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My partner and I are early 40's with a net worth of around 6MM including my business. Closer to 3.25MM liquid with a paid off primary residence. It has taken us 20 years of regular investing to get to this point. She's an executive at her company, which just sold. She got a fairly sizeable...

Hi All, It has been a while since I’ve posted here. I joined way back in 2007 which seems like a lifetime ago. I just spent some time reading some of my old comments and that was a trip! I joined as a married 28 year old with no kids and I’m now a 42 year old with 2 kids including toddler...

I don't get it.. Friends of mine and DW just bought a perfectly nice house about a year ago in an upscale suburb of Chicago. It's plenty big for their family of 4. However, they've recently told us that they sold their house and just bought a 4000 square foot house in the same suburb. We looked...

100,000...........miles on my 2002 Jeep Wangler. Hopefully it's got another 11 years and 100,000 more miles in it. Minimal car expenses make me a happy man!!

Thank you for all the great advice. I'm going to be establishing a solo 401k through Fidelity. I have one last question. I organized my business as a sole member LLC and also established an EIN, which I later found out I didn't need to do. While discussing the options with Fidelity, they...

I'm trying to decide between a SEP IRA and a Solo 401k. From what I understand, contribution limits for the SEP is either 25% of compensation or $51k, whichever is less. As far as the Solo 401k goes, I know I can contribute up to $17,500 as an employee and $17,500 as an employer. Also, both are...

For those of you who hate averages... A physicist, an astronomer and a statistician went on a hunting trip. They see a buck off in the distance. The physicist takes the first shot and misses 5 feet to the left. Next, the astronomer takes a shot and misses 5 feet to the right. The statistician...

DW and I had our picture taken on our honeymoon on Kauai by Gary Busey. We walked up to him, camera in hand, and he seemed quite surprised that we wanted him to take our picture instead of us taking his. Other than that, I briefly met Dana White, the president of the UFC, just about every UFC...

My wife is accepting a new position at a small company which doesn't offer a 401(k) plan to its employees. Aside from maxing out her traditional IRA, is there any way to make up for the current tax advantages of a 401(k)? She's contributing 15k/yr into her current plan and adding that amount...

With the addition of recent funds into my traditional IRA, I now have over 100k in that account. :dance: We've had well over 100k in investable assets for some time now but it's been spread out between various IRA's, both roth and traditional, taxable accounts and 401k's. So seeing 100k in 1...

DW and I manage to have fun while still saving. I'd prefer to spend our money on travel and experiences rather than spend it on "stuff". We'd love to have "crappy furniture" rather than a largely unfurnished upstairs. But, it's a matter of choice. Sure, we get interesting looks from people...

They hope to have you as a customer for more than just a checking account and a credit card. They'll want you to refinance your mortgage and move your investments over to them and they're hoping that you start using that credit card. If you refi with them, open a savings account, actively use...

I have a 5 month old son and a 2 year old nephew so my son wears clothes that have been handed down almost exclusively. Whether you have the money or not it makes sense to buy used, especially for young children. The clothes are just as "cute" but a lot less expensive or, in my case, free!

My wife and I kept our townhouse to rent out after we bought a new home. The most challenging part is dealing with tenants. I'm in the process of evicting a tenant right now. I ran a credit check, background check, verified employment and income, called references, etc, and they still turned out...

I have my auto, homeowners (on my residence, not my rental) and an umbrella policy with GEICO,. I've had no issues with them and I'd recommend them. Side note: I think my umbrella policy is directly with GEICO although the homeowners policy is with their partner, Travelers.

So...I ran across this article this morning and I noticed a few ways missing. Being frugal, saving and investing wisely seem not to have made the list. Maybe beliefs like this are the reason most can't/don't retire early. Five Ways to Retire a Multi-Millionaire

Update: My tenants left yesterday which is earlier than I expected but I'm glad to be rid of them. I've decided to not pursue any legal action. I'll just move on. I've been showing the townhouse regularly and yesterday, the same day my tenants moved out, I heard back from a prospective tenant...

I've had tenants in a townhouse I own since August of '09. We resigned a 12 month lease this past August. On Monday I got a phone call from one of my tenants saying she lost her job and thet would be moving out in 30 days. I told her that she's still liable for the rent for the remainder of the...

I just had double hernia surgery on 9-23, which was a Thursday. I was back at w*rk on Monday with only mild pain. Now, after a week and a day, I'm almost 100%. It only hurts when I sneeze hard or bend in certain ways but the pain is minimal. The drugs definitely helped for the first few days but...

DW's family including her parents and brothers. She and her siblings have a friendly rivalry over who makes the most. BTW, it really is a friendly rivalry. Definitely not my family. We out earn everybody in my family by a large margin and don't want to cause any hard feelings or jealousy. Two...

Something I've run across is using a HELOC to refi a mortgage. Then use your entire paycheck to pay down the HELOC while using the available credit to cover monthly expenses. This should allow you to pay off the mortgage faster as long as your expenses are less than your income. On the downside...

I find distance running boring and for my personal physical goals, useless. Sprints are a great way to lessen the impact on your knees and body over time. Also, distance running only increases your metabolism while you're running. Sprinting increases your metabolism for hours afterwards so you...

"Your Money and Your Brain" is a great book that explores how your mind works when it comes to making decisions about money. There's a great section that focuses specifically on patterns. Sorry about the hijack.....

I like EEM, it's an ETF through IShares. There's a relatively high expense ratio of .72% which isn't terrible for emerging markets. I generally prefer ETF's to mutual funds.

A few years ago my reply would have been much different than the one I’m about to write. In years past, my reply would have been full of reasons why some people are poor and why I, due to some heroic effort of my own, am not. I would’ve blamed them for making poor choices or for being stupid...