When people ask me how I am doing, these day I say, “Well, the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket but my life is great.” I think the chaos of the current era is undoubtedly anxiety-producing. But financially, we are doing fine. We had about 8-10% of our financial assets in gold, which seems to be useful for the current chaos.
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This article made me think of what we were talking about the other day -
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Has anyone heard of someone offering a really good HELOC rate, particularly one with a low teaser rate for 6-12 months? We are paying off our mortgage in August (yay), paid off our boat loan and tractor loan, and will totally be out of debt. So course you know what that means….time to buy an RV and get back in debt. Of course! 
Our HELOC is at 7.75%, but you’d think there’s something better out there.
I don’t know about HELOC rates but there are 0% credit cards for 18 months or so - so you can save your cash and pay low monthly amounts - but have to pay it off quickly when the 0% expires or roll to another.
That might be an alternative?
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That could be a good option, as I do like 0%. An issue is that sometimes you don’t know how much they’ll approve you for, and it could be a much smaller amount than you wanted. Another issue is that I need to spend a lot of bucks on my Amex card to keep my Delta status for next year. But that is something I should consider. Hard to beat free for 12-18 months.
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Or not buy an RV? The market is so bad now though there’s probably good deals.
Nope, too late, already bought it. It’s a 20 foot Airstream Caravel, and we got a decent deal. I’m too old to sit around waiting to get stuff. It’s either borrow money and pay it back, or withdraw from our 401K’s. Trying to avoid withdrawing more than the 24% tax rate, but we could take from our Roth’s if needed.
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That sounds great! Join a habitat for humanity RV Care-a-vanners build! We just got back tonight from one- our fourth.
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Wow, very nice, sounds like an awesome thing to do!
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I volunteer with a woman who does a habitat build in her RV every year. They enjoy seeing some of the same volunteers year after year along with the satisfaction of helping others.
@busdriver11 I’m laughing inside about you and your husband buying a trailer. I think of you when I walk by the Ranger tug on the dock where my husband keeps his boat. My husband loves our trailer and he loves his boat. He’s always looking for a bit larger boat. He sends me links or wants to show me pictures and I just pretend to look. The trailer and boat do give him great pleasure. One thing we just learned on our last camping trip is that even if the trailer tires look great and are properly inflated they still need to be replaced. The advice we were given ranged from every 3 to 5 years. Ours were 6 years old and we ended up with two separate blowouts on our drive to the mountains in 97 degree heat.
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Pm me for more info if interested
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Whoa, thank you for that heads up! We tend to wait too long to get work done, but those tires sound important.
I’m glad your husband still likes his boat, but boy, if you have a boat you know how to work on and does the job, forget about the bigger boat. I am so glad to have shed that Ranger Tug!! And we just sold a small boat and a tractor, hallelujah!
I have realized that when it comes to vehicles, I am the gatekeeper. It doesn’t happen until I agree and make it happen, though my husband talks seriously and wistfully about all the vehicles that he wants. More vehicles just equal more stress to me. I was onboard with a smallish RV, though.
In the last year he has talked about getting: A floatplane, a sport aircraft (that’s a hard no for me, no planes). An electric powered truck, an Aston Martin, a four wheeler, a dirt bike, a snowmobile, a Grand Banks, a small rowboat, another larger Airstream (in addition to the one we haven’t even gotten delivered yet), and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few vehicles. I’m learning to take a deep breath and say “hmm” and then change the topic. 
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Tire blowouts were part of the reason we sold our camper. (But it was a popup tent camper, with “lawnmower” tires. We traveled with a spare tire/wheel mounted on the back of the camper plus a “spare spare” tire inside.)
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Thanks, but I think that’s way down the road for us. My husband is getting his hip replaced right now, and we haven’t taken delivery of the RV and have a lot of learning before even turning the key on it! It sounds like a wonderful thing to do in retirement!
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Your husband should be thankful for your gatekeeping! So. Many. Small. Plane. Crashes. Locally, especially!! I’d add a motorcycle to the list of things with wheels I’d veto.
I’m thankful my husband is not into stuff that has wheels. An electric truck is the only thing from your list is what my husband got. So far, so good. The size of it freaks me out though. I have not driven it yet! 
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An electric truck seems like a reasonable purchase, not dangerous and probably not a lot of upkeep.
I knew a number of very experienced pilots who are now dead because of single engine plane crashes, it’s the nature of that sort of flying, and I just don’t want to do it. If we maintained an airplane as poorly as we maintain our other vehicles (ie wait till they break), we would have a very limited lifespan. Too much stress.
I vetoed a motorcycle also, though he’d been making noises about a small off-road dirt bike. And I just say, “Hmm….”.
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When we bought our trailer we were deciding between two models and one reason we went with this model is that it had dual axles. After the2nd flat we had no spare and it was a Sunday. We were luckily able to drive slowly to a motel a mile away with just three good tires. The next day we drove slowly another 1/2 mile to a tire place in a tiny town and were able to get 4 new tires. Another thing we learned is that most trailers don’t come with a luge wrench and the one for the truck don’t fit.
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