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Married widow who came with variable annuity. We are both over 70 with no medical issues or requirement to leave an inheritance. Desire is to spend the money - judiciously with our ER mindset. Has a 6% rider ie annual return will never below. So what research do I read and how do I set up the...

The non-digital brother is 78, retired millwright, never met a wrench he couldn't turn, caretaker of 'THE Farm' and CANNOT KEEP DISH TV running. He has fun with his cell phone periodically. 2 1/2 drive from here. Last week drove up - spent 1/2 hour with DISH on the phone rebooting and...

Leaning toward driving Kansas City to San Diego and back in February - quasi family reunion time. In ER can take as long as I wish - up to two weeks before the dogs drive the housesitters crazy. Mapquest shows three routes - north via I-80, middle I-70 and south I-40. thinking south cause it's...

So 2006 did a deep fried turkey outside. 2007 old fashioned bake in the oven with cajun injector. Now I have this Cajun Cooker II bought at a garage sale one street over. What size - 8-10 lb per bird? or bigger? Inject or not? Mesquite or hickory chips. Leave center open with dressing on the...

About a guide to retirement. Let me point out I never read their first book but it got good reviews and I assume they will bring their usual standard of excellence to the new effort. But in keeping with my recent 'don't read books mantra' - what do they need to stand out from the crowd? -...

Straight scoop from Kansas City. Youngest nephew/wife are off on vacation/wedding of Navy buddies in Croatia next week. One sides parents are originally from Holland. So is Croatia the new place? Replacing Spain/Portugal/Greek Islands of yore? Anyone vacationed there recently? heh heh heh...

Sooo - how much trouble/fun can an ER and girlfriend have between Kansas City and Nags Head (beach rental for 1 wk in sept.)? I plan on driving - no great rush, I think we have the dog/cat/house sitter situation covered. The gathering of the clan is East coast this year - something different...

1993 - I used 84 or so in my retirement calculations - at age 49 that was way off in the distance. After 2000 - I had been using 86.3 or ORP's 85/86. Today - I ran ORP Planner and it goes to 91. What gives - has mortality gotten that much better since I made it to age 64? heh heh heh -...

Ok have at it. heh heh heh - I must confess to Micheal Burke(Investor's Intelligence) in MoneyPaper to pick individual DRIP stocks which turned the corner and may exhibit upward mo. Dividend payers natch. Not cured yet. Also have peaked at Investment Quality Trends over the years - only when...

Waaah! - going on my third New Year away from da swamp - I miss my recapture my youth fireworks. Used to drive over the line to St.Taminy and stock up. Three die hard old men in my area could be counted on to fire off liberal quantities from their runs(piers over the lake). Old fashioned I still...

No - it's not cause my sister thinks the Pat's are a good football team! - relatives this year(San Diego, Palm Springs, Pensacola) are going to sis's for a ski vacation (greater Seattle) type Christmas holiday. I begged off - still going south(not picked yet) - somewhere warm. I wonder if I'm...

Anybody have some forever as in never plan to sell stocks? Heh heh heh - other than BRK which gets mentioned at lot. My forevers seemed to have gotten merged or name changed over the years: Mobil now Exxon Mobil Fleet Boston now Bank of America Commonwealth Edison now Excelon Southwestern Bell...

Step daughter in spare room had the audacity to die unexpectedly. Since me and the late SO were not married there is no legal relationship to her 4 grandchildren. The son and DIL are consumers in the grand American Tradition - they never met a dollar they could hold on to - and income is not...

Ok - wood floors for dummies. So it's 38 degrees with sleet outside and the latest brain phart is to pull up the 1970's looking carpet and install Bella wood floor - saw the Bob Villa ad. 1200 sq feet if I do the whole house. Looks like red oak under the carpet - in the original part of the...

Come February in MO - it oughta be cold. Haven't done a cruise in over twenty years - Key West, Cancun, Cozemel and back to New Orleans. Thoughts?? 15-16 hour drive to N.O. from here. Thinking warm - no special requirements - just 7-9 days. Not a scuba diver, history/ruins buff, too old to...

Where are you at(YAT) - This New Year's Eve. If I were back in LA - I'd sneak over to St. Taminy Parish - buy fireworks - and buy cabbage, pork and black eyed peas for the dinner of fried cabbage, pork and black eyed peas. Set the lawn furniture out on the back deck - weather permitting to see...

Moving on to more unpleasant subjects: It was 14 degrees at 6:30 A.M. when I went out with the dog for his morning whiz and exercise. So - leaving dreams of Club Med off the table for the moment - what the heck does a New Orleans' transplant do up here on 'da Plains' in winter??? I do have an...

My 89 year Mother died yesterday. We bit the bullet and had her breathing tube removed and she expired in our presence in ICU. Inspite of her Medical Directive and Will as to a preference for 'no heroic measures' and a wish to die at home - I had her taken to the hospital and kept her going...

The SO died suddenly without warning in her sleep from heart failure. Possibly - post Katrina loss and the stress of her recent colon cancer operation - which I thought was successful. 1. eleven - two months short of twelve years in ER. 2. While not abandoning this forum - my post count will...

Hmmm So - single - est 2005 income below 29k(before Katrina) aka 15% bracket. With a disaster loss of 100k(still calculating) - I can do a 100k Roth conversion before 12/31/2005 and still be in the low bracket - aka still 29k - because my 100k disaster loss negates my Roth tax liability...

Kramer over at Raddr's site has posted links to the Kaderli's website - they have come out with a CD on their past 15 years since age 38 on what they've learned / experienced in ER. They are somewhat along the lines of the Terhorst's in the 'perpetual traveler' class. 24k/yr class of ER...

Did a little jackleg experimenting - Winn-Dixie generic instead of Walmart 13 oz vacuum pack coffee - put 13 oz in a plastic ice tea pitcher last night - put 1 pint water(16 oz) - wasn't enough to 'wet' all the grounds - added 'enough' to wet to the top. This morning strained half a cup of 'the...

As of 3/31/05, their quant model has them 100% stocks. Why? Supposedly they split between stocks/bonds/cash according to their 'proprietary dividend discount model'. Hard over 100% stocks is pretty extreme. Duh? Anyone care to speculate what they think they know that we don't?

The SO has 50k of excess petty cash built up with no known use (reserve, fun to do, etc). I'm leaning toward establishing an income stream since we have room before she jumps a tax bracket. We're talking less than 5% of combined assets so no rebalancing required. In the middle ala Ben Graham -...

DUH? Since I'm filing head of household now a days with an 87 year old mom AND recyling dryer sheets/outdoing myself in aggressive frugality this year - my take is that I can convert some IRA to Roth toward the end of this year and stay in the 15% bracket - provided - all in - income wise - I'm...