Bogleheads.org

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for those who suggest buying used i would normally agree... BUT, he said Alaska. I have family there & have been there many times. People are very hard on their vehicles and so is the climate. Tim If that is the case, more reason to not spend $45k on a toy. The big upside to a 4-runner is its p...

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And, BTW, there are plenty of ways to make more than $35,000 a year without a four year degree in anything. That’s not a very high bar and not a very good living. When I was in college living with roommates, I spent $180/month on rent, food was cheap, healthcare was free, and I drove a beater Japan...

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I have heard more good things about RoseH than I would expect for a school of its size. Ski Terre Haute! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IPgGmLexzY [Before there was Photoshop. I always thought it was real, albeit staged, until now.] Some say it's one of the Big 3 Tech schools, and some consider i...

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There is a known phenomenon where divorce rates spike when married couples suddenly start spending more time with each other, such as when the last kid goes off to college or upon retirement. Given the amount of time you two have lived apart, if I were in your shoes, I would consider really living ...

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1) Cars are appliances - nothing more. Don't waste money on them, no one cares what you drive. 2) Function over style in homes. Who cares if you live in an HGTV home. It is a waste of money at the end of the day 3) When you have a kid, do whatever in the heck works. If that means sleeping in your r...

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FWIW, we prioritized paying off the home (which we did nearly a year ago) before opening a taxable account. Now at 39 and 35, with a paid off home and kids 529s fully funded to cover 4yrs at local U, and nearly 95% of our (near 7-figure) portfolio in tax-advantaged accounts, we do regret prioritizin...

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cowbman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 12:11 pm
tj wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:04 pm
cowbman wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:01 pm Made a decision. Gave spouse 2 all the money, quit job, moved away. I feel so much better. Thanks for all the help.
What do you mean by this?
Exactly what I wrote. Packed a suitcase, got on a plane, gave spouse 2 all the financials. Deactivated myself from access.

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The number of people who show up on Bogleheads with high-earning careers whose only desire is to be able to quit their jobs and retire as soon as possible (ideally in their 30s) tells me just how many kids have been pushed through the system without any idea of who they really are and what they rea...

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I was a university professor at an R1 university for 31 years. My kids took AP classes in high school. I talked to MANY students in college that took AP classes. My conclusion - and that of most faculty - was that AP classes are a joke. You should not imagine that having a high school teacher teach...

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I was a university professor at an R1 university for 31 years. My kids took AP classes in high school. I talked to MANY students in college that took AP classes. My conclusion - and that of most faculty - was that AP classes are a joke. You should not imagine that having a high school teacher teach...

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The number of people who show up on Bogleheads with high-earning careers whose only desire is to be able to quit their jobs and retire as soon as possible (ideally in their 30s) tells me just how many kids have been pushed through the system without any idea of who they really are and what they rea...

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Chem 101 labs were the pits when I was in college. They're even more fun this year as they're doing their labs in their dorm rooms. :oops: I heard this the other day from a colleague whose son is a microbiology major at University of Michigan :oops: The school is even sending students propaganda ab...

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CardinalRule wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:36 pmLast night DW and I watched and enjoyed WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn a new movie on Hulu. Very timely, given WeWork's second attempt at going public.

WeWork was great, gave you something to think about regarding all these "tech" unicorns.

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I can fall back on what I used to and likely make more money, but career satisfaction will go down. I don't understand with a specialized skill set I make less than with my prior training (which is far more common). I guess I need to become a consultant... :? That's just not how business works, eit...

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I think it is simplistic to just consider money, let alone the specific absolute cost. Other factors do matter -- probably more than will be captured by any survey. I don't think anybody would argue this statement, it's a matter of degree. When the difference in cost between institutions could be <...

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If 40% of people who go to college don't graduate, then perhaps the primary factor should be finding the best fit between school, student, and major... People caring about "fit" are typically already in the class of people whose kids graduate in four years because they don't have to worry...

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That's astonishing your daughter had a 3.96 unweighted GPA (isn't that straight A's except for 1 or 2 courses?) and got into 50-100 ranked schools? Not dis-respecting Gonzaga, UO and WSU etc but these to me are not highly competitive colleges to get into. Maybe I'm missing something but do all kids...

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I can fall back on what I used to and likely make more money, but career satisfaction will go down. I don't understand with a specialized skill set I make less than with my prior training (which is far more common). I guess I need to become a consultant... :? That's just not how business works, eit...

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If 40% of people who go to college don't graduate, then perhaps the primary factor should be finding the best fit between school, student, and major... The #1 reason students drop out of college is lack of money. (To pre-empt "just go to community college then" -- this includes community ...

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Maybe I'm missing something but do all kids graduating get close to a 4.0 GPA? Even with today’s inflated grades, not for un weighted GPA. I guess schools that have 72 valedictorians probably have multiple 4.0s though. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/10/heres-how-my-graduat...

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Here in the Pacific Northwest my daughter got reasonable merit aid offers from Gonzaga, Whitman, Lewis & Clark, University of Oregon, Washington State, and University of Puget Sound. She got a less generous merit aid offer from Occidental College in CA. I wouldn't know what the exact equivalent...

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If 40% of people who go to college don't graduate, then perhaps the primary factor should be finding the best fit between school, student, and major... The #1 reason students drop out of college is lack of money. (To pre-empt "just go to community college then" -- this includes community ...

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6. Those who recommend Investing your extra cash flow (after maxing out tax deferred) in stocks instead of using that money to pay off your house are advocating by default to borrow money to invest in stocks. By this same logic should you borrow extra money beyond the value of your house to invest?...

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Maybe I'm missing something but do all kids graduating get close to a 4.0 GPA? Even with today’s inflated grades, not for un weighted GPA. I guess schools that have 72 valedictorians probably have multiple 4.0s though. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/10/heres-how-my-graduat...

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btq96r wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:03 amOh, and I live in the Nashville area, where U-Haul's from California seem to be getting tractor beamed into.

Found out yesterday that my new next-door neighbor (in Utah) moved here from California, that makes 5 of the 8 homes on my block owned by families who are California natives.

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My college years were formative and not just because of classes. The socialization, friendships and connections made have benefited me for decades. I hold a dim view of AP classes and online school. College is much more than just getting a class credit. I feel sorry for people who graduate with a d...

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I'm very confused as why there is a push against college, mainly from college educated people. Don't get me wrong the cost is extremely concerning, but the benefits of college vastly outweigh those of no college education. 529's aren't the end all be all and how to fund college should be far less m...

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Also keep in mind that he gets paid by Wealthfront, Lending Club, and RealtyShares. Does "Sam" ever actually acknowledge this - as a disclaimer - when he's hawking these entities? I once looked him up, saw an article om how 400K is not enough to live on in SF, laughed and never visited hi...

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Barely any people passed the AP classes when I was in high school. That was 10 years ago tho. The classes were way harder than the college equivalents I took later. Probably the two most difficult classes I ever took were AP classes in high school, and I have an "elite" undergrad and a Ph...

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And a personal note. I advance-placed out of freshman physics, and as a result I missed out on the famous demonstration involving the bowling ball suspended on a long wire. (The professor takes the ball and walks backward with it until their head is flat against the wall and the bowling ball is tou...

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I'm not sure how you feed a family of 4 on $25,000 a year. What type of jobs are you thinking of that are so easy to do part-time? Not that I think this is a good idea at all (we're a decade older, with 5x the assets and wouldn't remotely consider it right now ), but we're a family of 4 with total ...

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“This is a robbery” on Netflix I just started that. Feels like 4 episodes that could have been cut to one. You could be right. Although there are a lot of moving parts to the story that would be tricky to rush through too. In the end, we enjoyed it, but it helped a lot that we have visited the Gard...

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Very few families pay the sticker price. Even at much lower ranked universities, it's somewhat common to see them knock 10K or so off of their bill as an enticement for the family and student to believe that they're getting a deal, or some kind of recognition. In another college thread, there is a ...

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My social media feeds were filled with posts saying just "Dogecoin"; came here to see why. I see some of my intelligent and otherwise quite financially conservative friends getting heavily involved. I'm staying on the sidelines.

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I am seriously surprised by the number of people who say they regret paying off their mortgage. I get that the market has done great recently, but if you truly regret it, it is not an irreversible decision. What is stopping you from going out and taking a new mortgage? As I understand it you should...

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....unless this entire post/discussion was started as a term we call "gunner behavior" in med school, where you deliberately mislead other people from making the right choice, eliminating competition for select spots before they even know it. Nope. My kid is average. The ROI for spending ...

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Yes, you can. Just today, one of the employees, 2 levels below in my department showed me his pre-order Tesla truck today. He makes $25 an hour and his wife makes about the same. Sigh. Ehhh, one of my neighbors came home with a C8 the other day, he's a history teacher at the local high school and h...

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For reference, here is the latest professional study for the retirement savings by age: https://dqydj.com/retirement-savings-by-age/ Most people on this forum are definitely well beyond median numbers. The website provides a calculator to calculate your percentile. That is a very interesting link. ...

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This is really easy to say when money isn't an issue. Tell that to the "average" U.S. family. The average US family will pay none to attend the top privates in the US if their children is accepted. Has anybody said don't attend a top private if you are accepted and have minimal cost? I al...

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This might be surprising to some but money isn't everything in life. Say you want to research on robotic arms through neural implants. Good luck finding those jobs outside academia. Or these kinds of cool research projects currently at schools like Carnegie Mellon: (assistive robots for blind trave...

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But more seriously -- one of the harder nuts to crack in higher ed is how to acculturate first-generation students (neither parent with bachelor's) to the norms of college, which are instrumental in graduation rates, success, and so forth. Being around a peer group that 'just knows' how things are ...

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I'll give another perspective that shows just how hard "need" based aid is. Of course, this has probably changed over time, but when I was entering college in the early 1990's, it was expected that my parents (3 kids, I was the only one in college) should be paying some obscene amount of ...

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It works for some people and not for others. You have a 50% chance of them liking it and helping you or hating it :) As a seller in the past, I have asked the realtor to just toss the letters out. For me, this is a financial transaction, not a personal one (buying/selling a house). I know of severa...

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The most important constituent on this thread is not participating in it, that is the student, what do they want to do? In end, no matter what other people think, the kid who is going to college will form their own opinion. It's nice to have these conversations for parents to develop ideas, but wit...

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The most important constituent on this thread is not participating in it, that is the student, what do they want to do? In end, no matter what other people think, the kid who is going to college will form their own opinion. It's nice to have these conversations for parents to develop ideas, but wit...

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Another thing to consider is that in a STEM field your daughter will likely be able to corral some well paying internships in the summer. Our sons had internships all three summers after school years, and all paid over 8k per month. That makes a nice dent in the costs. Ding! Ding! Ding! There are i...

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^^^^THIS^^^^ Why all the secrecy? It is not like our kids are going to take your spot? School/major/aid should have all been in the first sentence. I may be wrong, but the first thought is because it isn't a school/program that may offer explainable benefits over other options and therefore posters...

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camden wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:48 am

Divorce (surprised no one had mentioned that yet). Very painful financially and in every other way. Avoid if you can.

Paying off (ex) wife's undergrad loans and cash-flowing her dental school. The divorce was relatively cheap in comparison.

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Paying off the mortgage is a form of forced savings, and indeed most Americans who go into retirement with any kind of savings have most of it in their house. Most people aren't disciplined enough to save what they would have put toward the mortgage payoff: the real decision is between 'pay down th...

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Won’t the frictionless proliferation of NFTs have a tendency to erode value. Historically, collectibles have been valuable because of rarity/controlled manufacture. I would think rapid proliferation would quickly eat up available dollars. Maybe that’s not a concern yet, but would seem to be a conce...

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