4.875% Heloc is good in comparison to the past. This rate is less than DS's first Stafford. Our refi for DS's college was close to 8%. Times and finance have changed.
I do get to use the Delta club for free, just because I spend half my life deadheading on Delta. Lots of miles= free club privileges. They instantly tell me to take of my uniform if I'm wearing one. Apparently they are concerned that someone will think I'm a Delta pilot, swigging a glass of wine in the club before I go out to fly. As if anyone would be that dumb.
There used to be some great deals with PLUS, but not so much anymore. We use our HELOC for overflow and to finance some rental properties we have. I hate using it, as the interest rate is 4.875%, but it was worth it to convert to the Roth, and to buy the rentals. No more good deals on rentals that I've seen anymore.
busdrivers don't get to use the club gratis, in or out of civies?
We moved some 401k to a qualified annuity and it was counted as taxable income. I am going to have investigate it tonight on the tax program before self imposed, tomorrow filings.
In our time, 2002-2006, we discovered the joys of PLUS over HELOC-refinancing.
Hey, I'm drinking free wine in the club now, I feel better! Didn't even bother to use my discount coupon.
Our big tax bill wasn't because we underpaid, it's because we converted a Roth and had to pay all taxes on it in a two year time frame. This is the last year, whoopee! But I don't like the IRS having our money, so we always pay. I don't trust them to give it back.
In other circles, you'd be called scum for not floating an interest-free loan to the state, bd. Me, I'm jealous because while I know we've overpaid yet again, it's extension time till I can find an accountant with free time.
You being on discount wine for a while seems harsh enough punishment to me.
I just sent my extension request, along with a check. Had to borrow 25K out of our HELOC to pay additional taxes, and that's just a low estimate. Really depressing. I'd drown my sorrows in a bottle of wine, but since I'm sitting in coach, no free wine for me. Hey! I might have a free coupon, oh happy day!
I'm not sure if today's leading Congressional democrats would even recognize those of Carter's day as being of the same species. Today's have embraced Paul Krugman as their economic vizier and are so far past things like attempting to balance a budget that they might as well be in an alternate universe.
The Fuel Use Act of 1978, lp. Encouraged coal, discouraged natural gas and petroleum products.
Is there a President other than PBO that hasn't tried to balance the budget.
Remember, PGWB, had a surplus budget for the then forseeable future and chose to cut taxes inorder to "balance" income to expenditures. Then in 2004, when he said he had a "mandate" to reform SS, and of course failed in that too.
Nixon tried to balance the budget by inflating future dollars to pay for past debts. It worked too but to the detriment of future Congress's and Presidents.
My information is getting too old. But it was one of the questions (balancing the budget late Nixon-Carter) I had to then newly minted phd, older bro, who worked at the NY Fed (~64~75).
Can't deny our president being a heavy lifter when it comes to spending, whether it's "let's elect more democrats" money or "grow the economy" money.
Carter was fun - Bert Lance (a casting call dream, if what you were hoping for was a crooked looking southern banker), Billy (his beer was just rank, though), that damn sweater, the drip-drip-drip of "human rights" day-in day-out, ....
Speaking of which, Carter's human rights drone is about the first thing that pops in to my head when I run across his name. We've still a few years to go with Obama but I'm betting I'll remember him best for: "grow our economy" and "invest in (fill in the blank)". All "in a smart way", don't you know, which would explain why we've lost our asses in all the greeen things he finds so attractive. That isn't "grow the economy money", it's "let's elect more democrats" money we've been shoveling down the rat hole.
Here's a Carter legacy you might remember, lp - his meddling with natural gas. My memory is a little dim on all the specifics but I do recall he managed to ensure no new generating plants could use it, which in the minds of today's greens should make him to the ecology what Pol Pot was to his subjects.
-- Edited by catahoula on Saturday 6th of April 2013 06:30:07 AM
The seeds of inflation were sown by the Vietnam war, the delinking of the Dollar to gold, rather than raising taxes to pay for Veterans benefits , USA invested in Vietnam War-Japan invested in factories and modernization. Boomers starting careers/families.
When it isn't Nixon that is, what with the "Drudge is a big ol' hating bully" whine.
Sequester phobia has turned out to be a flop, the president both misses Pelosi being in charge and can't recall the mechanics of the weapons he'd like to outlaw for everyone other than his daughter's protectors, employment numbers suck, BP's out of mad money for the administration to spend, the Obamacare Exchanges won't start saving us all gobs of money until after the midterms, Michelle's sure she's married to a sex symbol... lol, that's enough, I quit.
Heard a good one today, that: "if your car costs more than your house, there's about a 99.9% chance you pulled the lever" for "hope and change" redux.
edit to add:
Easy to start laughing at the administration's bad hairdays and forget the point: that, absent stagflation and a Playboy interview, the administrations looking about as ineffectually incompent as Carter's.
-- Edited by catahoula on Thursday 4th of April 2013 07:25:19 PM
