Good morning!!!!

[Eric Salop]

Drew, I can see it being hard to justify spending more than the house is eventually worth. When in work it is easy to treat money as a "renewable resource". As we approach retirement it becomes more obvious money is more like a dwindling resource for most.

Spending money is especially hard for me as I come from the county of Yorkshire, where the people are noted for being second only to the Scots in being careful with any expenditure. On the other hand, as I get older, I find it easier to spend. I have even been known to pay a little extra for next day delivery so I can get on with things instead of spending the days I have left waiting for the second rate delivery service.

They say you can't buy happiness with money - not completely true - you should have seen my face on Tuesday when I totally ignored the cost and put a brand new blade in my hacksaw.

 

[dave1949]

We got the Subaru home no problems. Eric is right, the full owner's manual would give Dostoevsky a run for his money. :laughing:

You namby pamby, scalpel, stitch happy folks; I can remember my first penicillin shot from a re-usable needle the size of an #8 finish nail fished out of an autoclave with tongs. I bet some of you can too.

The finger is feeling better each day. The doc said a lot of the swelling under the flap of skin is collagen which is necessary for healing the wound. She also said an infection under a finger pad is not easy to treat. If the antibiotics can prevent that, well that's what they are for and probably would have been included in any course of treatment. It is humbling to think that such minor injuries in the past caused many amputations or deaths. Or in 2nd Grade, drink this little cup of sugary tasting liquid and you will not get polio. We forget how fortunate we are sometimes, at least I know I do.

I have to go ride the lawn mower for a while. It's 80F, 56% humidity, feels like 81F, sunny and a light breeze. Summer is passing by.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Front came thru yesterday, lots of heavy rain, but now it is still hot but less humid.

Dave, glad the finger is getting better, that looks nasty.

Paid my last mortgage payment this week, and next to last tractor payment. Still have a home equity loan to pay down, but right now the "extra" money has to go straight to the college fund.

 

[Larro Darro]

Paid my last mortgage payment this week, and next to last tractor payment. Still have a home equity loan to pay down, but right now the "extra" money has to go straight to the college fund.

That is great news. The feeling of being debt free is like no other.

We don't have much, but what we have is ours, not the bank's. Or in our case, Mamma's. My parents loaned us half the cost of building the house {we had saved the other half}. Three Christmas's ago, we had it paid down to $20K when Mamma told us not to make anymore payments. Since then we haven't had any debt. It does make looking toward retirement less scary.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Front came thru yesterday, lots of heavy rain, but now it is still hot but less humid.

Dave, glad the finger is getting better, that looks nasty.

Paid my last mortgage payment this week, and next to last tractor payment. Still have a home equity loan to pay down, but right now the "extra" money has to go straight to the college fund.

Keep your eyes open on the college fund thing. Unless the rules have changed a lot it is pointless to put a sum of cash away for your children's college. If you have it they take it and once you are broke you then qualify for all the grants and loans. Better off to be broke to begin with. They look at your and your children's bank accounts and stock portfolios if you have one and the balance on your house mortgage but don't see the difference between a big loan on an SUV and a car that is paid for.
So own all your vehicles outright and have your savings in something you can sell that isn't on any of their forms that you have to report.
This is perhaps the only time it is good to appear poor on paper.

 

[txdon]

We got the Subaru home no problems.

What color did you get?

 

[txdon]

Keep your eyes open on the college fund thing. Unless the rules have changed a lot it is pointless to put a sum of cash away for your children's college. If you have it they take it and once you are broke you then qualify for all the grants and loans. Better off to be broke to begin with.

I can see adjusting money trying to qualify for grants but whats the purpose to try to qualify for loans? You have to pay those back.

 

[dave1949]

What color did you get?

Silver. The red and blue ones they had were sold in just a couple days. So, it was silver or charcoal grey. Our Ford is charcoal gray and looks filthy all winter; a wash is only good for one trip to town once they start sanding the roads with some salt mixed in.

 

[txdon]

Silver. The red and blue ones they had were sold in just a couple days. So, it was silver or charcoal grey. Our Ford is charcoal gray and looks filthy all winter; a wash is only good for one trip to town once they start sanding the roads with some salt mixed in.

We got a 2014 green one in 2013. My wife wanted silver but my truck is silver and I wanted blue. Neither of us objected to green.

 

[dave1949]

We got a 2014 green one in 2013. My wife wanted silver but my truck is silver and I wanted blue. Neither of us objected to green.

We aren't very picky on the colors. Sharon didn't really like the blue, red would have been okay with both of us, Silver - meh. It will do.

It has the All Weather package (windshield wiper de-icer, heated side mirrors, heated front seats), splash guards, auto dimming mirror with compass, rear seat backs guard, and Weather Tech molded vinyl floor mats which I would have bought online if they weren't there already. They are very nice for catching mud, melting snow and slush or driveway topping grit.

Sharon would have liked leather seats but those are only on the Limited model for quite a bit more money.