Congrats to you and yours, Steve!!!!!

My rave is this: last week the owner of the gallery gave me my bonus for the year - a 100 ounce, .999 Fine Silver Ingot that his father bought at the beginning of the silver craze in the early '80's as an investment. His father died about six months ago and he inherited it. He thought I might be able to use it for my jewelry, but I have no way to process it down into a usable form. He also said he understood if I ended up cashing it in instead. Well, I cashed it in at a place in Albuquerque yesterday and got $1650.00 (the exchange took $50 for the fee)! Silver spot price is about $17 per ounce; it was a little higher a few years back, but has also been as low as $14 per ounce recently. It has been stable at around $17 for awhile so I decided the money would do me better at this point instead of holding onto waiting to see if it gains value in the future.

There are a lot of things around the house that need fixing, and also future car down payment money is needed. It is so nice to be able to rebuild my money market emergency savings account after all the spending it has seen since August!