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I am sure you are being facetious but I would not like to live there due to the heat, humidity, the culture or lack of it and the reputation for very poor quality of healthcare.
Many of my Engineering friends who are still working are now choking on college costs. Their kids tend to be very smart and get into good schools but because their family incomes are above average, they get very little financial aid. The scholarships help but not enough.
They are having a hard time saving for retirement.
And you live in Colorado Springs. Can you imagine the situation of living in a truly high cost area? I did some studies several years ago. Living in a high cost area can mean your COL is 50-75% greater than the national averages. Actually I think that is an understatement, but anyway, incomes for those areas are likely to be only 30-40% above the national average.
But there is more, high progressive taxes.
As you point out there is another factor that hits many of us and that is the high cost of college without financial aid. Financial aid is not adjust by COL. I would have done really well with my income in an average COL area. Living in a high COL area, my income was marginal for a middle class living standard but a bit over the amount needed for any financial aid. My daughter worked hard and in 6 years completed a double degree and a masters from Johns Hopkins. You can only imagine what that cost me and how it reduced my retirement funds. Now I definitely need my social security income and I get real angry when I hear people like Kasich talk about cutting benefits especially for the "wealthy." I am getting by but somehow I fear I will end up in the wealthy category again.
Sure since you live in an economically depressed area it sounds funny. If your friends, family and roots were in the Maryland suburbs of DC instead of living in Baltimore you might understand. Even in retirement it takes an above average income just to get by.
Now I definitely need my social security income and I get real angry when I hear people like Kasich talk about cutting benefits especially for the "wealthy." I am getting by but somehow I fear I will end up in the wealthy category again.
The problem is that they keep lowering the bar for who they classify as "wealthy".
It's not millions anymore..it's a mere $250K a year if you are working.
I can't tell you how many times I got hit with the AMT at tax time.
That AMT was for the wealthy, the truly rich to get extra money out of them.
$52K triggers the AMT.
That AMT magically worked its way down to middle class folks.
And the bulk of the AMT tax is collected from the middle class, not the wealthy.
So it doesn't serve the government to really and truly fix it.
And you live in Colorado Springs. Can you imagine the situation of living in a truly high cost area? I did some studies several years ago. Living in a high cost area can mean your COL is 50-75% greater than the national averages. Actually I think that is an understatement, but anyway, incomes for those areas are likely to be only 30-40% above the national average.
But there is more, high progressive taxes.
As you point out there is another factor that hits many of us and that is the high cost of college without financial aid. Financial aid is not adjust by COL. I would have done really well with my income in an average COL area. Living in a high COL area, my income was marginal for a middle class living standard but a bit over the amount needed for any financial aid. My daughter worked hard and in 6 years completed a double degree and a masters from Johns Hopkins. You can only imagine what that cost me and how it reduced my retirement funds. Now I definitely need my social security income and I get real angry when I hear people like Kasich talk about cutting benefits especially for the "wealthy." I am getting by but somehow I fear I will end up in the wealthy category again.
I hear you. My kids went to Columbia and MIT.
Those are both crazy expensive schools. But what do you do when you have encouraged your kids to study hard and they actually get into a good school? Tell them to go to a community college?
So I squeezed hard and just paid for their undergrad degrees.
At least they were able to pay for grad school themselves.
Also, luckily the COL here is at about the median for the country. We also have low taxes.
But it gets worse.
So now, with those degrees, they moved to San Francisco because that's where the good jobs are located. It's a place where a median house costs $1M. So there is no way for us to move near our grandchildren. But luckily, a flight from DEN to SFO is not very expensive.
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