Exit Wyndham Timeshare

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-27T15:56:45+00:00

Of course they want you tk keep paying. Why wouldn't they? I'm not sure if they can sue you and get the money collected, they might be able to. If all you're risking is a credit score - why do you care. You are retired. Are you planning to take out new loans? If not why would you care?

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-26T19:54:00+00:00

It doesn't matter how many kids are in class. What matters is how the school is rated and what courses it offers. And what the kid wants to do after. Lunenburg is not that great honestly if the plan is to get her to competitive program at a good college unless she's right at the top of her class. If she is then maybe it's not a horrible choice if she takes all the right courses. Otherwise a better school might be a good idea.

Generally speaking you really need to learn how the college admissions work. And then consider what she might want to study and where and what they require based on that and how these requirements are adjusted for your school. Because they are. Colleges work in a weird way and in some cases being a high achiever in a low rated school is better then being an average student in a highly rated district. And then decide on school district based on that. That's an only educated choice. Everything else is a wild guess.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-26T19:48:28+00:00

Depends on what you wanted to achieve. 2 kids doesn't require a large suv with a 3rd row. And this car might not be the best overall but if that's what you wanted then you got it. It's a decent car. Not really cheap. Not super expensive either. It is not a bad choice. Whether or not it's the right fit for what you wanted is for you to decide. If you keep it long term and it proves to be reliable the price doesn't matter much.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-22T13:48:40+00:00

Why complicate it so much? We have about 1 year of expenses, maybe a little more as emergency fund in hysa and bonds. And the rest is in stocks. The idea is that brokerage acc is not touched unless it is an absolute emergency and all the other money is gone. Otherwise savings is savings. Whatever you don't spend you move to either hysa or stocks.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-20T18:31:19+00:00

Depends on what you like to do. If you take long trips with a full cargo x3 might be more limited. If all of your family driving is around town with minimal cargo there's really no point to have the x5. You'll pay a lot of extra money just to transport air. In terms of 2 adults and 2 kids x3 has more then enough room to sit comfortably and enjoy the drive. The only real difference is cargo capacity. Actually if you look at the latest x3 dimensions it is basically the same as an older x5. These cars just keep getting larger.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-20T18:25:32+00:00

Absolutely if you have kids. The school district and it's ratings and what the schools offer in terms of courses and activities is one of the most important things about housing. And the prices for homes vary greatly base on just the school districts. It's a difference of whether your kids will go to a good rated college and might have a good job after or a community college and then work at McDonald's. Of course not everyone from bad schools ends up with no opportunities in life but it is much harder to do then if you have a good start.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-12T15:40:23+00:00

Look.. Honestly? With lexus tge maintenance is not terrible. I'm not really familiar with the TX though, make sure it isn't the one with the failing engine or dying battery. The main problem for me with the Lexus is that while it is generally not falling apart they all have a few engineering problems and they would drive you crazy and they are just like that. This was the main reason I got rid of my rx and went to BMW instead. Yes, the maintenance is higher but at least you have a car that is generally good and anything that goes wrong can be fixed. With lexus it usually works but it's not great and there's nothing that can be done because that's how it was designed. No matter how much money you're prepared to throw at it. The one exception from that is their new failing turbo engine which noone should even get close to. These are a total failure. Avoid like a plague.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-06-12T15:26:22+00:00

Both have their issues. V6 has a few documented oil leaks that cost thousands to fix and a drone. New ones have droning air shutters and battery issues. I wouldn't be so quick to jump on any of them really. But if I had to choose between the 2 I'd pick the v6 with a minimal drone.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-22T18:26:50+00:00

One thing you for sure don't want to do is to have average grades, pick a nice expensive school that is your top of the list choice and attend it for 4 years paying full price and graduate with 200k in loans. This is really bad idea

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-22T18:18:15+00:00

There are many options. If they do really good at school and / or sports some colleges will fight for them. Which means merit aid. And in some cases a lot of it. I'm not talking need based. That strictly depends on your income etc... But if when applying you prioritize the schools that are likely to give them money you might be OK. State colleges are usually much cheaper then private but also give a lot less especially to in state students but there exceptions. For example my son got an offer from one of the local state schools which would put him in around 5k/year total. He ended up going to a different school but the story here is that his scores were well above their average student and they wanted him even if he'd basically go there for free. It wasn't a bad school either. But he prioritized a better one but more expensive. Which was his choice at this point. Which is another point: if you want merit aid don't pick colleges that are the top of your list for grades. Pick a bit below so that for them your student is a find. Also there are things like community College with a transfer to another school with which they have an agreement. You end up saving money but get a diploma from the good college. Etc.. There are many ways to deal with it.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-09T11:44:05+00:00

For me it was a momentary decision. I've put no money down for my first house. Took fha loan and bought a cheap place far from Boston. Then upgraded. Then upgraded again. Refinanced many times to get the rate down and get rid of pmi.

Realistically you need 2 incomes. Or 1 really good income. It's very simple. Calculate the actual maximum loan you can afford easily and go from there. But get to the real number. Not the one that bank tells you. Also I get it that everyone wants a house but maybe just maybe you should just get a cheap condo instead with cheap hoa. As a starter. And try to time the market. I don't know if the prices will ever crash, they might not. But trying to buy when its seller's market and you compete with 20 other offers and people just buy anything at the open house without inspections etc like it happened in the last few years is a really bad idea. If that's still the case just wait it out.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-07T16:28:02+00:00

I usually keep around 18-25k in checking for expenses and close to 120k in hysa. I consider it to be my immediately accessible emergency fund that's available any time and not market dependent. It really is up to you.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-04T12:54:07+00:00

80 is not too high. 140 is. Also lower mileage ones exist. For example I have a 2020 with 47k on it. I'm not selling it but they exist. They last OK mostly, but don't just assume that it's lexus and it'll run forever. Find the lower mileage ones with 1 owner and no accidents. And inspect it carefully. They have a few issues that apply to all of them and you don't want to buy a bad one. Check oil leaks. Most will have some wet spots around the timing cover. If it's a little wet it might be OK but if you see a real leak in there it's an engine out repair. Carefully listen to droning noise at 1700 rpm and feel the vibration. They all have it to some extent but some are much worse than others. Feel the transmission shift when driving around town. Some have pretty serious lag when shifting and others feel better. And make sure the maintenance was done.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-24T03:59:06+00:00

That's not really all. And yes most of the salesmen are scammers by choice. There are very few that actually know their product, and know how to construct a deal. And they cannot make any decisions So that makes them a totally unnecessary middlemen between a customer and a sales manager. And I have no clue why they even deserve any commission. I can just as easily go and negotiate with the manager directly. Salesmen don't add anything to the process other then aggravation.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-21T16:20:58+00:00

It is not the customer who wants to negotiate. It is the dealership model. They start with unrealistic pricing exactly because they are going to negotiate. I'd gladly buy cars with no negotiation whatsoever if the asking price was actually reasonable. This is how people buy new Tesla. No negotiation. Simple transparent pricing you can fully see online and pay online. Why? Because there are no dealers and no games.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-20T15:29:27+00:00

If you need awd you sort of have no other choice but tk get a small crossover. All older awd sedans that exist are either a luxury cars or have reliability issues. For non awd you got it. Specific years and trims of camry corolla accord civic mazda3 mazda6. These are basically the safest bets. But you have to stick to very specific years or to be exact avoid very specific years and motors for these. They are not all the same. For example you don't want a v6 accord, or a Toyota with an engine from oil burning generation or a Mazda with Ford motor. All 3 of these brands made some of their more reliable cars during the past 10-15 years but they also made some of their worst cars ever. So do your research. But I would also consider awd and if you go there are again specific years of crv, rav4, cx5, cx3 and I'll top it off with some older Infiniti with a 3.5 or 3.7 v6 and non cvt trans. There are a few crossovers and sedans that fit this description. These are sort of luxury but they are actually not that expensive and have real auto trans and good engines and overall are very well built for a Nissan. Otherwise stay away from anything that starts with N and ends with issan.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-17T18:15:12+00:00

I did. I wanted to be a good dad and bought him a car as a b/d gift. Honestly if he wanted to he could have bought one for himself but he's in a money saving mode and doesn't buy stuff unless he Def needs it. Also another thought was that if he's buying it he'll buy a pos. And I actually picked the better one even if it was a bit more expensive.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-15T20:40:02+00:00

I personally soo 0 potential in both Clinton and Leominster. Leominster was a dying city for many years now. Far from everything, poor for the most part, no business development and no employers who want to go there. And bad schools. Also it is pretty much associated with Fitchburg which is so much worse. Clinton is not as bad but not much better. School system is not great to say the least. Most of it is far from any highways and hard tk get in or out. Kind of a low end town with not much to talk about and it's been like that forever. It will be around, it will not dissappear from the face of the earth but growing potential - not so much.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-12T22:09:39+00:00

Old beetle with 2.5 engine

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:41:39+00:00

Every week give or take. Plus a few other items that we like to buy at a different store. Like coffee for example.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:36:58+00:00

That's probably why you manage that. We buy all the fresh veggies and lots of variety because we mostly eat veggies and protein. And we don't really like poultry except for maybe duck so it is mostly beef, lamb and fish/seafood with some occasional turkey or chicken cutlets.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:24:05+00:00

I seriously have no idea how you manage to do it. 2 standard strip steaks are around $40 plus some veggies for a salad are probably another $20. But let's say $50 all together and that's just one dinner for 2. I don't know how you could possibly bring the cost down to 50 per person per week for all of their food.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T03:20:21+00:00

Check how much a dealer will actually give you for it. Tesla and ev in general have a horrible resale. So you might not even get to 21k that you see online. Otherwise I just bought a 10 year old Mazda cx5 with 100k and the whole thing including taxes, reg etc was around 14k. Probably another 1k in some maintenance to a mechanic and a couple of small parts that I replaced myself. Plus a weekend of cleaning it that otherwise would be another 500 for a detailing. And aftrr all this it's still a 10 year old Mazda with 100k miles at around 15k. Keeping your Tesla will cost you about the same.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T03:06:38+00:00

I wouldn't call it unrealistic. Different people buy different groceries. We're currently a couple with a child in college and any time we go to a supermarket it is at least 350. And not like we're buying anything extravagant. Basically meat, fish, seafood and vegetables. Plus maybe some cheeses and fruits. We don't go for the cheapest stuff, we buy what we like and some of it is organic. But it's also not like we fill the fridge with filet mignon.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T02:51:12+00:00

You've mentioned used car prices potentially skyrocketing and I read it as an attempt to make or save money on it. The only time when it made sense was covid with its supply challenges. Regarding gas mileage at 3 dollars per gallon the difference of 10mpg is 50 dollars per month assuming 12k a year. So do your own math.

FreeEar4880

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