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<p>So true, my dad was just dx with Az and that upped my probability, unless another condition get to me first. <em>shrug</em> </p>
<p>HImom : thanks ! Dreaming about these things are just as fun or more fun. </p>
<p>Physical things like a Cartier watch can be taken/stolen from one by many - a mugger, a dishonest caretaker but only providence or god can take away one’s memory. :)</p>
<p>Yea, but it may help the kids, grandkids & over loved ones remember the happy, earlier times and help make their time with you more pleasant. Not everyone GETS old & senile. Have no regrets about the many trips we’ve gone on with the kids, from the time they were 6 months old!</p>
<p>My SIL was sharp as ever when she died just recently at 73. My dad is extremely sharp at 87 & my uncle was still teaching economics at our flagship U in his 90s!</p>
<p>When my mom died, we had a mod windfall. Dont expect to have anymore. We used part of it to fund D’s 529 account. She was able to go to her dream school with minimal debt. We also did home improvements, new roof, kitchen, took a nicer than usual vacation(extended it to 2 weeks rather than the 1), planned a nice 20 yr anniversary party, bought a very nice used car and paid off some debts. My H and I live simply and richly(not monetarily), dont have extravagant needs or desires. Wish we had some of things that other CC ers have, but it is not on our radar. When we figuratively retire, we will unload our house and move from our high expense/tax area to a more reasonable area and we will not own a thing, we will rent. Dont want to be tied down to a house at least not for a while.</p>
<p>We spent yesterday going through my father’s house trying to throw away stuff. My parents had a great deal of stuff accumulated in the house over the last 60 years. I suspect it will take us at least 6 months to get through everything. Its hard to tell what is valuable and what isn’t. My wife found a bunch of metal pie plates that we discovered sell for 17.50 a piece on ebay - who would have known?</p>
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<p>I know a mutual fund manager, now a hedge fund manager. He told me
that he spent about ten minutes in the evening reviewing his holdings.
I assume that he just looked at the charts and top headlines for his
stocks (he didn’t hold a big list of stocks). Of course he had spent
a lot of time learning how to do all of that but once it was learned,
the actual maintenance of a portfolio just takes a little bit of time
each day.</p>
<p>Finding good candidates to add, though, can take a decent amount of
time.</p>
<p>You spend a good deal of time on the college boards here - I used to
spend similar amounts of time on trading boards many years ago which
is where I picked up the trading and financial stuff. It may seem like
a steep learning curve but I think that it is as important to learn as
is a college degree.</p>
<p>I see people in my workplace that make a lot of money but they don’t
manage it well and they have problems affording college for their kids
because of lifestyle choices or poor management of the assets that
they are blessed with. There are some folks that pick my brain in the
office. I’m generally surprised when they follow my suggestions - one
guy was paying over $3K/year for car insurance. I gave him a few
suggestions and he got it down to $1,300 that year, and $800 the next.</p>
<p>I was amazed at how wide a variance the auto insurance industry has
too.</p>
<p>HImom, somebody at work lost half of his retirement money using an advisor. He said he even told his advisor to put into something safe. So of course his advisor was fired and he is now all in cash. He is about 70. Very sad.</p>
<p>BCEagle, do you have recommendations on good trading boards to read/follow? I’ll also ask my brother, who has done relatively better in the market than I or most of my sibs. Even he has moved some of his assets to buying condos so his kids will have places to start out, if they move back to HI.</p>
<p>Appreciate any auto insurance advice as well, since we now have FOUR autos on our policy until we ship one to D in CA.</p>
<p>Dreaming is fun. Have read from many places not to do anything hasty–more planning & thinking before acting. That seems like very good advice.</p>
<p>Even in the days before her death, D could still charm a smile out of SIL by talking about her travels (she traveled VERY extensively–including Antartica twice & pretty much all over the globe multiple times).</p>
<p>The main board that I follow during the day is a private board and everyone there is fairly experienced in Technical Analysis; some are pretty good with Fundamental Analysis too. The boards that I learned the most from from 2000-2002 have degenerated quite a bit to the point that most of the useful members have moved on. Many traders have big egos and it doesn’t take much for a trading board to get into heated flamewars and then the board becomes useless until the two or more parties stop posting.</p>
<p>At the moment, I don’t have a good public board to recommend but that’s because I’m happy with my private board. I think that you’d have to do some hunting around to find a good board with a lot of beginner’s stuff in mind.</p>
<p>HImom, here is something you can read. It’s a conservative buy and hold strategy mostly in Vanguard funds.</p>
<p>[Invest</a> Simple with Lazy Portfolios - MarketWatch.com](<a href=“Investing News - Investment Articles - Investing Research - MarketWatch”>Investing News - Investment Articles - Investing Research - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>Don’t take any recommendations from anonymous boards because those people chat up stocks they have already bought and hope more people will buy so the said recommendations will run up and they immediately sell.
Same thing holds true from some sell-side analysts on financial TV stations.</p>
<p>“MiamiDAP, if that is your forecast, why not invest in hard assets?”
-Some of it, which is done. But nothing will be of any value in my ofrecast. Who is going to buy, when people’s money are paper?</p>
<p>^^You’re making an awfully big bet on what is unknowable. Predictions of calamity have been made for years.</p>
<p>OK–what are some books or other resources that are good for investment basics (stocks and/or real estate)? I used to be a member of an investment club but we didn’t seem to do all that great–it used NAIC toolkit. It taught us to look at the basics. Can no longer remember much about it, as I quit the club about a decade back.</p>
<p>I recommend John Murphy’s book on Technical Analysis and any introductory finance college textbook for some basics on Fundamental Analysis. This is basically background stuff - it doesn’t teach you anything about picking stocks or what to do but it gives you a foundation in two of the common approaches to the stock markets.</p>
<p>Some of this is useful for the real estate market too.</p>
<p>Thanks–I’ll try to pick up that book. I’d welcome any other suggestions and also tips on picking stocks as well.</p>
<p>DocT,
I hope you are right and I am very wrong. However, I have not been wrong in my life yet while many times I wished that I were and I am very old. Previous years predictions are not the same as we are “taking 7 mile steps towards the inevitable edge” to insure terrinble future…it did not happen before on the same type of scale, nowehre close…</p>
<p>No windfalls headed our way. If my parents and FIL did not have traditional pension plans, they would have been sunk. Neither had savings accounts other than retirement, and the 401(k) share of those were under $100k at age 65. </p>
<p>Finding out how bad things were when DH and I were each in college (zero EFC; we each put ourselves through) and seeing FAFSA forms definitely shaped how we approached saving.</p>
<p>We live on way less than we earn. We max the 401(k)s, bought a modest starter house and have stayed there and drive our cars into the ground. DH is covered by a traditional pension plan. Bought lots of term life insurance with automatic increase to cover college costs if anything happened to one of us. The house pays off in five years. We put $$ into savings and don’t touch it – we’d rather cut back on current expenses and pay in cash. (That includes college costs. Helps that the mortgage payment is small.)</p>
<p>Our splurge is travel, but with all the the FF miles DH earns from work and the miles from my credit card, we can do so at significantly reduced cost. We are not waiting for retirement to travel – neither of our parents got to enjoy retirement because of health issues. </p>
<p>We have tried to create our own windfall.</p>
<p>We have always travelled, since the kids were 6 months old and have no regrets about that. Perhaps your folks felt they didn’t need to save as much BECAUSE they had a pension and thankfully it stayed intact so they were able to use it for their retirement. We are heavily relying upon H’s pension for our plans as well.</p>
<p>Sounds like you have made good choices that work well for you, CountingDown. We also have a starter home that we intend to stay in forever and should pay it off before retirement. We have always lived well below our net income. Our splurge was letting our kids go to dream Us and we have no regrets.</p>
<p>OUr mortgage was paid off before kid started HS, it was a goal. All cars are paid withing 10 months or so of buying. No debt. But this does not mean much…and 401K might just walk away, no matter what amount, just current economic conditions…We do not plan to retire either, but we can be kicked out any time.</p>
<p>We’ve been traveling with the kids since they were babies, too. 
They are fearless travelers now and adapt to whatever happens along the way. </p>
<p>My folks and DH’s folks didn’t <em>have</em> $$ to save. Neither had a savings account. When Mom said there was $20 to last the rest of the month, she was not kidding. DH dealt with the debt collectors when he was 14 yo. My FIL would give DH the paycheck and DH figured out how to pay the bills. My in-laws never owned a home.</p>
<p>My sister lost a son in a motorcycle accident this past fall and did not have money for final expenses. Friends and colleagues collected about $3k in funds. For her, in a horrible way, THAT was a windfall. </p>
<p>Our EFC is more than my four siblings <em>combined</em> made last year. </p>
<p>The windfall at our house is that our kids got to attend the college of their choice and we were able to make it work financially. (And we are not full pay with two in school.) So, while we may never have millions or get huge bonuses, I won’t pretend that we are anything less than extremely fortunate.</p>
<p>Sorry for being preachy. DH and I look around sometimes and wonder how the heck we got so lucky.</p>
<p>CountingDown, must be tough in some ways if your sibs look to you as the wealthy family. Glad things are working for you–it’s tough when you have to figure out how to pay the bills & deal with bill collectors while still in your teens. I thought I had a tough time when I was given funds to buy groceries & expected to shop & prepare the family dinner every day in intermediate school, but that’s nothing compared to what you & your DH had to deal with. Sorry your sibs continue not to be able to earn much–that can be difficult.</p>
<p>Many of those on CC are similarly so lucky/fortunate. Thanks for your perspective.</p>
<p>Am still pondering the original question in the thread, what to do with a prospective “windfall,” when college expenses have all been paid.</p>