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Just noticed this on the AOL email home page........ Debbie Reynolds, the Oscar-nominated singer-actress who was the mother of late actress Carrie Fisher, has died at Cedars-Sinai hospital. She was 84. "She wanted to be with Carrie," her son Todd Fisher told Variety. She was taken to the...

We snagged a campsite in Everglades National Park for 8 days in mid-February. Anyone have any experience or comments on camping, activities, must-do's, things to avoid, etc.? Also wonder if anyone can comment on leaving the upper Midwest, heading south, pulling a camper in February? No big...

DW and I recently placed her mom in a NH here in Illinois. We learned a lot from the process. Here are a few quick observations I made as we waded through the ordeal. 1. Here in northern Illinois, NH's that will accept a patient who is on Medicaid (near zero assets) from the get-go tend to be...

When folks dread "selling in a down market," I wonder if that's as bad as it sounds. I suppose it depends on how much of your portfolio you MUST sell each year to support your budget. After SS, pension, divs and interest, we generally don't have to sell anything out of our 50/45/5 FIRE...

At about this time of day on June 30th, 2006, a long time friend from HR walked in and announced "it's time to go!" I had cleaned out my office weeks before this, so there were no boxes, no brief cases to carry out. We walked to the parking lot shooting the shi* about old times, even extending...

President Obama has announced a 2 year freeze on fed employee salaries. It appears to be a 2 year elimination of automatic COLA's. Seniority progressions and promotions will still occur. So, not a very dramatic proposal, but perhaps a step in the right direction. The freeze would need to be...

The recent discussions concerning LTC and LTCI have caused me to do some recalculating regarding our ability to self-fund LTC if the need arises. It seems fairly easy to research costs and use the worse-case scenario. I plugged in $90k/yr here in the Chicago area. And for number of years, I just...

Rocky and Bullwinkle Creator Alex Anderson Dies - TIME Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2027264,00.html#ixzz13QjpCEn1 So sad for us FIRE'd types...... Rocky represented the entrepreneurial early retiree, Bullwinkle the lucky DB pension recipient. It'll be tough...

I'm trying to pick out an emergency road service plan for my truck and camper (Aliner hard-sided pop-up) to have in place before leaving for a leaf peeping trip to Vt, NH, Me in 2 wks. I've got info from AAA and Good Sam. Are there others out there? Anyone here signed on to one of these plans...

There has been some discussion here on the subject of external WIFI antennas being used to enable connections to more distant WIFI signal sources, usually related to RV'ing. Here are some examples I was looking over. Buy Wireless antenna,WiFi Antenna,2.4Ghz 5Ghz Wlan Antenna,RF connector,RF...

Silly me, I did some short term trading in USL within my IRA acct early in 2009. I got in and out a couple of times and made a couple of STCG's which I understand I do not report on my taxes. The gains will be taxed as ordinary income when I withdraw them sometime down the road. But now...

I'm interested in comments concerning the potential impact of these upcoming tax changes on the economy in general and on the ability of current worker bees to reach FIRE and for us FIRE'd geezers to maintain our FIRE status. health-care-reform-tax-hikes-on-the-way: Personal Finance News...

We've had many discussions on this board concerning the fairness, viability and survivability of various pensions, especially public pensions. I've been following the situation in Illinois where the state budget is in shambles, tax increases are on the drawing board and some people (not...

We've had some interesting discussions regarding the use of credit cards vs. debit cards vs. neither. Personally, I have 2 credit cards, zero debit cards and use cash for most small, incidental purchases. The credit cards are used on-line, at the gas station, grocery store and for most purchases...

My new computer came today and so far, so good, It's sitting on the dining room table running just fine. I don't have a network cable long enough to reach out there so haven't tried it on the internet yet but not anticipating any problems when I move it into the office. I just wanted to be...

It seems like whenever I mention "paddling" on this forum, someone thinks a little "spanking" is about to take place! :laugh: But for you folks into canoeing and kayaking, please identify yourselves. Who enjoys travelling our lakes and rivers via manual propulsion? We previously had done...

I notice that there will be a TIPS Treasury auction tomorrow, April 7th. This seems to be a reissue of the same bonds auctioned in January, 2 1/8% PAR and 10 years. Any feelings about what these will actually bring?

Whether you were for or against the current administration during the election, I think it's safe to say we're all pulling for Obama and his Sec of Treas to be successful in saving our retirements. But what's going on with Geithner being unable to fill his open staff positions? Another key...

Any thoughts as to why the Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund VTSMX yields only 2.69% while the equivalent ETF VTI yields 3.5%?

DW wants to go visit relatives in the South lake Tahoe area this spring. I believe her spring break is the first week of April. Can anyone comment on what the weather would be like and what activities are available that time of year? We'd fly into Reno from Chicago, rent a car and drive over...

Can anyone tell me how/where to look up the real yield on the TIP etf?

I'm fully retired - no work, no SS, not collecting pension yet. DW collects a modest pension and works P/T (bless her heart! ;)). DW's P/T work does not have pension coverage. Our income will be above the limit to deduct IRA contributions if we are covered by a pension. A Roth IRA is also not an...

Just picked up the sad news that Nick Reynolds (tenor guitar), one of the founding members of the Kingston Trio, passed away in San Diego. That leaves only Bob Shane still alive. Dave Guard (banjo) died many years ago and his replacement John Stewart died in January. Good evening for a few...

DS's MIL has offered to gift he and his bride $20k with the string attached that the money must be used to reduce the principal on their mortgage. They currently owe $115k and there are 9 years left on their 6% 15yr mortgage. Any ideas on how they should handle this? They're calling the bank...

Oh my gosh....... :o Just noticed DIL's xmas list has "room air cleaner/purifier" on it! She struggles with allergies, so I'm sure she's wants one to try to see if it will give her some relief. I checked Consumer Reports. The 2007 year end summary book gives a few paragraphs on the types...