victoriandream, My DH is an attorney & banker. He is NOT a handyman although he tries...Bless his heart. We are both gardeners &, if I do say so myself, accomplished gardeners. So, we've done the garden restoration & hired 95% of the home renovations. It took us about 15 minutes with a heat gun to realize that we were never going to be able to strip all that paint off the millwork ourselves. And, if we did we would ruin the woodwork! :) There are times in economic & societal cycles when historic homes ARE a good investment. We are not now nor have we been in that type of cycle for, maybe, the past 8 years thereabouts. Will it again turn in favor of historic homes? Sure, but who knows when? Just like...if one had such a desire...avacado-green carpet is again available. (Ugh!) Everything is cyclical. You should, IMO, never purchase an historic home with the intention of making a bundle. That's not realistic. Facts are that it costs considerably more to restore these homes than it would to bulldoze & build new on the site. Those pesky appraisers & lenders don't share our emotional attachments so they often block our dreams of grandeur. In many cases, they save us from ourselves! Yes, we had kids. The ranged in age from 8 to 13 when we purchased that 1848 colonial. Our son is a pro at stripping wallpaper! During their teen years they had great ghost stories to entertain their friends! They may have suffered from things we did as parents (?); but I don't believe living in a period home did them any lasting damage. LOL You will know your stewardship is over when you hesitate before starting the next project. Or, you'll know when the checkbook is running on fumes because you can't even stay in a period home, much less restore it, without being bankrolled. They suck money like a vacuum from your wallet. Your daughter is precious! And, what a grand lady your home is! Wonderful that you've got old pictures for a guide. Did you have to strip ALL that millwork? OMG! I think you've done a lovely job of maintaining the 'feel' for the kitchen while still bringing to a 21st century functionality. I love the windows. The windows in our 1848 home were narrow & tall. Window treatments were like trying to dress spaghetti! Yes, our East Lake, Brilliant Period Cut Glass, & tapestries would have worked wonderfully in your home. The auction was sorta fun...we've actually done that thing twice (auctioning off our entire household...that's how we've managed to upgrade our collections...buy, sell & then re-purchase fewer but higher quality pieces). I've got a cupboard that would be lovely in your kitchen...it's c. 1865 so very appropriate to your home. Here's its official description: A circa 1860-1870 step-back cupboard having pie shelf beneath shaped apron beneath a top case consisting of pair of paneled doors with tombstone and molded design with applied cornice molding. Top case rests on bottom case; double drawers above conforming paneled doors having recessed tombstone and molded design matching doors in top case; side panels of lower case also with inset tombstone shaped panels; side of bottom case terminates with successful "cupids bow" base cutout; front apron and feet conform to shaping above pie shelf. This cupboard retains desirable original chrome yellow surface with red highlights; faux birds eye decoration. (84-inches tall X 45-inches wide X 19 1/8-inches deep.) That's funny about you wanting to become boaters! We started with a small 21' sport lobster boat & quickly got a bad case of "Two-footitis". That's a common disease amongst boaters & it's contagious. We ended up with this...she's a Nordic Tug outfitted for long-distance cruising...the Bahamas to Maine. Stay away from boat shows. They are dangerous places! rofl I can really understand why you fell in love with your home & I'm sure she's grateful for your efforts. I know this may sound like blasphemy; but, have you considered a B&B? If not your heart, at least your tax returns would thank you. :) Your family will make many wonderful memories living in that house. If it were me, I'd sigh & start on that siding before the season gets away! :) /tricia

"Luck" is very often another word for "opportunity". Sometimes you are able to take advantage of it, and sometimes you aren't. It wasn't hard to make money - we're in our late 50's, double-income no kids Boomers, and own a paid-for home, two cars and little debt. But we've made very specific choices in life, some of which paid off (DH's defined benefit pension and retiree health benefits) and some of which didn't. Our overhead is still high - I cringed the last time I totaled up what we spend monthly on various insurance policies - but as I've often said, I was taught to view insurance as risk mitigation, so it's a necessity in our overall estate planning. We've done a lot better on our investments since I really started paying attention to investing and made an effort to learn about it. But when I look back, we left the portfolio unattended until almost too late in life. Fortunately, I picked up the interest in learning about investing before the dot-com bust. So when the bust happened, I didn't change a thing about the portfolio, because I'd learned that panic moves are what kill your ROI. Sure enough, the portfolio got back to even in 18 months and then took off from there. That taught me the value of dollar-cost averaging, too. stinkygdnr, I don't know what OJ would say about your home, but our home was underwater for almost 10 years. It was pretty painful, but we consoled ourselves that heck, we had to live somewhere no matter what. In the end values went higher, although of course they've dropped again this past year. But in the long run, a home usually gives you some appreciation. Plus you get a lot of incalculable enjoyment from living in a place you can remodel and change to your heart's content. We liked our home, didn't love it, until we finished all the landscaping. Then we fell in love with it, finding it a real joy to just sit in the garden in a recliner, reading a book and drinking homemade lemonade. Like I said on a different discussion forum, very often it's the simplest pleasures in life that are the best!

Surprisingly, I think I'm going to be one of the few people saying "Yes"...but it's a very risky one. If you buy a home when prices are going up, you can make a killing. If you buy at the wrong time, you lose your shirt. The problem is a house is an extremely undiversified real estate portfolio that is heavily leveraged and comes with tax implications so complex most people don't understand them. People who would never think of putting 20% of their portfolio in one stock put the bulk of their net worth into a single piece of real estate without hesitation. Since the Great Depression it's been illegal to leverage your stock portfolio as much as people leverage their house...because people figured out leverage dramatically increases market volatility and risk. Basically it is an extremely risky investment that people think is safer because it is familiar. Worse, your house is an illiquid asset that people have so much emotionally invested in, they make decisions that aren't rational from a fiscal perspective. People don't necessarily sell their homes when they can no longer afford them. Yet when people start thinking about that new kitchen, they rationalize it as an investment and delude themselves into thinking they will get their investment back. Many buy a home with a vague notion they will sell it and retire off the proceeds. It bugs me when people ask questions about whether this or that luxury renovation will pay for itself. Statistics show the answer is "usually not". Even if it does, though...putting $20,000 into an "investment" that gives you the $20,000 back in 10 years isn't as good a deal as just putting it in your 401k. People tell you to go for qualities in a house that you don't particularly want because they will increase the resale value. On the other hand, if you genuinely *DON'T* want something others want, it is a chance to get a bargain when buying a house. Supply and Demand...the house that has what everyone is demanding right now is likely to be way more expensive, so you will pay less now. This doesn't apply if you are considering a change to your house that others don't like. Even then, though...Are you going to live in a beige house for 20 years because buyers like beige? These things are fads, and could change before you sell. Following the advice to "buy the most house you can afford" or getting an ARM are risky real estate market gambles...if the markets go down or you suffer a financial setback. you are screwed. As far as the real estate agent who didn't own a home: I find there are two types of real estate professionals. The "Mommy Track" (Or "Daddy Track") ones who are looking for a job with flexible hours...and the Hustler/Salesmen/Gambler type who dominates the top of the profession. The latter tend to be big spenders. There is statistical evidence folks in sales tend not to save money...so the high-end real estate agent you are thinking of may spend as fast as he earns and not have the down payment for a house. This post was edited by edlincoln on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 1:40

The idea is to spend your last dollar on your last day of life. Has anyone figured out how to do that (excepting committing suicide, of course)? Unless one wants to leave a little for one's kids - or/and deserving charities. I think that life will be tougher for the youger generation(s) - a lot of computer work is done in India. I heard a while ago that recently a major call centre was established there, as well. Operates in a system similar to ones here - but at about half the cost. Staff using names such as "Kathy", "Linda" etc. They'll have to amend their pronunciation if they want to pass as local when talking to people here. Our middle class is being eroded. If a kid age 15 invests one single dollar ... -and gets 5% rate of return - value at age 65 will be $11.00 plus; -and gets 10% rate of return, value at age 65 will be $117.00 and change, -and gets 15% rate of return, value at age 65 will be $1,070.00 plus. No allowance for the erosion of ongoing income by income tax, or of value of the underlying asset due to inflation. Learning how money works (and the effects of income tax) is an interesting hobby - that pays well. Many people spend more time and energy planning their vacation that how to finance their retirement. Good wishes to you and yours, joyful guy/Ed