u/pup1206

I am worried about everyone saying that everything will closed on the islands. Also worried about the weather now. Not concerned about swimming but still want to be able to do some tours, dining, sight seeing, etc. Has anyone actually been in April 2026 that can give me feedback for how it was?

Plan so far:

4-1-4/3 Athens
4/3-4/7 Crete
4/7-4/12 Santorini (Canaves Oia Suites booked)

Fly to Italy afterwards.

Unfortunately with our limited time off I’m not sure if dates can be moved. Feeling sad.

Hi all! Planning a Greece & Italy trip and will be in Italy April 12-20th 2027. Hopefully the weather will be nice. Planning to fly from Greece to do Venice 2 nights, Florence 3 nights, and Rome 3 nights. I did consider the Amalfi Coast such as Positano but worried about the logistics of transportation and weather alike. We also have done Capri in the past. What are the MUST DOs for these places within this time frame? Is this enough time in each place or spend more time in one vs the other? We did Rome for 1 day as a part of a cruise stop a few years ago so already got Colosseum and Vatican out of the way. Don’t want to be too rushed either. Is there anything else I need to know in advance like certain tours or preferable routes of transport between these places that would be recommended? Also what restaurants are best for cocktails or a nice romantic dinner in any of these spots? So excited to visit!

Thank you all in advance!

Long story short I had booked roundtrip business on AF metal from the west coast-Paris last year for 240k points and $1500 for 2 people, and thought this was amazing. Unfortunately, we had to cancel this trip. Now I’m planning for 2027 and it is SO hard to find saver rates for similar routes. I have 240k miles stuck in flying blue. For 2027, Should I:

A) try to use all my flying blue miles asap and wait it out to find award rates.

B) book a VS flight I found for 98k points (with the current 30% transfer bonus) + $1700 for 2 of us one way and figure out the way back later in case I can utilize the flying blue points

What is an ideal redemption for VS and currently what are people seeing in terms of availability for flying blue?

I am hoping to spend less on taxes and fees but I’ve been looking for almost a month and haven’t found rates that would fit into another roundtrip booking since demand is so high. Thanks for any advice!

Long story short I had booked roundtrip business on AF metal from the west coast-Paris last year for 240k points and $1500 for 2 people, and thought this was amazing. Unfortunately, we had to cancel this trip. Now I’m planning for 2027 and it is SO hard to find saver rates for similar routes. I have 240k miles stuck in flying blue. For 2027, Should I:

A) try to use all my flying blue miles asap and wait it out to find award rates.

B) book a VS flight I found for 98k points (with the current 30% transfer bonus) + $1700 for 2 of us one way and figure out the way back later in case I can utilize the flying blue points

What is an ideal redemption for VS and currently what are people seeing in terms of availability for flying blue?

I am hoping to spend less on taxes and fees but I’ve been looking for almost a month and haven’t found rates that would fit into another roundtrip booking since demand is so high. Thanks for any advice!

I have an FNC expiring in August. I have another one expiring spring next year. And about 500k HH points currently. Thinking of the best use of this. I was hoping to wait to do 4 nights on points in order to get the 5th free. Debating between WA Los pedregal which would have to be in August for 4 nights with the 2 FNC and 500k HH points OR figure out some random use of the 1 upcoming expiring FNC and save the other FNC and 500k points towards a future Hermitage Bay stay. What would you suggest those of you who have been to both/either? Also I know August is hot in Cabo and would have preferred to go during whale watching season. Not sure what to do.

Thank you in advance.

Planning trip for next year but haven’t seen a ton of flight availability. It does seem that there are some limited flights returning to SFO/ west coast in general so little worried. Did a quick search and can’t determine if the rates are higher and more limited now or if it’s what I need to expect. Since it is a longer flight, we would potentially be interested in business class if at all possible. Anyone who has flown from west coast to T&C with any suggestions?

We were on SAVE forbearance which will be ending July 1st as well all know it. Right now IDR showing $2800 monthly payment since it’s taking both of our AGI. We already paid a lump sum of $130k back in January and don’t have much in savings now. Still have about $150k remaining. We obviously didn’t plan for this and can’t do $2800 monthly now that we have a kid on the way and bought a new home recently. What’s the best plan here? Really don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck and also don’t want to pay student loans at this rate forever. Any advice?

Is there anything other than the fact that we will be moving to PGE instead of Roseville electric that I need to know? We are moving to an area of Lincoln called Bickford Ranch which is a new development and doesn’t seem to have anything much close by. How is it raising kids in Lincoln? We are Asian Indian descent and not the most traditional family. We plan to start a family soon. How are the schools? Please feel free to share, good, bad, and ugly. We want to be prepared. Thanks for any info!

Just signed the contract on a new home that’s PITI is 29-30% of gross income. It’s around 50% of net income for all in housing. We make 400k HHI and the all in housing is coming to ~10k. We are going to be low on reserves going into this home so will need to rebuild our funds but after running the numbers we will have 3k monthly left in year 1 and 4-5k years 2+. Our monthly payment in our current home is $3100 and $3600 all in housing. I guess I’m just scared due to the low reserves going in, but I’m more scared that this new home monthly payment is 3x our current home. We bought current home at 2.75% rate in 2020, and I really do believe we have the golden handcuffs. We have been back and forth for months just debating whether losing the financial flexibility with our current home would be worth it or even doable. Ultimately decided to go for it since it’s closer to my wife’s work and more space for future kids, more aligned with what our forever home would entail. We plan on renting out our current home at around $3800 per current rental market.

Has anyone entered a new home purchase with lower reserves and still been fine? For those of you who have made the jump in mortgage, how much of a jump was it and was it worth it?

Currently feeling a mix of anxiety, fear, and instant regret after signing the contract. Like are we really dumb for leaving a $3k mortgage? Is this normal? Thanks for any advice, please be gentle.

If we buy new dream home, we will have the option to choose lot we love with 1.5-1.8k leftover monthly, or second best lot with less amazing view with $2.1-2.4K month leftover. Especially for the first year. After that will have an increase in money leftover to 3-3.5k +. Is this first year enough leftover monthly? What would you do? Get the top choice, or get the second one, or neither and stay put in current home?

Need help deciding whether this would be a feasible purchase or if it’s a mistake. It’s our dream home. Luxury. View lot. Homesite premium included in the 1.4million cost.

Wife and I make 400k gross income combined, both in healthcare. In very stable jobs so not worried about job stability at all. Take home $17k on average net monthly (being conservative) after maxing out our retirement contributions, otherwise it’s about $20k net/$30k gross monthly pay. This doesn’t include any bonuses or overtime.

6.25% interest rate (may be better at time of closing based on incentives/credits and credit score increase)

15% down, we would not do 20% down to keep some money as cushion for yard, furniture, etc since we just happened to pay a large chunk towards student loans.

We currently have a home with $3k mortgage which we would rent out, and the new home will be $10k monthly including insurance, , taxes, HOA. So reality is the jump is scaring the hell out of me. It comes to about 35% gross income, still.

On the flip side, if we keep our current home and save approximately $8-9k monthly after maxing out our retirement and backdoor Roth, we would invest much more. However, I anticipate we would want to upgrade our home at some point down the road, realistically.

Both will give us returns either market vs real estate but we would be able to retire a little sooner with the investing scenario.

What would you do??

Need help deciding whether this would be a feasible purchase or if it’s a mistake. It’s our dream home. Luxury. View lot. Homesite premium included in the 1.4million cost.

Wife and I make 400k gross income. Both in very stable jobs so not worried about job stability at all. Take home $17k on average net monthly (being conservative) after maxing out our retirement contributions. This doesn’t include any bonuses or overtime.

6.25% interest rate (may be better at time of closing based on incentives/credits and credit score increase)

10-15% down, we would not do 20% down to keep some money as cushion for yard, furniture, etc.

We currently have a home with $3k mortgage, and with the new home I’m guessing it is $8-9K plus the PITI. So reality is the jump is scaring the hell out of me. Basically I’m aware our savings would be tight the first year so planning to temporarily reduce retirement contributions if needed for one year, but for I am worried if it extends beyond that. Currently we are maxing out both of our contributions.

I did compare investing savings in the market vs this home, and not a huge difference for lifestyle upgrade but one we would be willing to do as this would be our primary home while we would rent the current home.

Is this even a doable purchase or should I drop it altogether?

Need help deciding whether this would be a feasible purchase or if it’s a mistake. It’s our dream home. Luxury. View lot. Homesite premium included in the 1.4 million cost.

Wife and I make 400k gross income. Both in very stable jobs so not worried about job stability at all. Take home $17k on average net monthly (being conservative) after maxing out our retirement contributions. This doesn’t include any bonuses or overtime.

6.25% interest rate (may be better at time of closing based on incentives/credits and credit score increase)

10-15% down, we would not do 20% down to keep some money as cushion for yard, furniture, etc.

We currently have a home with $3k mortgage, and with the new home I’m guessing it is $8-9K plus the PITI. So reality is the jump is scaring the hell out of me. Basically I’m aware our savings would be tight the first year so planning to temporarily reduce retirement contributions if needed for one year, but for I am worried if it extends beyond that. Currently we are maxing out both of our contributions.

I did compare investing savings in the market vs this home, and not a huge difference for lifestyle upgrade but one we would be willing to do as this would be our primary home while we would rent the current home.

Is this even a doable purchase or should I drop it altogether?

Wife and I make about 400k gross income annually. We are currently living in a 2.75% rate home we bought with mortgage $3k. We are contemplating upgrading to a 1.4 million home with 6.25% rate which works out to be 10-11k monthly mortgage only because it’s a view lot and our dream home. Would keep this home and rent it out (rates for around $4k currently). We have expenses about $7-8k monthly. We do have some student loans left to pay off but if we aggressively save we can save around $70-80k annually with our current mortgage. Problem is, the home requires deposit within 30 days, so we have to decide fast. We love the home, and have done extensive research to see how much we would need to live comfortably and we would be a little tight the first year or so. Currently can save about $96k annually with our current mortgage.

Is this a grave mistake? I don’t want to short ourselves with possibly how much wealth we could build with retirement investing (no idea how much we would be saving by then) What would you do? HELPPPPP.