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

[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

As for stress -- not many people's experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Where are you getting this? Only 3.9% of all federal workers make $150,000 or more.

[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$$.

If someone has that many other "expenses" in their lives, they probably shouldn't be considering $90K+/year colleges while making only $300K and having not saved for it. Once again, life happens. everyone has things that come up and suck, you deal with them. But for someone who has that many financial ills along the way, overextending themselves to go to an elite private University is probably still not a smart financial decision. So the reasons don't really matter. It's the fact they cannot afford those schools, so they should make the financial choices they can afford. Like literally most people are forced to do for college and everything else in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

So if you have been only making $200K as a family, are you actually considering $90K+ universities for each of your kids? Serious question.

Because I cannot imagine doing that unless I had it already saved. Is that fair? No, but much of life isn't "fair". Nobody is saying the kids cannot attend college, just that they will have to attend one the family can afford. just like most responsible people do.

[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$$.

If someone has that many other "expenses" in their lives, they probably shouldn't be considering $90K+/year colleges while making only $300K and having not saved for it. Once again, life happens. everyone has things that come up and suck, you deal with them. But for someone who has that many financial ills along the way, overextending themselves to go to an elite private University is probably still not a smart financial decision. So the reasons don't really matter. It's the fact they cannot afford those schools, so they should make the financial choices they can afford. Like literally most people are forced to do for college and everything else in life.

Yes, two people losing their jobs at the same time (jobs that are actually protected by law, mind you) is just like “everything else in life.”

[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).

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).

No, because we always planned for/to be able to live on only one salary. The rest was used for all the "extras" in life. And with a 12 month EF, we would bust our asses to find any work we could to bring in income so we could stretch that EF as long as possible. All while still searching for a new career position we actually wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well you should have been saving their whole life. If you can't afford it for whatever reason, then the kid can pay their way through community college. Not everyone is guaranteed college.

Get a life. It’s not so easy for everyone to save up hundreds of thousands of dollars. You don’t know what other expenses they’ve had, how long they’ve been feds, or anything else about them. Save your unhelpful moralizing.

Most dual feds make 200-400k, more than many others. Some of it is lifestyle choices.

$400k??? Who the F is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

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).

No, because we always planned for/to be able to live on only one salary. The rest was used for all the "extras" in life. And with a 12 month EF, we would bust our asses to find any work we could to bring in income so we could stretch that EF as long as possible. All while still searching for a new career position we actually wanted.

Lol this is about living on zero salaries, not one. Reading is not this group’s strong suit.

You would not be calm in this situation. Especially if you had worked a job that didn’t have clear parallels in the private sector.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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).

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).

No, because we always planned for/to be able to live on only one salary. The rest was used for all the "extras" in life. And with a 12 month EF, we would bust our asses to find any work we could to bring in income so we could stretch that EF as long as possible. All while still searching for a new career position we actually wanted.

Lol this is about living on zero salaries, not one. Reading is not this group’s strong suit.

You would not be calm in this situation. Especially if you had worked a job that didn’t have clear parallels in the private sector.

+1

There are a couple of very angry-sounding people on this thread. Maybe it's just one person. But someone out there is fixated on how feds "should have planned better," can't possibly be dealing with things like medical expenses/elder care/etc. (Should have planned better than to be chronically ill or have an aging parent!), and also are expecting to send kids to $90K-a-year colleges. All of that is such nonsense. So many assumptions that a dual-fed famliy is upset because they can't send the kid to Harvard or Stanford, when the reality is that they're upset they might not be able to afford Podunk State U.

The PP who responded with "this is why we always planned to live on one salary" is the worst. Many couples do just that, but planning for the sudden loss of both people's jobs, simultaneously, is another level altogether. Such smugness, and lack of empathy in some PPs here.

[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$$.

If someone has that many other "expenses" in their lives, they probably shouldn't be considering $90K+/year colleges while making only $300K and having not saved for it. Once again, life happens. everyone has things that come up and suck, you deal with them. But for someone who has that many financial ills along the way, overextending themselves to go to an elite private University is probably still not a smart financial decision. So the reasons don't really matter. It's the fact they cannot afford those schools, so they should make the financial choices they can afford. Like literally most people are forced to do for college and everything else in life.

Who said anyone with such expenses WAS "considering $90K+/year colleges" at all? You seem to enjoy making up scenarios to support your belief that people are naive and stupid about money, and your belief that feds who are parents are clamoring for "an elite private university" for their kids, budget be damned. Not everyone in federal service, or on DCUM, is the idiot you want to believe they are. Guess it makes you feel superior to think you plan better than anyone ever has, and have a right to wag your finger at others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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).

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).

No, because we always planned for/to be able to live on only one salary. The rest was used for all the "extras" in life. And with a 12 month EF, we would bust our asses to find any work we could to bring in income so we could stretch that EF as long as possible. All while still searching for a new career position we actually wanted.

Lol this is about living on zero salaries, not one. Reading is not this group’s strong suit.

You would not be calm in this situation. Especially if you had worked a job that didn’t have clear parallels in the private sector.

In private, there are always layoffs, and yes, we plan for it being on one salary. We've been fortuante but we know its a possibility at any time. With two incomes, you have more ability to save.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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).

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).

No, because we always planned for/to be able to live on only one salary. The rest was used for all the "extras" in life. And with a 12 month EF, we would bust our asses to find any work we could to bring in income so we could stretch that EF as long as possible. All while still searching for a new career position we actually wanted.

Lol this is about living on zero salaries, not one. Reading is not this group’s strong suit.

You would not be calm in this situation. Especially if you had worked a job that didn’t have clear parallels in the private sector.

+1

There are a couple of very angry-sounding people on this thread. Maybe it's just one person. But someone out there is fixated on how feds "should have planned better," can't possibly be dealing with things like medical expenses/elder care/etc. (Should have planned better than to be chronically ill or have an aging parent!), and also are expecting to send kids to $90K-a-year colleges. All of that is such nonsense. So many assumptions that a dual-fed famliy is upset because they can't send the kid to Harvard or Stanford, when the reality is that they're upset they might not be able to afford Podunk State U.

The PP who responded with "this is why we always planned to live on one salary" is the worst. Many couples do just that, but planning for the sudden loss of both people's jobs, simultaneously, is another level altogether. Such smugness, and lack of empathy in some PPs here.

Do you not get some of it is lifestyle choices. If you choose to spend to the max, that's on you. Its not smug, its common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

So if you have been only making $200K as a family, are you actually considering $90K+ universities for each of your kids? Serious question.

Because I cannot imagine doing that unless I had it already saved. Is that fair? No, but much of life isn't "fair". Nobody is saying the kids cannot attend college, just that they will have to attend one the family can afford. just like most responsible people do.

NP. That family would get FA at top.schools.

[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$$.

If someone has that many other "expenses" in their lives, they probably shouldn't be considering $90K+/year colleges while making only $300K and having not saved for it. Once again, life happens. everyone has things that come up and suck, you deal with them. But for someone who has that many financial ills along the way, overextending themselves to go to an elite private University is probably still not a smart financial decision. So the reasons don't really matter. It's the fact they cannot afford those schools, so they should make the financial choices they can afford. Like literally most people are forced to do for college and everything else in life.

Who said anyone with such expenses WAS "considering $90K+/year colleges" at all? You seem to enjoy making up scenarios to support your belief that people are naive and stupid about money, and your belief that feds who are parents are clamoring for "an elite private university" for their kids, budget be damned. Not everyone in federal service, or on DCUM, is the idiot you want to believe they are. Guess it makes you feel superior to think you plan better than anyone ever has, and have a right to wag your finger at others.

+1. A thread filled with strawmen just to make people feel better about themselves.

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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.

Where are you getting this? Only 3.9% of all federal workers make $150,000 or more.

Yes, as others have said, many feds trade income for job security and the notion of contributing to society.

So much for that with this administration. Feds are a convenient patsy for the greedy power mongers in office.