That’d be the third to the last thing I’d do, following timeshare, then condo. Owning a house surrounded by public land? People can set up campsites all around your house, at your lot line. Same with hunters.
Yeah, hard pass. No reason to have that as all of the surrounding land is free use anyway.
And that’s not even including all the break in potential as anyone and everyone can watch your house and see when you’re not there. Break ins are indeed a problem in rec places/cabins where people live seasonally.
Too much money is a problem I have never had, even for 1 second.
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She has 300 acres on the fringe of a state forest and lives there year round. She rents cabins to hunters.
Discussions can have a natural flow and it’s nice this board is finally letting people discuss things w/o draconian interventions. Adults should be able to do this and a large part of that is self regulating, aka being responsible.
users act responsibly
staff act responsibly
nice things happen
before my morning coffee…I realized something. Buying land to park on, it’ll still be something that will hold cash.
So why not just rent a piece of land?
Farmers rent land to cash crop on…so why not me rent an acre or 2 to just park my RV on? I kick the bucket and no big ticket real estate to be dealt with, just an RV, 2 older vehicles, boat, canoe and some guns. That’s it.
I have a Bud who owns a piece of land along a great lake, shorefront. I think next spring I’ll visit him and talk to him about renting a spot. He doesn’t need money, he’s already said I could park my camper up by his house…and he has a wife…so we’ll see.
But yeah, just be mobile and RENT. No high campground stuff…just open space to park for a season, just me, the sun, the wind, and the water.
now that’s a pretty good “make do”.
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That’s also a good way to leave a legacy. Loooong time ago, a childhood friend of mine, his dad was responsible for setting aside a huge hill where all the kids used to sled down. It was set in a conservation easement (before its time) and housing has continued to be put up, but all around and beyond that. That’s an oasis in the growth.
I don’t have that kinda money. My legacy is in the people I’ve helped out along the way. For about 5 years I had a young lady come to my door for a food drive. I’m pretty street smart. She wasn’t collecting food for anyone but herself and probably a baby/kid she had. I think she knew that I knew as towards the end, she didn’t even show up with any bags. I’d give her a bag of food. I’ve not seen her in years. She never came back. I hope I helped her through her bad time and she’s doing well now.
My main efforts now, as in giving back, is PTSD. I’m going to continue to clear a path for those behind me.
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Her husband worked for Westinghouse as an engineer. He wrote a difinitive book on static electricity and electronic circuitry. That was his retirement.
I will compliment you for including the canoe in the conversation. That’s pretty much my only expectation for this message board, relate the topic in some way to paddling.
When I retired I was simply tired of my job and ready for a change. I was concerned that the longer I worked the less time and health I would have to explore, travel, and pursue interests. I was more concerned about running out of time than money. Like you, I was single but the circumstances were different (divorce). I thought a lot about selling the house and hitting the road but I’m glad I didn’t. Ultimately after an adventure, I like having a place to come back to. I’m not quite four years into my retirement and have been traveling about five months a year. Since I retired, I got a: grandson, a girlfriend, and a sibling with pancreatic cancer.
So moving forward, I expect the travel to decrease some. My paddling miles are way down this year. They’ve been up the last few years. I track my miles because it is kinda like a barometer. It sorta lets me know how much I’m really getting out there. I also have a goal of paddling in all 50 states. I haven’t yet paddled any “new to me” states this year. Maybe I’ll get one in and maybe I won’t. So far this year I’ve paddled in wv, sc, mi, and ky. I just did a month long rv trip with the girlfriend but not much paddling on that trip. Money is also another consideration.
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I have a friend and former coworker with whom I’ve maintained regular contact after retirement. He’s unreliable, maintains sporatic contact, but the conversation resemble rolling down a hill in a barrel. Our conversation rarely maintains continuity, cover a myriad of topic, get sidetracked with random thoughts (mention a date, and he’ll tell you that’s the date Napolean laughed his campaign against . . . And Elvis released his album with the song . . . And tommorrow is Bill’s birthday), but amazingly, we rarely cut each other off.
While most people are put off by the confusing flood of random thought, I find it wildly impressive and informative. Details are typically forgotten, but the result is a feeling of being enlightened. The strange point is that we always seem to get back to the original topic. I dislike talking on the telephone, yet I find myself talking to him and reluctant to end the call, even when it’s 1:00 am until 5:00 am.
Sometime, our minds get triggered by a random memory. I’d rather hear about it than miss the message. If anyone isn’t interested, the easy solution is to scan and pass over the post. Just thinking how it’s an easy option.
The more we learn about each other should trigger greater interest.
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I would suggest you look a bit deeper into Reverse Mortgages. Mine is a line of credit that requires no monthly payment - ever. I’ve yet to use it to live on but nice to know it is there if needed. Look at it like an adjustable rate home equity loan that lets you make a $0 monthly payment. I can have a draw sent to my savings within days if needed. You can also repay and use again. Just keep a $50 balance to keep it open.
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Now that’s cool…and marrying good. My Bud was a hired gun engineer and had some patents be the property of the place he was working for at the time, others were his. He could write his own ticket for the last 30 years he worked…probably longer, but that’s all the longer I’ve knew him.
"While most people are put off by the confusing flood of random thought, I find it wildly impressive and informative. "
I long ago learned the best way to learn things is to talk to old people and just, well, let them talk. If you show them respect, you’d be amazed at the things you can learn. Same with people in the trades. Most of the older workers are grumpy fks…but when I started out, if I showed them respect and asked them a question, I’d always get good answers as they appreicated that.
Knowledge not shared is lost in history
and
“revolutionaries don’t care about history…which is why they keep repeating it”
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Thanks. I will. I thought it’d just be like a cookie cutter, fha type mortgage…but in reverse.
but…thinking about it, these could be a lot more flexible as they aren’t govt guaranteed (are they?), so they can be structured any way either party agrees.
Ironically, I was thinking of something like this, but along the lines of having someone buy an option on the house, option to purchase at a latter date. Payments could be lump sum, lump sum and payments, or payments. It’s up to the parties how they want to set things up.
Again, thanks
“What other people think of you is none of your business.”
Let that sink in.
Some of us have no heirs to leave things to, at least not any that deserve it.
What we are talking about is your legacy. Empathy and helping others matters. I am planning to set up a scholarship for troubled kids that I teach in a riding program . Some of them just need a few bucks to launch after high school. Make a difference in a child (or an adult’s) life.
Stop worrying about what other people think of your decision making.
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Well, I looked at the reverse mortgages, as suggested. I do think it’s a wonderful idea. And there is a govt program to do it. After I read up about it, it made sense that govt would want to have a program like that.
Why? All of that cash [equity] is just sitting there, out of circulation, not doing anything productive, like a savings account that no one can use to lend to others (function of banks/credit unions/S&Ls).
So govt helps people take that ‘dead money’ they have and put in circulation.
That creates/maintain jobs, tax revenues, etc.
I can keep the house and use it as a home base AND utilize the equity we’ve built up over the years.
The work I put into this, was supposed to go to 2 people, but they’re both dead and I’m still here. So might as well start pulling that cash out and using it for myself.
As stated, handfull of others don’t deserve it. Shackquille even tells his kids, “this is my money, I earned it, you have to go earn yours”. Always liked his pov. You can tell he’s a brat.
I’m a HUGE proponent of Parents’ Choice in the education of their kids. Most public schools fail the children, going back to the 70s. Just gotten worse and worse each year. If they were a business the people there would have been fired decades ago…and the businesses ceased to exist as they are mostly just babysitters for the parents while they work.
I got out of politics a lot and mainly have focused locally, school boards, city/county boards, and mayor. And push for school choice at the state level.
The kids need to be a LOT better equipped for the real world once they get out of HS. And the line of fecal matter–get a college degree–most people are starting to realize is little more than a job/retirement security for union teachers and others affiliated with it. The kids graduate with a lot of debt–more each year–for an education that used to be sophmore level HS stuff.
I’ve been pushing kids to get into the trades. And shops hire kids for PT “shadow” work while they’re still in HS, often working over the summer. What the kids are doing is getting paid training. Employers getting future employees. Save the part time retail jobs for the indebted college grads.
Hi Canoer,
Home schooled kids lack socialization. I see it all the time. We have emotionally challenged kids in our program that get taught home. Unless their parents are well educated, they are often good at a couple of subjects.
Few young people are going into the trades. They need to be promoted more. I was a commercial electrician once for almost 4 years during a recession. Some of my friends that were in made a good living but had bad insurance and no vacation. They had a hard time retiring and were still carrying tools in their 60s. That has improved a lot, but it is still hard to get a 401k.
I come from a family of teachers and educators. My Dad has PhD. My uncle and brother Masters’s Degrees. We value education. State universities were supported much better by tax dollars in the past. I paid $400 a semester for tution back in the 1970s.
Most people that don’t value higher education have never had any.
I entered the skilled trades as an apprentice electrician at the age of 31 AFTER getting my bachelors degree (fortunately with scholarships) but was unable during the employment recession of the 1970s to find decent work – had a chance to get government sponsored CETA training in basic electrical tech and practices due to the company I worked for going out of business so I thought I would learn a trade so I could support myself and be able to afford grad school, which I needed if I was going to pursue my chosen scientific career. The trades were just opening up more to women and minorities but I actually got accepted to the apprenticeship based on testing at the top of the group and being at the head of my glass in trade school, as well as passing the city electricians test on my first try – my name is gender ambiguous so they were surprised when I showed up for the first day of orientation. At that time the prevailing rate for electricians was 5 times the minimum wage – apprentices started at half that but got free training and automatic increases in their hourly wage every 6 months for 4 years until they “topped out” and got their papers so they could work anywhere in the country. While it’s true that residential and light commercial electricians don’t have great pay or benefits, I chose to go into heavy institutional and industrial sparky work and got plenty of experience building, hospitals, jails, schools, government and research buildings, light rail transit systems, substations, factories and power plants. For a while I was a specialist called a “sound fairy”, meaning that I installed, or supervised crews that installed, communications and security systems in large facilities which required a lot of complexity. I also became an apprentice trainer and mentor, as well as participating in outreach programs to the community to educate young people about the benefits of entering the skilled trades, especially through the unions.
There are so many different options in the electrical trades including high voltage line work, learning to install, program and troubleshoot industrial control systems, even a unique specialty of electrical worker who installs and “braids” the bundles of miles of computer cables that go in the cable trays above the servers in huge data centers – it’s a fine art (not unlike macrame) that is critical to the optimal performance of the cables and the guys (and gals) that can do it make 6 figures a year and never get laid off.
Specialized line workers, like those who work off of helicopters to install and repair high voltage transmission cables, can make over a quarter million a year.
I was eventually dragged kicking and screaming into the office from the field (I loved doing hard hat work on site) once they realized I had a college degree and was such a good superintendent. I did take a 30% pay cut as an estimator and PM in training but within 5 years was making more than I did in the field. Even my 3rd year as an apprentice I made more than my late father had 4 years earlier as a full professor teaching at a major university.
Unions like the IBEW have excellent health plans and group retirement investment plans. I knew many sparkies like myself who retired early with very comfortable nest eggs, even enough to invest in their own businesses or new careers.
It’s a great option for any young person: 3 to 5 years of FREE training (electrician is 5 years now since the trade is so vast and complex) so no giant school loans to have to pay off. And construction and maintenance work is not a job that a company can “offshore” to some foreign remote workers. We knew back int the early 1980’s that there was going to be an increasing shortage of skilled tradespeople and that trend has continued. Electrical work is the best of them for women – we do tend to be smaller, though I was always strong enough to do everything required of me, but much of electrical work is more brains than brawn. There will always be a couple of big dumb laborers to help move the transformers but not everybody can develop the math, engineering and plan-reading acuity to lay out and install miles of conduit and wire and make clean and correct wiring connections.
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That is a faulty generalization, your few experiences are not enough basis to make such a broad generalization, especially when those kids may have other factors contributing to their challenges.
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Hi willowleaf,
I can relate to your story. I did estimating after awhile too. I worked in Denver for non-union shops back in the 1980s. It was a 50/50 town and there was animosity between union and non-union companies. We took over a large commercial high rise job, and the place was booby trapped by the union guys before us. There were live high voltage lines lying on the ground. I carried a claw hammer for protection.
While I was an electrician, I did not let a month go by without sending out a resume. I finally got back into environmental consulting but had to move to Wyoming. I always thought being in the trades was a waste of time until later when I started to realize how much I had learned about construction, not only ind/comm electrical work, but other trades as well.
Depends. I didn’t have any, then got a lot, masters, so I lived both sides of that. People who rely on institutions to give them a living are more likely to get the 4 yr degree, then think the high paying jobs should come to them.
Most really have no training or skills…and since the 90s, aren’t even too literate and can barely analytically process a can opener. It’s been sooo oversold, but sold by people who count on kids going to the places they work so they can make a very good living…esp for part time, seasonal jobs that pay full time and bennies.
The old “if they have a college education, they can be trained” logic has faded along with the quality of the college grads. Unless they are very specific in their degree, along the lines of stem, it’s not worth it unless one works in govt where they get more money for doing the same slacker jobs because they have a degree.
I know some IBEW guys who have excellent retirement programs. The competition for skilled workers has driven a lot of companies to offer profit sharing and 401K programs. And they still have paid training ta boot.
Unless they are drinking all their money, someone in the trades should be able to be putting away in a roth or even into mutual funds w/each paycheck, or each month. In denver in the 90s, a commercial hvac guy would be making 60 grand walking in the door. Now, I see manufacturing places where someone working on a line or machine operator goes in making 20/hr.
That’s 40 grand a year for an unskilled person.
They get married, wife can work there (many do) and their household income is 80 grand a year. I’m sorry, but if a couple can’t figure out how to live a decent life making 80 grand a year, they have other issues.
Another problem is people don’t want to move to where it’s less expensive to live. 80 grand in sheboygan goes a lot further than 80 grand in denver. But they want to stay in denver for a variety of reasons, like the mountains, etc. Fine. That’s their choice. But I don’t want to hear from them about how unfair life is, how housing prices need to go down, etc.
My mother was a college teacher MS and union head. So I know how much free time teaches have. Father was a fedgov slob. BA. didn’t work hard, lots of time off, etc. One thing of interest is how the req for jobs went from 4 yr to 6…but it’s the same job.