My banner ad is for a domestic SUV, with a side for Autumn at the Arboretum in Dallas…which is a spectacle worth getting side bar ads for.
I use an ad blocker so I never see ads. Ads are a common attack vector for hackers trying to gain access to your computer. Until the ad networks can guarantee their ads are infection-free, I will continue to use an ad blocker.
That’s really strange to me. I’ve never had a problem getting insurance on any of my houses - primary, vacation, or rental.
Well, maybe that’s not quite true. I think when we hit the 7th building, my main insurance company said “no more”, but we had no trouble getting another company to cover it.
What insurance company is it? Did they give a reason for being unwilling to insure a vacation home?
I just met with my investment adviser (or whatever he’s called) and he suggested “rebalancing,” from 88%/12% (stocks/bonds) to 80%/20%. I said yes, and he made the change the next day.
Can you elaborate as to which particular funds he recommended you get into or out of?
I’ll need to look at the information he gave me. I’m very hands’ off with investments (if you couldn’t tell already) and so I just nodded and said, “Sure” (after asking about the income tax ramifications).
NRE - MetLife. We have their premier insurance that is really, really good apparently. Knock on wood, never had to use it. They just don’t do a vaca house policy in addition to the type of policy we got. This is WA. Knock on wood, we have been with them for 20 years… Apparently. Insurance prices are going up 20% on average for next year. If you are lucky to get a policy.
We have insurance on every property we own. It seems prudent to do so and better than covering the potential losses ourselves. We have a great insurance agent who makes sure we gave aporopriate coverage and will help us file claims when needed.
Of course you need to have insurance on every piece of property. What I am saying one might run into trouble insuring their out of state property with the current insurer, or the current insurer will not renew the existing policy if there is another property covered by a different insurer.
We recently purchased a property that didn’t meet the underwriting requirements of our primary insurer, and they happily referred us to another agent who could take care of it.
State Farm has insured both homes, but will not allow use of the weekend/vacation place as a rental. Since it is more or less a tax savings for us, making money off of it isn’t in the plans.
As we get closer to retirement (within a year), we’re trying to avoid active management of the accounts. What’s worked so far will hopefully work for the short term. What we do have to resolve is what to do with the pension. Too many options.
In the case of my main retirement fund, that’s easy. I’ve currently got about 40% (slightly higher now) in stock index funds and most of the rest in a fixed-income fund that pays a guaranteed rate of 3.5% (a little higher than that, closer to 4%, for money invested in earlier years). The 3.5% rate is a pretty modest rate of return—it’s dwarfed by the returns on stocks since the market bottomed out during the last recession. But it’s a heck of a lot better than you can get on CDs or in money market funds these days, it’s beating inflation, and it won’t go into reverse even in the event of a recession.
In my younger years I was more heavily invested in the stock market, but I just turned 65 and I’m likely to begin a phased retirement in the next year or two. I figure with 40% in stocks, a 10% market correction would ding my retirement nest egg by only 4%, and even a 25% meltdown would cut only 10% out of my retirement savings. I can live with that. In fact, I’d view either a 10% or a 25% loss in stock market value as a buying opportunity. But I’ve gotten quite risk-averse as retirement approaches. I think the stock market is quite high right now by historical standards and a downturn is inevitable; it’s just that no one knows when. I may be leaving some money on the table by not being more heavily invested in stocks, but I’ve still got enough committed to the stock market that I’m earning good money every time the market ticks higher, and I can sleep well at night knowing I’m limiting the downside risk.
I think I just talked myself into rebalancing to get back to 40% in stocks from the 43 or 44% that I’ve got now.
@bclintonk , I would consider diversifying your fixed income assets if you have them all in a Stable Value Fund, whicy is what it sounds like. They can be susceptible to insurance company health in the event of a big downturn. Not saying it would happen, but . . .
Guarantees are only as good as the health of the guarantor.
[quoteI just met with my investment adviser (or whatever he’s called) and he suggested “rebalancing,” from 88%/12% (stocks/bonds) to 80%/20%. I said yes, and he made the change the next day.
[/quote]
8% correction can be huge. If you have $1M invested, that would be $80K. I don’t trade that big an amount at one time.
8% is not so huge when one has $50,000 (approximately) invested. My investments are small potatoes compared to many people’s, I’m sure.
And that’s why you need to look at it regularly, not just when it gets too out of balance.
S&P has been up 14+% YTD so having 8% to move is pretty understandable.
So was planning to retirie in two years. H and I have met with our “wealth manager.” Our wealth manager was assigned by our retirement plan/fund because of the amount we have saved.
It seems we can retire at full SS age and live pretty much like we have been.
Then I developed teeth issues. At over 60 yrs of age I have had no teeth problems except a few cavities. First one was at 19 yrs old. Last one was, who knows. So now, at my about to retire age, I am having teeth issues. Have had extractions and bone grafts. Plane to have implants. But this all takes time. So I need to continue to work for the insurance ( as bad as it is).
Ugh
@morrismm They can’t complete the needed work in 2 years? I know it takes awhile with the bone grafts/implants (going through one now and paying out of pocket - ouch).
Well I had my first extraction a year ago and nothing has happened except another tooth needed to be extracted and a bone graft done. It seems my first extraction also needs a bone graft which wasn’t done at time of extraction. So it will need to be done and will take months to heal.
The teeth next to the extracted teeth have a crack and need a crown.They are old silver fillings that cause cracks. So now I am getting crown.
In the end I hope you have 2 implants and two crowns. At least I will be able to chew again. Without my extracted molars I have lost 10 pounds, So I guess that is a good thing!?
@morismm, check and see how much of the implants your dental insurance will actually cover. I’ve had a number of implants and very little is covered. Every now and then they surprise me and mail me a check, but I haven’t figured out the method behind the madness.
@doschicos, it can take forever if, as I did, you have necessary work on both sides of your mouth. They can’t work on both sides at the same time (you have to be able to chew somewhere). Between the two sides, sinus lifts, and one pair of implants failing, it’s been a multi-year process.
I joke that if the same people who design dental insurance worked on car insurance, you would be covered for oil changes but not collisions. I can cover my own cleanings, thanks very much, but it would be nice to have some help on the implants.