All Forum Posts by: David C.

@Paul S. its part shade so some black/dark green stuff grows on it, the powerwasher takes it right off.  We did a 'light tan color' it may have faded a little but I can't really tell you for sure.  I'd guess fading would be more pronounced with a darker color?

I have Evergrain? or something like that - been in 5 years, looks good.

It has 'cupped' - the installers did not gap the boards, so when they expand, the pressure makes them cup.

I've heard/read that you need  your supports closer together for composite decking, 12" vs. 18" ?  so if you are re-decking an existing deck - that could be a problem?  but maybe some brands avoid that or the tech has improved in the past 5 years?

I caught my contractors buidling a railing out of it with the posts 8 feet apart.  The instructions said no railing spans over 5 feet, so I had them add another post in the middle giving me two four foot sections of railing.  That would have been about 12 feet off the ground too.

@Scott Trench 

I also like the idea that 'using a deductible 401k allows me to avoid taxes and grow my net worth faster' - but I think we are both buying into a little 'funny accounting'.

And I think @Walt Payne will really agree with this one!

If we avoid piles of taxes now, and build up a 1,000,000 tax-deferred 401k, and someone else pays their taxes now and uses a Roth, and builds up a 1,000,000 Roth - their million is bigger than our million - because we must pay taxes to access ours.

Now - assuming identical returns, it will take them 'more money' to build their Million Dollar Roth, because to make the same contributions, they must also pay taxes.  But!  as we pat ourselves on the back for getting to a Million using tax-deferral, they are shaking their heads saying: you don't really have a million if you can't use it without giving a chunk to Uncle Sam.

Of course this applies in many areas.  Two guys who both own 1,000,000 in real estate could be in much different financial positions, if one has fully depreciated his, then when he sells, he must pay taxes on every penny, while another guy who owns 1,000,000 in real estate may only have depreciated 10,000 of it, so he could sell out with a much lower tax bill.

Net Worth is a tricky calculation if you start trying to account for future taxes - so everyone I know closes their eyes and ignores it - and it makes the tax deferral people like us feel like we are really knocking it out of the park.

@Scott Trench with liberal 401k rules for the self employed and those over 50?(55?) - A 401k can really suck up tons of your income.

Owning my own company with my wife as an employee, we could legally put over $80,000 per year into a 401k.  It may even be higher now.  I know we actually pulled of a $77,000 year a while back when we both had busy years.

The active real estate investors here cringe at that amount of money being dumped into index funds and not being available for down payments, etc... where they may likely produce much higher returns.

With that much piling into a 401k, the Roth vs. Traditional gets squirrely as well.

@Kendall T. we won a bicycle for $5 at a charity auction once, I'm sure that was a blessing from God.

@Kendall T. well wow, if its a blessing from God you are nuts to even think of selling it.

We won our Mustang in the minor den of sin: Atlantic City casino on our way to sin city Las Vegas.  Long story why AC is 'on the way to Vegas' :)

@Kendall T. if it wasn't for good luck, we'd have no luck at all!

Also, if you sell it, you lose the story!  I love telling our 'won a Mustang story'.

In that case, I'd say enjoy it.

We were not in the market for a Mustang GT Convertible when we won it way back in 2003, we still have it and just hit 40,000 miles.  Its like the fountain of youth, you get in that thing and feel 25 again.

But dude, he's like really sick man.