How Home Equity Can Help Fuel Your Retirement

  How Home Equity Can Help Fuel Your Retirement If retirement is on the horizon, now’s the time to start thinking about your next chapter. And you probably want to make sure you’re set up to feel comfortable financially to live the life you want in retirement. What you may not realize is you likely have a hidden goldmine of cash you’re not thinking about — and that’s your home.  Data  from the  Federal Housing Finance Agency  (FHFA) shows that home values have gone up nearly 60% over the last 5 years alone (see graph below): And that appreciation gave your net worth a big boost. According to  Freddie Mac , over the same five-year period: “ . . .  Boomer overall wealth increased by $19 trillion, or $486,000 per household, half of which is due to house price appreciation.” So if you’ve been in your house ever longer than that, chances are you have even more equity in your home. If you want to have access to more of the wealth you’ve built up throughout t...

A TO DO LIST YOU WILL LOVE: May Gardening Tips



Be thankful for the sunshine again and things beginning to grow in the garden!

  • Harden off transplants.
  • Sow lots of flowers & herbs for the bees and wild pollinators to increase biodiversity.
  • Transplant the warm season crops mid-month or earlier with hoop tunnel or frost protection and add compost or seasoil under each plant. 
  • Transplant the remaining brassicas and add compost under each plant. Sow lettuce and radishes around brassicas as a bumper crop until plants get larger.
  • Continue succession sowing the ‘come and cut again’ greens after the May heat wave for June (many usually bolt by now).
  • Harvest early spring crops. Pull up any overwintered veggies and replace with transplants. 
  • Be super excited not to worry about last spring frost. Our last frost is May 20th although it’s often end of April. Early May I always expect a frost and have heavy weight row cover handy to cover plants if needed.
  • Create a good watering rhythm in the mornings. 
  • Keep an eye for bolting plants and pests. Constant vigilance is the best gardening technique!
  • Sow flowers for companion planting and to attract beneficial insects and bees.
  • Thin out plants so they have space to grow and use thinnings in a salad or stir fry.
  • Keep up with bi-weekly weeding.
  • Direct sow any warm season crops if not growing transplants (bean, corn etc). Only seed bolt resistant lettuce varieties.
  • Continue composting.

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