So how does a two-Fed family that gets fired send a kid to college?

[Anonymous]

You and husband get new jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

Many of us have all those things and more. We live under our means, save since birth and send our kids to state schools. No empathy for someone in a million dollar house, living it up and lots of vacations, fancy things, etc screaming poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

Many of us have all those things and more. We live under our means, save since birth and send our kids to state schools. No empathy for someone in a million dollar house, living it up and lots of vacations, fancy things, etc screaming poverty.

And no one here is doing that. It’s just something you are making up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

Many of us have all those things and more. We live under our means, save since birth and send our kids to state schools. No empathy for someone in a million dollar house, living it up and lots of vacations, fancy things, etc screaming poverty.

Cletus has entered the conversation.

[Anonymous]

Typically, you have to decide if it's worth it to take loans.

I had a change in circumstances during college. Granted, college was a lot cheaper back then but I took out some loans because I didn't feel it was a crippling amount-- I was partially done with college already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

Many of us have all those things and more. We live under our means, save since birth and send our kids to state schools. No empathy for someone in a million dollar house, living it up and lots of vacations, fancy things, etc screaming poverty.

Cletus has entered the conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

Nowhere is it said that there is no money saved for college. That that’s your takeaway/assumption says a lot about your desire to be condescending.

Well if you have a fully funded 529 for college for your kids, then you use it for college, that's the purpose, even if you "don't have your fed job anymore". You fund college with the savings while you continue to search for a new job for yourself. THat's the entire point of saving, so that if an "emergency happens" you still can make life happen

Ah, okay, so people are only worthy if they have managed to save enough to fully fund college for all of their kids, including by having enough foresight to accurately predict the extent of real increases in tuition and fees over two decades. Any less and they are deserving of condescension. Got it, makes total sense.

WTH is your problem? What do you mean by "people are only worthy"?

For majority of the world, life happens, if you have planned you get to go ahead with what you want, if not, you adjust and that might mean CC and transfer, or live at home and attend a nearby university (thus saving R&B).
It has not been difficult to accurately predict the real increases and tuition over the last 2 decades. 20+ years ago we sat down with our financial advisor (we could have also just googled and found this information), we estimated what instate would be, what mid level (we used UVA OOS for this, as we were in MD) and what T20/top privates would be. Our estimates were within $5K for all of them. College costs did not just randomly shoot up 25% one year---they have been routinely increasing.

And yes, this is why you plan in life. You have an emergency fund, you save for college, so that if the unthinkable happens (someone is without a job for whatever reason), you can still manage. And if you didn't plan, then you scramble and make the best of what you can do. And that may be CC to a 4 year or picking an instate school that gives your kid good merit as well.
But if you were making $300-400K (which most dual feds would be who have college aged kids) yes, you should have been saving and not planning to "cash flow" college. For precisely this reason---you never know what curveball life throws you. So when you have it "good" it makes sense to save.
And if you don't, then you get to live with your life's choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

Many of us have all those things and more. We live under our means, save since birth and send our kids to state schools. No empathy for someone in a million dollar house, living it up and lots of vacations, fancy things, etc screaming poverty.

This 100000%

If they are feds, they have good health insurance, so "medical expenses" are not likely to take you down financially. And yes disability can happen at any time, but they stated they are double income Feds, so not likely any disability there.
However, those are precisely reasons that you live under your means, save for retirement and college, perhaps choose to live so you can still live a nice life if you would only have one income, and build an emergency fund. That is exactly what many of us do, and we live below our means to do this.

[Anonymous]

Look at Mizzou. They offer a pathway to in state tuition after one year. That can mean thousands in savings.

The student will need to demonstrate one year of living in MO, attain a MO license, register to vote in MO and earn at least $3k at a job in MO.

https://registrar.missouri.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Spring-2025-Residency-Checklist-Master.pdf

[Anonymous]

Why on earth is everyone assuming dual feds make $300-400k? I know tons who are not lawyers or financial regulators who make half that, and certainly don't live in million dollar houses. We still save for college, but we can't pay for it ALL from savings, and made plans based on the assumption that we'd be working and paying as much as we can from cash flow.

I am lucky enough not to have a kid starting college this fall, so if I lose my job I'll have time to look for another, but somebody in this situation is actually in a bad spot. It's completely absurd to say that people all make enough money that if they don't save enough to fully fund college WHILE UNEMPLOYED, they've been irresponsible. Listen to yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

You have NO IDEA people's individual situations: medical expenses, disability, sandwich generation costs, etc. So take your smug attitude and shove it up your a$$.

Many of us have all those things and more. We live under our means, save since birth and send our kids to state schools. No empathy for someone in a million dollar house, living it up and lots of vacations, fancy things, etc screaming poverty.

This 100000%

If they are feds, they have good health insurance, so "medical expenses" are not likely to take you down financially. And yes disability can happen at any time, but they stated they are double income Feds, so not likely any disability there.
However, those are precisely reasons that you live under your means, save for retirement and college, perhaps choose to live so you can still live a nice life if you would only have one income, and build an emergency fund. That is exactly what many of us do, and we live below our means to do this.

This whole thread is about both parents getting fired. That’s the funny thing about all of these “that’s life, you have to prepare” comments. Every single one of you would be sh*tting your pants if you and your spouse both lost your jobs at the same time (and you weren’t already close to retirement).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

I'm glad you're proud of your son - sounds like he's achieved a lot. I wonder if he's proud of you? Would he be proud of you spending your free time on a message board being cold and condescending to someone worried about losing their job? If so, then trust me when I say that something went wrong in parenting.

DP: once again, if you are a double fed, most likely making $300K+ for several years, the fact you don't have $$$ saved for college is a bit ridiculous. So yes, I have empathy for people, but not for people who choose to not plan and live within a reasonable budget (which should include college savings, retirement savings, and building a 12 month+ emergency fund).

Nowhere is it said that there is no money saved for college. That that’s your takeaway/assumption says a lot about your desire to be condescending.

Well if you have a fully funded 529 for college for your kids, then you use it for college, that's the purpose, even if you "don't have your fed job anymore". You fund college with the savings while you continue to search for a new job for yourself. THat's the entire point of saving, so that if an "emergency happens" you still can make life happen

Ah, okay, so people are only worthy if they have managed to save enough to fully fund college for all of their kids, including by having enough foresight to accurately predict the extent of real increases in tuition and fees over two decades. Any less and they are deserving of condescension. Got it, makes total sense.

WTH is your problem? What do you mean by "people are only worthy"?

You tell me, you’re the one with the exceptionally judgy comments about everyone else’s personal and financial situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration.

But also, didn't most feds make a decision, at some point in their careers, to choose a predictable schedule and lower stress over a high salary?

That choice comes with consequences for things like college choice.

We were just talking in our family how feds often make the choice for much lower salary for much higher job security
Feds at low levels, yes, lower stress- but that's likely not most of DCUM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

And we are sorry that your kids are not high achievers.

well i have one at UVA and he was. National Merit Scolar. He’s such an under achiever🤣. Despite all we were adult enough to start putting whatever could into the 529 from the time i found out i was pregnant.

Lol imagine bragging about all of the college saving you’ve done—and thinking you are superior in some way—because you’re “adult enough” and not “financially irresponsible” and then admitting your kid is at their in-state flagship.

that is in the top 20-25 out there