Recent content by ocjohn_IHB

We splurge about once a year at the sunday brunch at the Hyatt Newport Beach and went today to avoid the Mother's Day crowds next week. We were surprised to find out that the brunch was downsized with less offerings (no carving station and no shellfish etc.) but at a lower price of $25 per...

There are really three types of IRAs, the tax deductible IRA, the Roth IRA, and the non tax deductible IRA. If you can participate at a retirement plan at work, the tax deductible IRA has the lowest income phase out limit of around $50K for a single tax filer, while the Roth IRA phase out is...

Dependent care, whether it is a child or parent etc., is tax deductible in two ways. First, there is a maximum $5K limit in your flexible spending account that you select in October or November for the following year. This is a one for one tax deduction that reduces your income at the W-2 level...

My son has been with Miranda for a year now and we are pleased because we wanted to get more serious about finding a better instructor. I think she has a very strong referal business, and that is how we were able to find out about her.

I prefer to max out the 401(k) first. There a lot of sneaky phase outs to credits and deductions that increase your tax liability. By reducing your taxable income by $15K, you can get some of these back. At this level, you are not eligible for a traditional tax deductible IRA, but probably for a...

Judge Learned Hand wrote, "... there is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible" in 1947. You have the right to minimize your taxes by all legal methods.

<p>Updated handwritten pricing on 2/1/08</p> <p>Residence 1 - From $639,990</p> <p>Residence 2 - From $671,990</p> <p>Residence 3 - From $697,990</p>

<p>Phase 1 - September 12, 2006</p> <p>Lot 106 - Plan 2D - $1,070,990 Lot 111 - Plan 2CR - $1,076,990 Lot 112 - Plan 3CR - $1,169,990 Lot 114 - Plan 3ER - $1,65,990</p>

<p>Phase 1 - probably from August or September 2006</p> <p>Residence 1 - $973,730 Residence 2 - $1,043,000 Residence 3 - $1,095,900 </p>

<p>August 19, 2006 Original Phase 1 Pricing</p> <p>Homesite 31 - Plan 1ARX - $855,070 Homesite 57 - Plan 1A - $827,470 Homesite 38 - Plan 3BR - $950,450 Homesite 58 - Plan 3CR - $997,495 Homesite 39 - Plan 4BR - $952,080 Homesite 59 - Plan 4CR - $1,007,505</p> <p>It appears...

My bad - I meant Bowen Court instead of Cortile. Bowen Court is another Cal Pac courtyard style detached condo in a six house cluster. Decada is a four house cluster and Cortile, CPH again, is an eight house cluster.

<p>I visted both Decada and Cortile in Woodbury to check on the falling prices. I was surprised that Cortile is still expensive with their largest Plan 4 (1405sq ft) sold out on December 20 at $648,379. The much more desirable Decada Plan 4 (1750sq ft) was $668,646 with about $25K in options...

<p>The Village of Columbus handout indicates that the Kensignton Court models are in the more desirable Harvard locations, but the rest of the homes are in the Edinger side closer to the train tracks.</p>

<p>Last year I think it was a 3 floor 2BR Taylow Woodrow Homes condo, and the early bird prize was a seven series BMW. This year there are two Mini Coopers as the bonus raffle. The sneaky thing is the maximum tickets sold has crept up from 10K to 15K last year to 20K this year. I don't think...

<p>Plan 4 is this year's Irvine Public School Foundation House Raffle. The flyer in one of the secondary bedrooms for the raffle values the house "in the low $700,000." I think they were assuming to add $10K per phase to the original $670K price, but the boom times have passed. The official...