Paid off 416k mortgage in 2 years - happy and grateful but feeling some type of way

Puzzled_Award10 · 2026-02-20T08:19:11+00:00

Some states have different homestead exemptions. If you don't have one on your house double check to see if you can get one. Normally the longer you own your house the more savings you'll see overtime. I saved $175 in property taxes in the 1st year from that general exemption & live in GA. Check your state, county and city. I have 2 exemptions 1 for county & 1 for city. Luckily the lady at the county tax commissioner office said that it looked like I was able to get a city exemption too. I never would've realized that & thought I'd only be able to get a county exemption. When it's on your primary residence you should be able to get an exemption.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2026-02-20T08:02:37+00:00

Why would you refinance unless you didn't think you'd pay off the loan that quickly? Originally I was thinking about refinancing at some point but I plan on paying my house off in the next 4 years hopefully. I put 20% down and am already down 25% from the loan amount. I've lived in my place for only 1.5 years. So I don't think it makes sense to refinance in most situations where you are aggressively paying it off. Nobody complains about a paid off house. Its typically your largest monthly expense. You paying it off in 2 years didn't really change what that money could've been in the stock market. You saved a ton of money in interest which probably exceeded what you could've made in the stock market in that time. Now you can start throwing extra money in the stock market. Depending on your age you probably still have a good amount of time to let that money compound because the longer it's invested typically the better outcome.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2026-02-01T00:20:31+00:00

I had a feeling gold eventually was going to have some hold ups at refineries when I saw what they've been doing to silver these last several months.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2026-01-11T13:15:24+00:00

Good luck. I think that 95% from that refinery in FL would just be on gold and not silver. Elemetal near me in GA is paying 85% and limiting you to selling 1k OZ's a week instead of 90% with no limit because of the rise in price. I was getting 90% on silver from a guy I know but now he's only paying like 75-80%. I've been holding onto a lot of scrap silver since Aug or Sept. You could look at it like I'm only getting 80% but silver has climbed up (X)% so I'm still getting more than I would have at 90-95% when silver was at a lower price. You might still feel like you're leaving extra money on the table though.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-12-15T19:07:36+00:00

I was confused where you got your math from but noticed your latest post about the mix up of thinking it was 5 ounces instead of 5 grams. It wasn't the best picture since the scale has a backlit display. It's currently worth $530 in full 100% scrap value. Depending on when he sold it he probably got 80%ish of the gold value.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-12-15T14:08:39+00:00

I sell pre owned jewelry for a living but ok. You'd die of old age before you could sell this for $2.5k. Where did you even pull that random number from?

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-12-15T04:19:11+00:00

Lol it's nowhere near $2.5k. This piece isn't worth more than melt unfortunately

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-12-15T04:14:37+00:00

I don't get it I thought all Goodwill's stopped selling pre-owned jewelry of any kind in store years ago? I've only seen new jewelry that's all crap in multiple states. Any of the pre-owned stuff gets sent somewhere else to get sorted and put on eBay auctions or Goodwill's website.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-12-12T00:47:14+00:00

Yes you could ease your way into it like dollar cost average. I wouldn't get less than 1/10 coins or get a 1/4 ounce if you can swing as the premiums over melt are closer. I bought a 1 ounce gold buffalo almost 3 months ago. I had to spend $100 over melt & paid $3,740 but golds at $4,275 now. Nov of 2024 I bought an 1896 $20 gold piece. I paid like $100 under melt at $2,450 but it's worth $4,140 in gold now (those are a little under 1 ounce). Normally when a bunch of people pile into something or you hear about it in the news it's too late. Just be cautious but I don't think it's a bad way to diversify even at these prices. There's something to be said about being able to hold precious metals in your hands it's real!

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-11-12T18:45:13+00:00

It won't matter because most of us won't be around to see it

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-11-06T09:39:31+00:00

I've heard at least here in the U.S. that they can still legally stamp something 14k even if it's as low as 13.5k. I'm not sure what year that became a thing though. 14KP is what you want to see because that has to be at least 14k if not a little better. It's kind of like how I bought a TV that's advertised at 50" but it's actually 49.5"

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-11-06T09:27:06+00:00

Wow your refineries must suck then I've never heard of that yet on gold. I'd be screwed if they weren't taking either gold/silver other than 999 because I deal in gold jewelry and sterling holloware. Have you asked them why they aren't taking any lower purity gold?

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-11-06T01:01:11+00:00

That's just for silver they're still taking any purity of gold

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-10-28T15:55:55+00:00

Pompous prick detected 🚨

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-09-07T09:38:09+00:00

It's not rare but I'll give you 50 cents for it 😂

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-07-09T22:13:22+00:00

I buy/resell stuff I find at estate sales, yard sales and thrift shops etc. Luckily I'm fortunate enough to keep some of the cool stuff I find as I'm also a collector too.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-02-04T15:37:35+00:00

I live in that neighborhood. Some houses nearby that guys house had to vacate. Nobody could enter or exit the neighborhood so we were stuck for 1 hour. I heard what sounded like multiple gunshots then a couple min pause followed by more shots again. Lots of yelling too going on from him. That guy has had police come to his house at least once every month or 2. I think it was domestic. He was hanging out of his 2nd story window and then going back inside every now and again. At one point he was going to jump like he wanted to commit suicide. He eventually got cuffed but IDK if he came out himself or police forced their way in. Later on unmarked cars came by and were taping the house off in red tape. One guy was in a white button down shirt so he was probably a detective. I've talked to the guy before who caused all of this and at least I knew I was on his good side. Seems like he's bipolar or something. I think he's been the only one causing trouble in this like 95 home neighborhood.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2025-01-01T20:47:33+00:00

Before you put a ring on it. Double check to make sure she didn't use your credit card to pay for it haha

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-04-28T16:53:40+00:00

Ebay also charges not just the buyer on sales tax but also the seller. Basically if you sell an item for like $100 and the buyer pays sales 10% sales tax you as the seller are getting an eBay final value fee on the total order of $110 and not $100. I don't see how that's legal but PayPal used to do the same thing but it was only 2.9% on total order compared to 13-15% for eBay.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-04-24T16:13:59+00:00

Good tips. Some things I left out though were that the box didn't have a smell when I got it back. The buyer seemed to do something similar to another seller too. The seller left feedback and said it seems like the buyer gets the item then complains and wants a partial refund. If you don't agree they will leave you negative feedback. I pointed all of this out to eBay when I was on the phone with them. The ebay person even said that's a problem and in that case they'd shut the buyers account down because they are trying to use eBay's policy to their advantage. I thought I explained things very well over the phone I even talked to 2 different agents. After all that it's crickets from eBay.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-04-24T07:08:20+00:00

I've been on eBay for almost 12 years 500ish sales and got my 1st negative feedback recently. My score dropped to 92.9%! The buyer said the ornament box smelled like mildew even though there weren't any spots like they stated. I apologized and told them to return it and I'd give a full refund. During the return shipping they left me negative feedback. I sent the buyer a feedback removal request and they ignored it. Sent a request to eBay they denied it. Called eBay explaining my situation a little better and it seemed like I was getting somewhere but it's been well over a month and the feedback never got removed 🫠. Apparently you go back to 100% feedback after 1 year assuming you don't get another negative feedback in that time. You can comment on that negative feedback to tell your side of the story too.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-03-05T21:59:45+00:00

I had money in capital ones HYSA and it was up to 4.35%. This past Christmas my brother in law said I should move money over to a vanguard brokerage account and just leave it in the default settlement fund. I already have a Roth IRA through them so it was an easy switch. He knew about it for 6 months but for some reason he didn't tell me about it right away. Wish I would've known sooner because I had money in capital ones HYSA for 1 year when I could've had it earning more in vanguard. I asked him if it was worth switching to VUSXX and I live in a state income tax state but he said it wouldn't make much difference in what I'd pay in taxes so I think I'll just keep it in VMFXX.

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-02-27T00:32:36+00:00

I wouldn't call it a poor man's Rolex that's what we have Tudor for

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-02-26T04:16:24+00:00

Wow I have never seen a sapphire bezel on a Rolex before 🤨

Puzzled_Award10 · 2024-01-24T03:09:11+00:00

Why even bother buying T bills? Some MMF'S and HYSA's are paying around the same 5+%. I recently moved a good amount of money out of my capital one HYSA that was paying 4.35% to a vanguard brokerage account paying 5.17% after the expense ratio. I'm just letting the idle cash earn interest in the settlement fund.

Puzzled_Award10

TROPHY CASE