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I have not worked for the past 13 years, I have done some substitute teaching here and there as part time work though...

I have a portfolio of stocks and fixed income investments that have provided me with a comfortable living....that is until the last 3 years........ in those 3 years I have had the fear of Gawd put into me....

LV does a number of things for me....1st it cuts my monthly expenses.....as I was able to take the equity out of my SO CAL house and buy an equally nice and bigger home than I had in CA for essentially cash......allthough I will carry a fairly large mortgage here at under 6% I have and will be able to invest the remainder of my proceeds into fixed income INVESTMENT grade prefered stocks, and corporate bonds at 7% to 8.125%. As interest rates move up I will be able to get an even better rate of return...while the mortgage remains the same...

2nd....by taking the pressure off my remaining liquid assets, hopefully in the next couple of years they will be able to rebound at a better rate than if I had remained in the same location.

3rd...This was a premptive move on my part........while I could remain in CA for and indefinate period of time....if the market didn't rebound for several more years......there might be a time when I was forced to sell the home I was in....at that time the housing market might have gone South on me...So I got out while the going was good... The state of CA doesn't look good financially wt a 37 Billion $ deficeit....a liberal state gov. and legislature.......meaning more and higher taxes....thus driving out business and slowing the state economy....

4th LV has 6000 people a month relocating here....with about 5 more years of growth...land & water available.....which helps diversify the local economy from just gambling and tourism.... which means that the appreciation on property will probably remain high long after CA's tops out.....I moved into an area with 16% appreciation for the last 2 years running....and the house I am in will probably do 20% in the next year...

5th NO state income tax, and lower cost of living.......

6th....was due for a change....I had lived in my CA home for nearly 13 years... wanted to go to a 1 story house.... get away from the congestion in SO CAL etc...

Over here I will probably find a job of some kind....I might even be able to achieve my career goal as a kid of being a mens room attendent... thats a joke BTW.