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CoronitaParticipantHow long have you had them? I can see if you had them prior to 2012 they would be doing ok. But if you bought after 2012 (especially between 2012-2014, they would have done pretty bad. And aren’t you worried with a pending rise in interest rates?
I’ve been slowly pulling out of long term bonds. The only bond related funds I have left are Vanguard CA- tax except muni bonds (intermediate term). They aren’t doing that well. I’m averaging around 2.5% fed and state tax exempt, which is the same as my mortgage. The long term was doing about 3.5% fed and state tax exempt, but only because I’ve been in them for a long time (before the rise and fall of bonds).
I missed the boat on bonds. They have done well if you started out about 8 years ago.
I guess this goes back to the thread about finding an investment that beats the average rate of return of one’s mortgage.
I don’t know. I don’t think even if someone were able to buy into BBN right now, that they would be looking at the great returns it did have from the past decade. Thoughts?
CoronitaParticipant[quote=svelte]We didn’t buy sheet today.
Spent the day at the LA Auto show, which has become our day-after-Tday tradition.
Bottom line: 124 is AWESOME…must own one before I die. They had 4 count’em 4 Giuilias on display…great vehicle…long live four leaf clovers!
XF was a let down XE was superb…X-PACE much better than expected in red…gaudy in bright blue.
New Camaro had dudes climbing all over it…much like GT-R did last year…
Eye candy was lacking…a few nice models but besides that only my wife attracting attention. :-)[/quote]
I never attend an auto show. I never like to look at what I can’t have 🙂
The 124 might be more obtainable though.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=flu]There’s only two things I’m going to buy for myself… Things to make my car go faster or stop faster, and things to make me get fitter.
I was going to buy new pants because my existing ones are about 2 inches to wide now. But now, I’m just wearing all my pants from my freshman year in college. Lol… I went from about 190lbs to right now about 165 lbs, and a 35-36 waist to 32.
I needed new running shoes because my cheap ones wore out pretty quickly. I’ve been running everyday, and I am happy that run 4 miles now, though my pace really stinks, averaging 8 minutes 40 sec/mile/. I gotta work on that, but hey, it’s better than not being able to run 1 mile at all 3 months ago, and that should be good enough for January’s 5K.
I’m also now working on strength and building more muscle… Amazon also had some free weight plates that were on sale, plus free shipping.
Being on this fit kick is additive. I wish I started years ago, and applied the same intensity to being fit as I normally do to the rest of my work. If I miss a day without running or working out, it just feels weird… I think my new company helped out a lot with this. Most of the people in my office are in their late twenties to early 30ies, and so I didn’t want to be the old fart one that couldn’t keep up. I’m working out twice as much as most of the other younger techie guys and girls (I can’t compete against the folks in marketing/sales who spend considerable amount of their time in the gym, lol). And, fortunately, being asian probably knocks an extra 5-6 years off my actual age. heh heh.
The best part is I didn’t feel guilty at all during Thanksgiving dinner.[/quote]
The fitness journey is a most interesting one.
Right now I am on a modified Smolov cycle with the middle kid only for the bench press. He wants a big bench. I have always hated the bench but I’m having a great time doing solo
Mix it up!!![/quote]I really like the rowing machine at my company’s gym. Perfect for strengthening my weak legs. I need it once ski season starts. I’ve haven’t been on the slopes in 3+ years too, so not conditioning for it would be a huge problem. Plus it’s the first time I am taking my kid, so most likely I am going to be carrying her around. Maybe I’ll get her started on snowboarding so I can learn too.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=Blogstar]You may have the asian youth gene but you are pretty slow for one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgZsjmBjRg0
Just kidding , if you are holding 8:40 average for a few miles already that’s not bad at all.[/quote]
Lol. You won’t get any arguments out of me on that one. I am use to slow things. My miata is slow.
Ideally I’d like to get closer to 8 flat, but I don’t think that is possible anytime soon. My legs are getting fatigued and that’s more of an issue than me running out of breath. Maybe one day I can run in a real marathon. Just to finish not last.
Kinda like at my autocrosses.CoronitaParticipantThere’s only two things I’m going to buy for myself… Things to make my car go faster or stop faster, and things to make me get fitter.
I was going to buy new pants because my existing ones are about 2 inches to wide now. But now, I’m just wearing all my pants from my freshman year in college. Lol… I went from about 190lbs to right now about 165 lbs, and a 35-36 waist to 32.
I needed new running shoes because my cheap ones wore out pretty quickly. I’ve been running everyday, and I am happy that run 4 miles now, though my pace really stinks, averaging 8 minutes 40 sec/mile/. I gotta work on that, but hey, it’s better than not being able to run 1 mile at all 3 months ago, and that should be good enough for January’s 5K.
I’m also now working on strength and building more muscle… Amazon also had some free weight plates that were on sale, plus free shipping.
Being on this fit kick is additive. I wish I started years ago, and applied the same intensity to being fit as I normally do to the rest of my work. If I miss a day without running or working out, it just feels weird… I think my new company helped out a lot with this. Most of the people in my office are in their late twenties to early 30ies, and so I didn’t want to be the old fart one that couldn’t keep up. I’m working out twice as much as most of the other younger techie guys and girls (I can’t compete against the folks in marketing/sales who spend considerable amount of their time in the gym, lol). And, fortunately, being asian probably knocks an extra 5-6 years off my actual age. heh heh.
The best part is I didn’t feel guilty at all during Thanksgiving dinner.
CoronitaParticipantHelp..i just got emails about this.someone talk me out of these things..
http://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-Part/60-10915.html?mv_source=News1
L
http://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-Part/61-0015b.html?mv_source=News1CoronitaParticipantI bought new running shoes. Amazon has new balance at 30% off theirbsake price.that’s better than the price I can get from my employer discount program which is 35% of retail price.
Never thought I’d need running shoes in a long time.
November 25, 2015 at 9:48 PM in reply to: What happens to your money if you overpay into your impound account? #791584CoronitaParticipant[quote=HLS]With your calculation, you are just averaging your remaining interest expense over 3 years.
Don’t forget that you are paying interest on a declining balance each month.
If you go to an amortization website that shows a breakdown you will see exactly how much your interest expense is.
The interest that you paid this month is much more than the interest that you will be paying next year.
Your payment is the same so more will go to principal.Does this make sense ?
Each month your interest portion of your payment is based on the principal balance for the previous month.[/quote]I understand that. But I was looking at it from the perspective of if it made sense to pay if off the $75k now or not. It seems like if I pay if off now, I’m saving only $2750 in interest charges that is spread over 3 years and that gradually amortizes down. But if I leave the $75k in a X% return account (at least) for the next 3 years, it’s still better than paying it off right now.
I guess my real question is starting with $75k in some investment, how do I find the rate of return X% needed in order to “break even”, if I plan to withdraw from that $75k monthly to pay the remaining mortgage. I was thinking 2% was more than enough.
November 25, 2015 at 9:10 PM in reply to: What happens to your money if you overpay into your impound account? #791582CoronitaParticipant[quote=HLS]Flu,
The interest rate on your note is your interest rate.
I don’t think that you have a 1.18% rate.Where did you see that a servicer must pay you 2% ? Interest is required to be paid in 15 states,
(Including CA) but I’m not aware of a minimum %.I doubt that any servicer would allow that type of money to sit in an impound acct very long.
They would most likely return it to you.[/quote]1. If I have $77k left on principal, and $2750 total interest to pay during those 3 years, then isn’t
77000*(1+r)^(3)=$79750
or r= (79750/77000)^(1/3) – 1 or 0.0118?
Please correct me if this isn’t right.
2. It’s 2% for CA escrow accounts
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Unfortunately, someone already thought of this…
Hence:
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/mortgage-escrow-account-investing.aspx“The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or RESPA, limits the amount of cushion in an escrow account to a maximum of one-sixth of the total escrow charges for a year, and that’s at the lender’s discretion.”
November 25, 2015 at 9:14 AM in reply to: What happens to your money if you overpay into your impound account? #791572CoronitaParticipantI guess the one drawback is if I still have an outstanding loan for this primary, it will reduce my borrowing capacity in case I want to buy another primary home, versus if I have no loan.
CoronitaParticipantNah. Not right now. I think everyone wants to deal.with isis first.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=Myriad]Yeah, hard to believe a Lexus IS 350 F Sport will be worth $18k at 12 years.
I thought the problem with the IS-F was the extra weight compared to M4 and that M4 has a better torque profile.
There’s a lot to be said about lighter cars. I have a 135i as a weekend car and it’s fun to drive, but it’s still pretty heavy. Plenty of power for normal driving and normal+ driving on local roads.What I find crazy is people driving M3/M4s and similar cars as daily commutes. So you get to spend all the maintenance associated with the car yet be limited to 50-60mph on non-freeway with all the traffic.[/quote]
Many people that drive new BMW’s and Porsches don’t really own them. They are on a 3 year lease. For BMW’s, they don’t end up paying maintenance at all, except maybe tires at the end of the lease.
CoronitaParticipant[quote=joec]I really find it hard to believe any 12 year old Lexus will be worth 18k…no matter what.
I don’t know what they go for new so maybe it’s just me, but that sounds insanely expensive for something that is that old…and maybe just “Lexus”.
I think as for cars, I’m sure flu can attest that it really depends what you are used to…
Someone who drives crazy handling cars getting into any sedan is going to feel like the thing is a boat…
I autocrossed in the past and remember even things like old tires, heavier/taller cars, etc and you’re just waiting there in turns, what not for the car to finally catch before you can steer again.
If I were to win lotto or something crazy, I’d probably rather opt for a light/crazy handling car and just race it regularly rather than the expensive halo car that would get trashed at a track (too much of a pain to baby it),do that whole tape the front thing…Bleh…too lazy for that.[/quote]
Every car has a purpose. And as such, when you purchase your car, you can’t make a “bad” decision as long as you understand what purpose that car is meant to fulfill. Lexii are reliable and I’m sure the IS-F is a pretty good car. But the lack of a dual clutch or proper stick is a deal killer for me. And I would not want to use it on a track.
There’s going to be tradeoffs for every car. What’s good for an autocross would be not so good as a daily commuter or on a real track. And what’s good on a real track wouldn’t be necessarily good for autocrossing either.
I would love to have an M car or Porsche to throw around a track or autocross, because we’ll it’s just different. It takes a lot more skill and a lot more control to get those cars to well. But, that comes at a huge cost that frankly, I don’t want to afford.
The principle I have behind a good autocross or track car is that it should
1) Cheap to fix
2) Cheap to fix
3) Not weigh too much.
4) Enough power for your skill level.For me, #1 and #2 and #3 screams Miata or FRS for me. As far as #4, what I have now is way more than I can properly handle.
As much as I would like to thrash a late model porsche or BMW around a track or autocross, I’m not ready, and if I were too, that would be an extremely expensive proposition for me to, since I would be eating through tires, brakes, and maintenance without really benefiting much from it. Perhaps if I had deeper pockets, I wouldn’t mind. But the thought of going through $1500-2000 every few months for tires and brakes just makes me cringe. In a conversation with a few M car guys, I remember saying something like “Man, I’m screwed I need to get new tires for my miata.. I’ve only been able to get about 6 months of continuous autocross out of them, and they’re going to eat into my budget of $500/set including balancing and install”…. Dead silence, followed by “fvck you and your cheap miata”…Though, really I wish I had the pockets to be trashing that M car or Porsche.
November 22, 2015 at 12:44 PM in reply to: How will unfunded “pensions” affect the local economy? #791525CoronitaParticipant[quote=EconProf]In this long-running debate about whether public pension plans will bankrupt us or not, there is one decisive data-point. The government-run pension plans assume a rate of return of near 8% for the indefinite future, while the private sector pension plans assume a rate of about 4%.
The pension plans constructed and run by politicians is keeping present taxpayer and employee contributions low because they want to avoid the pain that being honest would entail. The private sector, company-run plans are forced by their auditors and actuaries to be honest and assume a 4% rate of going into the future. The politicians know they will not be around in a few years, and want to look good only for the next election. The private sector companies have to consider their long-run survival prospects, and they act accordingly.
If the public sector were forced to be as honest as the private sector, many California cities and counties would instantly be bankrupt. As it is, public sector pensions are already squeezing budgets for schools, parks, libraries, etc. across the state, and it is soon to get much worse, all because of the pension promises politicians made.[/quote]Gotta love the 8% unicorn guaranteed return. Especially when it also counts heavily on wall street’s performance.
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