Your escape plan.

wearymicrobe wrote: I have been guilty of looking at farmland on Kauai, you can get 10 acres or so with limited electrical hookups for about 4K a acre and the ability to build.

I've been looking at Kauai myself off and on for years, because I've been there and would gladly go back to live. But darned if I've ever seen farm land for 4k an acre on that island. Where are you finding listings at that kind of price?

wearymicrobe wrote: Minus the mortgage it would actually be more money in our pocket at the end of the month then we have now even at 10 hours a week. Add in the cash from those 3-5 years working plus what we have and we could effectively just walk away from working if invested right.

Sounds like an interesting plan... although to me, the major part of an "escape plan" is having ZERO debt, so your income only needs cover living expenses, property taxes and the occasional play-day.

chknhwk wrote: I don't know man, if you've worked that hard and made that many sacrifices over the years I'd be very leary on purchasing two properties - it seems like a good way to increase your chances of getting screwed on a deal somewhere.

We didn't make a lot of sacrifices, we just live within our means. What do you mean by "screwed on a deal"? Buying property is easy. You have lot's of opportunity to check it out before you commit.

17 years from now, when I’m 50 and our youngest is starting college, we’ll see where I am. If I have managed to stay sane that long (doubtful) maybe I’ll be able to reevaluate.

While we’re in fantasyland, though- I want to find a way to buy about 50 acres somewhere out in the bushes of northwestern NC. Way the hell out away from everything. Somewhere in the Boone/ Banner Elk area would be cool, preferably inside or bordering one of the several national forests up there. Build about a 1000 sq ft house that takes an hour to get to from the closest 4-lane. Put solar panels on the roof, drill a well and/or collect rainwater, and I guess that’s about all I’d need. If telecommuting for work becomes a realistic option sometime in the rest of my working life, maybe it happens before retirement.

Our mortgage is about 10% more than the combined base income SWMBO and I earn. With bonuses though, we break even...so I feel pretty good about that honestly. Our house also "appraises" for more than we owe, so that feels pretty good too. We have almost no other debt aside from some college loans, that together are less than 30k, and the Terrain we will have paid off a year early. We live below our means - the Credit card came out last time 2 years ago when the house flooded...we rarely if ever use it. We have cash moeny left over at the end of each month that we put away for a rainy day. We just closed on 3 acres of land in a rural area that will one day have our forever house on it...but we are waiting till we pay it off first before we get a construction loan (the equity in the lot will be our down payment/collateral) .

That said, I have a VERY old rollover IRA that has a tiny lump of cash waaaaaay down at the bottom. Its not invested - it just sits there. On my to do list is to contact the institution and start getting that cash off the ground. I also need to figure out how to put more away each month - my employer doesnt offer 401k, profit share or any of that, so I need to get started yesterday.

Our hopes are to retire by 70. SInce we are comfortable living modestly, I think its doable. I dont know how people can walk around living on credit...it would make me crazy with stress...

70?!?!?!?!

Oh god i would just give up today. (No offense meant)

heh...none taken...but seriously, I actually enjoy work. I may not work full time after 50, but I will still work. I just dont want to be 73 trying to understand the state of teenagers when I get my typical-retiree-McDonalds job. SO I will punch my last timecard just about then, and hang up my apron.

I'm shooting for 50, and if i work after that, it'll be for nobody but myself. I will take my last order from anyone at age 49 and 364 days.

4cylndrfury wrote: Our mortgage is about 10% more than the combined base income SWMBO and I earn. With bonuses though, we break even...so I feel pretty good about that honestly. Our house also "appraises" for more than we owe, so that feels pretty good too. We have almost no other debt aside from some college loans, that together are less than 30k, and the Terrain we will have paid off a year early. We live below our means - the Credit card came out last time 2 years ago when the house flooded...we rarely if ever use it. We have cash moeny left over at the end of each month that we put away for a rainy day. We just closed on 3 acres of land in a rural area that will one day have our forever house on it...but we are waiting till we pay it off first before we get a construction loan (the equity in the lot will be our down payment/collateral) .

10% total income you mean, not effectively 110% on income base. I have a 7% mortgage right now of total base and even that drives me crazy.

4cylndrfury wrote: Our mortgage is about 10% more than the combined base income SWMBO and I earn. With bonuses though, we break even...so I feel pretty good about that honestly.

Please tell me that you meant "Our mortgage is just more than 10% of our combined income base".

EDIT: I see that wearymicrobe beat me to it.

Dude says they break even with bonuses... good night that sounds like a nightmare scenario.

Hypothetical scenario:

• our combined income without bonuses is 100k/yr
• with bonuses: 110k/yr
• Loan amount is 110k

the details are not a match, but the conditions are about the same. I think I may have gotten my terminology a bit out of whack...

4cylndrfury wrote: Hypothetical scenario: + our combined income without bonuses is 100k/yr + with bonuses: 110k/yr + Loan amount is 110k the details are not a match, but the conditions are about the same. I think I may have gotten my terminology a bit out of whack...

Ah, okay, that makes sense. I read it as

Income =100 a month
+ bonuses= 110 a month
Loan payment=110 a month.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: 70?!?!?!?! Oh god i would just give up today. (No offense meant)

+1. The thought of doing what I'm doing now for the next 28 years makes me want to go home and swallow a shotgun blast...

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier... the 800 lb gorilla quietly sitting in the corner is medical care... which could force many of us to keep working for longer than we really want to, even if financially it's not entirely needed.

4cylndrfury wrote: Hypothetical scenario: + our combined income without bonuses is 100k/yr + with bonuses: 110k/yr + Loan amount is 110k the details are not a match, but the conditions are about the same. I think I may have gotten my terminology a bit out of whack...

So loan is 1x annual income. That is great. Out here in California in our area the average is 7.4x annual income.

How everybody sleeps at night is beyond me. We are at 1.45x and that feels high to me. Of course if we lived in the Midwest and had the same income it would be sub 1x but still.

Peoples be crazy.

So loan is 1x annual income. That is great. Out here in California in our area the average is 7.4x annual income.

Christ on a unicycle, that is absurd. Sure, I live in Alabama and it has its share of social problems, but at least I can afford to live here.

HiTempguy wrote: If it makes any of you guys feel better, this thread makes me feel better about where I am at at 23 years old

+1000. I have stuck away bit over $7k since September last year. Plus I actually for the most part enjoy my job.

My escape plan is to move to the Isle of Man partly because I have a British passport and partly because no speed limits or income taxes.

Jake wrote:

So loan is 1x annual income. That is great. Out here in California in our area the average is 7.4x annual income.

Christ on a unicycle, that is absurd. Sure, I live in Alabama and it has its share of social problems, but at least I can afford to live here.

But that's also one of the reasons why the housing bubble bursting hit areas like CA hard. Where I live in PA, home prices rose some, but not dramatically, and values didn't fall much either. A crap school system does wonders for keeping the yuppies away and property values stable, despite how nice the area where I live is otherwise (very convienent to jobs in Philly, NJ or even NYC).

Jake wrote:

So loan is 1x annual income. That is great. Out here in California in our area the average is 7.4x annual income.

Christ on a unicycle, that is absurd. Sure, I live in Alabama and it has its share of social problems, but at least I can afford to live here.

Honestly living in Alabama, I really can't think of many social problems that aren't more or as present in other places.

In reply to 93EXCivic:

Aren't you in the Huntsville area? That is a whole different world.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to 93EXCivic: Aren't you in the Huntsville area? That is a whole different world.

Yeah but I spend a decent amount of time in Cullman.

In reply to Ian F:

I spent a month in Bensalem and then lived in Fishtown & then not far from New Hope in late 2009 / early 2010. You're in a pretty decent part of the world, I sort of miss it out there, just wish I had a better idea of what I was doing & where would be good spots to live in if I could do it over again.

Well, that, and making sure I actually wanted the job I took up there. That would have been nice...

This guy has it right http://gizmodo.com/5903420/this-amazing-treehouse-is-hidden-on-whistler-mountain/gallery/1

OK time for a update.

Been traveling for work a ton lately, so been kind of exploring the cities that I have been stuck in seeing if anything fits.

Manhattan is a blast, not in any way shape or form a fit for my wife but I could live there. Terrible on cost but I could see continuing to work if we lived there.

Little time in Chicago, not enough to form a opinion, same with Dallas.

Las Vegas is abysmal to me, like I have no idea how anybody lives there year round. It was 105+ at least on day there.

Indiana is really nice, I live the open space the people are extremely nice. Drove north on Meridian for a hour or so then stopped and had dinner. Open space not to expensive not to terrible on weather. But its the Midwest and finding work could be problematic if something happened at the main office.

Still not entirely sure what I want to do with my life. I know that working 60 hour weeks and getting the snot kicked out of me is not fun, no matter how much they pay me. My fibro has been drop dead killing me, I even cut the day a little short and came home and crashed on the couch with some pain killers this afternoon.

evacuate without a trace.