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If the discussion stays on the topic of the COST of pet ownership, then it's a useful discussion. It's decidedly not useful to go off on the tangent "There's something wrong with people who ...."
I was getting a lot out of the discussion in this thread before it got hijacked by judgmental posts.
So stop talking about that. Geez people. Get back on topic.
Right? I would certainly hope NOT to have a house or car payment by the time I retired (I don't and haven't for years; decades, even), or I probably wouldn't retire!
I think I still may have had a car payment. Can't recall. If so, It was almost done.
Definitely had a house payment, since I bought my townhouse at 52. I figured I'd likely be dead before the 30-year mortgage was paid, but as it turns out, I will likely have it gone in three or four more years.
I could barely make my house and car payments on that. Hopefully you have other sources of income.
I grow veggies. I am a beekeeper I produce a small amount of honey.
Since my Navy pension is so much more than what we require for our Cost-of-living we have been saving up, and in 2016 we bought a commercial building downtown. It took four years of rehab to get the building to pass all codes, and legally have tenants. To date, the income from rentals has not equaled the annual expense of operating the building. But I have faith that soon it will begin to provide a profit.
The problem with that, of course, I have no idea what to do with any profit from it. Our annual Cost-of-Living is less than $15k. I just do not need any more than that. By making $19k we have surplus cash, and would otherwise give it to charity.
... Even with no mortgage payment (mine will be paid off in 4 years) and no car payment (I have 1.5 years left) I will still have insurance and property taxes on my home (which will equal nearly half of my mortgage payment) and maintenance and other related expenses for my vehicle.
Ouch. It sounds like you must live in a terribly high Cost-of-Living area.
Quote:
... It depends a lot on where you live, and how low your standard of living is. I don't think I splurge much, but I don't compromise much on certain things. I know many people do of course.
I own 150 acres of river frontage land, my home has a footprint of 5,000 sq ft, our annual property taxes for the house and land come in around $857 a year.
He's mentioned on here a few times that he owns a number of rental properties, so he's not living off just that pension.
I have owned apartments in California, in Scotland, in Connecticut, and in Washington.
Soon after I retired, all was liquidated. I focused on living as an off-grid organic farmer. But fifteen years into retirement, we found that we had way too much cash built up and we decided to jump back into rental real estate once again. I have had a long history of rental properties.
Ouch. It sounds like you must live in a terribly high Cost-of-Living area.
I own 150 acres of river frontage land, my home has a footprint of 5,000 sq ft, our annual property taxes for the house and land come in around $857 a year.
My cost of living is far higher than yours. But it is not "terribly high". It is right at the national average in fact.
However I have absolutely no desire to live where you do. I am happy here.
Last edited by ChessieMom; 03-15-2022 at 08:48 PM..
That is obvious of course. Even with no mortgage payment (mine will be paid off in 4 years) and no car payment (I have 1.5 years left) I will still have insurance and property taxes on my home (which will equal nearly half of my mortgage payment) and maintenance and other related expenses for my vehicle. So even 4 years down the road, those expenses will only decline by about half, if that much.
It depends a lot on where you live, and how low your standard of living is. I don't think I splurge much, but I don't compromise much on certain things. I know many people do of course.
Ditto for us on taxes as % of mortgage.
We closed sed the day before TG, 2015.
Over half the mortgage is paid off.
The only savings grace is:
We get NYs "STAR" (it stands for something like "School Tax Abatement Refund") exemption, with caveates/restrictions: IF our school district stays at 3% or below annual increase (it's always 2.8-3% increase every year, but we've never missed getting the refund check...I think the district residents would absolutely KILL the school administrators IF it went over 3%..will be interesting with fuel so high now), we get a $676 check every Sept.
Once spouse turns 65(2 yrs away)that will double, to $1352/yr refund check.
IF the school budget is over, we get zero, zip, nada.
As we've never had kids, school taxes, even if we had kids, should be a 100% discount at age 62 or 65. By then in today's world, we would have paid for our kids and grandkids..in while or part by then.
I understand paying to educate those who will "run the world" as we retire, but the education in this state in these high school s is way below ours. They've literally dumbed tests down to where 50% is passing! And, with NYs regents program, we had the best high school education in the country...all college prep, no special school for that. But I digress...
Now, mind you that $1352 puts a big dent in our school taxes, but doesn't wipe it out. Our school taxes are still way higher than that!
And then there's property..a bit less than school taxes..but still high. Once spouse turns 65, and ONLY if our income is under a set limit will we get a 50% deduction. We do live in the most expensive towns in the greater city area. There's one town across the river that's as expensive as ours, but I digress...
So, we estimate the mortgage to be paid off in 4+/- yrs.
If we get the double STAR and 50% taxe reduction (ugh unlikely), our housing expense will drop dramatically, and actually be quite reasonable.
If the discussion stays on the topic of the COST of pet ownership, then it's a useful discussion. It's decidedly not useful to go off on the tangent "There's something wrong with people who ...."
I was getting a lot out of the discussion in this thread before it got hijacked by judgmental posts.
I noticed today at WalMart that cat food was really scarce on the shelves and what was there had gotten much more pricey. Fortunately I order most of mine from Chewy, except for the really expensive pouches that I have to get for the 16.5 hyperthyroid cat I recently adopted. I buy those from Chewy, Amazon, and WalMart because she goes through them so quickly. I would be doing pretty well cost-wise if it weren't for her. Her food costs way more than the food for "my" 4 cats as well as the 2 ferals I feed outside.
They can't. EO signed last year "paused" them all.
I'm not sure you are right about that:
Quote:
Climate advocates said they had expected Biden officials would find a way to slow drilling, either through litigation or by reopening the environmental review process for proposed lease sales — delaying them and possibly canceling them outright.
Instead, the administration approved more than 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits in its first year, nearly 900 more than the Trump administration did in its first year, according to an analysis of federal data by the Center for Biological Diversity.
Last fall, Biden officials put 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico up for auction in the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history. While it sold only a fraction of that amount — about 1.7 million acres — it netted nearly $192 million and ranked as the most profitable offshore auction since March 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...biden-climate/
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Geez people. Get back on topic. 
