Text 36462, 74 rader
Skriven 2006-08-10 17:22:26 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
  Kommentar till text 36313 av Bob Ackley (1:2905/3)
Ärende: Re: Where where you when the Towers came down?
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*** Quoting Bob Ackley from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> Grin AF ws never the same as the Navy. I couldnever have more than 6
 CS> years on  thesame coast, much less same city.

BA> Heh.  I can account for 17.5 years of a 20.5 year career in just two a
BA> Kadena (6 years, almost to the hour) and Offutt (11.5 years).  4 month

Grin, thats the AF.  If you want to have a homestead, you basically can from
what I've garnered.

BA> I used to think that having to contribute to Social Security while I w
BA> military was a ripoff because I had the military retirement program an
BA> need Social Security.  I find that at this time it's *necessary* to ha
BA> incomes ('course, I won't qualify for SS until December, and the IRA I
BA> living off of for the past year will run dry in January - yes, I timed
BA> it that way).

Been meaning to ask, but isnt there some offset between the retirement check
and the Socual Security when you hit the 'draw both' stage?  Like one gets
reduced or something?  Perhaps I'm thinking of the tax-free portion for
disability?  (Don gets 10% that way).

In my case, i figure something simple will make up the gap because we have
Don's retirement too.  950$ I think?  (He retired a long time ago and those
COLA adjustments being 1% less than active start to take a toll after 17
years).  Anyways, his alone coveres the mortgage and house insurance premiums.
 Mine will cover food, utilities, tricare for the 3 of us, and a small
leftover that should be able to cover household repair issues plus a few other
essentials.  I'll pretty much need to get a job though if we are to have any
luxuries or vacations.  Have enough in the bank to buy a car when we get home
and do one critical fix to the house (back bedroom needs major work) and am
adding even more to that now that we are totally creditcard bill free.

Our only 'debt' right now is 53,000$ on the house, and a 'daily use credit
card' we pay off every month but use for little stuff like gatoraide and other
'7-11 type store' things when we dont have cash handy.  The house BTW per my
realtor who is also my rental agent, will easily sell at 145,000$.  The lot
alone is worth 40,000$ now.  He says with work on the back bedroom and some
good landscaping work, he could probably get 160,000$ but at that, I top end
out for my neighborhood.  See, I've the only 4 BR that still has a full double
garage you can park a car in <g>.  From the front my house doesnt look much
different from the others but it was the 'deluxe model' of a series when they
built the area and the first owner was wise in how he added, preserving the
garage and adding a 4th bedroom to the back end and a HUGE screen enclosed
back porch plus a built in brick grill at the back and a working (still works)
well.  My backyard is a little smaller than others for this, but it's not
really noticable and it's big enough that if i wanted one of the bigger above
ground pools, it would fit with plenty of room to not look 'stupid'.  (we
nixed that though due to cost to maintain and will opt instead for a decent
10x12 wooden shed oriented so it can also hold a small boat through the left
of the house's backyard wood gate that swings open big enough to drive a truck
through to the backyard).

The house is full of lots of wonderful 'extras' like a working fireplace, a
built in bar (complete with outlets under it and a cutout for a small fridge),
work benches in the garage (one wall has them as flip down stow to the wall
type if you need to pull in a second car), *serious* external lighting along
the entire backyard so you could play badmittion at midnight if you want to,
real plank wood and ceiling beams in the livingroom (pine ones in both
bathrooms but cherry in the living room) and that back screened porch is about
40x12 and if I'm off, its that it's BIGGER.

Has some drawbacks though due to when it was built.  Small closets and no
outlets in either bathroom (though has outlets that have been added to every
other room and the porch has 19 of them alone).  Oh and no outlet at the front
of the exterior of the house to use for Xmas lights.  Manual garage door (has
outlet for an electric one which we use for Xmas lights). Central air/heat is
in the ceiling.

                                       xxcarol

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