Comments on: April ’08 Net Worth Monthly Review

By: robert

robert — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:44:27 +0000

jim: I need your advise I have a few insurance policy’s that grow in cash value. I asked my insurance co. for the actual cash value of each policy and they wont tell me.
They will however let me borrow money on my policy and I have done so at only 7-8% interest/year. and have long ago paid that off. I think it was great . Is there a standard formula to calculate the cash value of a life insurance policy or would it be so difficult to comprehend that I would get lost in all the devil in the details. I know my money gets invested every year with that in mind what would they invest in to make me money to acumulate cash value… that would be part of my net worth it just something nice to know.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:20:02 +0000

Saladdin: Of course

By: saladdin

saladdin — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:43:06 +0000

Jim,
I feel silly asking (because I know you will) but will you keep us up on your tankless experience? I’m considering it also. One bathroom is on the opposite side of the house as the waterheater and takes a good 45 seconds to get hot water.

saladdin

By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:47:22 +0000

Look at Morningstar's Instant X-Ray as well - it's fantastic.

By: Llama Money

Llama Money — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:39:24 +0000

With the tankless heaters, just make sure to do your homework. They’re rated in flow rate, gallons per minute I believe. Most places that sell them will help you estimate your usage, so that you buy a powerful enough model. If you use up to 8 GPM, you don’t want a 5GPM unit, or you’ll have that fun scalding / freezing switch that fred experienced.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:54:20 +0000

Sounds like you’re on track and planning ahead!
To address a small part of your article:
We have a tankless water heater, our second, about 2 years old now, and are very happy with it. You have to expect some differences, such as time for the water to heat up, but overall we like it. Having an up-to-date faucet with built in temp regulation (?) really helps in the shower. You also can always install a recirculating pump, on a timer, if you want instant hot water.
If I were doing it over, I might have opted for a solar water heater and kept the big water heater/tank. Toss up which is more efficient. Check them out before you buy. And, of course, do it before it’s an emergency

By: CK

CK — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:58:07 +0000

Make sure you know where the shutoffs are for the water heater just in case they’re needed. And test them out to make sure they actually work.

By: fred@opc

fred@opc — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:41:29 +0000

I just had my first experience showering with hot water from with a tankless water heater system. Overall, the experience was negative. Our family stayed at my Aunt’s and Uncle’s new lake house. The house had awesome shower systems – water pressure and flow were so high I expect each shower was fed by a full 1/2″ pipe. If only one shower was running at any time, there was plenty of hot water. But, at one point on the vacation, two of us were taking showers -1 in the master bath, and 1 in the guest bath, and the tankless system simply couldn’t keep up – but instead of both of us getting warm water, the water cycled from very hot to very cold every 9-10 seconds or so. If you go with a tankless model (which make a LOT of sense from an efficiency perspective) make sure you get one that can really handle your water requirements. Also, check how the system will perform under stress: will the water simply be a little less hot (better) or will it cycle from hot to cold (worse).