a swap and an issue that may be related to wiring, causing a CEL, which the owner cant figure out

and numerous accidents

I never got that either. Some people really think because you might invest so much into it means that it's worth a lot.

so the area of our building i work in lost power. rest of the building is fine. how awesome!!

Lol so the solara is worth more than something!! Lol

yeah, retirements lol. I gotta get into that. My company matches up to 4.5% salary contribution in a 401k, and also have stock options in Comcast stock where I can buy at 15% below market, and sell in a year at market value or something like that. I really gotta get my butt moving and start taking advantage of those things before they start lowering them.

i'm doing 3% into 401k... the truth of the matter is, 401k's suck right now, at least from what i've read.

i'm putting a little chunk of change into a savings account each paycheck. it's one i don't see the balance too as it's an auto draw for my car loan, but they only take out the monthly payment. I'll give it a look in 2.5 years when i reach the half way point on the auto loan and decide whether i want to pay off the car, or keep on saving.

time to ****ing go!!

401k's aren't stupid. They're a bit of a scam compared to a pension though. Whereas a pension would simply fund you until you die, you have to decide when you will die when you start drawing on your 401k funds. That's not an easy thing to figure out! I've noticed what a lot of old people do is accumulate a lot of debt with reverse mortgages and stuff like that and hope it evens out. Nice but it screws your kids. That's ok, they're greedy bitches anyway.

The good part of 401k is that they are tax deferred as well as company match. The company match is free money - plain and simple, thus if you don't put that much in you're simply throwing away free money. That's not smart. Even if you cash out, the company match more than pays for the fees so again, it's stupid to not do it. The tax deferred I used to think was a scam based on the thinking that future tax rates will be higher. Sure, that's likely to be true, but since you will be taking in far less income at that age (only your 401k) relatively you will be charged a much lower rate since now you would be charged at the high rate on top of the rest of your income. In addition you get to earn interest/market increases on the amount you would have been taxed now whereas the future tax charge is not going to compound like that. Even if we moved to a flat tax I still think it's advantageous.

401k's are scammy in that the management charges are too high. You have limited fund choices that are typically poor performers. Also in that you really need to manage your investments. If you don't gradually move into secure bonds as you age you can really get ****ed as many current old people have. But the market has more than doubled since it originally crashed so those people who crashed from say $4mil to $1mil in their 401k are at least back to $2mil now, assuming they didn't freak out when the market crashed and move everything to bonds. I don't really want to think about it too much so I used something fidelity offers which based on your anticipated retirement date gradually moves your investments to safer choices. Right now I am in all kinds of scary investments but that will taper as I get older. I'm probably getting raped on the fees. I don't understand it enough to know for sure.

Above and beyond your company match the best long term personal investment you can make is to invest into an S&P 500 index fund. Little to no fees, and nothing beats the market. Nothing. 12% on average thus far. I put a couple grand into the S&P 500 a couple years back. As it happened I somehow managed to buy at the LOWEST level during the whole crash. I still don't understand how I pulled that off.

Oh yeah, and buy a house. Buy the cheapest house you can tolerate and pay it off as fast as possible.

But the cardinal rule of stock investments for someone who isn't a day trader is, don't invest money you can't afford to lose and don't invest money you need at a certain time. You have to be able to resist selling at a market low like all the other idiots do. You literally need to never NEED the money, or else you might be forced to sell at a time that isn't good for you.

Is your auto loan rate awesome? I'm guessing it's like 5% or something like that. If your savings account rate is 1% like most are right now, the best destination for all extra money is your highest rate loan - with the exception of whatever buffer you want to have for "I lost my job and I'm defaulting on everything" status.

auto loan is 2.99%, house is... 3.something

as far as 401k, from my understanding with the market right now, 401k ain't doing much. however, definitely get that free company money. g2 matches 50% up to 3%. currently putting away my own 3%, so getting 1.5%... will be going up to 6 or 10% in the future.

not sure what my savings is, i should take a look. but that account is sort of my "hide from me" savings account. I have my "i lost my job" account doing pretty well, and enjoy looking at it, but it's still my main savings at the time for everything. i may look into investing more in the next few years when i double the #

Wow 3 something on the house? That's awesome. You can really take your time paying that back, market investments are sure to do better... It was hard for me to get over the idea that saving money is smarter than paying down debt. I mean when do you stop saving. When is "enough" enough in your oh **** fund? The car loan is pretty good too. That pretty much makes up for the depreciation.

if you are optimistic 401k could be great for us since right now what we contribute will go towards these "low priced" options, "hopefully" within the 20-30 years we have left working they will rise and we can profit. My wife and I have no car payments, pay 500+ on top of our mortgage ever month, and carry no other "balance" exception for my school loan. i'm trying to save some to invest in some stocks. Been watching for a while, still don't know my elbow from my asshole in regards to it all, but i certainly think if you are smart you can make some money in time.

in other news....
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...28174212_n.jpg

3.75 i think it is... we got an fha loan, which is now even lower https://www.fha.com

the best part about the loan is that it goes with the house, so in the future when we sell the next buyer get's that interest rate. not entirely sure how that works out, but it should be a good selling point.

we missed paying the extra mortgage payment, "one extra payment a year each year can reduce the total mortgage from 30 years to 23 years"

ultimately, i don't see us here past 10 years... it's a little small for a family. but in either case, i should shoot out an extra mortgage payment...

as for the oh **** fund... who the hell knows. i think we'd be good for 4-6 months. i socked a lot away while i was a contract employee. sadly, when i went f/t i basically lost that amount to save each paycheck.

i'm beginning to wonder why i chose f/t now... their health insurance is embarrassing. the time off is good though. the main reason was to place myself strategically within the company prior to their move. we lost a lot of developers who didnt want to travel to philly. figured i better get hired before someone else does. try to be "the man" before others come in

Woot! Post #500 lol

A little courvoisier, a perdomo habano, and some pellegrino sounds like a good way to end the night.

Hello everybody! I have a job interview today at a Mechanic Shop!

Congrats. I'm still waiting to hear about my 2nd job that I interviewed for last week.

http://news.yahoo.com/against-tom-ga...013552291.html

Full retard right here.

....when wearing skinny jeans and deep V shirts goes too far...

Hey! I wear V-necks! In the words of daniel tosh only the scrawny can pull of a Vneck. I dont wear skinny jeans though... lol but I was dying reading this though.. his wife is cool with being a lesbian now?

That's what deal with me and why I decided to go the extra mile and get a house that will last me my lifetime. My house is big enough to support a family and the rate was at 4.25 for the 30 year loan. I figured I will probably grow into getting more money and be able to afford it a little easier as well.

we bought our house assuming kids in the future, just not conceiving the day of settlement lol. we've got a good sized chunk of property, 3/4 acre, but a relatively small three bedroom house. ultimately... it is big enough to, eventually :eek:, raise three kids in. but i know we're going to get on each other's nerves.

we're looking to finish the basement in the next few years though, so i think that'll help spread us out a bit as that will become the main family area. my office will become a corner of the bedroom though, which is fine since i'm rarely in there after getting my monster laptop.

I also don't plan on living in the area, or maybe even the USA, forever. Ultimately though, i want a renovated barn as a house. and if something comes along in the next 10 years that may end up being our final move.

we've got a great starter home... it's a little boring design wise... but it's a great house... just not a forever house.

we bought our house knowing it was a starter home and not something for ever. I don't think i want to live in this area the rest of my life.

1 more hour left. Can't wait.

agreed!!!

ugh. shouldnt have eaten pizza for lunch.

I was originally thinking of just buying a starter house, but the smaller the houses, it was worth it to me to go the extra yard and get something bigger that you can last in. Plus I don't know where rates are going to be in 10, 15, 20 years down the road. They might be at 5% for all I know. I hope to stick around my area the rest of my life and would be great if I could have this paid off in 30 years and be able to bank money by 55.

I have 2 words for you guys... House Boat.

4 words for that... floating depreciating money pit.

Morning all. One more day before Friday. Heather is still not sure about the dog we adopted because of the one we had before him. The new one likes to play and so does the other, but the other one gets a little nasty at times.

Morning! Which dog is it, the most recent one that you just uploaded a photo of?

Why is everyone getting a corvette? Now you are making me want one. Which would cost me a fortune to insure... All of you guys that talk about how awesome your corvette's are.. I hate you. Wish I could afford one :(

have you had dogs before? i would base if off what you want in a dog and which better suits those wants. ie. a clingy dog or an independent dog, coward or curious, couch potato or exercise machine. depending on what you mean by nasty a lot of that will fade once they know their place and role in the household.

Yeah that one. The girl doesn't get it takes time for the other one to adjust. It's annoying with how impatient she is.

Exactly right, it will take quite a bit of time to realize that it is in a safe environment now, and that it is permanent. (You said you rescued him, not sure from what or who)

Our house sounds like the National Geographic channel when our cats play. They get very agressive with each other but they never do any damage.

I guess I wasn't very clear.

Dog 1 is a year and 4 months. Dog 2 just came into house Sunday and is 4 months old. Dog 2 wants to play and Dog 1 kinda does but is protecting her territory (being a little snippy). Heather doesn't like that Dog 1 does that. Heather isn't getting it, that we've only had the dog for 5 days at this point. It would take at least a month in my opinion.

It was over population or something like that. Got him from All4Paws Rescue.

Morning folks.