If you sold a stock(s) earlier in the year at substantial profit and you have a stock or stocks that is/are worth less now than when you bought it/them, and you don't consider it wise to continue to hold it/them, perhaps sell it/them before the year end to offset some of the capital gain that you made on the one that was sold earlier. In some jurisdictions you can carry a loss back a couple of years, or forward, to offset capital gains made in earlier years - or later. I'm not big on buying and selling stocks: I've bought some (quality ones) twenty and thirty years ago that I still hold. If a stock that you own has a history of volatile pricing, and you think that the price is unusually high right now, you might choose to sell now, with a view to buying back later, at a lower price (and there'll be two commissions to pay, in any case). Trouble with that is - how far is down? Maybe later the train will have left the station before you choose to get on. Not many of us have wings to enable us to catch it at a station down the line. Hope this helps. Come back to ask us more specific questions, if you like, as it's hard to know what fields of the broad financial system that you are interested to explore at the moment. Stockbrokers like to have you trade ... ... for if you just buy and hold for a long time, they don't make any money in the interim. Except that one broker that I use charges me $125./year for carrying an inactive account and my broker says that there's nothing he can do about it - I'm going to close it, as others don't. Some years ago one broker wasn't charging me an annual fee to administer my self-directed tax-deferred retirement account, but when I had to reverse it into the payout (and no more inputs) section, they were starting to charge an administration fee. So I asked around and found a couple of other carriers who were willing to administer it without an annual fee - carriers whom I was less enthused about using, but I didn't feel it necessary to disclose that piece of information to the current carrier. The carrier said that they could administer it without a fee, as well - and have been doing so, for the last seven years. As a matter of fact, they'll be sending me my annual cheque in a couple of weeks. Guess I'll have to start thinking about what to do with the money, huh? Yeah, right - just before Christmas? Learn how to manage your money effectively, for you, rather than the other guys - it's an interesting hobby ... **that pays well**!! If you don't choose to boss your money - it'll boss you. ole joyful

OK how many people will be living in the home. What are the ages? How often do you plan to have guests? How often do you entertain? Seems like it will be a lot of work to try and furnish it with all those round curves. I looked online at the floor plan and the photos and honestly, it reminds me of 90% of all the mid-large homes in FL.

Please don't kill me on this but why do I need to own the land to know what type of layout I want to have? People buy plans off the rack all the time because they like the layout and then have them built. Yes, people buy "off the rack" plans and have them built -- with varying degrees of success. We're going with a "stock plan" and will make few modifications; after drawing and studying, we've decided that our needs aren't that unique, and we found a number of plans that'll work just fine. We are rearranging the master bath to make it more age-friendly, and we're adding a breezeway between the kitchen and the garage that'll house a pocket office and very large pantry, and with those small changes it's everything we want ... with few compromises and without recreating the wheel. However, we knew we wanted a house with Southern exposure and a few other necessities ... so we chose the lot first, and then agreed upon the plan we liked best from the dozen or so that we'd selected as likely possibilities. Here's an example of why you want to start with the land and let the house evolve from there: When we were first married, we bought a cute little all-brick ranch in a subdivision -- I loved many things about that house and have many happy memories of living in it, but one of its biggest detractors was that the windows weren't well planned for the house's orientation. The back of the house faced West, and we had a big, lovely glass door by the table, which overlooked the back yard. The problem was that every day -- about the time we were ready to sit down to dinner -- the evening sun beat down on that door, and the brick "held the heat". Especially in the summer months, the dining room was an oven. So what could've been a lovely feature -- the door -- had to be covered with a heavy, insulated curtain, which was always closed at dinner, robbing the dining room of what could've been an open feeling and natural sunlight. If the builder had considered the treeless lot and the Western sun, he could've placed the bedrooms towards the back of the house; no one would've been in the bedrooms in the late afternoon /early evening, and the house would've functioned better. Another example: you've designed a house that's essentially square and requires X amount of space to build. Suppose you locate a fantastic lot that happens to be on the small side, but its location is so perfect that you want to buy it -- and the buildable area is 10' too narrow to build this house. Or it's a cul-de-sac lot with a narrow front that can't support this wide a house. Or suppose the neighborhood requires a garage to the back, or it requires that all houses are two-story, or whatever. These aren't uncommon things. With so many variables involved, there's no point in getting down to specifics until you know that the morning sun will strike your house on the left, and traffic will approach your house from the right, and you'll have X amount of width available to you -- and more. I started making the layout over a year ago and this is what it has grown into and I can tell that I'm to attached with the layout as it is because every time I go to move the stairs I think but where it is, is a great place for the stairs. Honestly, the stairs are the worst part of the house. They're directly in front of the bowling alley entryway, meaning that the sight-line upon entering the house is a stairway with a half-wall. It's closed off, dark, and sets a poor tone for the house. The solid wall blocks off natural light to your main living area, and it impedes your view out on to the deck. The stairs in that position are going to give your living room a small, closed-in feeling. I'll try to think of a way to smash from top to bottom. Okay, I put that idea in your head, and now I see that I worded my thoughts poorly. Think instead of how many "rooms deep" your house is. Right now it's a "three-room deep" house: On one side you have garage - bath - master bedroom. In the middle you have family room - living/kitchen - dining /deck. Get the idea? Three-deep houses can work on narrow city lots, but those tend to be narrow houses that provide windows on both sides. Move some rooms around so that you have a two-deep house; at the same time, draw your stairs and closets "inward" -- and you'll see things work better.

Are you sure it's a "Frank Betz" plan? There are plans by others with the name "Westport" - e.g., Don Gardner has one (DG Westport). I'd post the exterior here and see if others recognize it - in case it's not a "Frank Betz" plan. (If your house # is on it, blur it out b/f posting the image.)