tyrius.

It had absolutely nothing to do with non-competes. The lawsuit was for trademark infringement. The suit has now been dropped because names and images are to be changed so that they no longer infringe on the trademark. http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/aug/10/lawsuit-against-loomis-dropped/ G. Loomis HAS to defend it's trademark from infringement. Otherwise their trademark quickly becomes worthless.

Does your bill have the meter readings? I'd check them against the last month's bill to make sure the starting reading is the same as the last month's ending reading.

From a major chain, it's pizza hut stuffed crust. Papa Murphy's is good and cheap too. If I want GOOD pizza I go to one of the family owned places and get a Chicago/stuffed pizza. Sometimes I'll go for a thin but it's gotta be crispy to be good.

Works for me. I may not agree with your stance (especially since the product you purchased includes the expeditor service which isn't about the reason behind the break), but I don't have to.

If you went home tonight and found that your son had used a GLoomis rod as a play sword and snapped it into many pieces would you send $100 and the rod in for replacement?

Hmm, last I read Loomis has a warranty program where an angler could send their rod in for replacement if it was a true manufacturer's defect and then they have the separate and distinct expeditor service which is a no questions asked replacement program. Loomis made no changes to their warranty program.

Agreed. But the same is also true for increasing oil consumption. Also, take a look at the intensive nature of mining the Canadian oil sands (the US's largest source of crude). It's basically an open pit mine.

warranty is for 8 years or 100k miles. http://gm-volt.com/2010/07/19/chevrolet-volt-battery-warranty-details-and-clarifications/

One thing that many people don't realize is that massive amounts of electricity is completely wasted as overnight power supply is greater than demand. That power has nowhere to go so they just ground it or vent the steam. Therefore, if you plug your car in and charge it overnight you are utilizing power that would likely have been wasted. And, the distribution of oil and gas crosses a MUCH greater distance than coal. We've got our own coal. We have to get our oil from other countries. So, I'd bet that it's much easier to get coal to a coal plant than it is to pump oil, ship it, refine it, ship it again, and dispense it into my gas tank.

You may not factor in the "warranty" in your rod buying purchase, but many other people do. I don't see why anyone would NOT factor in the expeditor service when purchasing a high end rod. If 2 rods are equal in sensitivity and one provides a replacement program for $50 per breakage then that one makes much more sense financially. And now after MANY people have used the expeditor service as a factor in their purchase Loomis doubles the price and restricts it to ONE replacement. Everyone who purchased a Loomis rod with the expeditor service has every right to be upset about it. That's a pretty drastic change.

The volt has a gasoline powered generator to charge up the batteries while driving. This makes the volt have the same range as any other car on the road. You can use it to drive coast to coast or just for your normal commute. You're not tied to an electric outlet. The Volt becomes an ideal commuter car that can also be used for family trips. It eliminates the biggest negative of all electric cars (being forced to recharge via electrical power). The EV1 was never really "sold" to the public. They were only "leased". GM didn't know how reliable the batteries would be so they didn't want to sell the EV1 and have the batteries fail after 1 year. It was also just a 2 seater. The Nissan Leaf seats 5 and gets 100 miles per charge.

That's only if you never recharge it. If you drive less than 40 miles a day and charge it up each night then you'll never use a drop of gas. It's the perfect compromise for those who want an electric car, but don't want to be saddled by it's restrictions. It's a technological marvel and I'd bet that dealers will be able to sell it for over the sticker price. It's environmental benefits FAR outweigh that of the Prius or any other hybrid on the road.

Lightning will hit the highest point and since that's you in the boat if lightning were to strike the lake it will more than likely hit you.

Why does it matter to those in Mississippi? J's in NY and may well be fishing for smallies. He's fishing completely different waters at the least. If I told you it was a DT-16 in pearl grey would you go buy a bunch because someone from NY caught a bunch of fish on them? And back to this thread. I bought this about a month ago.

You can keep on believing that you're right, but you're not. I'm done going over the same points and just getting the same replies. Posting defintions from a dictionary is not proving your point. Cash in the bank or in short term investments is current assets. Your house should not be considered a current asset. You may not be able to sell it quickly enough, you may not be able to get a line of credit, it may drastically fall in value, in order to sell it quickly you may have to sell it for signficantly lower than it's actual value etc, etc, etc. Feel free to have the last word.

Nothing that you brought up is being missed. Equity in your home is not real money. You can't go to the store and buy something and pay someone in equity (unless you borrow against it). Equity does not equal cash. Yep, and your home is NOT a current asset so paying off your mortgage faster than required decreases your working capital.

It's doubly bad because 1) you lose access to the 50,000. It goes from a liquid investment (cash in the bank) to an illiquid investment (your house). 2) because you can earn a higher return on your money by leaving it in an investment account so you lose the income difference. If you can get 6% on that 50,000 then you're giving up the 1% difference between what you can earn (6%) and what you have to pay (5%). Yes, you can rebuild the 50k, but that first 50k is still no longer a liquid investment. Also, even if your mortgage payment (not including taxes and insurance) was $2,000 a month it would take you more than 2 years to rebuild it assuming that you made savings deposits equal to your mortgage payment. And if you're forced to do that then you're monthly budget is no better off for that period of time and you're mortgage would've been paid off in the next month anyways. So, you would've saved only 1 month's mortgage payment while forgoing all interest income on the initial $50,000 (which would've made up for most of that last payment). Doesn't sound like a good financial decision to me. Sorry to keep rambling about this, but advice to ignore credit at all costs is NOT good advice for most people. It's also not even the point of hookemdown's request for advice, which is answered simply by getting at least one credit card, using it (without increasing monthly spending), and paying off the balance each month.

If I could borrow money at the same rate as I did for my student loan then I would. 3% interest is basically free money. I could come fairly close to matching that rate with a 3 year CD and CD rates are very low right now. In the future CD rates would almost certainly be higher than 3% meaning that I am making income on the difference. If I could buy a 30 year T-Bill I'd make 4% and be positive on my investment with neglible risk. As those rates rise the amount of income would rise too. This is what they define as "making your money work for you". I get that you follow Ramsey's advice, but it is not always the best advice. I did on this too. I'll explain it differently this time. Let's say I have $50,000 left to pay on my mortgage and the rate is 5%. I have $50,000 in the bank earning 2.5% (this could EASILY be higher dependent upon the investment chosen). So, I can easily pay off that $50,000. Before doing so, one must compare interest cost vs interest income. After taxes you're looking at a difference of roughly 2%. Is that difference worth not having access to the $50,000? If I pay off my mortgage then my liquid cash goes from $50,000 to zero. Is that reduction worth the interest difference. Now, let's fast forward a bit until savings rates go back to a more "normal" level and I can get 6% or higher in a long term CD. If I use my $50,000 to pay off my mortgage then I'm giving up about 1.5% in interest income that I would get if I kept my money in the bank and paid off the mortgage with minimum payments. I'm also losing access to that money again. So, it's doubly bad to pay it off early.

I never said it was bad. I simply said that it may not be the best financial decision. As I said in my previous post paying off debt or not utilizing it is not always the best financial decision. One should compare real interest costs vs interest income available elsewhere along with the need to have access to that money prior to paying off any debt. Once, I've paid down debt the cash that I used to do so is no longer available to me if I need it. High interest, non deductible debt is always bad (credit card debt). Low interest, tax deductible debt is not. For example, I have a little student loan debt that is at 3.75%. The interest is also tax deductible. So, it's probably really only costing me 3%. On a 1 year CD I can still get almost 1.5% (a longer term CD would get me a higher rate). That's taxable so it's really probably closer to 1.25%. Now I have to decide if that 1.75% loss is worth paying off the loan balance early or since rates will likely go up (given that they can't go down much more) if it's worth continuing to pay the minimum amount each month. To me, this is an easy decision. I'd borrow MORE money under those terms if I could.

It's good. I still don't understand why catching a fish would ever be considered a bad thing when you're fishing? This one's always been a head scratcher for me.

Catt, This decision isn't even about these scenarios, they're completely irrelevent to the situation. Hookemdown HAS to get a loan in the future in order to pay for his education. Knowing this, he is best served by getting a CREDIT card to build his credit history so that he is better able to be approved for that loan and get a better rate (because he has a better credit score). No other scenario matters. By getting and using a credit card he is putting himself in the best position to get the loan that he will need. A debit card is worthless in this situation.

False Could easily be ZERO dollars. Not necessarily. You build wealth by making smart financial decisions. You can get a mortgage right now under 5%. That mortage is tax deductible so you'll likely be paying an effective rate of around 4%. So, if you have an investment that pays higher than 4% interest you are wasting money by paying off you mortgage early. Ramsey, et al's advice is not always good advice. Debt is not the devil. If used as it should be it allows one to caplitalize on opportunities that otherwise would not be available to them. Such is the case for hookemdown. Without access to debt he wouldn't be able to become a dentist. Simple as that. He knows this and is taking the appropriate steps to ensure access to that debt and make the costs as small as possible. Advice to ignore his credit score is basically advice to ignore his choice of career. Is that really what you want to do?

Yep, that's why I used APR instead of the actual published rate. The published rate is meaningless because you don't know how many fees are required to get that rate. The true comparison is done on APR because those fees are added to the principle balance and then amortized over the life of the mortgage.

Not sure who you're quoting, but the APR on an FHA loan is much higher than a conventional loan. On the below site it's 0.75%. This rate is due to paying higher fees. That's a LOT of money over the life of a mortgage. http://www.totalmortgage.com/current-mortgage-rates.asp You're advice is sound financial advice, but has nothing to do with getting a credit card and building a good credit score. For every person who is living paycheck to paycheck with a high score there is another that has a high credit score, no debt, and plenty of savings.

Switch lines if you want, but if you don't start landing fish correctly then you're going to be dissappointed in a LOT of different lines.