Free Republic

I grew up in Belmar lived there from birth to age 28. It is amazing how often Belmar is in the news for such a small town. My family is an old time Belmar family for 4 generations but none of us live even close to it now. Back then Belmar was a working class shore town now it is quite expensive to live there. Plus it’s New Jersey, with all the NJ foolishness.

As a kid in the late 60s through the 70s it was a great place to live. We knew back in grade school that it was an above average place. The general feeling was that the surfers were not as shall we say polite as the rest of us. I did some time working for the Boro as an extra cleaning up the beach in the evenings. The surfer beaches we noticeably messier although the regular beaches we not neat and tidy by any stretch of the imagination.

I don’t mean to come barging in on his discussion but it looks to me that you are looking more for small town USA not rural USA. Even here in semi-rural NE PA we are 6 miles to the nearest grocery store, 10 miles to something like WalMart. So figure 20 miles driving for a loaf of bread. We do have a hospital 5 miles away, a state park, trails, and white-water rafting. In our neck of the woods we get our water from a well, septic for the drain, propane, oil or electric heat (or combo of these). Power goes off for days not hours in a storm. You must be prepared for inconveniences and again this is semi-rural. On the plus we have acreage plenty of trees and yard. We do most of the upkeep on our place. The cost is considerably less than our old suburban place. But you cannot be lazy, it will eat you up right quick. Very little crime and neighbors are fantastic.

“More than a dozen States have started Gold / Silver State Depository’s . More every day.”

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Which brings up another topic. I think it a good idea to be debt free, to have a cash savings, to have some food such as shelf stable canned goods in storage, supplies such as flashlights and lamps, rope and first aid supplies. All of these things I think are a good practice to have and store but I also think it a good idea to stack some precious metals gold and silver.

Say it loud...say it plowed!

The “Hoovervilles” of the 1930s are already in place even here in semi-rural NE PA. If times are good and we have them imagine what they will look like when times are bad.

Total household debt in the USA is about 17.5 trillion dollars. A good chunk of that is secured 1st and 2nd mortgages. If people who are working and making payments and are just getting by, imagine how things will be for them if they lose their employment?

Emergency savings? No. 50% of US households do not have $1000 set aside for an emergency. The average savings rate is 2.3%

Retirement savings? Another No. The median amount in 401Ks for boomers either retired or getting ready to retire is about $200K

I need some help with memory recall. Specifically, I’m struggling to recall all of the summer vacation trips abroad and domestic that I took when I was a 20 year old college student.

They say that time erases the bad memories and keeps only the good. This is where I need help. Trying to understand why all I can remember from summers as a college student were summer jobs that I needed to help pay for the academic year ahead. It sucks getting old.

“Gen. McClellan got within 10 miles of Richmond in 1862.”

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Napoleon occupied Moscow in 1812, Hitler came within 5 miles in 1941.

Buy low, sell high!

“The main people still able to trade would be major investors who can get a human broker to pick up the phone.”

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How do you know this?

No problems accessing my Fidelity account this morning. Had some difficulties logging into Charles Schwab but did get in and bought 4 shares of an ETF I hold and a slice on a single stock. Trades went smoothly. I think it there was a logjam of people just trying to check the carnage.

“...Schwab is not letting customers sign into their brokerage accounts right now....”
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That has also been my experience this AM

Having some PMs are like having a maid or housekeeper. Everyone ought to have one.

A diversified portfolio should contain some other PMs as well.

Part of the anguish is the DUmmies cannot see what is painfully obvious, the condition of their beloved Biden who has done nothing positive for the last 3 and a half years, who’s only distinction is he is not Trump. It’s fun to watch the DUmmies spiral into the abyss. Great entertainment!

Buy low, sell high

Every single person at my place of employment is in the middle class. Out of all those that I know, all but one of them are living life as usual. Yeah, they complain a bit about prices but they haven’t made any changes in their lifestyle. Vacation, restaurants, Disney, movies, usual stuff. If you read this carefully you might notice my statement that all but one at my workplace are living life as usual. That person actually is living life as usual, his usual. That person is me. I’m the strange person that lives below his means, most do not. We shop carefully for food and we hardly ever eat out, we make a point of saving and investing and getting the most from our wages We have no debt and if we want something we save up for it. Those that I speak to about this tell me that it is impossible to make headway in this economy. Ok.

As if this dementia thing all happened in the span of the last few days.

The median net worth of American Families age 65 is $450,000 Consider that this includes home equity, this is not good. I think the median tax advantage retirement fund age 65 has a balance of $140,000 and 29% of us start to collect social security at age 62.

One thing to keep in mind is if you have one million in retirement investments and you follow the 4% rule you will only withdraw $40K per year.

One of, if not the most miserable persons I know is my sister. She has about 2 million dollars in her nest egg, retired at age 45 now 69 total misery. But it is not because she was frugal she is a difficult person, a narcissistic.

Personally I would rather be a tad shy side on the life experience and have some monies than take a ton of vacations and buy things I cannot afford. I had a friend that lost his home to foreclosure at age 82. Nice place he had. Also had one of his cars repoed. He did exercise the right of redemption with help from his kids and was able to sell the home and received about $100K that is now the total sum of his income plus SS he went from a really nice home to a 1 bed apt just like that.

“....She could have gone to a real estate attorney to verify everything. It would have been money well spent. ....”
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I agree with you.

I would think it would show up on a credit report. Consumers are entitled to one free report/year for each of the 3 reporting agencies. I make it a habit to check one every 4 months rotating to a different one each time. Funny thing is I literally just this minute saved my TransUnion report (June is TransUnion, November is Equifax and Feb is Experian) after giving it a quick once-over. Always know what is in your credit report and know your credit score also.

Annaualcreditreport.com

He is a horrible person. Having said that one of my favorite movies is Margin Call where he is brilliant in his role. Interesting to note in that movie he makes it known that he continues to work in a high salary job because he needs the money.