u/Soarin-Flyin

We have a 15-year mortgage with a 2.375% rate; we are 5 years into it. Now thinking of moving to a home that fits our wants/needs a little better now that we have kids and really hate the idea of giving up this great opportunity to accelerate our path to some kind of FIRE.

Is there a way to access our equity (Rocket says we have 240K, we owe 280K) and use it as our down payment on the next house? How would that work if we’d have our existing mortgage payment, new mortgage, and whatever we’d get in a HELOC?

We could easily cover the existing mortgage if we rented, so would the excess be used to cover the HELOC? Eventually I’d like to sell but would love to get a little more equity out of it (but still wanting to move now if we can).

My 3.5 year old has this annoying habit that she will pee a little bit in her underwear before telling us she has to go. It’s been happening long enough that I don’t think it’s a phase or still learning to potty train. Like she just doesn’t care or is bothered that we have to change her.

It’s like this, albeit a lot less frequently with poop too where she’s unphased. She’ll just throw her hands up go and say “it’s okay. Accidents happen.” It’s maybe only every couple days these things happen but at 3.5, approaching 4, I feel like she should have it down.

How do I get this to click. I worry because it feels like a larger issue where she just doesn’t try to resolve her problems or issues and just melts down. We try so hard to teach her resiliency and teach her how to do the thing she wants but she just doesn’t care.

Any tips?

Partner and I (early 30’s) bought a 420K house in summer 2021 when rates were stupid and got a sub 15-year mortgage at 2.375% and are now 5 years into it paying about 2900 all in. We have about 280K left on the house. Based on our market I’m estimating we could sell in the 500-550K range.

We really like a house in the 900-950K range and our estimated monthly payment would be in the low-mid 4000 range depending on exact rate, sale price, and our sale price.

We can get a 4.99% rate with a 10-year balloon mortgage; it would bring our payment to the high 3000-low 4000 range. I know the risks with those but I think we can tolerate them. We work in very stable jobs as healthcare providers with take home pay of a shade over 13K a month (with 2 months being about 19K from biweekly pay).

We have about 1900 a month on top of the mortgage we owe in debt between car, home repair, and student loans. We contribute 15% of our salary to retirement (about 45K a year) and have 560K saved already.

We’ve kicked the tires on maybe dialing back to 10% for a few years and/or dropping 300/month on two college funds. Those two items would give us 700 or so to bridge the gap to the new mortgage. Then a 3% raise in 2027 for more cushion.

Basically I’m at a point where I think the math says it’s a bad idea and another house will come along; especially when we’ll have the car paid off in a year or so that frees up another 500 per month along with putting a ton more equity into our existing home. This house has so many things we really like and would be happy to stay in for a long while because of how good it would be for our family.

What things can I consider that would make this decision easier? I don’t like the idea of stopping retirement contributions, but we are so far ahead that I feel like letting up on the gas for a year or two would be okay.

I am working through the canon Star Wars comics and in the 2020 runs there are a lot of crossovers. Is it possible and/or easy to read the relevant runs in chronological order?

I’ve made do so far with my library having an overwhelming amount of the major comics (only missing some limited runs where it only goes for like 4-6 issues. I’m going to be starting The High Republic though soon and want to make sure I’m doing that most optimally.

Local credit union is running a promo for a 4.99% 10 year balloon mortgage if you put 20% down with an amortization schedule of 30 years.

I’m familiar with the concept and when I ran the numbers on the house I’m interested in I’d get this general idea.

850K house
200K down

650K mortgage

At the end of the 10 years there would be about 530K left in principle. Given how much was already put as a down payment I would like to think I’d be able to either sell or refinance the house by year 10 and avoid the balloon without issue.

Is there something I’m missing?

Playing through WoA and looking for recs on which mission stories are people’s favorites. Due to life circumstances I probably won’t play through this through every possibility so when I play a mission I’d like to do ones that are more humorous or over the top.

I’ve really liked pushing the lawyer off the ledge in the Hitman 1.

I separated from the VA after 1.75 years of service. Was part of FERS as a pharmacist. Would my balance I see in my TSP account be reflective of what I get to keep since I didn’t hit the 3 years needed for vesting.

When I look at the breakdown of contributions it says about 19% is employer match but that it’s 100% vested, which is why I’m uncertain. I’ve always assumed that portion wasn’t mine and would eventually disappear but it’s been 5 years now since separation.

Looking to get into the comics but find it a little disorienting. Is there a consensus list of the comics based on when the first issue was released? Like I want to start with Star Wars (2015) and just read that entirely, then move to Vader (2015).

Also, would Marvel Unlimited be the best bet to read all of the canon comics? Or is there a better alternative?