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Good one Linda. Tribe. Americans of all tribes used to trade and enjoy each other. I just do the golden rule, love your neighbor - NO EXCEPTIONS! <grin> If you don't like long posts, don't read this. But you can see that before you start right? Zulu, I've met many in our age/RV peer group from full timing 1997-2003 and some more since. Just because someone says they did well does not mean they are lying. And in the South we have folks who "Po' mouth" meaning they pretend to be broke and are far from it. I agree that our age bracket of retirees are usually a good spread. But the generation of my 45 and 42 y/o sons are going to be much less fortunate with exceptions of course. My grandkids, the millenials are really changing goals and standards for their living. That generation will not have a middle class as we have now. You know Zulu, as an RVr you can travel and visit the folks you think are putting on airs. I have found that a large percentage of folks can't believe what even a less than lucky in money matters career military family has seen and done. It's not my job to worry I don't exceed their capacity to believe. Just being ourselves intimidates a lot of good ol boys. Some try to sharpshoot us and catch us out, and once I see that, it is too tedious to be worthwhile. I'm no better than another, and no worse. But certainly have no need to prove anything. I've found it is just fine to accept others at their word until they ask for money or prove to be toxic. No time for toxic. I have my circle of close friends and we are a very diverse group, from paycheck to paycheck to independent like us. The key is we like each other and are tolerant as a group. As far as "limited resource thinking" here's a piece I wrote while still active duty: "Generally, folks measure their success and security in life by "things." Some folks never ever can have enough things and are horrified when another makes the decision that "things" are like a millstone around your neck. You have to pay for them, then find a place for them, then dust them, then fix them when they break, and store them when you realize you aren't using them, and even getting rid of them is a pain whether yard sale, arranging for a goodwill pick up or just hauling them to the dump, involves re-inventorying, moving around and finding a new order to keep the "things" you are saving in. Many folks have beautiful furnishings yet buy all new furnishings every year or two just to validate their feelings of having things! An illustration. I used to build and restore custom super stock VWs and Porsches. I restored a Porsche 911 Targa that I found for 900.00 rusting away and fortunately discovered it only needed some new vacuum lines and an Air Box to run perfectly along with some minor seals etc. So just couple of thousand later I had what looked and ran like a brand new 911. I enjoyed it for two years and then decided to sell it when I got orders to Germany. My friends and a few family members on finding out I was selling it were horrified Saying the same thing-"How can you sell it!!!???" I knew what they were really saying, that if they had a 911 they'd never be able to part with it because of the prestige, pride, image or whatever. As if a hunk of metal with an engine would make them "different." That's conditioning. Knowing what they were really saying (and with a few it was really disappointing to hear that they were that way) I didn't lecture or try to explain. I'd answer with an innocent look-"How can I sell it? Well, I put an ad in the paper/online and people call me and one of them buys it." (With a straight face) To which every one replied that's not what I mean-I mean you have a Porsche 911! How can you part with it? Then my answer was "If I want another one, I can just buy it, they have after all made millions of them haven't they." People don't realize what they really tell you about themselves a lot of the time with comments like that. You see, they were "limited resource thinkers." They truly feel that when someone gets something, it has been removed from their possibilities. Like a limited pie with four pieces, they view the world as limited and when you get a piece of the pie that is one less available to them. I'm sure you have sold a car or something at one time or another and had a friend say something after the fact like "You sold it for that?? I would have given you that or more!!" I could never resist, you see they were viewing your good sale price as something they didn't get (limited resource thinking) and so had to try to rain on your parade some with a silly statement like that. They also do the same when you buy something and instead of being as thrilled as you are, have to say Oh man you could have gotten it cheaper at . . .or I could have gotten it for you cheaper from . . .? I can't resist that scenario! LOL! My response (on a sale) Oh really? Well I told the guy that until he pays the cash, which he said he'd do next week, that it is still on the market and will go to the first person who comes up with the cash! I'm so glad we talked! So when do you want to pick it up?" I almost always can keep a straight face while they start to fumble for a way out of their faux pas. Not once, of hundreds of times I have pulled that on a limited resource thinker, have they been sincere. Every time the car or whatever was actually sold, but those people want everybody to be as unhappy as they are. And speak volumes of their view of the world. The decision to RV indeed is not for everyone. But for some it is an acquisition of freedom that they lack the courage or desire to make. It invalidates their clinging to "things" or people, neither of which is forever. In life you can't freeze it and stay in a good time or place-there is no neutral, you are either in forward or reverse. Put another way the only difference between a grave and a rut are the dimensions. Some view RVing as a freedom that has somehow been removed from their realm of possibilities. I just tell them that there is no difference if we don't see each other for few months at a time from across town, or for the same time from experiencing this great land and its people in person. We will still be alive and coming for a visit, just like before, and boy will we have stories. See you can always get another house or apartment if you choose to, they have after all made millions of them haven't they. All it takes is a few shiny pieces of gold and silver or their equivalent and that's easy. The horizons, camaraderie, wonder, and adventure of the next real experience cannot be compared to sitting at home watching the Discovery channel. But if that's what floats their boat, it's OK with me. I won't try to impose my choices on them, and expect them to not try to impose theirs on me. On the road we get almost 100% genuine kudos from the folks we meet saying they wish they could be doing the same thing. They have the same dream for someday, we are living the dream now! Safe travels On edit: I cross-trained from Medic and Med Lab technologist to Combat arms, training all our base personnel on pistols, shotguns, rifles, lt squad and heavy Machine guns, Shoulder fired rockets, grenade launchers and grenade machine guns like the Mk 19. And we fixed them when they broke, designed and maintained our indoor and outdoor range complexes. I came from a college educated family and military and even went to kindergarten and first grade in Spanish, when we lived in Colombia for two years. I speak German OK, Spanish fluently, some French, Arabic (Farsi) and several others. So from knowing the chemistry and blood work, physical symptoms, sewing folks up and doing ER work, my vocabulary was pretty wide and diverse. Well the gun guys were a bit put off and after I'd been in the field for six months one of my guys, (I was a SSgt. In four years) asked me if I went home every night and looked up big words to use. ?? I thought about after I realized he was serious. I didn't play superiority games and explained it to him like this. I told him the way I speak is my natural speech. And if I use a word he didn't know just ask, and soon you'll have folks asking if you go home to look up "big words." But I told him, if I looked down on him, and thought him less than me, I would be using small words which would make me patronizing and shallow. Then I would be looking down. In friendship we're all equals. I got a lot of that once my folks in a new unit got to know I was sincere. I do believe as Flaubert put it, in "Le mot just." The perfect word. I don't talk down to, or up to folks. And certainly am not ashamed nor feel the least bit apologetic for my education and experiences to any limited resource thinker. If they have a problem, THEY have the problem, and it isn't my job to fix or teach the world, unless asked like in the vocabulary example above. But it is to be kind, yet live by my honor code, "We will not lie cheat or steal, nor tolerate among us, anyone who does." I expect folks to be nice, and people always will live up to, or down to, our expectations. (Just don't tell the asylum you saw me here)

Amen Barb. It's scary how many are one paycheck away from homeless in the deep south. And the rest still need to work. A manager of a General store here like Fred's has no benefits and works for about ten bucks an hour! One friend is a diabetic with no money for insulin. The lower middle class are calving off like the glaciers up north fall down in large blocks.

I posted this after escapees would not let me connect because I had not cleared my browser cache. I just shut down the browser and ran CCleaner and in a few seconds opened my browser and am posting fine. Amazon and Google do not like us not giving up our browsing history. BTW, did you see this? FCC chairman applauds Congress for not reinstating net neutrality https://thehill.com/policy/technology/423533-fcc-chair-applauds-congress-for-not-reinstating-net-neutrality

I have never had defender delete anything, but I do not run Linux on any of my computers as my main OS live drive or installed. So that may be it. Nord VPN goes on our two Android phones, Fire TV devices (we have four). possible our Android TVs ( 3 smart), Fire tablets (5), our computers (four desktops including the two All in Ones, one mini PC and one HP Tower) three Windows 10 tablets. Since it can go on so many devices that are on without many realizing it, I will have to do some tests and careful installs. I will likely make them all Off until I manually connect the VPN as I do on our computers now. I've only had it since 18 December 2018 so my thirty days refund will be up ~ 16 January. I'm already understanding most of it but some I never used before are foreign and I won't need or use them but I'd like to learn them anyway like P2P and double VPN. I believe my ISP was throttling me as my VPN made my systems faster by far, very noticeably. When I get the security issues is when I turn it on in mid use and did npt clear my browser cache. I've found I just need to clear cache and the security questions stop. I believe the cookies show two access points far enough away from each other that it would not be physically possible for me to zip between here and northern California or some such place. I found that happens when I turn the VPN on while the browser is open, and then try to go to another page on the same site I was just on in Louisiana. Be glad they keep our accounts secure.

Death risk? Here's the skinny, yes you will die. We lived ultra conservatively and had all kinds of irons in the fire. We haven't changed that much because we have already done our bucket lists except for going to the Orient, and Australia. So we will pursue those after we move. But I still love the fun of finding the low mileage car for half value or house at a steal price. Thus we waited until winter to buy the house and then my wife will go there to do her decorating and nesting, and I come back here to sell this property in spring/summer when people are moving. And with economy worries and interest rates uncertain it will be more of a buyer's market for us. I agree totally Rich. We snorkled until the last kiddo left when I was 43 and then we could afford it and got PADI certified and dove the Red Sea off Hurghada Egypt for a week in 1996. We did ski with them however. We love to visit and be visited by the kids and grandkids but we don't baby sit as our parents didn't for us either or theirs for them as we were all military. And we will be an hour and a half from them when we move but only because we like Colorado Springs much more than Denver. I'd prefer Meeker with fiber Internet 1GB for 70 bucks and less expensive houses but she who must be obeyed wants shopping and big box stores as well as bases nearby. Oh well. The Springs is a good compromise for us both. We didn't need to take SS early, so no loss if we do live a longer time. But if we die tomorrow a MUCH BETTER bet, we got at least some of our money back. No we are not in ill health but have smoked, drank, and been exposed to pollution and chemicals as well as asbestos our whole lives. They also have legal assisted suicide in Colorado. We just hospiced her two parents with cancers and dementia. I'm NOT going there. I will enjoy life until I can't. Or not. I like having all the options, I can change my mind then if I have those issues.

Excerpt: "Summary Aurora Cannabis will dominate the cannabis sector in production and sales growth in 2019. What the market is looking for in the first half. Why I don't care about earnings and dilution -- for now. Who should take a position in Aurora. Aurora Cannabis (ACB) ended 2018 on a tough note, primarily because of the broader market correction and its timing in connection to Aurora being listed on the NYSE. That took the steam out of its strong momentum, and its share price rapidly declined. Looking at what's ahead for Aurora for 2019, I think it's going to be a tremendous year for the company, as it confirms its production capacity and accompanying revenue are the real deal. We'll look specifically at Aurora's dominating production and revenue growth in 2019, what the market is looking for, and what type of investors should take a position in the cannabis producer for the long haul. While that's what we will primarily look at in this article, it's also important to note that I see Aurora as a long-term holding now. Those willing to go through the inevitable volatility that comes with an emerging industry, will be rewarded strongly in the years ahead." I believe this is my next big return small initial investment like Tesla was for me. Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4231266-aurora-cannabis-will-major-breakout-story-2019

Sehc, got a link to your source?

Roger, I would not run today without VPN, Malwarebytes, and Windows defender. Opera has a free VPN built into the browser, but I had issues with Opera a few years ago and looked last week at their forums and it looks like they are still having leftovers after uninstalling causing some issues. But my Nord VPN is so easy I think I'll keep it. $2.99 a month when I bought three years paid up front. Just over $100.00. I can load it on all my 11 tablets, four desktops, two android phones and even on my TV. The number of devices I load it on is unlimited, but at any given time only six can be used at the same time. https://nordvpn.com/offer/brand/?msclkid=349a8c9e457b184e985cd0b16074c96e&amp;utm_source=bing&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=Search - USA - New - Brand - En - Cpc&amp;utm_term=nordvpn&amp;utm_content=USA - Brand Here's a link to their features explained: https://nordvpn.com/features/ I've enabled Cybersec and play with double VPN. But honestly, it's very simple and automatic once you learn how to click on the country you want to be seen from.

Hey 4X4, One size does fit all, of that one size. Welcome to the forums. We have been lucky in surviving to retire from the military and being tech savvy enough to have bought Tesla at 2010 IPO and sold recently to buy a house, cash, and then I can take my time selling this house which is paid for. That because I was offered a percentage of newish company selling and designing/siting post frame steel buildings with slabs. From 2005-2009 I was making very good compensation and my then house was paid for. So we were buying when everyone else was selling losing. The market is cyclic and can't be timed. All we can do is buy low and sell high. It does not need to be bought at the lowest, nor sold at the highest, but close enough. Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and yes, investing. The worst that can happen is you have to wait a five or ten year cycle to see it come back up, or back down to buy or sell appropriately. We both took our paid in Social security at 62, and since we are military retired we already have income and medical set. I made financial decisions like I was going to die younger and take care of my family at every step.

Thanks for bringing up index funds Randy! And thanks for adding your own reviews of index funds from experience. We can't afford any more capital gains for 2018 but starting tomorrow we are going to look at moving some or all of our funds into index funds. Now here is where we will sound like we are claiming to be able to time the market. You see now is when I will be looking for a very high balance of our funds at which time we will cash them out and then when the market is way down buy some or all index funds. NO big strategizing, just an attention to whichever indexes I decide to track. Folks who swear by financial managers who then in turn buy mutual funds are paying lots of extra costs for less in returns even if only the management fees of the mutual fund and then on top the Financial manager profits. Because this is a financial forum, I looked up a good definition of index funds for others who, like me, are less familiar with them: https://www.moneycrashers.com/index-funds-vs-mutual-funds/ Do you guys agree with that article? Thanks again for your input. My past main investments have been on vehicles, real property, and businesses I did part time on weekends and evenings when I was active duty and a very lucrative four almost five years building steel buildings as a managing partner 2004-2009. Believe it or not folks with discretionary funds here used their cash to buy buildings as a better bet post 2008 with terrible interest rates of ~ .5 percent for savings accounts and maybe .75-1% for some money market and savings. The increase in property values have proven out since.

Good for you!

With all the market uncertainty the question is relevant again. Are you still in? I liquidated for a house not fear and at almost the highs for 2018. I am in the new Marijuana industry for a smaller piece of the market than before. I think the market will be so volatile in 2019 it will make Tesla stock look stable by comparison. How do you feel about the coming year?

I can wait long as long as I want. But I haven't sold low yet. I buy with my vision of the long term prospects of a company and its leadership. That's all I can assess, not the future. That's good enough for me . . . for now.

Me too, but I have to move first.

I'm sorry you took a loss. We're on the way to a bear market long term but there may be several repeats of the last week. I was tempted to buy during the market's slips last week but I'm looking for good buys when the real recession hits, like when I bought in 2008, and again in 2010 when Tesla did their IPO. I just sold at $348 couple of months ago just to not get sucked into a long low cycle due to shorts when I need ready cash to buy our new house. I was down about $11k out of 5000 shares of ACB and NBEV stays about twice what I paid. But these are just long positions I feel confident will grow into serious profits like Tesla did in eight year holding it. I'm looking for them to be making that serious money in from a year to five years. I just took about 1/7th of what I made from Tesla and the pot stocks are not savings or our retirement. It is, like when I bought $25k of TSLA in 2010, discretionary funds. If I lose it all it won't cause our lifestyle to change at all. But U am not a fool, I expect to make money. But don't want anyone to do as I do. I could lose these two plays. So I'll see how they do over time. No I wasn't aiming that question at you because the last you said was you were doing a stop loss. The best opportunities are clear to see when everyone around me is yelling the sky is falling! I get emotional about bad information when the facts are available. Good luck with your next play/s!

I hope no one sold at a loss before the pendulum swung back.

Oh man sorry for everyone taking this beating. I'm only in for the NBEV and Aurora marijuana sector stocks. Once I get to Colorado, I can look into some of the startups personally. I'm still doing OK. I am up on NBEV, and down a little on Aurora as of today. Like I said with Tesla, I will re-evaluate my positions in a year or three. I am glad my retirement isn't tied to the market.

Hey jobless, welcome to the forums. I'm pleased to meet you. Sorry about the circumstances. I'm not optimistic except for the niche industry I'm in now. I don't have a crystal ball either.

Ryno, Hindsight is always 20-20. No one can time the market, no one has a crystal ball. My investments were just being informed and seeing where things will go. I did a "14 bagger" with Tesla, and now am up 100% on NBEV, and down a little on ACB. But as I told a local friend I expect ACB to take off in the next year or three. So it's a long hold. I am also benefiting from great timing in buying a new home in Colorado. I wanted to buy in winter when its more a buyer's market. But this market uncertainty may also drop the housing market as the fed is increasing prime rates and that making loans more costly and perhaps harder to get. Cash in this market means the advantage in buying a house. Then I'll stay down here to take my time getting the best price in spring for our current house. No smarts, just right place, right time.

Ryno, Good thinking. I need to do stop losses on my two mj stocks. But as I said in the OP above: "As well I read another guru who said that just before every major recession depression there was a corresponding spike in the last few months to year before they fell. I had to get out to buy my new house but will have to sell the old one once we move so that may be interesting if we do have a major correction to the world markets." So I believe there will be some big gains and a lot of volatility in this next year, and the real decline at the end. Like when I held Tesla long through eight years of volatility, I'll sell high, when the time is right. There's big money to be made in the next 11 months.

We all know the markets cannot be Bull markets forever. I am still in with some MJ but the bulk of my investments are out of the markets now. I don't feel impending doom because we have been and remain cash only no debt, house cars the works. This is a relatively short article but makes some good points. As well I read another guru who said that just before every major recession depression there was a corresponding spike in the last few months to year before they fell. I had to get out to buy my new house but will have to sell the old one once we move so that may be interesting if we do have a major correction to the world markets. Excerpt: "For moneyed Americans, most of the past year has felt like 1929 all over again — the fun, bathtub-gin-quaffing, rich-white-people-doing-the-Charleston early part of 1929, not the grim couple of months after the stock market crashed. After a decade-long stock market party, which saw the stocks of the S. & P. 500 index create some $17 trillion in new wealth, the rich indulged in $1,210 cocktails at the Four Seasons hotel’s Ty Bar in New York, in $325,000 Rolls-Royce Cullinan sport-utility vehicles in S.U.V.-loving Houston and in nine-figure crash pads like Aaron Spelling’s 56,000-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles (currently on the market for $175 million, more than double what it fetched just five years ago). Will it last? Who knows. But in recent months, the anxiety that we could be in for a replay of 1929 — or 1987, or 2000, or 2008 — has become palpable not just for the Aspen set, but for any American with a 401(k). Overall, stocks are down 1.5 percent this year, after hitting dizzying heights in early October. Hedge funds are having their worst year since the 2008 crisis. And household debt recently hit another record high of $13.5 trillion — up $837 billion from the previous peak, which preceded the Great Recession. After a decade of low interest rates that fueled a massive run-up in stocks, real estate and other assets, financial Cassandras are not hard to find. Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire investor, recently posited that we are likely in a “global debt bubble,” and Jim Rogers, the influential fund manager and commentator, has forewarned of a crash that will be “the biggest in my lifetime” (he is 76). What might prove the pinprick to the “everything bubble,” as doomers like to call it? Could be anything. Could be nothing. Only time will tell if the everything bubble is a bubble at all. But, just a decade after the last financial crisis, here are five popular doom-and-gloom scenarios." To find out read the whole article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/style/2019-financial-crisis.html?utm_medium=10today.ad1.20181213.421.2&amp;utm_source=email&amp;utm_content=article&amp;utm_campaign=10-for-today---4.0-styling

Yep!

I have some OTA channels that are digital but SD 480. They sure look fuzzy for the first 30 seconds but once I get into "The Honeymooners" or "The Real McCoys" I stop seeing the blur and enjoy the show. Yes I enjoy 4k for SFX, and have state of the art in my main home theater. But given a choice between 720 p and nothing or just a few local OTA channels 720 is pretty HD for me too. They look great from more than 12" away. Sure there are advantages to tech and resolution /speed increases. But let's not look a gift horse . . . Remember it was just a few years back that instead of streaming Sling TV there were no wireless or wired consistent TV stations except for satellite from an RV if the trees weren't too thick, or a mountain in the way in the great white north. 5g is coming soon too. We are living in the best time for TV and movies in an RV. Or a stix n brix. Most 4k TVs upscale 720 if you have a 4k TV, or 4k BluRay player. SD does not upscale well. So if you have a 4k upscaling TV with a decent upscaling engine like Vizio and TCL top TVs I am glad to see that the cable bundlers are getting competition from cell phones now too. Cells rarely go out because of rain or mountains just a lack of towers. We all may be doing cell like satellite services through cell like phones and repeaters. You go guys!

Th Cherie, That's good info. I just called to confirm and indeed it does have unlimited hotspot @ 600 kbps and standard definition on my phone which is the only device I have with cellular access. For us, with 200/20Mbps asynchronous unlimited cable Internet service, we use virtually no data to watch streaming of TV/movie/entertainment programming/music, maybe a few times a month or less. But since I do keep the ability to hotspot albeit sloooooowly with this plan, and it costs so little compared to others with the $20 a month permanent family discount they gave us when we switched to the prepaid plan ($102.00 after taxes etc. for my unlimited and Lynn's 3GB service.) But as said earlier with no contract they are not locked into it, however I think the loss of customers for them taking away or charging more will keep it close for the foreseeable future. Soon we will be moving to an area with $70 GB Internet subsidized by the state for installation of fiber and set up. They sell lower speeds. However with 5G soon to happen starting with Verizon I believe, we are looking for the best deal on the Moto Z3 or Z3 PLay phones. THey will convert to 5G with a Moto Mod. We have first Gen Moto Z play Droid phones now. But only the Z3 will be compatible with our battery, projector, JBL speaker and Hasselblad camera mods we already have All the Moto Mods. So by upgrading cash to the z3 we keep our plan, our Mods, and will be ready for 5g with Motorola sets. Look here: 5g Moto Mod The definition of streaming on our phones is fine as it is and looks like HD, but on a big screen or bigger, like a tablet or casting to a TV, I I would need 720p at a minimum. At home we have 4K Fire TVs with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. However for our upscaling 4k BlueRay player we connect with an HDMI 2.1 cable. The rest are 2.0 HDMI. So regardless of the signal resolution most are OK with HDMI 2.0 cables. Here is a chart with the different designations and cables: HDMI ad HDCP Charts Also bear in mind I have the mini projector for evening screenings, as although watchable in daylight, it is great with the lights down low. And a 19" folio screen for the RV. I have our phones set for WiFi and thus use little mobile data. We are just playing with it should 5g turn out to be a cable/fiber substitute, at the same or lower pricing.

Sorry guy I was sharing the 65 dollar plan prepaid unlimited not the Jetpack plan. I usually stay away from the jetpack hotspot discussions because the AT&T device was a fiasco for us.Everything is the same for phones as the plan we have which required us to switch from postpaid to prepaid. My links above state that the caps are as you stated. Some folks believe that they get 1080 or 720p HD on phones others understand it is different depending on device. I see no difference in this plan for a "phone only" unlimited user and the one I switched to in August. My apology. Thanks for clearing that up.