Windfalls

[arrete]

What would you all do with a windfall? Not a giant one, but one that would shift your withdrawal rate a smidgen if you invested it all.

I should be getting a small unexpected windfall - my intent, since I pretty much have my budget padded and feel comfy about my assets, is to take half and remodel the kitchen. Something I really want to do.

Doesn't this fall under gummy's live it up scenario?

arrete

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm getting a good sized windfall and we've slightly improved our quality of life. My freezer is full of alaskan king crab legs and maine lobster tails, for example...and I'm buying the "good" boxed wine

Most of it is going into 5 year CD's though. And then I'm going to wait for this madness to subside.

Okay, I confess. Now that our basic day-to-day is covered, I would buy a big boat and park it on big water.
I always wanted to do this but economic reality has intruded.
If I had money left I would buy land, lots of land.

JG

[hocus]

I would buy the lot adjacent to the one where our house is located. It was vacant when we moved in. My hope was that it would remain vacant until I had some money coming in and felt that I could afford to purchase it. Prices went up so fast in recent years that the guy holding it put it up for sale, and now there is a guy planning to build a house on it.

It won't kill me if we don't get the land. We are close to a trail where we can go biking and running. But I would prefer a little more land surrounding the house than what we have now.

[arrete]

You al apparently missed the word "small" windfall That's OK. Dreaming is free.

arrete

[hocus]

OK. If it was a small windfall, I would buy some of that Merck stock everyone keeps saying is so underpriced. That's something that JWR1945 and intercst have in common, you know. They both like Merck at today's prices. If both of those guys say it looks good, that pretty much covers the spectrum, doesn't it?

I would buy it just so that if if goes up I could say I had some. If it didn't go up, I wouldn't tell anyone.

[Dawg54]

I have an aunt(age 93) from whom I will inherit a nice windfall one day. Not looking forward to her passing as she is a second mom to me, but I can't help but wonder what I will do with it. I might buy a few acres in the country and build a small log cabin. I love the square logs and total rustic look inside and out. *That will probably be my retirement home.

God I feel like a heel for thinking that far ahead. *

[arrete]

I feel like a heel for thinking that far ahead

You shouldn't feel like a heel. If you pretend it won't happen, you can't be a good steward of her gift to you.

Here's what I did when my beloved step-grandmother died (and I did think about it ahead of time). I bought a few things for the house - less than $100. I took the kids to Britain. They were just at the age to fly the coop, and this was the last chance. It's a wonderful memory we all have of her because without her gift, we couldn't have gone. I think about her every time I think of the trip. And I left the rest in stocks, which have done quite nicely.

So think of something she would have loved for you to do. Then invest the rest. Or something like that.

arrete

[Hyperborea]

What would you all do with a windfall? *Not a giant one, but one that would shift your withdrawal rate a smidgen if you invested it all.

A life-time lithium supply for a certain under the bridge dweller? *

Doesn't this fall under gummy's live it up scenario?

I would think so unless your portfolio was struggling or you had some other large planned expense.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

TH - A couple questions.

1.) What Boxed wine are you buying?

2.) How much per pound are you paying for the Lobster tails?

3.) What madness are you referring to?

1 - Black Box if I'm down near Excramento where they sell it, Corbett Canyon around here. These are the two steps up from Franzias Vintner Select box, which I generally just use for cooking but find myself snorking every now and then.

2 - $9.99 for two 4oz tails, so $20/lb. When I lived in New England the tail meat sold for $22/lb (albeit, without shells) so thats not bad. They're small but a pair of those grilled with garlic butter next to a rib eye aint too shabby a dinner. I get the australian tails for ~$18/lb and they're a lot bigger...usually 8-16oz each.

3 - Lousy bond yields and I'm still waiting for bonds to take a spanking, and overvalued stocks with crazy PE's predicated on very high earnings that wont hold.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yellowtail is cheaper here, but only slightly. I pay about $15.50 for 2x1.5l bottles of yellowtail, $17.00 for the 3l box of black box.

Madness is indeed relative. But its easier to fun about when things have been going well. Today sucked and if ECRI's leading economic indicators still work, we're on the edge and about to take a nice 8-9 month slide downhill...

[unclemick]

Madness

If at age 61 - brake down and start taking div/interest from IRA and early SS late this summer our household income doubles - a minor windfall, I guess.

Variable thread Robertson screws, composite deck boards - who knows what madness awaits.

BTY TH - the local Lowes had Phillips head variable thread and composite deck boards. But the local True Value that caters to fishermen and 'lake people' has the Robertson square drive variable - including stainless if you want it.

[Hyperborea]

Black Box is very drinkable. I get Yellowtail almost as cheap and my blind taste test says that I prefer the Yellowtail.

Where do you get this Black Box? How much worse than Yellowtail is it? How long is the storage time once opened? What varieties?

Thanks

[cute fuzzy bunny]

[homer]mmmmm...stainless...[/homer]

Definitely the way to go. Although as a die hard LBYM'er, you'd have to remove them and reuse them after the rest of the dock disintegrates around them.


And with that, since you guys arent writing anything else to read, I am forced to go out and mow the lawn, then come back in, clean my desk and do our first joint tax return. :P

[Zipper]

Unclemick, as mentioned a couple of days ago, Robertson was a Canadian.

The Robertson is superior to the slot or Phillips.

Ask any deckman, fenceman, or drywaller.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The box should keep it for many months as long as you keep air from seeping back in.

To clear us from the trailer trash crowd, corked bottles are almost unheard of outside of the US. In australia and several european countries, boxes are de rigeur.

No spoilage, no contamination, easy to open, easy to store, easy to tap a glass, and the opened product lasts a long time.

Franzias "Vintners reserve" (a higher class than the usual) is a perfectly ok base pedestrian wine. Its as good as two buck chuck or most of the sub $5 a bottle wines you find at the grocery store. I can get it for ~$6 for a 5 liter box at the sams club up the street. Yep, thats about 80c per 750ml bottle. I've read some reviews and tried some different ones, and found that (oddly) the wines in 3L boxes are a step above the ones in 5L boxes. There are a couple of fru fru napa valley makers like black box that are offering wines equal to a $7-10 bottle at half that price. All of the tested australian wines (including CT's recommended and quite good hardys - in fact, try their port sometime) are quite good.

As we mused last year...the quality of "bulk wines", which were awful 10+ years ago...have simply closed the gap with the lower end "quality vintage" products.

In fact, theres nothing like taking a box of white wine out to the patio table for the evening to enjoy with dinner and an evening swim in the pool. Its got its own insulated cover, so it stays cold...

Note: the above behavior occasionally results in an infant showing up ~9 months later... (cough)...

In fact, a trip to http://www.blackboxwines.com/ will tell you where they're sold. I just discoved that one of the local supermarket chains is carrying their stuff...excelllent...

(Gabe needs a brother or sister...

[hocus]

A life-time lithium supply for a certain under the bridge dweller? *

That's so 2002, Hyperborea.

[Nords]

What would you all do with a windfall? *Not a giant one, but one that would shift your withdrawal rate a smidgen if you invested it all.

When my grandfather passed I put his inheritance into a separate brokerage account to test all my "brilliant investor" theories. *Two years later (where does the time go?!?) and having tried a little of everything I'm finding that I still prefer value investing. *Of course after the Dow drops 174 points we're all "value" investors.

While this tuition at the School of Experience could be costly, it's imperative to work through the tosterone-poisoned putzing questions early in life instead of wondering for the rest of it. *

... my intent, since I pretty much have my budget padded and feel comfy about my assets, is to take half and remodel the kitchen. *Something I really want to do.

Gotta do it. *Hope you've been watching HGTV to build your over-the-top vocabulary. *Last month we traded in 16-year-old tile counters for Corian and we can't understand why we waited so long. *The demolition is almost as much fun as the installation.

Watch it with the stainless steel. *If it starts to look good, visit the galley on a Navy ship or submarine. *I can't even stand to open the door on a stainless fridge anymore. *

[Hyperborea]

In fact, a trip to http://www.blackboxwines.com/ will tell you where they're sold. *I just discoved that one of the local supermarket chains is carrying their stuff...excelllent...

Hey the Albertson's (grocery store chain) round the corner from me appears to carry them. We don't normally shop there but I'll have to stop in an try one out. Thanks for the info.

[arrete]

Last month we traded in 16-year-old tile counters for Corian and we can't understand why we waited so long. The demolition is almost as much fun as the installation.

Nords, I'm pretty interested in what you did. I think I'll move this topic (remodelled kitchens) to the other topics section.

arrete