $0.55 energy = $3.79, round up to $4, for about 12 500-calorie baguettes, 2 small pizzas, and a focaccia. I think I'm saving a shitload? Am I forgetting anything? Fresh sourdough boules can be like $4, baguettes $2, but admittedly a proper comparison would be by weight. And there's labor cost, but I don't mind 10 minutes of kneading. I guess I could save $0.20 on the yeast and use a levain. I don't think homemade butter saves much. I did the math one time and it was like, 30% off of an already-cheap fat, costco heavy cream vs. costco butter, and it spoils quick. Maybe there's more savings if you use the fresh buttermilk, too. We should do a Bay Area bread and pizza night for cheapskates.
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May 3, 2016 19:36
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Omg I would be so down Mostly because I'm too lazy to churn my own butter and I hella want to try it
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May 4, 2016 00:37
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Mocking Bird posted:Omg I would be so down Couldn't you just pour some heavy cream into an electric mixer and set it on high for 20-30 minutes? I think you just need to add salt after that.
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May 4, 2016 00:47
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Mofabio posted:We should do a Bay Area bread and pizza night for cheapskates. edit: make your own free-range chickens...? Blinky2099 fucked around with this message at 00:59 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 00:54
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Mofabio posted:Hm, I was basing it on cost of flour, but maybe there's more to it? I'm gonna publicly do this math. I buy bread flour for ~$3/5# bag, instant yeast is $8/lb, and I use .58oz yeast per 5# of flour, salt is $cheap, 57oz water is $cheap. Looks like maybe $0.50 to run the oven an hour to bake 5#, based on internet calculators. I let it rise in the fridge, let's say 1600g water * 4.19 J/g*K * 25 delK * 20% cooling efficiency = 0.25 kWh * $0.2/kWh = ok, a nickel, just making sure. There is oddly enough a book exactly on this Make Bread Buy Butter which I read a couple years ago (after getting it from the library). Basically the author goes through a variety of things you can make at home and looks at the cost, time, and quality difference between it and the store bought and makes a recommendation on whether to buy or make it at home.
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May 4, 2016 01:00
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TwoSheds posted:Couldn't you just pour some heavy cream into an electric mixer and set it on high for 20-30 minutes? I think you just need to add salt after that. Intriguing. I have a very old kitchen aid mixer, so it's theoretically possible. Blinky2099 posted:I'd join a Bay Area cheap protein night, whatever that would look like. I would eat way too much bread if I had all of that sitting around my house and smelling good. I roasted a 7 lbs chicken I got for $5.50 this weekend and used the bones to make stock, threw some carrots and celery and onions into the roasting pan, and now I have a freezer full of individual serving low carb chicken soup for less than $1 each The home cooked food element has probably been the most enjoyable element of financial independence training for me. I hate not being able to travel as much as I want, or buy a new phone, but I truly enjoy the vastly increased amount of cooking I now do, both simple and complex.Downside: 16 year old eats like a Midwestern toddler and only likes ground beef tacos, spaghetti, and fettuccine Alfredo. Will occasionally deign to eat string cheese and goldfish crackers, refuses to believe I can make Chinese food that's as good as Panda Express  Getting family members on board with the level of saving this takes has proven to be a challenge. I can imagine how this would be easier and also potentially so much harder with a spouse.
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May 4, 2016 01:06
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TwoSheds posted:Couldn't you just pour some heavy cream into an electric mixer and set it on high for 20-30 minutes? I think you just need to add salt after that. Why don't you just like.... buy butter..... If you're going to go through the trouble of rigging up a kitchen appliance to make butter from the cream that is sold right next to the butter in the dairy aisle 
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May 4, 2016 02:24
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Why don't you just like.... buy butter..... If you're going to go through the trouble of rigging up a kitchen appliance to make butter from the cream that is sold right next to the butter in the dairy aisle That's what I do, but Mocking Bird said they wanted to churn. Honestly the cost is probably about the same and "the trouble of rigging up a kitchen appliance" a.k.a. inserting a plug into an outlet, is negligible. And for all I know, it may taste better. I've never done it myself. What I do know is that if you get the urge to experiment, you can add stuff like herbs or citrus zest to your home-churned butter, or even make compound butters, which gives it a price advantage over storebought, because that poo poo gets EXPENSIVE if you buy it in stores.
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May 4, 2016 03:01
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TwoSheds posted:That's what I do, but Mocking Bird said they wanted to churn. Honestly the cost is probably about the same and "the trouble of rigging up a kitchen appliance" a.k.a. inserting a plug into an outlet, is negligible. And for all I know, it may taste better. I've never done it myself. What I do know is that if you get the urge to experiment, you can add stuff like herbs or citrus zest to your home-churned butter, or even make compound butters, which gives it a price advantage over storebought, because that poo poo gets EXPENSIVE if you buy it in stores. You can make compound butter with store bought butter.
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May 4, 2016 03:12
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| # ? May 9, 2024 21:25 |
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Not sure if this is the best thread, but here goes. My wife and I hope to retire before we are too old. We are not super savers, but we max our our TSPs and have no debt other than our house. In that spirit, we are trying to come up with a good plan. We currently owe about 329k @ 4.125% with 28 years left. We recently sold a rental property and are walking away with about 170k. We are thinking about putting it to our home, and refinancing at 15 years and paying that 329k down to 200k, maybe lower. Our thoughts are with two young kids, having a paid off house by the time they are college aged, and also lowering our monthly payment by about $250/mo is worth more to us than putting it in an index fund. We live near DC, so we think the local real estate market is probably pretty stable with the low unemployment and steady work the area offers. Online searches seem to point both ways in this situation, I was curious to see what the thread thought.
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May 4, 2016 03:32
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