spartyon8

Those of you who like the flashy swimmer, how important do you think the free swing of the blade is (connection to lead)? The reason I ask is I am about to modify a jig mold to pour my own but was going to cast the wire into the lead. Now I am rethinking it.

My dad has a mule and I put it through the paces this weekend clearing trails, logging timber, etc. in the NC foothills and I was quite impressed!

I wish it would have been taught as well. I did have a class that discussed bank accounts, balancing checkbooks, and intro to the stock market where we just picked stocks and monitored growth. What we really needed in high school was filling out job applications, setting up deductions and filing taxes. I remember that being the most confusing part of high school as I began my working/adult life. As always, thank you gentlemen!

I sent a message to our business manager and our account with Lincoln Financial includes consultations like this and I already have one schedule for next week. I learned the hard way about credit cards years ago! It stinks that a lot of the world today only accepts them.

I am currently 41 and the house is in my wife's name as she already had it when we got married. We have 11 years and some change left to pay on it. Our plan is to turn it into a rental property and she gets full pension with the state in 10 years (public school teacher). Health for both is good to great with nothing foreseeable. We do have 1 son but weren't planning on saving to leave anything. We want to enjoy our passions in retirement with opening a small event venue or such in the mountains. My wife is a great planner, hostess, server, extrovert, years of experience in the business before we met etc. and that truly is her strength. I am quite handy and enjoy building and creating. We were thinking of an old farm and rehabbing into a business. At this point, that is the dream not necessarily a reality and we know it. She opened my IRA statement the other day and asked what it was as I never really talked about it given how short of a time and I never put into it. This created a conversation with questions I couldn't answer so I thought I would reach out to the board as I know watching from afar has given great financial advice to those seeking to buy boats and discuss retirement. Does anyone know roughly the cost to talk to a financial planner would be for this type of thing? That might be something we pursue as our conversations about retirement are becoming more frequent. I also am going to look into what maxing out my 403b would do to our monthly finances. I would assume that might be a bigger change to my paycheck and monthly bills than the extra $100-$200 in play/fun/family money.

Thanks for your input gentleman! My extra cash typically goes to dinners out, extra activities with the family, etc. when we get "bored" or just feel like it. My wife banks all of her extras into savings. That is why I was saying $1-200 every other week probably won't be too noticeable for us. I also should have been more complete in my description, it is in fact a Roth IRA.

Long story short: I used to teach in the Diocese of Chicago for a few years. When I left, they forced me to take my retirement and put it into a private account so I chose an IRA. It was a small amount of $10,000ish. I moved to a diocese in NC after that and have my separate retirement plan (403b) through them. I just received my IRA statement and it is sitting at $15,000 and I have not once added to it. It always just sat in the background of my finances thinking that there is nothing to do with it. I was wondering if I should be investing more into that IRA instead of letting it sit in the background. Based on my finances (Catholic school educator's small salary), I am able to play with maybe $100-$200 each paycheck (biweekly) and not notice much of a difference with day to day expenses. My wife and I have some pretty lofty dreams of our retirement given a conversation we had recently and then my statement came and it got me thinking. If any of you are smarter in this area I would love to hear some "free" advice.

It turned out to be way easier than I thought. Dowco included snaps as well as little black inserts (think drywall anchors) that fit into the channel under the rub rail. The only probIem I had is the fasteners across the bow use twistlock snaps which I didn't already have on the boat. I ordered some to finish it up. I also took webbing straps that were supplied and added snaps to mount around the frame instead of dealing with routing straps each time. It turned out pretty well. Thanks everyone!

Have any of you intalled snaps into the boat rails? The new cover is coming with snaps installed but I don't have any in the boat. Didn't know if there were any tips floating around as I couldn't find any on YouTube.

My echo 590 is a beast. It's been redneck tuned and I chainsaw mill with it. That has been one of my better purchases of the past decade!

The flooding across the NC mountains is insane. Boone, Blowing Rock, Asheville and many more are all flooded. Here in Yadkinville, NC it wasn't bad but the river is HIGH!

I inquired to about a half dozen makers near lake norman and high rock lake. Nothing was cheaper than $1,200 with the avg being around $1,500. That is too rick for my blood. Order one from Dowco and will have to try my best to keep the leaves and direct sunlight off as much as possible.

I am in total agreement but because of the pie shape to our land and the house being built into a hill, we just don't have the ability to do that. Other than excavating our backyard and putting up a "cheap" aluminum building, it just isn't in the cards financially.

I would love a trailerable cover but if that means double the cost it isn't a necessity. Boat sits outside year round in our driveway. My biggest concern is the NC hummidty that sticks around for a while and the occasional snow we get on the western side of the Piedomnt/ foot hills.

I wasn't going to buy an over the counter cover. I was going to order the one made specifically as a dealer option tailored to my boat model, or a custom one. I was just wondering if others out there have factory covers made by dowco and how they liked them vs going the custom route.

I am in the need for a new cover for my 2012 G3 Angler 185 and am unsure of the route to go. The OEM cover is made by Dowco and includes snaps and poles (mine never had the snaps installed on the boat so that would need to be done). Or do I go the custom route? OEM cost is roughly $700 and I have one quote for a custom cover at $1200. If custom, any recommendations in the piedmont area of NC?

I believe that is the actual name of the city as well. My wife met a friend of a friend from there and he sent us a sticker from a local store...pretty funny.

I haven't used that one but have bought from them a few times. Those transactions were great.

I should put some more time on the west side. It is hard to not hit docks hard as they are everywhere one th east side. I also struggle with convincing myself to run away from the north side of the lake. I have yet to catch a bass south of the 150 bridge. Water is too clear for me.

My biggest producer on Norman is a ned rig in watermelon red or green pumpkin. My biggest bass came off a texas rigged tube after a storm on the north end of the lake near the Duke Energy park. In fact, my only success is on the north end of the lake.

Welcome from Yadkinville!

My favorite place in the world is the Chippewa Flowage up near Hayward, WI. Anywhose...cabin for me but if the wife allowed it it's what she says.

My only yzh issue is that I can't find the smoke color anymore.

I edc a Benchmade Griptilian and a Leatherman Rev. I also have a Benchmade Bugout but find the Griptilian better in the hands which gets used everyday.

I like both better than Fleetwood.