[Coronita]

That would be called inside trading.

[Coronita]

I also heard that the developer on the other side of Carmel Country Highland plans to put in some townhomes and a small strip mall, which will include a Trader Joe's. The surrounding residence didn't originally like the idea, but it was that OR put in low income housing which the residence REALLY didn't like…lol

Again, hearsay for now… 

[Coronita]

I also heard that the developer on the other side of Carmel Country Highland plans to put in some townhomes and a small strip mall, which will include a Trader Joe's. The surrounding residence didn't originally like the idea, but it was that OR put in low income housing which the residence REALLY didn't like…lol

Again, hearsay for now… 

[Coronita]

I also heard that the developer on the other side of Carmel Country Highland plans to put in some townhomes and a small strip mall, which will include a Trader Joe's. The surrounding residence didn't originally like the idea, but it was that OR put in low income housing which the residence REALLY didn't like…lol

Again, hearsay for now… 

[Coronita]

I also heard that the developer on the other side of Carmel Country Highland plans to put in some townhomes and a small strip mall, which will include a Trader Joe's. The surrounding residence didn't originally like the idea, but it was that OR put in low income housing which the residence REALLY didn't like…lol

Again, hearsay for now… 

[Coronita]

One question.. don't have much time to answer before turning into pumpkin. Are your retirement accounts (401K, profit share, etc) fully funded?

ucodegen,

To answer #1,#2,#3, yes I'm aware of that they aren't keeping up with mortgage costs, opportunity cost investing elseware with better yield, although I need some safety cushion at least partly, and I'm fully aware of the dollar-peso issue.

….Just trying to figure out out to further reduce my mortgage costs and/or reduce my taxes. Being wage slaves doesn't really help the later. And currently, i(we) are hitting some itemized deduction phase out limits + we ALWAYS get hit with AMT, so not all the mortgage interest and property tax we pay on the mortgage is being fully utilized in the itemized deduction. Notably, while Property Tax is deductible under normal tax calculations, it is not part of AMT tax calculations. So we're losing roughly $12k in deductions under AMT tax calculations. Ironically, using a tax product, I played with some numbers. If I paid more interest expenses in my primary mortgage, I wouldn't hit AMT and my effective tax rate would drop even lower, even with the itemized deduction phase out. (the deduction would be reduced, but not completely phased out).

 

 

Yes, both my wife and I max out the 401k, and ESPP at both respective companies, and there is no other pension plan to contribute. With the recent volatility in the market, the remaining income currently is distributed roughly: $1000/month into a basket of domestic+international index and some specialty funds, $500/month into a 529 plan for a kid, and about $3000/month into a short term reserve. The rest goes into a mortgage+slightly extra principle payments roughly $4000/month ($3600 is roughly the fixed payment, with about add additional $400/month principle on top of that), $1100/month for proptax+hoa+insurance+mellrouse, $1500/month for child daycare expenses, and roughly $500/month in misc expenses. No other outstanding loans exist, though everything possible that can be charged to credit cards without a processing fee is charged to cards that have some rebate program, and each card has 0 balance end of each month.

This doesn't account for any bonus we get, which usually is used only for vacation and additional drips into index/fund basket + short term reserves. Also, December expenses are are higher than average, for obvious reasons. So gifts and charitable contributions usually comes out of the bonus pile, if any. Bonuses have fluctuated in the past, stabilizing recently .Nevertheless, neither of us count on it. We figure no bonus ==> no vacation requiring travel, limited gift giving, and limited charitable contributions.

[Coronita]

One question.. don't have much time to answer before turning into pumpkin. Are your retirement accounts (401K, profit share, etc) fully funded?

ucodegen,

To answer #1,#2,#3, yes I'm aware of that they aren't keeping up with mortgage costs, opportunity cost investing elseware with better yield, although I need some safety cushion at least partly, and I'm fully aware of the dollar-peso issue.

….Just trying to figure out out to further reduce my mortgage costs and/or reduce my taxes. Being wage slaves doesn't really help the later. And currently, i(we) are hitting some itemized deduction phase out limits + we ALWAYS get hit with AMT, so not all the mortgage interest and property tax we pay on the mortgage is being fully utilized in the itemized deduction. Notably, while Property Tax is deductible under normal tax calculations, it is not part of AMT tax calculations. So we're losing roughly $12k in deductions under AMT tax calculations. Ironically, using a tax product, I played with some numbers. If I paid more interest expenses in my primary mortgage, I wouldn't hit AMT and my effective tax rate would drop even lower, even with the itemized deduction phase out. (the deduction would be reduced, but not completely phased out).

 

 

Yes, both my wife and I max out the 401k, and ESPP at both respective companies, and there is no other pension plan to contribute. With the recent volatility in the market, the remaining income currently is distributed roughly: $1000/month into a basket of domestic+international index and some specialty funds, $500/month into a 529 plan for a kid, and about $3000/month into a short term reserve. The rest goes into a mortgage+slightly extra principle payments roughly $4000/month ($3600 is roughly the fixed payment, with about add additional $400/month principle on top of that), $1100/month for proptax+hoa+insurance+mellrouse, $1500/month for child daycare expenses, and roughly $500/month in misc expenses. No other outstanding loans exist, though everything possible that can be charged to credit cards without a processing fee is charged to cards that have some rebate program, and each card has 0 balance end of each month.

This doesn't account for any bonus we get, which usually is used only for vacation and additional drips into index/fund basket + short term reserves. Also, December expenses are are higher than average, for obvious reasons. So gifts and charitable contributions usually comes out of the bonus pile, if any. Bonuses have fluctuated in the past, stabilizing recently .Nevertheless, neither of us count on it. We figure no bonus ==> no vacation requiring travel, limited gift giving, and limited charitable contributions.

[Coronita]

One question.. don't have much time to answer before turning into pumpkin. Are your retirement accounts (401K, profit share, etc) fully funded?

ucodegen,

To answer #1,#2,#3, yes I'm aware of that they aren't keeping up with mortgage costs, opportunity cost investing elseware with better yield, although I need some safety cushion at least partly, and I'm fully aware of the dollar-peso issue.

….Just trying to figure out out to further reduce my mortgage costs and/or reduce my taxes. Being wage slaves doesn't really help the later. And currently, i(we) are hitting some itemized deduction phase out limits + we ALWAYS get hit with AMT, so not all the mortgage interest and property tax we pay on the mortgage is being fully utilized in the itemized deduction. Notably, while Property Tax is deductible under normal tax calculations, it is not part of AMT tax calculations. So we're losing roughly $12k in deductions under AMT tax calculations. Ironically, using a tax product, I played with some numbers. If I paid more interest expenses in my primary mortgage, I wouldn't hit AMT and my effective tax rate would drop even lower, even with the itemized deduction phase out. (the deduction would be reduced, but not completely phased out).

 

 

Yes, both my wife and I max out the 401k, and ESPP at both respective companies, and there is no other pension plan to contribute. With the recent volatility in the market, the remaining income currently is distributed roughly: $1000/month into a basket of domestic+international index and some specialty funds, $500/month into a 529 plan for a kid, and about $3000/month into a short term reserve. The rest goes into a mortgage+slightly extra principle payments roughly $4000/month ($3600 is roughly the fixed payment, with about add additional $400/month principle on top of that), $1100/month for proptax+hoa+insurance+mellrouse, $1500/month for child daycare expenses, and roughly $500/month in misc expenses. No other outstanding loans exist, though everything possible that can be charged to credit cards without a processing fee is charged to cards that have some rebate program, and each card has 0 balance end of each month.

This doesn't account for any bonus we get, which usually is used only for vacation and additional drips into index/fund basket + short term reserves. Also, December expenses are are higher than average, for obvious reasons. So gifts and charitable contributions usually comes out of the bonus pile, if any. Bonuses have fluctuated in the past, stabilizing recently .Nevertheless, neither of us count on it. We figure no bonus ==> no vacation requiring travel, limited gift giving, and limited charitable contributions.

[Coronita]

One question.. don't have much time to answer before turning into pumpkin. Are your retirement accounts (401K, profit share, etc) fully funded?

ucodegen,

To answer #1,#2,#3, yes I'm aware of that they aren't keeping up with mortgage costs, opportunity cost investing elseware with better yield, although I need some safety cushion at least partly, and I'm fully aware of the dollar-peso issue.

….Just trying to figure out out to further reduce my mortgage costs and/or reduce my taxes. Being wage slaves doesn't really help the later. And currently, i(we) are hitting some itemized deduction phase out limits + we ALWAYS get hit with AMT, so not all the mortgage interest and property tax we pay on the mortgage is being fully utilized in the itemized deduction. Notably, while Property Tax is deductible under normal tax calculations, it is not part of AMT tax calculations. So we're losing roughly $12k in deductions under AMT tax calculations. Ironically, using a tax product, I played with some numbers. If I paid more interest expenses in my primary mortgage, I wouldn't hit AMT and my effective tax rate would drop even lower, even with the itemized deduction phase out. (the deduction would be reduced, but not completely phased out).

 

 

Yes, both my wife and I max out the 401k, and ESPP at both respective companies, and there is no other pension plan to contribute. With the recent volatility in the market, the remaining income currently is distributed roughly: $1000/month into a basket of domestic+international index and some specialty funds, $500/month into a 529 plan for a kid, and about $3000/month into a short term reserve. The rest goes into a mortgage+slightly extra principle payments roughly $4000/month ($3600 is roughly the fixed payment, with about add additional $400/month principle on top of that), $1100/month for proptax+hoa+insurance+mellrouse, $1500/month for child daycare expenses, and roughly $500/month in misc expenses. No other outstanding loans exist, though everything possible that can be charged to credit cards without a processing fee is charged to cards that have some rebate program, and each card has 0 balance end of each month.

This doesn't account for any bonus we get, which usually is used only for vacation and additional drips into index/fund basket + short term reserves. Also, December expenses are are higher than average, for obvious reasons. So gifts and charitable contributions usually comes out of the bonus pile, if any. Bonuses have fluctuated in the past, stabilizing recently .Nevertheless, neither of us count on it. We figure no bonus ==> no vacation requiring travel, limited gift giving, and limited charitable contributions.

[Coronita]

Raybarnes and ucodegen,

I read both of what you are saying, and both of you are providing very interesting viewpoints. Thanks. I hope the two of you don't end up mudslinging this because I feel that your open discussion is very interesting.

As such, I guess after reading both of your posts, I think things are slightly more complicated for me in that

(1)My mortgage is around 5.5% fixed.

(2)I believe most helocs these days would be around 7%

(3)My itemized tax deductions are consistently phased out to some degree every year.

(4)I end up paying AMT taxes all the time which throws a wrinkle in the deductibility of mortgages/helocs.

In theory, I have cash to pay off the entire mortgage right now, except I was sort of gambling that eventually interest rates would rise to a point such that something like a CD would be above my mortgage rate such that it would make sense to keep taking on this mortgage debt. Currently, I'm divided been some safe CD's with rates below my mortgage and putting money in riskier areas to hopefully get about 8-10%. The later is to primarily beat the mortgage rate with risk, the former is to lose (slightly) but act as a small safety cushion. But what's been throwing a wrench is that with the Fed's cutting rates( was expecting it, but not that much), so are these short term cd's going south (or at least not increasing). I'm beginning to think in these day to play it safe and just pay more of the mortgage principle off sooner.

I'm not sure if this MMA scheme world really make sense for me in particular, as It appears that for me the mortgage and heloc rate would be drastically different. I mean perhaps if there's a 1% difference, but it's closer to 1.5% for me. Yet at the same time, I do have a pretty hefty principle on the mortgage to digest too ($600k to be exact). Hmmm.

 

[Coronita]

Raybarnes and ucodegen,

I read both of what you are saying, and both of you are providing very interesting viewpoints. Thanks. I hope the two of you don't end up mudslinging this because I feel that your open discussion is very interesting.

As such, I guess after reading both of your posts, I think things are slightly more complicated for me in that

(1)My mortgage is around 5.5% fixed.

(2)I believe most helocs these days would be around 7%

(3)My itemized tax deductions are consistently phased out to some degree every year.

(4)I end up paying AMT taxes all the time which throws a wrinkle in the deductibility of mortgages/helocs.

In theory, I have cash to pay off the entire mortgage right now, except I was sort of gambling that eventually interest rates would rise to a point such that something like a CD would be above my mortgage rate such that it would make sense to keep taking on this mortgage debt. Currently, I'm divided been some safe CD's with rates below my mortgage and putting money in riskier areas to hopefully get about 8-10%. The later is to primarily beat the mortgage rate with risk, the former is to lose (slightly) but act as a small safety cushion. But what's been throwing a wrench is that with the Fed's cutting rates( was expecting it, but not that much), so are these short term cd's going south (or at least not increasing). I'm beginning to think in these day to play it safe and just pay more of the mortgage principle off sooner.

I'm not sure if this MMA scheme world really make sense for me in particular, as It appears that for me the mortgage and heloc rate would be drastically different. I mean perhaps if there's a 1% difference, but it's closer to 1.5% for me. Yet at the same time, I do have a pretty hefty principle on the mortgage to digest too ($600k to be exact). Hmmm.

 

[Coronita]

Raybarnes and ucodegen,

I read both of what you are saying, and both of you are providing very interesting viewpoints. Thanks. I hope the two of you don't end up mudslinging this because I feel that your open discussion is very interesting.

As such, I guess after reading both of your posts, I think things are slightly more complicated for me in that

(1)My mortgage is around 5.5% fixed.

(2)I believe most helocs these days would be around 7%

(3)My itemized tax deductions are consistently phased out to some degree every year.

(4)I end up paying AMT taxes all the time which throws a wrinkle in the deductibility of mortgages/helocs.

In theory, I have cash to pay off the entire mortgage right now, except I was sort of gambling that eventually interest rates would rise to a point such that something like a CD would be above my mortgage rate such that it would make sense to keep taking on this mortgage debt. Currently, I'm divided been some safe CD's with rates below my mortgage and putting money in riskier areas to hopefully get about 8-10%. The later is to primarily beat the mortgage rate with risk, the former is to lose (slightly) but act as a small safety cushion. But what's been throwing a wrench is that with the Fed's cutting rates( was expecting it, but not that much), so are these short term cd's going south (or at least not increasing). I'm beginning to think in these day to play it safe and just pay more of the mortgage principle off sooner.

I'm not sure if this MMA scheme world really make sense for me in particular, as It appears that for me the mortgage and heloc rate would be drastically different. I mean perhaps if there's a 1% difference, but it's closer to 1.5% for me. Yet at the same time, I do have a pretty hefty principle on the mortgage to digest too ($600k to be exact). Hmmm.

 

[Coronita]

Raybarnes and ucodegen,

I read both of what you are saying, and both of you are providing very interesting viewpoints. Thanks. I hope the two of you don't end up mudslinging this because I feel that your open discussion is very interesting.

As such, I guess after reading both of your posts, I think things are slightly more complicated for me in that

(1)My mortgage is around 5.5% fixed.

(2)I believe most helocs these days would be around 7%

(3)My itemized tax deductions are consistently phased out to some degree every year.

(4)I end up paying AMT taxes all the time which throws a wrinkle in the deductibility of mortgages/helocs.

In theory, I have cash to pay off the entire mortgage right now, except I was sort of gambling that eventually interest rates would rise to a point such that something like a CD would be above my mortgage rate such that it would make sense to keep taking on this mortgage debt. Currently, I'm divided been some safe CD's with rates below my mortgage and putting money in riskier areas to hopefully get about 8-10%. The later is to primarily beat the mortgage rate with risk, the former is to lose (slightly) but act as a small safety cushion. But what's been throwing a wrench is that with the Fed's cutting rates( was expecting it, but not that much), so are these short term cd's going south (or at least not increasing). I'm beginning to think in these day to play it safe and just pay more of the mortgage principle off sooner.

I'm not sure if this MMA scheme world really make sense for me in particular, as It appears that for me the mortgage and heloc rate would be drastically different. I mean perhaps if there's a 1% difference, but it's closer to 1.5% for me. Yet at the same time, I do have a pretty hefty principle on the mortgage to digest too ($600k to be exact). Hmmm.

 

[Coronita]

Rehtorical question: Do you find it insulting some MLS listings still list a sale price with a $100k spread?

Insult away. It's a buyer's market. 

[Coronita]

Rehtorical question: Do you find it insulting some MLS listings still list a sale price with a $100k spread?

Insult away. It's a buyer's market. 

[Author]

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