Randyretired

Certainly ones financial situation has an impact on one's risk tolerance. Those with pensions and other secure income are in a better position to gamble some if they want. Especially if they don't have many bills. I don't know how much money the experts say we should have and I don't really care. We have enough to live our relatively simple life and may have enough in the future. If we wanted to live in New York or Sacramento it might take more but we don't. Still ones own tolerance is important. I have friend that had a decent retirement and SS and some savings that stretched into 6 figures. An advisor talked her into investing in some mutual funds. Right after she invested the market tanked. She sold everything at nearly the lowest point and cussed that advisor. She was very upset.

2 more things I would like to add to my first response. 1 If all things are equal I try to hold investments for a year or more for tax purposes. Capital gains taxes are less than short term gains. I also try to avoid investments that can bring suprise taxable gains or losses so I can plan my taxes. 2 I have never felt my age should determine investment strategy. One time I visited an advisor that started the session with at your age you should... I excused myself and left. My investments are relatively simple and I direct our investments accordingly to our preferences and risk tolerance. We are fine with pulling back during rough times.

That is a pretty good price. I paid considerably more and the dc clamp function is what I use a lot . For solar and and more the ac/dc clamp meters are very useful.

Everyone has their own risk tolerance. I think it is important to evaluate where one stands and invest accordingly. If ones tolerance is low besides not sleeping well rash decisions can compound problems. Right now most bonds and money markets which are pretty safe are not likely to keep up with inflation and add some taxes and yikes. However, when you want your money it is VERY likely to be there. As the risks go up the potential for more favorable returns follow. At this time I have very few safe investments except for money I will need in the next year or 2. On the other hand I tend not to own single stocks but funds, mutual or ETF that spreads our investments. My preference is index funds. My primary fund is an S&P 500 fund and I have others. This is just what suits me but others are different.

I did a similar thing in the garage we have now. All of the garage slopes to the outside doors except the work area is flat and at the highest point. To accomplish a seal of sorts in our new house I plan to use treated wall sills and caulk and glue these to the floor. I will also caulk and seal the base of the door into the house. The wall protrusions for electric and any plumbing will also be sealed. In fact every protrusion in the house walls will be sealed. For instance where wire enters an electrical box it will be sealed and any additional opening will be sealed. After drywall the boxes will be sealed to the drywall. I don't want garage fumes or water to enter the house and I don't want air to freely move in the walls. Air sealing like this is becoming a way to save energy and use the insulation to its fullest. Since heat rises if there are holes that allow air movement in walls the insulation becomes more of an airfilter than insulation. Then a heat recovery system will change the inside air at a determined rate and filter the air.. All of this is to try to say whoever built your building was thinking and I am going to try to accomplish the same thing in a different way. Hopefully it will seal the house as well. Sure hope it works because the hot water heater along with a 1,100 hot water solar tank will be in the garage. If (maybe when) one of these fails I hope to keep the water confined to the garage. Thank you for the post. It helps me try and be prepared for things. As an amateur it is hard for me to think of all of these things.

I believe in cutting to try to keep small cracks in the cuts⁹. In the garage I will have it cut in 10' squares. In the house I plan on 3' squares at 45 to the walls. It is quick and not very expensive. They usually do it 24 hours or so after pour. The larger the area the more it helps. I am also a believer in rebar.

I agree on the no steps and our new house will not have any. The garage through the house is all one level. In the garage where there are 16' walls there will be a small 2nd story storage area and I will build a lift for that. Our current house has stairs everywhere. Cutting the concrete and staining will save a lot over tile. I will probably grout the cuts to make a nearly flat floor. Our current house has a lot of tile and I don't want to even try that again. It was difficult many years ago.

I agree spray foam might just be the best but pricey. We are building post and beam and the cavity will hold R30 so that is what we plan on. In-floor heat and probably saw cut a tile look and stain the concrete. We have ICF for the foundation on structural fill and a drain. With the garage area and the house it took about 2,000,000 pounds of structural fill under the concrete to meet the engineers specs. I put additional pex tubing in the structural fill. There is 4" of EPS foam under the house and 2" under the garage. Our hope is to pour the concrete next spring and a builder will frame in and finish the outside and I will take it from there. I plan on subbing the drywall. The garage is big enough for the HDT and 5th wheel a couple of cars and a work area. It will also be conditioned space. The house is modest in size. As comfortable as we are in the 5th wheel, I wonder why I am build the house instead of just a garage.

Around here spray foam insulation can get expensive. Another concern is using the appropriate vapor barriers for your area.

Or you can get real fancy a put them at a 45. Your choice. My DW would have a lot of input if I were to make that choice.

The minimal cost of adding some extra support would lead me to do it and not worry about it. I think supports spaced at 2.5 ft. would be my choice. Wood may warp over time and that would look pretty funky.

The policies we bought were cheap and didn't have the inflation rider. I guess you get what you pay for.

We both purchased long term care policies about 35 or 40 years ago. These policies covered most of the expenses back then. Today those policies might cover 20% of the cost.

What to do with IRA and like funds for tax considerations is confusing to me. Additionally if you pass that money on it can be confusing for them as well. Most of our funds are not in traditional retirement accounts but that has it's own problems. We have been invested in some of the index funds long enough that if we wanted to change, sell and reinvest, the taxes would be substantial. Luckily we are happy with these funds so we just draw what we need and the taxes are long term gains so a little less tax now. I haven't really looked at the differences of a Roth versus a traditional retirement account but if I were to be investing today I think at least part of those investments would be in a Roth IRA. Roth accounts would be much easier to manage and if any is passed on these are less problematic. And of course there is some tax advantages. Some even find it advantageous to convert a traditional account to a Roth.

I agree purchasing a home is usually a good investment and the rising prices we have seen kinda confirms that. In many cases home values have risen 20% or more in the last year. Some financial advisors disagree but I still think it is a good financial decision. Certainly people as handy a you can keep expenses low while gaining equity. I also kept some money aside for speculative investments in past years but now I don't do much of that. Index funds with low expenses have become my main stock market investing. I bought some of the funds years ago mostly just watch them and I don't use an advisor. The funds have gained more than 20% this year. This year everybody looks good! We have also increased our spending some but the funds are still increasing faster than we can spend it. At least on paper. There is always the next downturn but we just ride it out. Our real-estate investments are mostly land that we use for pleasure and we like a lot of elbow room. Our new house that I am slowly working on is in the middle of 140 acres and has public land adjoining. We also have some Colorado Valley land and some AZ rock for a winter escape. For medical reasons we typically need some doctor continuity so we only travel out of these 3 areas for short trips.

I also wish I had gone with a larger battery bank but we will probably just live with what we have.

My only regret is I wish I had done it earlier. Our lithium is diy so no guarantees but so far so good.

The difference in charging lead acid and lithium batteries is dramatic. Lithium and solar work so much better together. It is like adding another solar panel. All of those wasted hours at the end of charging are nearly eliminated and with large solar arrays the controllers won't need to throttle much at all. At our property we add a ground mount array for a total of 3,700 watts. On a sunny, summer day our 800ah @ 12v batteries go from 20% to 100% SOC a good bit before noon even with some things running. The higher operating voltage of lithium batteries also adds to the total power available.

As many others have said well diversified index funds. With the market gains this year the returns have been pretty good. There are index ETF's also. We have some real-estate that has seen some nice gains. However, all these paper gains don't count until you sell and anything can happen. Still it's been a good looking year. In the past I have tried a lot of things from options to stock and managed mutual funds but index funds have been the most consistent and overtime provided us the best returns. Since index funds rarely trade it is easier to do tax planning too.

To accomplish a feat of this magnitude it is advisable to determine what needs to happen and then a comprehensive plan to actually do it. I haven't seen either to the degree that most experts say is necessary. So can it be done? Certainly but when?

I am about the same age as Glenn and I am building our new home. About now I am questioning my sanity. I have built a couple of other homes when I was younger but things are much more difficult now. I am going to hire some more help to see this through.

I didn't spend a lot of time on the web site but it looks doable. Would you then use trusses for the roof?

13.3v is 40 to 90% SOC on these batteries. There is no need to go higher in most cases. 13.4 is up to 99% SOC

One might want to look up the charging profiles of a lithium battery. Because they have little internal resistance these batteries charge at very high rates until charged. This charging is very different than lead acid. If I were to even consider what you are thinking about I would NOT purchase the lithium addition for the converter. First it charges to 14.7v. None of the batteries you are looking at are rated for that voltage. Lithium batteries do not need to be charged 100%. 13.5 to 13.6v is a fully charged battery and unlike lead acid given time the battery will reach that voltage even if without a higher voltage charge.

There is a note that seems pretty important in this case but this is your choice. I am only giving you my opinion. My experience with LifeP04 batteries makes me wonder why these charging parameters are offered on this converter but that is another story.