PCBourbon

I am looking for something different this year and looking for ideas/suggestions for this summer or a possible Thanksgiving vacation. Details below: wife and kids (19 & 14) we all have passports and TSA pre-check.

Traveled to before: St. John (USVI) and Cayman Islands as a family for each. We enjoyed both and each trip we rented homes (VRBO) vs a resort. We enjoyed both, but all of us will say St. John was the best. Not against returning to St. John, but wanted other suggestions.

Typical trip: Lots of beach days, have rented boats to view the island, typically rent a vehicle and drive around the island vs taking taxis/ubers. We will eat out about half the time, but don't mind cooking at rent house (assuming we do that again vs a resort).

My 19 year old daughter is wanting an Ipad for college, while i do not think it is truly needed since her 2 year old laptop is working fine and i am leaning to getting her one for Christmas and BD combo gift.

Any recommendations on the Ipad type ? She has an Iphone and iwatch currently. Her laptop is not an Apple.


Thanks in advance.....

I smoked about a pack a day from 1997-2011… Last one was on 12/31/2011 around 11:00 pm.. I wanted kids and wanted to stop before trying.. I changed my habits and tried to not drink for 2-4 weeks (drinking & smoking easy way to fail)… Have not even had a drag of a cigarette since 2011..

My son was born in November of 2012, so it worked !

September 18th is the next meeting and projected rate cut day.

Has anyone been to the above near Vernon, Florida? Going to Blue Miuntain Beach for a week and looking at this place as a break from the beach for a day. Looks like it’s about 45 minutes from Blue Mountain. Would be taking about 6 kids with ages ranging from 6-14 years old

I believe Hancock Whitney has a 1 time close construction loan option. I would explore this if they still offer it.

Keep in mind I only commercial loans now, so not the best source on where to get unsecured personal loans. A quick google search is showing Lending tree with up to $50k unsecured loans. I would read the fine print and see how much you can qualify for. Keeping it unsecured will hurt your repayment terms, meaning you can only probably go 4-5 years in length vs longer with a home equity option.

I would still strongly suggest going an unsecured option. Keeping the term short will give you a high monthly note, but you want it like that. Keeping it short will hurt, but it should so you can get rid of it quicker.

If you don't quality for the full amount then consider refinancing whatever has the worst terms (higher interest rate, maturing soon, etc).

Good luck

Few things from a banker:

-A HELOC is a floating rate line of credit that is secured with your home (secured). Some banks might offer a teaser rate, but that rate will go up and will be variable.
-If you truly want a home equity option (would not be my 1st or 2nd option) you probably want a Home equity loan, which gives you a fixed rate vs a floating rate (HELOC).
-You did not disclose what the $52k in debt was, so assuming it is cc debt then that is debt is probably unsecured. I would explore other options than securing a new loan with your home as collateral

My son is turning 11 next month and is wanting one of the above (not both). He has a Switch currently for about 2 years, but seems to play on it less.

Most of his friends have either of the above. Thanks in advance..

The sea grass was mainly near shore, so only had to walk maybe 10-15 yards out to get past it. Our house had kayaks which made it easy to snorkel all around the shore near the house at Rum Point. The reefs were pretty good by our house.

Yes you need to rent a car. Not many cabs and no Ubers there. Get ready to go thru many roundabouts, not many red lights out there. Not sure about renting a boat. We just had a charter.