Recent content by Kavakos

The instrument debate is tricky. There have been some very small studies done comparing old Italian instruments to modern in blind situations. Often very experienced ears cannot tell the difference. I think it is similar to the studies done on professional wine tasters whose expert opinion has...

I understand the psychological aversion to debt especially among a group of saving conscious people but am not totally sure I agree with it. IMO one of the big advantages of having good credit in our current economic environment is access to cheap loans that can be used to improve net worth. I...

The Pentagon Federal Credit Union is an interesting idea. Just from a brief look at their website it looks like we may be able to lower our interest rate by almost 1%. I still don't have a really firm grasp of how the entire equation works out with closing costs and points etc. We did a...

I'm a little bit confused too but already becoming less so as I examine this thread and face a bit of reality... You are right about our spending vs income for the second half of 2014 and beyond. The spending numbers I took were based on our average from the previous year in which we did quite a...

First, let me add my thanks to all of you who have contributed to this forum. The experience of finding a group of people dedicated to ideas and habits that were only loosely beginning to form in my life is very exciting. It reminds me of how I felt when I ran my first local race. I had watched...