I bought my first house in 1976 and my dad told me to pay it off asap, in 1988 it was paid off. My dad never ever steered me wrong
$1,300+ monthly payment????!!!!!!
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Ok first of all, what do you want your living environment to be. You can go to the middle of nowhere and pay no tax, fund nobody, and be happy, or you can buy a normal home in a normal place with a normal school and pay a normal tax. Most people would pick living in civilization with free K12 education for all because this reduce crime, attracts good neighbors who raise normal families, and today this also includes community colleges at low cost.
If most places on earth provide free K12 education and very low cost community college equivalent to most, I'd say this is a good idea.
I would use the word "service".
People like to live in nice places, and pay to get the services they wanted with the nice places. You can get K12 education and library, running water and sewer, electric grid and natural gas piped into your house. How cool is that? Sure you have to pay 1.5% of your home price in property tax but that's a very nice life you get living in civilization vs a cave in the mountain.
Community college is K12+, I'd consider that if my kids want to save money and transfer to a good 4 year college after the first 2 years.
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So you are trash talking the world renowned Stanford Univeristy..... What would you call the better alternative in 2023?
I want to say I have all the respect in the world for higher education. I've donated time and money to universities. I don't want to beat this to death, but the USA is top notch - because people are self driven and the schools are great.
My comments are more directed at the indoctrination lower grades, where the core is NOT reading, writing and arithmetic. The USA is suffering for this and we keep piling on with the useless stuff.
My comments are more directed at the indoctrination lower grades, where the core is NOT reading, writing and arithmetic. The USA is suffering for this and we keep piling on with the useless stuff.
For me a better alternative would be an institution that doesn't indoctrinate my kids with their Marxist teachings and charges me a premium for doing so. What is being done with today's educational institutions that built up their reputation over decades or even centuries is the same as was done with reputable brands. Names taken for their recognition and slowly gutted, cheapened and changed to something totally different.
The solution is not attacking those that point out what is happening and taking it personally. Otherwise, well the story of universities will be most likely be quite similar to the name brands your parents/grand parents used to swear by.
Education is a business and to get degree it has some crap useless credits / fees / overpriced books, etc… needed to graduate.
Luckily your daughter is in a good career field.
I agree with you, although I would say, all the kvetching here about bad money decisions DID wake me up to the fact that I was doing it wrong. So, yelling at the clouds might not work 99% of the time--but maybe it has value. Maybe once in a while, these long threads, someone does help someone change their ways. One never knows. [But it usually is preaching to the choir, no doubt.]
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For my kids I try very hard to explain consequences. I probably don't talk enough about decisions--but I do try to hammer home consequences. If you do this, what will happen? Think 2 steps ahead not one.
Drove my father bonkers when he'd ask us a question and we'd respond with "what?" He'd invariably yell "OPEN YOUR EARS!" It was not outright anger but he just did not like us NOT paying attention to what was going on around us. Hyperfocusing on one thing while tuning out everything else... has its place but not everyplace. I've not quite done that with my kids but I've delighted in making them jump--means they weren't paying attention to the world around them. Maybe someday keeping their eyes and ears open will translate into "always be processing new information".
When I take the kids out driving, for driving lessons, I invariably will point to some pedestrian and "see that guy? ok, I want you to aim for him." Makes them think and question. And build their thought process. They will always be presented with bad decisions and bad encouragement.
Heh, when my daughter was younger, I used to stump her. I'd tell her something outrageous to do, and she'd respond "no", and I'd be like "YOU"RE TELLING YOUR FATHER NO?!" She just couldn't wrap her head around that one. Now when I do it she gets a defiant look when she knows that no is the right answer--and has no problem telling me "no". She knows it's a joke now, but I can see the spark of confidence growing.
I didn't realize it at the time but when I thought I wanted to have kids, it wasn't kids that I wanted--I wanted to make adults. Kids were part of the process, and a fun bit of life, but when I wanted to reproduce beings like my wife and myself, beings capable of enjoying emotions and life, what I really wanted to make was adults. The end goal wasn't little kids that never grew up, it wasn't 18 and out of my house--it was 18-20-whatever--and ready to take on the world. Not sure I've done a good job at it, I think I realized this bit late in the process, but as they head into late teens it is becoming a joy to watch them make adult decisions.
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Yes. She tells me one hospital right now is offering $75/hour plus benefits. I am sure you have to have a Bachelors degree and more than 12 months full time experience.
Even at $40/ hr starting, that is huge.
I think we can all send our kids to wherever we want, there is nothing wrong with that. I am not against you sending your kids wherever you want at all.
However, regardless of political ideology, there is usually a quantifiable way to measure whether a school is good or not, especially the higher education like universities. Despite us not liking China or Russia, we can agree that Beijing / Qinghua University, and University of Moscow / Saint Petersberg are top-notch in the world. This is not something a communist hating capitalist would disagree or else his personal credibility would be tarnished. I am sure a capitalism hating communist in USSR would still agree that Stanford of today is a good school.
So, what is your reputable alternative to Stanford or other top notch US university?
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I feel I may have figured this out. In our times we basically felt when we pass away, our assets go to: heirs, charity, and a taxing authority.
Today, I believe people not only think they will leave nothing to anyone, but they'll pass away with debt.
Once a person is ok with the 2nd case, a $97k car and $1300/mo. is holding back. Why not get that car payment north of $5k? We only live once.
Seriously, if a person buys into the you can't take it with you mantra, there's no reason to not have that Ferrari a person always wanted, on a $50k/year salary.
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It kills me how many people talk about elite education, and never point out that an elite education costs less than a local state university.
I have a colleague to whom PENN was basically free (other than room and board), because he and his wife's income at the time was < $60k. And it's still cheap if a household has less than $250k/year income. The only thing is assets drive the cost up.
At any rate, the acceptance was 39% in my time, and likely < 8% today. You can look up the 39% and guess my age. I'm not "that" old. Well, I don't think that I am
My payment is $1200/mo, but it's fun as hell and saves me $500/mo in gas, so the "footprint" is the same as a $700 note, even if the performance is still "$12-1800". Just gotta be savvy!
Maybe he could learn drafting, specifically for a land surveying company? I work in the field, surveying and I picked this career, not because it pays well (it's okay but nowhere near other trades) but there is always work. It is often hard for them to find employees both inside and outside the office.
Did you attend Stamford recently? How do you know kids are being indoctrinated with Marxist ideas? I've spent the last decade hearing the same thing but I was 20 years out of school so I really didn't have any idea if it was correct. Now that I'm matriculating at a very liberal University again I can say I have seen ZERO evidence of these Marxist teachings from either the faculty or fellow students.
This is very important. And a lot of people overlook this. We all want high pay, and at the same time, doing something we love to do. But most of the time that simply is not possible.
The demand just isn't there. (Depending where you want to live). And often the result is you end up being the highest paid unemployed person in the room. That can create a lot of anxiety. Especially over time.
Sporadically making a lot of money, coupled with long downtime is not a recipe for overall long term success. The person who accepts a trade that pays somewhat less, but always has a job to go to, along with a paycheck to cash every week, will finish ahead in life. And many times will finish faster with an earlier, more satisfying retirement.
My girlfriend goes to UM. I won't say their teachings are Marxist, but they place a huge emphasis on "being offended" and "victimhood" and all sorts of stuff , and there is a decidedly anti-American slant to things. Also, the classes are hilariously worthless for the $$$$$$$$ that place charges. In short, local community college > UM, IMO, after sitting in on a few of her Master's level courses.
You also have to accept that if a career/job is so bloody fun and enjoyable, it probably has plenty of applicants and the value of the applicant will be low. Do the jobs noone else can do, or wants to do. That is where the money is, more often than not.
It truly boggles my mind. They're going to turn out a bunch of kids who won't be able to handle difficult things. That's where people like me come in, to get things done. I kindof appreciate them for ensuring my future value!
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