<p>Haha, maybe my brain is trained to take advantage of cheap capital.
One of my trading account returns much higher than 3%, so you bet I will take the gambling. It’s more fun than going to Las Vegas.</p>
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The $500k exemption for joint filers is for gain on the sale of the home: the sale price of the home minus the purchase price + related expenses. Most home owners do not make a gain of $500k, so they qualify for the tax exemption.</p>
<p>We make sure our kids understand we can’t go broke paying for college - if we didn’t have the money for a particular school they wanted to attend they’d have to go to a state school. Best to start saving for them as babies and sock away as much as you can. Husband took every bonus he got an put it toward college for kids. As Suzie Orman says ‘pay yourself before others’. Separate the college funds from 401k. Years ago that wasn’t how it was done, but a different world now unfortunately. </p>
<p>Exactly my point, Data. </p>
<p>If the house does not sell for more than that, the gain can’t be more than the sell price. So the “exemption” is not maximized for the vast majority of the sellers.</p>
<p>“Haha, maybe my brain is trained to take advantage of cheap capital.
One of my trading account returns much higher than 3%, so you bet I will take the gambling. It’s more fun than going to Las Vegas”</p>
<p>Of course, that’s only if you win. At least in Vegas, win or lose, you get free drinks! I used to feel that if I drunk as much as I lost I was breaking even, but unfortunately I can’t drink that much anymore.</p>
<p>I am with home is not an investment group. If it brings money that’s good but it is a luxury to enjoy. I can’t imagine taking a mortgage out to invest in the stock market however tempting that may be.</p>
<p>Agreed. I wont let DH count the value of our house in our “savings” as we will have to live somewhere and if we move, its not likely we will spend less on the next place than the value of the current place (note-- both kids live on the other coast-- what we would get for our current place would maybe, maybe buy a small condo in a mediocre location.</p>
<p>I don’t think of it as “taking out a mortgage to invest in the stock market”, more that (for us) paying off the mortgage comes in second to putting money into retirement accounts. Since the retirement money gets taken out of our paychecks directly, any funds to accelerate paying off the mortgage would come from our discretionary spending. But our mortgage payment is now less than 15% of our income, thanks to refinancing and small but steady raises (knocking wood here), so it’s not looming over our finances in the same way it did when we first bought the house.</p>
<p>OK…for me, it’s not all about the money. I retired three years ago. Right now, I have a wonderful circle of friends, some other retirees, some still working. But…of my close friends, one now winters in Florida and spends three months in the summer at a beach house on the shore. Another just signed a lease for three months in a warm weather climate for next winter. One sold her house and is moving south permanently. Another is moving to SC. </p>
<p>You get the idea. My friends are moving away…and not to the same location. I’m a pretty friendly sort so making new friends isn’t a huge issue for me…now. </p>
<p>But I do wonder if/when we will also want to move to someplace different. I suspect it will happen eventually.</p>
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<p>Sure, but then you’re dead and you can’t care anymore. When you die young it’s more likely to be quick/unexpected, you won’t have a whole long time where you have to worry about what you haven’t done. When you die of old age you’ve got a lot more time where you’re declining and wishing you had the money to do something. </p>
<p>Maximizing an integral of happiness over your realized lifetime is hard to do, and trying to figure out how to do it will take so much effort that it would probably be preferred to try to maximizing an integral of expected happiness over your expected lifetime. </p>
<p>Has it been 3 years thumper? Wow! Even though I am in warm climate, I am in the same boat. I have a lot of friends but only a few close friends, and they are moving. </p>
<p>Wow, thumper - three years? Time certainly flies!</p>
<p>Yep…three years in June. 2011. Woohoo! </p>
<p>I’m with SlightlyTove, mortgage is such a small amount, it can be payoff but do I want to pay it off, is another story. I don’t think I ever suggested to take a HELOC out and play with the stock market. Any money I play in the stock market is the money I can afford to loose. </p>
<p>BTW, my husband is in the camp that he wants his money in safe investment and he has a large chunk of his money in cash even though the stock market has return 30-38%( depends on S&P index or small cap). His returns is the same as Busdriver11. But I don’t care, he is happy, I’m happy.
I’m the risk taker of the family and I get to balance out my investment portfolio with his. I figure I don’t need the money then I can risk it a little bit in the stock market.</p>
<p>Am loving semi retirement. 2 days in the office is plenty. Amazing how quickly I went from super busy to chilled. I am at the gym. Was at the fabric store before. And met DH for lunch. Sweet. </p>
<p>OP’s question is “How much do YOU think YOU need to retire?”. So I THINK I will need $10M but may have to do it with less.</p>
<p>Our current mortgage is 3% with a balance less than 1/3 of our yearly gross. In other words, it can be paid off easily. </p>
<p>So we will have a pensions from our previous jobs, my 401K at current job and I think we will count on SS as the third sources of our retirement. If I work until the full SS age, we will have more than 5K a month from SS and pensions. That will be more than enough for us to live abroad where we have multiple houses. </p>
<p>In other words our basic retirement needs are met at this time. Any additional saving from here on are icing on the cake. </p>
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<p>I don’t suppose you put the values of those multiple homes you have as assets on the financial aid applications you filled out for colleges?</p>
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<p>They are not under my name. We have only access to live there. </p>
<p>What a surprise!</p>
<p>dad II…that sounds fishy.</p>