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When I finally perfect my time machine design, I promise I'll let you know, folks! Until then, Astro's explanation will have to suffice ;D

Well, this was my introductory thread a couple of months back, but then I posted quite a bit in late July - August. Check the post count ;)

A quick update. A few weeks ago I wrote: Although it took longer than expected, the new project finally jelled together a month ago and I am now working in the Rocky Mountains region. Knock on wood, but so far everything looks just as I hoped it would be: the work is much more interesting --...

I too have over $10K in my checking account, but for a very different reason. I am a roaming consultant and when my roaming takes me out of state, which happens about 50% of the time, my monthly expenses can be quite high. Of course, the client eventually reimburses me -- and I even break even...

Unless you guys are extreme do-it-yourselvers, $2.4K/y on home maintenance and remodeling (!) sounds very low, especially given your stated spening levels elsewhere. Are you sure that number will survive collision with reality as your house ages?

I'll go out on a limb here and volunteer a guess: the answer is "money"! ;D

Well, I don't know if I would go that far, but I think I am making baby steps in the right direction. I spent an hour earlier this week going through my software and slimmed it down from 4 boxes to 1. Next on the agenda: about a hundred (very) old computer and science books that I will never...

Er, who said anything about it being rational?  :-[ I don't think you understand. I could only wish I had 3,000 books. I bought this house 13 years ago because I had 8,000 books then and needed more space. Of course, once I had the extra space, it only got worse. Much worse. I donated 600...

I can see how CMM can be used that way, but I have never heard of XP as an outside requirement. How often does it happen?

Well, it's a highly personal decision. For example, you have a wife and a small child, so your moving costs (money, aggravation, etc) would be higher and you would need to rent a reasonably big place for the family to live in and raise the child(ren). I don't have a family and have been known to...

Congratulations! 18 years in IT and counting here, so I know how you feel ::) The advice about not making any drastic changes in the first 12 months (or so) is likely sound based on a number of people's experiences. Professionals even have a term for people flailing around after retiring...

You sell the house and rent for 4 years?  8)

If you start in 1980-1985, when median income was just under $40k and look at the next 20 years, it has grown to $46.3K today. As far as the quintile distribution goes, all five quintiles have seen their income increase over the last 20 years. See Table A-3 on page 47 of the PDF file linked...

I suppose it's another way of saying that you should try to minimize the chances of unexpected expenses in retirement when your financial situation is less flexible. Sounds like the old adage about becoming more conservative with your investments as you get older: you sacrifice potentially...

Real median houshold income has been growing for the last 40 years, although it has had its ups and downs. See Figure 1 at http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p60-231.pdf

NW and the current account balance are two different things. If this country were to liquidate its assets and pay its debts -- say, we have decided to move to Titan -- we could make quite a bit of money to the tune of $50 trillion, give or take some pocket change. See, for example, US net worth...

True, but, unfortunately, it's hard to predict what may result in the "least voter backlash" 20-40 years from now. If I have, say, $300K in the bank (in today's dollars) when I am 70 and apply for SS, will the voters/politicians say "Sorry, nothing for you, bud, until you spend your assets"? Or...

Labor stats is a tricky area that can be easily manipulated to make it look better or worse depending on what the author wants to prove. Two common sources of obfuscation are (a) substituting "wages" (usually private non-farm non-supervisory wages) for total income and (b) ignoring benefits...

Well, it is certainly true that if there is strong popular support for the current system and if the balance sheet is not too far out of whack, then the system will probably be kept afloat, give or take some tax increases, benefit reductions, retirement age alterations, etc. 70%+ sounds like a...

Er, shouldn't that go without saying? If you don't get your college age (! - compare to Nords' DD) kids to pay for basic screwups, how will they ever learn? Isn't it better to have them pay $50-100 and learn their lesson now than fail to learn to manage money and be mired in debt 5-10 years from...

I don't reconcile my checking account monthly to catch my bank's errors. I reconcile it monthly to catch my errors ;D

Suze Orman still around? Wasn't she big in the late 1990s? I thought she was too fruity to have staying power, but I guess it goes to show how well I understand humans ;D

There are various tests that a 401k plan has to pass before it will be get a clean bill of health from the IRS. There are rules on how much money highly compensated employees can be putting into it (something that my company almost ran afoul of some years ago) and all kinds of other things.

My first and only mortgage was around $120K ($134k purchase price minus 10% down). I don't recall what the interest rates on 30 year mortgages were like in 1993 (6.75%?), but I was paying $868/mo. Paid it off in 8.5 years and have been mortgage free ever since.

The only caveat here is that you don't know how the car was driven during the first 3 years of its life. It's a reasonable risk, for the most part, but it's something to consider.