[UCGal]

I think it can be done successfully, but what your career is, might influence your re-entry.

Tech jobs, unfortunately, a 6 month or 1 year break might give you the “aura” of having out of date skills. It’s part of what kept me working after I had kids. (I’m an engineer).

I did take a 3 month sabbatical once. It was a hot job market (dot com boom) so I was able to negotiate an unpaid sabbatical. I’d just gotten married. We traveled across the US by car then visited several countries in Europe. It was awesome.

My husband has taken strategic breaks between jobs… The same 3 month period… plus another 6 month break when his dad broke his hip, got brain damage during surgery. We moved them in with us and hubby did active rehab that was NOT happening via the insurance system. He also took a break when he was designing the granny flat (the his parents now live in). Before I met him he took a year off to rehab his first house – it was a gutted HUD home when he purchased it so he did the drywall – finish plumbing, etc.

My sister has taken sabbatical – to care for my grandmother.

Some employers offer unpaid sabbaticals. Some don’t. (Some offer them on paper, but won’t approve them.)

My advise – make sure your skill sets are marketable, you have money to sit it out if you can’t find a job when you’re done traveling, and go for it.

[UCGal]

I think it can be done successfully, but what your career is, might influence your re-entry.

Tech jobs, unfortunately, a 6 month or 1 year break might give you the “aura” of having out of date skills. It’s part of what kept me working after I had kids. (I’m an engineer).

I did take a 3 month sabbatical once. It was a hot job market (dot com boom) so I was able to negotiate an unpaid sabbatical. I’d just gotten married. We traveled across the US by car then visited several countries in Europe. It was awesome.

My husband has taken strategic breaks between jobs… The same 3 month period… plus another 6 month break when his dad broke his hip, got brain damage during surgery. We moved them in with us and hubby did active rehab that was NOT happening via the insurance system. He also took a break when he was designing the granny flat (the his parents now live in). Before I met him he took a year off to rehab his first house – it was a gutted HUD home when he purchased it so he did the drywall – finish plumbing, etc.

My sister has taken sabbatical – to care for my grandmother.

Some employers offer unpaid sabbaticals. Some don’t. (Some offer them on paper, but won’t approve them.)

My advise – make sure your skill sets are marketable, you have money to sit it out if you can’t find a job when you’re done traveling, and go for it.

[UCGal]

I think it can be done successfully, but what your career is, might influence your re-entry.

Tech jobs, unfortunately, a 6 month or 1 year break might give you the “aura” of having out of date skills. It’s part of what kept me working after I had kids. (I’m an engineer).

I did take a 3 month sabbatical once. It was a hot job market (dot com boom) so I was able to negotiate an unpaid sabbatical. I’d just gotten married. We traveled across the US by car then visited several countries in Europe. It was awesome.

My husband has taken strategic breaks between jobs… The same 3 month period… plus another 6 month break when his dad broke his hip, got brain damage during surgery. We moved them in with us and hubby did active rehab that was NOT happening via the insurance system. He also took a break when he was designing the granny flat (the his parents now live in). Before I met him he took a year off to rehab his first house – it was a gutted HUD home when he purchased it so he did the drywall – finish plumbing, etc.

My sister has taken sabbatical – to care for my grandmother.

Some employers offer unpaid sabbaticals. Some don’t. (Some offer them on paper, but won’t approve them.)

My advise – make sure your skill sets are marketable, you have money to sit it out if you can’t find a job when you’re done traveling, and go for it.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
So…to add drama to this saga…..after going through this refinancing, one of my relatives (distant aunt/uncle) on fixed income were complaining that their money is earning pidly 2% on a CD/etc….

So they offered to make me a personal loan at 3.5% for 15 years for the same amount, secured by my home.

I’m thinking about this…I get slightly better rate, my relative gets a slightly better return, the home is secured from their perspective since the LTV would be less than 50%…I’d still get my tax writeoff on the interest..It cuts Bank of America(who purchased loan) out of the equation…Doubly great, since I’d rather send the interest to someone I know than that bank…

The drawback I think would be, it’s a lot more paperwork to keep track of from the IRS perspective, and also mixing money with relatives is usually not a good thing. But in this case, it’s a real secured loan..Other drawbacks are that they probably could find something with higher returns, especially if rates creep up.. Conversely, if rates fall lower, it I guess I could either renegotiate with them or find a bank to refinance again…..I’d say my chances of defaulting are pretty low, since I’m am pretty “safe” investment, I think… 🙂

So, what says you? Should I try to borrow from said relatives?[/quote]

I agree with CAR. I’ve been the recipient and the lender of family loans… and I’ve also seen it backfire.

My dad loaned me enough money to get to 20% down on my first house. (I only had about 13% saved). In exchange, he was on the title and I paid him regular payments with interest on a standard amortization schedule. We had a loan agreement formally written up.

He lent money to my brother, who’d make a few payments then have issues and excuses. A few years later he’d want to borrow more. It caused quite a bit of tension between them after my dad stopped lending.

We’ve lent money to my brother-in-law for a real estate deal (he was buying an apartment building and was short about 1/2 until he sold another apartment building.) Again, we had clearly defined terms, interest, a payment schedule, etc – all in writing and notarized.

The terms in both cases were shorter than 3 years, so we didn’t bother to record the transactions.

I think the problem in family loans comes when the terms aren’t clearly defined… Parent makes a loan to their grown child – and the kid treats it like a gift… Or the terms are “pay me back when you can”… Those are the scenarios that set you up for bad transactions. I have had friends ask me why I made regular payments to my dad when I owed him money… didn’t it just go against future inheritance. I guess their family operated differently than mine.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
So…to add drama to this saga…..after going through this refinancing, one of my relatives (distant aunt/uncle) on fixed income were complaining that their money is earning pidly 2% on a CD/etc….

So they offered to make me a personal loan at 3.5% for 15 years for the same amount, secured by my home.

I’m thinking about this…I get slightly better rate, my relative gets a slightly better return, the home is secured from their perspective since the LTV would be less than 50%…I’d still get my tax writeoff on the interest..It cuts Bank of America(who purchased loan) out of the equation…Doubly great, since I’d rather send the interest to someone I know than that bank…

The drawback I think would be, it’s a lot more paperwork to keep track of from the IRS perspective, and also mixing money with relatives is usually not a good thing. But in this case, it’s a real secured loan..Other drawbacks are that they probably could find something with higher returns, especially if rates creep up.. Conversely, if rates fall lower, it I guess I could either renegotiate with them or find a bank to refinance again…..I’d say my chances of defaulting are pretty low, since I’m am pretty “safe” investment, I think… 🙂

So, what says you? Should I try to borrow from said relatives?[/quote]

I agree with CAR. I’ve been the recipient and the lender of family loans… and I’ve also seen it backfire.

My dad loaned me enough money to get to 20% down on my first house. (I only had about 13% saved). In exchange, he was on the title and I paid him regular payments with interest on a standard amortization schedule. We had a loan agreement formally written up.

He lent money to my brother, who’d make a few payments then have issues and excuses. A few years later he’d want to borrow more. It caused quite a bit of tension between them after my dad stopped lending.

We’ve lent money to my brother-in-law for a real estate deal (he was buying an apartment building and was short about 1/2 until he sold another apartment building.) Again, we had clearly defined terms, interest, a payment schedule, etc – all in writing and notarized.

The terms in both cases were shorter than 3 years, so we didn’t bother to record the transactions.

I think the problem in family loans comes when the terms aren’t clearly defined… Parent makes a loan to their grown child – and the kid treats it like a gift… Or the terms are “pay me back when you can”… Those are the scenarios that set you up for bad transactions. I have had friends ask me why I made regular payments to my dad when I owed him money… didn’t it just go against future inheritance. I guess their family operated differently than mine.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
So…to add drama to this saga…..after going through this refinancing, one of my relatives (distant aunt/uncle) on fixed income were complaining that their money is earning pidly 2% on a CD/etc….

So they offered to make me a personal loan at 3.5% for 15 years for the same amount, secured by my home.

I’m thinking about this…I get slightly better rate, my relative gets a slightly better return, the home is secured from their perspective since the LTV would be less than 50%…I’d still get my tax writeoff on the interest..It cuts Bank of America(who purchased loan) out of the equation…Doubly great, since I’d rather send the interest to someone I know than that bank…

The drawback I think would be, it’s a lot more paperwork to keep track of from the IRS perspective, and also mixing money with relatives is usually not a good thing. But in this case, it’s a real secured loan..Other drawbacks are that they probably could find something with higher returns, especially if rates creep up.. Conversely, if rates fall lower, it I guess I could either renegotiate with them or find a bank to refinance again…..I’d say my chances of defaulting are pretty low, since I’m am pretty “safe” investment, I think… 🙂

So, what says you? Should I try to borrow from said relatives?[/quote]

I agree with CAR. I’ve been the recipient and the lender of family loans… and I’ve also seen it backfire.

My dad loaned me enough money to get to 20% down on my first house. (I only had about 13% saved). In exchange, he was on the title and I paid him regular payments with interest on a standard amortization schedule. We had a loan agreement formally written up.

He lent money to my brother, who’d make a few payments then have issues and excuses. A few years later he’d want to borrow more. It caused quite a bit of tension between them after my dad stopped lending.

We’ve lent money to my brother-in-law for a real estate deal (he was buying an apartment building and was short about 1/2 until he sold another apartment building.) Again, we had clearly defined terms, interest, a payment schedule, etc – all in writing and notarized.

The terms in both cases were shorter than 3 years, so we didn’t bother to record the transactions.

I think the problem in family loans comes when the terms aren’t clearly defined… Parent makes a loan to their grown child – and the kid treats it like a gift… Or the terms are “pay me back when you can”… Those are the scenarios that set you up for bad transactions. I have had friends ask me why I made regular payments to my dad when I owed him money… didn’t it just go against future inheritance. I guess their family operated differently than mine.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
So…to add drama to this saga…..after going through this refinancing, one of my relatives (distant aunt/uncle) on fixed income were complaining that their money is earning pidly 2% on a CD/etc….

So they offered to make me a personal loan at 3.5% for 15 years for the same amount, secured by my home.

I’m thinking about this…I get slightly better rate, my relative gets a slightly better return, the home is secured from their perspective since the LTV would be less than 50%…I’d still get my tax writeoff on the interest..It cuts Bank of America(who purchased loan) out of the equation…Doubly great, since I’d rather send the interest to someone I know than that bank…

The drawback I think would be, it’s a lot more paperwork to keep track of from the IRS perspective, and also mixing money with relatives is usually not a good thing. But in this case, it’s a real secured loan..Other drawbacks are that they probably could find something with higher returns, especially if rates creep up.. Conversely, if rates fall lower, it I guess I could either renegotiate with them or find a bank to refinance again…..I’d say my chances of defaulting are pretty low, since I’m am pretty “safe” investment, I think… 🙂

So, what says you? Should I try to borrow from said relatives?[/quote]

I agree with CAR. I’ve been the recipient and the lender of family loans… and I’ve also seen it backfire.

My dad loaned me enough money to get to 20% down on my first house. (I only had about 13% saved). In exchange, he was on the title and I paid him regular payments with interest on a standard amortization schedule. We had a loan agreement formally written up.

He lent money to my brother, who’d make a few payments then have issues and excuses. A few years later he’d want to borrow more. It caused quite a bit of tension between them after my dad stopped lending.

We’ve lent money to my brother-in-law for a real estate deal (he was buying an apartment building and was short about 1/2 until he sold another apartment building.) Again, we had clearly defined terms, interest, a payment schedule, etc – all in writing and notarized.

The terms in both cases were shorter than 3 years, so we didn’t bother to record the transactions.

I think the problem in family loans comes when the terms aren’t clearly defined… Parent makes a loan to their grown child – and the kid treats it like a gift… Or the terms are “pay me back when you can”… Those are the scenarios that set you up for bad transactions. I have had friends ask me why I made regular payments to my dad when I owed him money… didn’t it just go against future inheritance. I guess their family operated differently than mine.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
So…to add drama to this saga…..after going through this refinancing, one of my relatives (distant aunt/uncle) on fixed income were complaining that their money is earning pidly 2% on a CD/etc….

So they offered to make me a personal loan at 3.5% for 15 years for the same amount, secured by my home.

I’m thinking about this…I get slightly better rate, my relative gets a slightly better return, the home is secured from their perspective since the LTV would be less than 50%…I’d still get my tax writeoff on the interest..It cuts Bank of America(who purchased loan) out of the equation…Doubly great, since I’d rather send the interest to someone I know than that bank…

The drawback I think would be, it’s a lot more paperwork to keep track of from the IRS perspective, and also mixing money with relatives is usually not a good thing. But in this case, it’s a real secured loan..Other drawbacks are that they probably could find something with higher returns, especially if rates creep up.. Conversely, if rates fall lower, it I guess I could either renegotiate with them or find a bank to refinance again…..I’d say my chances of defaulting are pretty low, since I’m am pretty “safe” investment, I think… 🙂

So, what says you? Should I try to borrow from said relatives?[/quote]

I agree with CAR. I’ve been the recipient and the lender of family loans… and I’ve also seen it backfire.

My dad loaned me enough money to get to 20% down on my first house. (I only had about 13% saved). In exchange, he was on the title and I paid him regular payments with interest on a standard amortization schedule. We had a loan agreement formally written up.

He lent money to my brother, who’d make a few payments then have issues and excuses. A few years later he’d want to borrow more. It caused quite a bit of tension between them after my dad stopped lending.

We’ve lent money to my brother-in-law for a real estate deal (he was buying an apartment building and was short about 1/2 until he sold another apartment building.) Again, we had clearly defined terms, interest, a payment schedule, etc – all in writing and notarized.

The terms in both cases were shorter than 3 years, so we didn’t bother to record the transactions.

I think the problem in family loans comes when the terms aren’t clearly defined… Parent makes a loan to their grown child – and the kid treats it like a gift… Or the terms are “pay me back when you can”… Those are the scenarios that set you up for bad transactions. I have had friends ask me why I made regular payments to my dad when I owed him money… didn’t it just go against future inheritance. I guess their family operated differently than mine.

[UCGal]

[quote=outtamojo]Just for fun I posted that with a link to Redfin on SD Lookup and SDL deleted it. Btw Rich, somebody called you a permabull on SDL a few weeks ago lol.[/quote]
Quickest way to get a post deleted on sdlookup is to have a link to redfin. Even if sdl doesn’t have the MLS listing showing (multi-family for example)… you can’t link to redfin… They’ll remove it.

Regular sdlookup posters (including jpinpb) have figured this out and find other ways to reference where additional data can be found.

[UCGal]

[quote=outtamojo]Just for fun I posted that with a link to Redfin on SD Lookup and SDL deleted it. Btw Rich, somebody called you a permabull on SDL a few weeks ago lol.[/quote]
Quickest way to get a post deleted on sdlookup is to have a link to redfin. Even if sdl doesn’t have the MLS listing showing (multi-family for example)… you can’t link to redfin… They’ll remove it.

Regular sdlookup posters (including jpinpb) have figured this out and find other ways to reference where additional data can be found.

[UCGal]

[quote=outtamojo]Just for fun I posted that with a link to Redfin on SD Lookup and SDL deleted it. Btw Rich, somebody called you a permabull on SDL a few weeks ago lol.[/quote]
Quickest way to get a post deleted on sdlookup is to have a link to redfin. Even if sdl doesn’t have the MLS listing showing (multi-family for example)… you can’t link to redfin… They’ll remove it.

Regular sdlookup posters (including jpinpb) have figured this out and find other ways to reference where additional data can be found.

[UCGal]

[quote=outtamojo]Just for fun I posted that with a link to Redfin on SD Lookup and SDL deleted it. Btw Rich, somebody called you a permabull on SDL a few weeks ago lol.[/quote]
Quickest way to get a post deleted on sdlookup is to have a link to redfin. Even if sdl doesn’t have the MLS listing showing (multi-family for example)… you can’t link to redfin… They’ll remove it.

Regular sdlookup posters (including jpinpb) have figured this out and find other ways to reference where additional data can be found.

[UCGal]

[quote=outtamojo]Just for fun I posted that with a link to Redfin on SD Lookup and SDL deleted it. Btw Rich, somebody called you a permabull on SDL a few weeks ago lol.[/quote]
Quickest way to get a post deleted on sdlookup is to have a link to redfin. Even if sdl doesn’t have the MLS listing showing (multi-family for example)… you can’t link to redfin… They’ll remove it.

Regular sdlookup posters (including jpinpb) have figured this out and find other ways to reference where additional data can be found.

[UCGal]

Anyone else by me as skeeved by the poisons as the bugs? I’ve been looking into orange oil for the next termite treatment… Most citrus based stuff works, and is non toxic.

Maybe I just worry that the bug poison could be as deadly as the spiders….

[UCGal]

Anyone else by me as skeeved by the poisons as the bugs? I’ve been looking into orange oil for the next termite treatment… Most citrus based stuff works, and is non toxic.

Maybe I just worry that the bug poison could be as deadly as the spiders….

[Author]

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