Need a recommendation for a realtor who will help sell a house a few miles outside of town with enough acreage for a few animals, especially horses -- a "ranchette," as they say. Anyone who specializes in that type of thing?
I'm sure this has been asked a billion times, but it feels so complicated that it's hard for me to learn from others' situations. We WILL meet with a financial planner as soon possible, but we haven't been able to meet with the lawyer yet or anything. It's just been a long hard 18 months and I'm trying to get through this part by thinking about the future.
My husband and I (mid-30s, Montana so no inheritance tax) are inheriting approximately $750k.
IRA $50k
Roth IRA $250k
Merrill Lynch $170k
Probably something like $250k from a house sale.
Our situation:
We don't pay for housing. The house is part of a deal where we did the renovation for the owner (our close friend) and when it sells we'll get half the profit. We also have basically no bills.
Income: Only about $30k/year
Debt: About $40k in student debt.
Savings: $20k
Investments: $20k in Robinhood, $10k in my husband's Roth IRA
Goals: One good vacation ASAP, travel once a year (ETA: yearly "travel" would mean a week-long camping trip or something, not an annual European vacation)
I'd like to buy a house, either to renovate and sell without ever living in it, or live in a fixer-upper with the intention to sell in a few years. I'm sick of living in our house (it's very small) but ... it's FREE.
...
Can someone break this down for me?
My understanding at this point is that the IRAs need to be rolled into inheritance IRAs and emptied over ten years. Seems like the best idea is to put the Roth into our own Roth for retirement (it'll be about a million by then I think?)
How does the Merrill Lynch work? Is there any way to get some cash from it now, or will it count as income if we sell any stock?
Will the house sale count as income?
I'm worried about changing our income tax bracket, it will screw up our insurance subsidies, etc.
This is weird and vulnerable to post. Thanks in advance for any advice!
My husband and I have the enormous task of emptying and selling his mother’s home. Luckily she wasn’t a hoarder or anything and we’ve had some time to prepare, so a lot of the junk is already gone.
Does anyone have any tips or resources for how to go about this?
We will be living in the home while we clear it out, so that kind of complicates things.
I left this saddle in the back of my truck for nearly 2 weeks. It was rained on and baked in the sun. I just completely forgot it was back there, it’s special to me and I am very bummed.
I don't see any deep cracks. I sprayed it with the saddle soap and have rubbed in a thin layer of the neatsfoot oil every day for 3 days.
It’s still stiff and dry. As you can see, it’s curved and twisted in weird ways. What’s the best way to get it back into shape?
We will need to sell my mother-in-law’s house very soon. It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath in a valuable area with acreage for a few animals. The property and the house in general are in great shape. The only real issue is the bayhroom.
Here are the issues:
- hot tub-like bathtub with jets is larger than the water heater so it’s literally impossible to take a hot bath. Its also in poor shape.
- no waterproofing behind the shower tiles, obviously this has resulted in rotted substrate
- generally outdated and ugly. It was bougie c. 2013. Lots of beige tile.
My husband and I are experienced in home renovation but have never done a full bathroom with just the two of us. Our idea is to install a shower (not tile), a stand alone bathtub, and retile the floor. Maybe a new vanity, but maybe that’s too much?
We would aim for mid to high-end Home Depot stuff. This is a conservative rural place with some money, so I think that would be generally appealing.
Do you think the renovation would be worth it, or do we provide a bathroom that’s in generally bad shape?
edit:
sounds like the consensus is to leave it as is! I’ll admit I was kind of looking forward to the project but should spend my time and money more wisely. Thanks everyone for the input.
I’d love to book an Airbnb with accommodations for horses with trails around. Anyone know of a place like that somewhere in the mountain west?
I found this in a place where ancient bison skulls are found. Posted it in r/fossilid but no traction. Any ideas?
My 10 year old mustang mare came to me with a lot of anxiety and I've been working with a trainer to get her to a state of calm so that we can communicate and ride safely. Her final tic was biting when being saddled. She'll be calm af, back leg cocked, head down, happy and blinking, but when the saddle blanket shows up she bites it -- still relaxed in the body. She's bitey all the way through the process and then when I (slowly, carefully) mount, she bites at my legs. She's never actually bitten me but is very clearly biting at the saddle blanket, the saddle, the cinch, and then my feet when I'm mounted. I haven't pushed through this -- the most I've ridden her this year is around the arena a few times. We've done primarily ground work.
My trainer thinks she's either anticipating a painful ride, if her old owner was rough with her, or she has pain currently. After some experiments we decided to call the vet and I am taking her in on Wednesday.
I'm just curious what other people have learned about this kind of situation.
How will they check her for pain? What kind of expenses should I expect with the diagnosing process?
What do you think could be happening? What is the likelihood this could be incurable?
If she has some sort of issue that means she'll never be ridden, I guess she'll just be a pasture pet because she's a sweetie and my other girl's best friend. It's just sad to think about.
There is an energy conference (?) in Miles City yesterday and today. My county commissioner went and we talked briefly about it last night, it sounds like NWE is there advocating for data centers.
He says all the power companies in MT are requiring the data centers to provide their own power and pay for all expenses and that the water system is “a closed loop now.”
He also has a new understanding of how important data centers are now, not because of Google (?) but Amazon and banking (??).
To me, it sounds like the energy companies have a solid PR machine that can convince the right-wing boomers who still make the majority of decisions in rural Montana. However, NWE released its 2026 Integrated Resource Plan that goes over some of these details and it’s possible there’s some new information in it but godammit, there’s a lot of technical information and I just don’t fully understand what I’m reading.
Does anyone have insight here? Is it possible that the energy companies have developed a way to host data centers that 1. Won’t raise consumer rates, 2. Will replace the water they use *at the appropriate temperature* 3. Won’t be obsolete in 10 years?
I am all for a blanket “fuck you” to data centers. It’s time for rural Montana to raise the drawbridge and take care of our problems without relying on corporations that can and will screw us over as soon as it’s convenient. But I’m afraid the mainstream thought believes in progress and innovation and $$$$, even if it largely goes into someone else’s pockets.
So I‘d like some solid arguments against their new method of convincing our local lawmakers!
I’ve had a couple of these and been told they’re just weird rocks. What do you think?
I'm running for office in a small, rural district. I'm in my mid-thirties so I once had a MySpace and everything else ... most of it has been taken down, but I'd like to clean up my online presence as well as tighten security across the board. Because it's such a little election, risk is super low that anything weird is going to happen but I'd like to be safe.
Where should I start? I've been looking at DeleteMe, Aura, Incogni ...
I qualify for Pay As You Earn, and the student aid website says that if I consolidate my loans my payments will be less than $100/month and the balance will be forgiven after 20 years. If I don't consolidate, the payments are something like $120/month.
A separate but related question: I've spent a lot of the last decade making $0 payments due to low income. Could any of that time count towards those 20 years?
Last year I bought a 9 year old BLM mustang mare. I got her from her only owner, a young cowboy who rode her nearly every day.
We went on some big rides and I noticed she was always in “go” mode. She didn’t neck rein, was heavy in the face and feet. Any trot quickly turned into a full-on run. I didn’t feel fully comfortable with her and was looking forward to a lot of training this summer. Then she had six months off while we had the cows home and had to put the horses out to pasture.
This spring I began working with a coach. We are working on foundational stuff, mostly on getting her into a calm state so that I can go from there. It feels like it’s taking forever! I’m focusing on patience and consistency but it’s hard. little inconveniences and obstacles seem to get in the way every day. It’s been too muddy to ride in our pen, but we don’t have a good alternative. The mosquitos are driving her mad. She’s buddy sour.
My dad, an old rancher type, thinks I’m being ridiculous and as much as I want to ignore him, it makes me self conscious and insecure. He and his friends would always just get on the horse and go. The best training is wet saddle blankets, as they say.
He always tells me to just run her around the pen until she’s worn out, “that’ll get her calm.” And I know thats probably a dangerous shortcut that won’t get her trained to be a trustworthy, calm horse, but right now I’m afraid she‘s bored to death waiting for me to come get her just to do some groundwork and practice maintaining calm during mounting/dismounting.
Every day I think about taking her on a long solo ride and every day I chicken out because my coach has said that until she can walk/trot/lope on a loose rein in the arena, we can’t trust her in the field.
I’m sad that I haven’t been able to take her out this year and worried that it’ll never happen. I’m worried that I don’t have the time to give her what she needs, but don‘t want to sell her to someone who will just think that she’s obstinate or disobedient because she’s a mustang.
She is a complete sweetheart, by the way. Very curious and people oriented, totally adorable. I’ve never seen her buck, kick, or even put her ears back at a person. When she’s acting up she might rear a little, but not high - more like a small jump with her front legs.
When I’m on her back I know she isn’t focused on me. I don’t think she trusts me yet and I’m afraid I don’t have the authoritative presence to convince her that I’m “boss.”
I’d love to hear stories from folks about times the process paid off. Did you ever get a horse that needed to relearn the basics? How long have you worked with a horse in the arena and on the ground before you were able to out into the country? I really need some reassurance that slow and steady is the way to go.
***
Thank you all SO much for the stories and advice. I could cry, thank you. I really believe in this girl and know she will be amazing for me. I’ll keep going slow and listen to my coach.