Barbaraok

Think you might want to check. This is from the Motor Vehicle Registration Manual: "A multi-year registration renewal option for 24 or 36 months was previously available for most vehicle types in IVTRS; however, in preparation for the combined registration and inspection sticker, online renewals are now only available for 12 month periods." Barb

But what good is that to those with Motorhomes and toads, often they have different registration dates. Barb

I'm glad you think that there is time between opening session of the legislature in January '15 and effective date of 3/1/15 - - but given the past history of the legislature and the fact that most bills don't get acted upon until late May or into June of the session, I don't share your optimism. Our car registration comes due in April of each year, so while we will have more time with the motorhome, not so with the car. Barb

Thanks for the information as you have a lot of concerned people who would be negatively impacted by this. Also I hope that before the next legislative session some way of monitoring what is being introduced that will effect Escapee members can be implemented. Imagine what Escapee members could have done in the way of emails, phone calls, etc. if we had been alerted when the bill was introduced. Barb

Linda, For those of us on Medicare, moving isn't the big problem it will be for people who need health insurance. Barb

I would agree except that it appears from the reply I got from Escapees office was that they didn't know about it. There was no handling behind the scenes that I can see and it appears that the state senator and state representative for the Polk county area also had no idea what was going on. Barb

Kirk, One of the selling points for Escapees has been that they are working to make sure RVers in Texas are treated fairly. I only found out about this through a link to the HDT section a couple of weeks ago - - I don't monitor legislative action in Texas during the legislative session. That is what Escapees headquarters should have been doing if they want to keep customers. I reported it to the office as soon as I found the link to the legislation, and they hadn't heard about it. Again, one of their selling points was that they were on top of things relative to RVers - clearly that is no longer true! Barb

The law was signed by the governor in June of 2013. Introduced some 2-3 months earlier. The email I received from Escapees headquarters on January 27th thanked me for bringing it to their attention. Obviously no one was monitoring last legislative session. Barb

My question is how did Escapees miss this so completely? Don't they monitor legislative action anymore - members have to do it for them? Barb

Enough so that there are two precincts for Escapees. Barb

I would bet that a lot of people will be moving to SD or some other state and Escapees will lose a lot of business. Barb

We hit the required minimum distributions next year. Question will be whether to do lump sum or spread it out during the year. Has anyone started doing that and which way do you do it? Barb

Derek, I wasn't referring to you. Barb

Apparently someone wants to make this into a political discussion. Out of here. Barb

Derek, Great posts above. Barb

That's one of the funds we're looking at - we've been with Vanguard since the mid 80s. Barb

In answer to the original question - yes, we are still in. In fact we never completely got out. Has been an interesting few years. Now the questions is when to shift and what to shift into. We're starting to approach the age when we will have to do minimum distributions. Barb

I was just saying you missed some great gains during the past 4 years by having so little in stocks. If you are happy with your gains, great. Barb

So you missed a lot of the great momentum forward by not being in more during 2009? And by having so little in stock funds means that you've missed some good gains the past 4 years. Barb

Probably will see a lot of people taking capital gains (like Apple stock) in the next week - in anticipation of a rise in the CG rates next year. Also, a lot of companies (like Wal-Mart) are paying dividends this month, again in anticipation of dividend rates going up next year. Plus mix in the fear of the fiscal curb and it should be an interesting week to watch. Barb

Derek, I'm now starting to think about moving some funds into less volatile funds because there will be a correction, we just don't know when. Trying to hit the exact time isn't something I'm good at. Barb

But how much better would it have been for them to get some help so they didn't have to go it alone!

Bob, Yes, in each of the conflicts you mentioned, men came back with different types of problems that wedidn't understand as we do today. My dad (WWII) had horrible nightmares, he was back on the ship and could see periscopes in front of them. We knew not to touch dad when he was sleeping, he came awake 'swinging'. The nightmares lowly lessened, but it wasn't until I was in college that he really began talking about what he had seen. My BIL was wounded in VietNam and had horrible nightmares for years. How dare you complain that they are 'whining'. Most go on with their lives and have had to work it out without help. I wish my dad could have had some help so that he wouldn't have had to go through the nightmares, etc. Barb

Jack, We also have stayed in - - in fact we never got out. Added more as the opportunity presented itself. Barb

Selling should have been done when the Dow hit about 12500. Now is the time to look for bargains and judge when to put a little back in, or just sit on the sidelines. Barb