Sgt.Sausage wrote:
- quote -

My Honda Ridgeline does have a dashboard display for what the oil
viscosity is and will suggest when to get it changed. The dealership
told me every 4000-5000 miles.

I am not sure if my wife's Accord has the same feature.


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
Future responses should be tied to financial planning. Thanks.

"John A. Weeks III" <john[at]johnweeks.com> wrote in message
news:john-CA0410.06592727092006[at]sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net...

- quote -

One of the things I learned (wayyy back in the 1980's (am I an
old-timer yet?)) in the military was something we called the
PMCS: Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services.

Every piece of equipment -- from a radio, to an M16, to
a vehicle, to a gas mask, to a refrigerator -- *everything* has
a PMCS list. Things to check. Things to do. All, to keep
everything in "full operational readiness" and to minimize costs.

Very little of what I learned in the military has stuck with
me over the years (like ... anyone actually enjoys waking
up at 3:30 in the AM. (not!) )) -- but one of the few things I've
taken with me over my lifetime is the PMCS.

I have a household PMCS that is a giant checklist and
calendar of "things to do" from checking leaky faucets
and inspecting plumbing pipes, to vacuming the dust
from the fridge coils, to walking the roof at the change
of each season to inspect the shingles. A 10 dollar,
DIY shingle replacement can save a $10,000 water
damage bill. Things like filters for the furnace, looking
for water seeping into the basement, testing smoke
detectors, fire alarms, CO detectors. Added to this
list is a regular change of password on all my bank
accounts, PINs, online investment accounts, etc --
gotta keep 'em guessing, right?

There's a bit of investment up-front in developing
the list, and a bit of investment in checking off the
items on my list, but I've seen too many times where
30 seconds checking the oil on an M1 or a Bradley
has saved tens of thousands on the engine rebuild
that would have been necessary had it been taken
out without the oil.

Y'all do check the oil in the car every morning
before you take off for work don't you?

Anyway, I've now got this huge list of literally
hundreds of items that get checked and or serviced
four times a year (spring, summer, winter, fall).

I do the same for my rental properties, and properly
document things (on paper and video) -- saves *huge*
hassle when a tenant demands his deposit back saying
"I didn't do that". I show him the video of the move-in
walkthrough where I'm taking him, personally, through
my checklist and point out: "see this video from when
you moved in? Do you see the damage? <nope> The
damage is there now so *you* (or someone you let
in the place while it was under your care, and your
responsibility) did it." I then keep the appropriate
portion of the deposit money.

This alone, on the rentals, has saved me countless
thousands of dollars in refunding deposits and paying
for damages out of pocket.

PMCS. Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services.

Do it.

In article <1159316249.968059.64850[at]i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> ,
"DFIGTREE" <david.Feigenbaum[at]verizon.net> wrote:

- quote -

I disagree. Having a large sum of money sitting idle is a luxury
that few people can afford. If you are in debt, you need to pay
off those debts because interest would be killing you. Even if
you are not in debt, you need to be building your retirement
portfolio. My suggestion is to have some financial alternatives,
such as a home equity loan or credit cards ready to go in case
of an emergency. If an emergency happens, use those tools to
get though the crisis. Then, work hard to pay off those bills,
or the next time one of your investments are up for a roll-over,
divert the money to pay off the loans. A final component is to
do what you can to avoid emergencies. The most common of which
are household and car problems, many of which can be avoided
by doing simple routine maintenance.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

Junkone wrote:
- quote -

Well, one of the first rules of financial planning is to maintain an
emergency fund to cover expenses. Since I have no idea whether you are
the only breadwinner, I will assume that you are. That means you need 6
months times your monthly expenses, of cash or easily convertible to
cash, in reserve. I would say, since you are leasing and not outright
buying, your cash is just about enough at $20K. You have not provided
enough information to be sure but you might want to do the emergency
fund calculation before you decrease your cash position.

- quote -

I agree with Joe's advice and John Weeks' advice.

Junkone wrote:

- quote -

I don't know the terms of the lease, beyond the 4.9%, but CDs are now
over 5%, so it's likely a wash, not a big difference.
Since you have a home with a reasonable mortgage, your next step is to
invest for the long term. The difference between a 10% return and a 5%
annual return is $1.2M vs $541K. These are the savings you'd have at 60
if you saved 10% of your gross income (which I presume to be $60,000
from the net 40K number) each year, in addition to the 20 already saved.
Use 'the long way from now' to your advantage, in 27 years till you are
60, the market will rise and fall, with one to three 'crashes' along the
way, but it will certainly be higher in 27 years time than it is today,
and will exceed the returns from cash in the long term.
JOE

Does it make sense to buy out the van that i am leasign. i am paying
out 4.9% lease rate. based on what u state, the bond yield is around
4.5 %.

I havev a stable job for the timebeing and 33 years of age. i think
retirement is long way from now.?

Seede

joetaxpayer wrote:
- quote -


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
Please trim the post to which you are responding. "Trim" means that except for a FEW lines to add context, the previous post is deleted.

In article <1159105754.871182.248430[at]d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com> ,
"Junkone" <junkone1[at]gmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

First off, you have a bad car deal. You are not a major
corporation, so you have no business doing a lease. A lease
sets you up to take all the risk, and get none of the rewards.
You don't even own the thing after making all those sky-high
payments.

At 40K per year, you can afford a car that is in the $4,000 to
$8,000 range. Get rid of the van, buy something in your price
range, and pay cash.

Second, having cash sitting in a checking account is silly.
It might as well be under your mattress. Get it invested, and
get it working for you. You can get 6% CD's, and the stock
market should return you about 11% over time. How about splitting
it half way?

- quote -

Security means no growth. You might get a few percent with
security, but prices of everything you buy goes up to match.
You have retirement coming up, and with people living 20 and
30 years in retirement, you may need a million or two dollars
just to afford to eat (unless you have a good pension or a rich
relative about to kick the bucket). You cannot afford security
with retirement bearing down on you like a runaway train.

Rather, you have to get growth, and you need the extra boost
that you get from tax deferred growth. So, start with maxing
out your 401K and/or IRA options. Mix up the funds a bit so
you get exposed big cap growth, mid cap growth, and small cap
growth, plus some overseas, and my favorite of the day, high
dividend yield funds.

You only get so much time in life, and at 40K, you only get
so much money. You cannot afford to waste it by letting funds
sit idle, or by buying expensive luxury cars that are just going
to rot away in a few years. Get the basics covered first.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

Junkone wrote:
- quote -

You don't mention you age, type of employment, and a few other key points.
The cash should be moved mostly to either a money market fund, with
instant access, or to laddered CDs, or bonds. Laddering is when you
invest say, 1/4 of your funds in each maturity, 1 yr, 2 yrs, 3 & 4. When
the 1 year matures, you use the proceeds to buy a new 4 year maturity.
Over time, all you funds will be enjoying the rate of 4 year yields with
money coming due each year. You can change this so money comes due every
6 months, or the ladder goes out further, as you wish. With the yield
curve inverted or close to it, the rates may not be much higher at 3
years than 1, you need to check.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. For the long term stocks do provide
superior returns compared to cash (CDs bills notes, etc.) But you do
need to find your own comfort zone. Do you have a 401k? Does the company
provide any matching? This is a good place to bump your return, and you
can choose a fund within the 401 that's conservative if you wish. You
can read this group's archives to understand volatility, and how long
term stock investing is less risky as your time horizon lengthens.
JOE

Junkone wrote:
- quote -

If Yield is what you are after (with safety of principal), I would
suggest a money market fund (yielding between 4 and 5%). Short term
CDs might be an alternative.

What are your financial goals? E.g. Are you saving for
retirement, a house, paying off a debt (list all loans)?
What is your age? For now, two things in which you can start
getting some experience are (1) CD ladders and money
markets; and (2) asset allocation. For (1) you should be
able to obtain a minimum 4.5% yield on that $20k savings
right now, via short term certificates of deposit. Check for
what the competition is paying (on CDs and money markets at
www.bankrate.com . For (2) spend some time experimenting
with the free online asset allocations tools linked at
http://home.earthlink.net/~elle_navorski/id8.html . Ask
questions about what these tools do.

The stock market is swinging, but one has to try to remember
that the safest way to invest in stocks is only when one
does not need the money for say ten years or more. One also
has to be able to emotionally weather ups and downs during
that ten years. Smartest thing to do is to invest regularly
for the long term, allocate per a plan, and do not mind
exactly what the stock investments are doing until close to
retirement.

Recently after huge financial losees i have decided to do financial
planning and came accross this wonderful group. Here is my situation

Income after tax 40 k
van lease 525 pm
house mortgage 800 pm
cash in checking account 20k.

I am looking for means to increase the yeild and was looking for
security. I am looking for short term investment oppurtuniteis in
either bond or mutual funds. but with the stock market swinging up and
down, i am a little lost.
can someone help please

Seede