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Also, from same engineer's blog. The guy who PuppiesandKittens says cannot afford to pay for his kids' college is in fact planning on paying for it in cash:
Quote:
But maybe college prices will continue to rise, and maybe our children will choose to attend one of the more expensive options, and maybe they won’t save any money during their 18 years, and maybe they won’t qualify for any scholarships. If this perfect storm of college expense hell were to occur, 19 years from now, we’ll just pay cash. Even 529 plans don’t seem very interesting. $200k of inflation adjusted dollars in 2 decades requires putting only $55k in the market today. It looks like we’ve already saved for college before we even have kids. Compound interest is a wonderful thing
Hey if I could have afforded it I would have retired at 18 years old and enjoyed a life of leisure. The majority of us work to make a living not because we are able-bodied and should.
Actually, most of the people who achieve early financial independence don't live lives of leisure. Some tried it and found it boring after a few months or years. The point is they look for projects that they are passionate about and they work on those. And they do it at their time and pace, not an employer's.
My concern is providing for college. A college degree is pretty much a requirement for any entry-level job. That’s not me projecting; it’s a fact.
If the engineer worked then he could afford this.
Since he’s not working, he can’t afford it. Either he child will incur debt fornit or the college will give financial aid, imposing the cost on others. Neither of those is fair.
Lazy father. Shameful.
Who's to say they won't be able to afford college? Or that you have to pay $250k to get your kid a good college education?
Like I said, you made a lot of assumptions and/or are reading things into it that aren't there.
Maybe he'll teach his kid to be an entrepreneur instead of a worker bee? Ever think of that?
I think it's incredibly shameful of you to judge and make such negative assumptions about people you don't even know.
Nope. You're conflating income with net worth, if his lifestyle requires an income of 55k then that is what he lives on, that fact cannot by itself be used to determine whether he can afford to spend more. This article here is about the same guys says they have multi millions. In his blog he also states their net worth has increased by another million over the last four years while they've been traveling. By the time his kid is 18 they will probably have added a few million more, because they have a withdrawal rate that is quite low which (usually) leads to strong portfolio growth.
I submit they can easily afford even the high-end college numbers you're throwing around, and would add that very few working folks could afford those kind of tuition numbers for their kids either. So in great irony you are being critical of him for not being able to send his kid to college, when he can probably send his kid to a more expensive college than 90% of people still working.
Your problem wasn't math, it was logic.
They’re lying about their net worth.
You can’t work for 10 years on a maximum $135,000 salary and have multi-millions. Even with some Microsoft stock. Someone working at Microsoft and being paid around $60k would not have gotten much in stock.
You can’t work for 10 years on a maximum $135,000 salary and have multi-millions. Even with some Microsoft stock. Someone working at Microsoft and being paid around $60k would not have gotten much in stock.
Like I've said, the naysayers always say the same things:
--That's impossible.
--They're lying.
--They're bragging (if/when the person actually shows the details of how they did it).
--They must live in abject poverty and will have to for their whole lives.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 12-16-2018 at 06:32 PM..
Like I've said, the naysayers always say the same things:
--That's impossible.
--They're lying.
--They're bragging (if/when the person actually shows the details of how they did it).
Do a retirement calculator and see for yourself. There are plenty available online.
Assume that they worked for 13 years (ages 22 to 35) for a combined $135,000 salary. (That is overly generous, since they didn’t make that much and worked for a shorter period).
Just how much could they have accumulated in assets during that period? Deduct taxes and living expenses for 2 to 3 people.
Even assume that they invested it all in US stocks in a low-cost index fund and assume that a portion of the assets consists of a stock grant by Microsoft (to a relatively low-level employee).
Then see how much would be available for an estimated 45 year retirement, minus costs of raising a child, and assume $55k per year is spent.
The numbers don’t add up.
I’ve worked for longer, supporting just me and have made more and it would be foolish for someone like me to retire.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PuppiesandKittens
They’re lying about their net worth.
You can’t work for 10 years on a maximum $135,000 salary and have multi-millions. Even with some Microsoft stock. Someone working at Microsoft and being paid around $60k would not have gotten much in stock.
It’s not impossible.
I knew someone who made that kind of money as an engineer in the Bay Area and bought a bunch of cheap houses at the low point in Oakland. Not in the best area either. If you have good credit you can buy multiple houses each year. He was buying them at about 60k each. He had 15 of them. Within about 5 years they were worth about 250k each. That’s almost a gain of $3,000,000 in half that time. Not saying it’s easy to do, but it is possible and a lot of people only look at the more conventional methods.
In 10 years the value had hit about 500k each, quite possibly more. That’s a gain of of about $6,500,000 in 10 years.
Quite a rare feat, but not impossible. I knew a few others that retires early doing similar things in real estate.
Well that's easy isn't it? When nothing sticks that you're trying to throw just announce you've decided it must be fake.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PuppiesandKittens
Do a retirement calculator and see for yourself. There are plenty available online.
They didn't have a kid at the time and were living on 2k per month, that would allow them to save a very high amount every month, which combined with much of that time being during one of the greatest bull markets in history makes it quite possible. They have a graph of their stash here:
Quote:
Originally Posted by PuppiesandKittens
I’ve worked for longer, supporting just me and have made more and it would be foolish for someone like me to retire.
I think that's where the problem is, you can't do it so can't imagine anyone else can and if they do they must be lying.
Also, from same engineer's blog. The guy who PuppiesandKittens says cannot afford to pay for his kids' college is in fact planning on paying for it in cash:
He says that he’ll have $200k available in 19 years to pay.
Full-pay tuition today is already $250k. College has more than doubled in price over the past 20 years.
So he’ll likely have only a fraction of the tuition available.
Well that's easy isn't it? When nothing sticks that you're trying to throw just announce you've decided it must be fake.
They didn't have a kid at the time and were living on 2k per month, that would allow them to save a very high amount every month, which combined with much of that time being during one of the greatest bull markets in history makes it quite possible. They have a graph of their stash here:
I think that's where the problem is, you can't do it so can't imagine anyone else can and if they do they must be lying.
YOU map out their financials. Then come back to me. Don’t take what they say at face value without verifying it yourself.
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