Hi Harriet, Would you be willing to expand a little on what types of investments (in general) would fall into the category of "growth instruments with more security"? Growth & Security are on opposite sides of a continuum scale, or even a 3-dimensional graph, if you through in time & access values. There are SO MANY choices of structuring, it would be impossible for me to responsibly cover any recommendations here. There are direct share investments (stocks, bonds, futures, partnerships) that all ahve varying risk & safety profiles. There are professionally managed funds or account management services that monitor the above. There are pre-packaged investment services provided by fund managers, and bank trust accounts. There are also pre-packaged investment and insurance strategies (including accounts with no-loss guarantees and matching upside returns to the broad index markets.) Everything has it's counter-side. The choices with the most possible upside tend to also be naked to the biggest risks. The choices with the most safety guaranteed either offer less in growth... OR offer stronger growth only if you pre-commit to keep your paws off the funds for a long-term commitment (often 5-15 years, in the case of any worthy investment policies in annuities or insurance contracts.) There are no "one solution fits all" answers... and each family is BEST served with a formula of several pieces that cover several angles. It is the development of a custom "recipe" that is the most optimum. DH and I are 47 and 49, with no children, so I don't know how conservative we have to be with our investments. Our 401ks are invested fairly aggressively. A great deal of how you design your own "recipe" for investment/saving against leverage (debt married to appreciating assets) will depend on how you want your future to look, by when, and how you feel about taxation (believe it or not, not everyone completely hates it... LOL!) It will also depend on if you have any desires to direct left-over assets to related family, or unrelated orgainzations or charities. First & foremost, of course, you want to absolutely ensure that you run out of life BEFORE you run out of money! ;~) Nobody wants to flip that backwards... but many are at exactly that risk. All the best! Dave Donhoff Strategic Equity & Mortgage Planner

Hi Eosinophil, FIRST of we need to back away from the minutiea... up, up, up to get some bigger picture perspective, like an architect starting with very simple pencil sketches on a blank piece of paper... so that we can THEN come back down to the nitty-gritty and micro-fit the situation to your specifics. What is more important to you; Eliminating your outstanding leverage balances on an accelerating basis, or stopping the monthly bleeding? (These are at counter-points for you currently.) Are you more concerned about the balances on one property versus the other... or about your overall family position on balance? How much accrued liquid cash reserves do you have socked away? How much is your gross family monthly revenue? How much is your current gross (including minimum payments for all debt and homes) family cost of living? You are paying to rent the money you are using for retaining the ownership of the old home (the interest costs.) This interest is a "sunk cost" each month you pay it, if you have no tenants paying you for its useage. Is your continuing ownership giving you *any* appreciation currently? (Keeping in mind that market appreciation is a VERY tentative guess, at best, in the current environment... and if it is negative, you need to honestly figure it that way as well.) IF so, how much is the appreciation when calculated into monthly dollars? How much of your sunk interest costs are being ofset by your potential monthly appreciation gained? Whatever your sunk costs of interest, minus your dollars from appreciation (or plus the dollar costs, if depreciating currently,) is what you can call your "monthly burn." This is the consumption of your net worth you are incurring to continue carrying this property. NOW... this home CAN be sold (gotten under contract with a 30 day escrow period, or less) within a 2-6 week marketing time, AT SOME LEVEL OF PRICE, AND ADVERTISED EXPOSURE. This "price level" is what we call the "quick-sale price value." If your agent were to (honestly) determine the realistic quick-sale price level in that local market... it would likely be lower (perhaps much lower) than where you are holding out right now... and the agent would likely need to ramp up some significant marketing costs... which they might only be comfortable doing with some funding (or guarantees) from you. All of this, naturally, is going to be a revenue burden off of what you were previously hoping to sell your home for. NONETHELESS... this is a numeric exercise that is CRITICAL to do... RIGHT NOW... because it will give you the numerical difference between where you are right now in realistic net worth, were you to do this immediately..... VERSUS how much you are "burning through" on your monthly burn rate if you simply close your eyes, cover your ears, pray really really hard, and just keep waiting it out. KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS IS POWER... and you can't make an objective financial decision unless/until you have the actual facts in front of your face to review and think about. ========================================================= OK... soapbox aside..... *IF* you decide that you have reason to believe that simply waiting longer will actually be worth your while in a higher sale price... then there *is* investment property financing available in the range of 3.5% to 4.5% APR, on an interest-only basis, up to 70-75% LTV, strictly on a fully documented (income, employment, assets) basis... which could very significantly reduce your monthly burn overall. Its something I have at my firm... but not to be 'spammy' there may be other brokers (perhaps your regular loan broker) who have it as well. Its not a retail program, so you'd definitely need to connect with your broker for it. ========================================================= ALL THINGS CONSIDERED... (And in truth, we haven't seen enough details to truly consider all things...) I would *PROBABLY* be leaning toward advising you to take a deep breath, swallow hard, plug your nose... and have your agent re-price the home to the local quick-sale price... and get it over with while we're in the summertime "moving & home-buying season." All the best! Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

Just to give everyone an update, I met with my SIL last weekend and we went over my nephew's transcript and the 504 information she has. The situation is pretty bad. Last year he only received 3 credits when he took 6 (he failed English, Math, Health, History). He is currently failing at least History and Chemistry. I also read the testing information and it was very confusing. The testing done in 10th grade contradict the testing done in 7th grade. In other words, they found LDs in 10th grade, but not the ones found in 8th grade. The school has been updating his 504 every year, but his teachers seem to know nothing about it. She was going to talk to the guidance counselor again and get back to me. I have laryngitus right now, so I haven't called her this week to see what he said. Part of the issue, I think, might be that his IQ testing came out low. I think it was in the high 90s. That makes no sense to me, he seems very bright. I wonder if the IQ testing could have biases based on his issues. I think that because the IQ is low, their expectatiions for him are low. In other words, the school views him as "dumb" rather than learning disabled. I made an impassioned argument for her pulling his computer and TV from his room. She isn't buying it. She is afraid that his "friends" online are his support system right now and she is afraid to take that away. Friends? They could be 50 year old sex offenders for all she knows. She is very computer naive. She admitted that he almost never does things with his group of friends anymore. He won't go to their houses because they aren't allowed to sit in their rooms all day and play computer games. The only time he sees his friends now is at school and when they come to his house (and they lock themselves in his room). I love my SIL, but she have a serious case of denial.

depending on circumstances, etc., could you leave your kids in someone else's charge to finish out the school year--or for a month or two of whatever's left so you can travel to the new place (without them in tow, and WITH them safely ensconced in Grandma's spare room, or their best friend's bedroom)? That might make the whole transition much smooth for all of you. The grownups would have time to look for work, housing, and summer-camp programs (that would help them make friends) without worrying about childcare, kids' bedtimes, regular meals, etc. The kids could get just a few more weeks of school at their old school, and could move perhaps shortly before the year ends. They won't miss much in the last month of the old school, and you can pick WHEN you want them to leave, based on how things are playing out--you'll have flexibility. But if you move just before the school ends in the new place, they could meet a few new kids before the summer, and then fall wouldn't feel as stressful. Not everybody's willing to do this "park my kids with someone else" thing, I know. And not every kid would cope. My oldest would be GREAT, she'd think it was a hoot; my youngest would be OK but he'd miss us a little bit; I have friends whose son would be miserable. I'm fortunate to have grandparents here who'd be willing, and I have also occasionally found friends whose judgment I trust, that I'd be willing to have them serve as substitute Mom or Dad for a short while.