Hello dream garden, Around here, having had a skiff of snow over the past few days, the concept of a garden is pretty well a "dream" at present - though I think that it's past time that I should put some seeds into the earth that I stored in pots in the basement. Thank you for your message of appreciation. Yes - "stretcher" is an interesting site. Some years ago when my son and I had a display at a fall fair, mine being along the line of "Making Your Dollars Work Harder" and "How to Pay Less Income Tax", a man came up to me and asked me what right I had to call myself a financial planner. I told him that all that I have to sell someone is looking at money a little differently than they, for if I look at it (almost) identically, they won't pay to talk to me ... and if I look at it from a hugely different perspective, they'll clap their both hands over both ears and think, "Oh, Lord - no way am I even going to consider trusting management of my precious money to *this* flake!!". I said that it seemed to me that the time when I began to look at money somewhat differently than most city folks (my major potential market) was when I grew up on the farm. He replied, rather vehemently, that that had nothing to do with it! I told him that I thought that it did, for most city folk have regular income and if they miss a couple of paycheques, are crying the blues such that you think that the world was about to end, while for most farmers irregular income is an ongoing fact of life. Further, most city folk don't think much about the difference between cash flow and capital - their main capital issue being their mortgage, on which they make regular payments without thinking. They have no idea how one needs to consider, having enjoyed a little larger income than usual this year, whether to do an overhaul of the tractor motor, or trade it on a better one, and whether one can afford to get a better/bigger combine this year, or buy some more cattle, or hogs, put a new roof on the barn, make an extra payment on the mortgage, etc. I also told him that I'd taken the courses that stockbrokers take - much more complex than the training of most mutual fund sales folk. Plus six courses (passed 5) leading to title of Chartered Financial Planner - later revised, I'd have to start all over: at 70 or so (now 77), and receiving 3 pensions - I thought not. By the way, having done a preliminary calculation of my tax for this year, I find that I may be paying something under 10% of income in tax - about half of the amount of my charitable contributions (without considering the political ones, that are partially deductible, up to a limit, as well). Hope you enjoy your spring - and your garden. Mine, in the corner of a field of beans for processing (freezing, canning) got sprayed last year ... twice! ole joyful P.S. When you live among refugees for a time - it gives you a whole different outlook not only on money and its uses, but on various other dimensions of living, as well. Including being thankful for the accident of birth that had me born in this country rather than in many others - but they are God's people, too - and I owe them something o j

"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!

Open floor plan, wide doorways, ramps instead of steps, all cabinets fully accessible (none overhead). Basically, universal design with as much handicapped accessible as possible. I'm not "there" yet but I feel for folks that are forced to move from their homes for physical reasons.

HOA fees can be fairly predictable, they usually don't take huge jumps. We have an HOA on the lot we bought and there is a limit to the increase. It should be published somewhere. I think it is a consideration but I wouldn't think it is a vast swing one way or the other. Full disclosure - I am not retired, but I believe that most people go through several phases of homes - The starter home, the family home, and the retirement home and each of those phases are a departure from the things we wanted/needed before. It really all depends on what you want. My mind always goes to the financial perspective when thinking about these things. If you find a community that you like, there is nothing wrong with doing things for non financial reasons. There is no point in having a little more money if you are not going to use it to be happy. From a financial perspective there is no real difference. Rarely have interest rates been good enough to see a spread once you are retired and have a low risk appetite, but they are now. I personally prefer a small single family house, my grandmother turned 94 in a small "shotgun" house. There are some good Christmas memories as we packed a lot of people into that tiny house. I have lived in condos and townhomes, they don't seem the same to me. But that is just me.