Howard

Just got an e-mail that Freedom is offering free shipping on all orders over $150 today only. Time to stock up one last time this year

Saw this video on the net and thought I would share it in case there are others out there that are as cheap as me This looks really cool, will have to try it.

Not sure how you lost a ton of money in a diversified account, unless you panicked and sold at a loss. Just about any solid company your bought even before the the internet boom and bust of before 2007 is most likely worth a lot more today than when you bought it. Now I am talking about solid Fortune 500 companies, not speculative stocks. Sure if you were in such companies as MCI, Citigroup, AIG and a few others you could have lost a ton, but they should have never made up more than a few percentage points of your total investment. Further, when everyone is saying the end of the world is coming that is the time to be plowing money into the market. When the world was ending in 2008-2009 I was picking up lots of stock in companies like Ford, JP Morgan-Chase, Bank of America and many others. Take a look at a chart of the Dow over time and you will see that if you dollar cost average into the market it is very hard to lose money. As you can see below, even if you put every cent you had into the Dow at its peak of roughly 14,000 in Oct 2007, it would be worth 18,000 today 7 years later. That is a 29% return without including the value of dividends or the growth of reinvesting those dividends. Further, if you had continued your dollar cost average investing during each and every month in that time you would have made a killing.

Interesting, because my town did that for me too on a set of permits. When I took the fourth one in on what would have been day 92 from the original date my FFL was very reluctant about accepting it. He said that the form clearly states that the renewed permit is only valid for a max of 90 days from the date of extension, so his read was that if they extend it when you pick it up, the entire permit is only good for 90 days from that date rather than a full 180 days. I wonder what the state police have to say about that?

Newtonian, the adviser is an adviser not a dictator, you need to be actively involved too. You had "inside" information knowing their were issues with the company. Further one should never have all or most of their eggs in one basket. You have learned a difficult lesson in diversification. But on the positive side you have learned. The other thing to remember is that sometimes bulls make money, sometimes bears make money, but pigs always get slaughtered. The other thing is it pays to be a contrarian. When the masses are plowing into the market and taxi drivers are giving you tips its time to sell as the market is likely at a top. Conversely when there is blood in the streets and everyone is telling you how things can only get worse it is time to buy buy buy. That is the secret to making money in the market - buy lo sell hi. You will never hit the exact highs nor lows, but doing what others are not is a good way to win in the long term. The other way to do well is to put money into the market every paycheck - dollar cost averaging. Keep in mind that none of us know where the market will be at any point in time, so you have to be careful not to be locked into the market at a time when you may need cash and it might be down. One thing for sure, don't bet against the long-term value of the US economy. The economy will go up and down, but you have to assume that at some point in the future it will be bigger and stronger, and it will if just simply due to population growth.

All true Glen. The points I was trying to make are that too many people invest in "safe" things which don't offer growth that you need for the long term. Second, if you are investing in major companies on a regular monthly type basis you should not worry if the market goes down. Actually when the market goes down you are ahead of the game as your fixed dollar investment buys more shares. You should not care what the share price is on a daily or monthly basis, in the long-term good companies will go up. Thus, if you can buy shares at a lower price be happy. Last, those that are retired still need to be partial in equities to avoid the ravages of inflation.

That is one read, but there is another. Since you are right we can never know what they will do with the laws they could also change them so that the ROTH becomes taxable in the future. You just never know, that is why it is generally a bad idea to make investment decisions based on what future tax policy will be. Who ever thought you would be paying a medicare tax on unearned income? My point was that based on the OP's situation as I understand it his tax bracket will probably be lower in the future than it is today so it might be more advantageous to pay the tax later at the lower rate while claiming the deduction today at the higher tax rate. There is no one right answer to this and everyone's situation is different. That is why it is generally not a good idea to get your financial advice from Internet "experts" that don't fully know your unique situations. BTW - I am not a fan of fixed income or "bond-like" investments (like PPR) for a long-term investment. With those investments you have some security but are only earning income and really have little or any chance to get capital appreciation. Over the long haul equities will almost always out perform fixed income. Further, many believe they need fixed income only when they retire and fail to realize that when one retires at 65 they probably have at least another 20 years (assuming good health) where some of their money needs to grow due to future inflation. Thus to be all in fixed income is a mistake. Attached is a chart of PPR performance versus the S&P500 over time.

As others have said you are late to the game, and need to start saving quickly; but don't jump tomorrow and make a mistake. While a ROTH is good in that you pay no taxes later, it sounds like unless you hit it big you are not going to be in a big tax bracket later, so it might be better to take the tax deduction on the contributions now while you are working and then pay the tax at a lower rate when you retire. You have to do the math. I would suggest you work backwards. Figure out how much you will get from social security and then figure out what you will need to live the way you want to. The difference is the income your funds will have to generate each year to provide you with that income. Typical rule of thumb says once you retire you should be able to take that income plus 3-4% of the principal each year, but YMMV. Find someone you can trust that knows some things and have a sit down as soon as practical. You have waited this long so a few weeks should not kill you. You can still get a deduction if you decide on a regular IRA as long as it is done before your tax return is due in 2015. Good luck

You must have gotten a bad bulb, take it back - they have at least 5 year warranties on most. I just installed a bunch of retrofit kits for recessed lighting. They replace the trim on the existing can and seal flush so there is no air infiltration from the openings too. They use about 20 watts and put out more light than a 150 watt incandescent flood bulb. There is not a lot of savings compared to the CFL, but the CFLs don't put out the same amount of light and take a long time to warm up when very cold. I hate the CFLs! If you do solar but it outright. Most of these "deals" on leasing are a great deal - but not for the homeowner. You lock into a 20 year or more contract and they get most of the benefit. The contracts can cause you issues if you ever go to sell the house. Further most of them only give you a break on power rates and you have to pay them every month even if the system were to break. Read the contracts very very very carefully! Check out the NJ State Clean Energy web page for lots of info on solar.

If you plan to be there any length of time take a lot at having more insulation put in the attic, most homes don't have enough. Not only will it save you money on HVAC but it will make the house more comfortable. As for energy efficiency get rid of any incandescent bulbs and replace them with LED, sure they cost money up front but you will be amazed at what they save you on your electric bill. I had a big chandelier with 12 60 watt bulbs (720 watts total) above a big open stairway that we would have on for a good 5 hours a day. I replaced those bulbs with LED bulbs that look the same when lit and actually give off more light and they consume a total of under 80 watts. Even at the $6/bulb I paid at Costco they paid for them selves in under a year. Last energy item, if you plan to be there a while and have the right exposure is solar panels. The return on them is great. I have had mine almost 9 years and they paid for themselves in three years and have been a cashcow ever since. I've to at 10wk array that produces about 1,200 kwh a month.

Flashlights in strategic places, or those plug-in lights that come on when the power goes out.

Welcome Sam, nice to have another Morris County member.

I would respond: "How often do you and your husband have sex, and do you like it on top?" When she replies, "that is none of your business" I would reply: "EXACTLY"!

Just because you are paranoid does not mean you don't have real enemies Seriously though, anybody that wants to drop a dime can get all of that information and much more very easily.

Yes you can, and they did

Well I went with the Bizzack WS80.

Here are the Tirerack ratings. The Altimax seem to be just about as good as the Blizzacks which I used to have on my BMW that I was very satisfied with and are a good bit less expensive. They also have ratings based on over 8 million miles of usage. The problem is the more you read the less you know

I checked out the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 and boy are they expensive at around $200 or more a tire

Vulcan did not seem to have the ones I am looking for. I checked out the Continentals and they don't seem to be rated as high as either the Altimax Arctic or the Blizzacks

Looking to get some Winter tires for my new car I am about to get. Does anyone have any experience with General Altimax Arctic They seem to be highly rated on Tirerack.com. I had a set of Blizzacks on my big BMW years ago, but they seem to be a lot more money (~ $30 more per tire) and don't seem to be rated any better.

Not that it is super cheap, but a number of years ago (from HomeDepot) we got insulated carpet "squares". They are not truly square as they are curved on the top and bottom. They have about a half inch of rubber on the back and you fit them all together as puzzle pieces. After a while you no longer see the lines and it looks like wall to wall carpet. It can be removed and the insulation keeps you warm and is quite padded.

If you did not sign up already don't bother as it is already filled with a large waiting list. For those that missed it and are now interested in some competitive shooting there is knockdown steel (sat) and IDPA (sun) at Old Bridge this weekend. Let me know if you have questions about those.

Very interesting article on DJI flyaways today. It can be seen in today's WSJ: http://on.wsj.com/1zlZhv9 One major takeaway: On an online forum for drone users, a poll of 774 people who said they owned DJI Phantoms showed that nearly a third had experienced a flyaway, including 122 users who never saw their devices again. DJI said its internal figures suggest the percentage of users reporting flyaways is decreasing as it improves its software and fail-safe functions. That is almost 16% of users having this problem. Sure some of it is people that don't know what they are doing, but a lot of it is from people that have many flights under their belt and know what they are doing. These products are not ready for prime time yet.

Thanks Alec, I knew one day you would have my back