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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So imagine hypothetically you are two feds. You did fafsa. The merit aid is all allocated. The kid has been pigeonholed academically and financially and suddenly secure positions disappear.

What do you do? How can you fix things to get your kid into college? Or is child just stuck?

Gap year. I lost my job during Covid and it worked out for us in the long run.

[Anonymous]

We saved only enough for state schools and are staring down job loss, but we will be okay because of that. Child applied to lots of other out of state and private schools but understands what is going on. They are 18 and they and their friends are very aware of the situation. Thankfully this is all happening before May1 not after freshman year which would be pretty awful.

[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.

If you are a dual income family, yet choose to live mostly on a SINGLE salary (with the 2nd being for extras), then you should have a good Emergency fund established, so you can weather a job loss. It's not that difficult to understand. I would be much calmer because I would be prepared. No job is guaranteed forever, even govt. So while it's (in the past) definately more secure, you still should live your life with plans for a job loss, live below your means and actively save so when the storm hits, you don't drown in the first 5 mins due to lack of planning.

I know a bit about this, as I grew up poor, and my family often was without one income or both, many times in my first 20 years. We only survived because we were frugal and my parents busted ass to go get any job just to help and they saved saved saved when they had jobs.

[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:

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. It's not smug, it's common sense.

Thank you! Glad to see there is someone who has common sense.

[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:

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. It's not smug, it's common sense.

Thank you! Glad to see there is someone who has common sense.

There are a lot of terms for making up a situation and details about someone’s life when none are provided. Common sense is not one of those of terms.

[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).

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

[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).

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

Many people are idiots.

[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).

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

Many people are losers in life and just want to inflict pain on others.

Nothing being done will benefit them…they will continue to live hand-to-mouth while the world rubs them into an early death.

It’s bringing others to their level, not they achieving more than their shitty existence.

[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.

I could imagine some family making $200K and have lived under their means, saving up maybe $250K in a 529 for their kid. They had saved for COA up to $65K/yr in the 529 and was planning to cash flow another $20K/yr for $90K college.

[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:

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

Many people are losers in life and just want to inflict pain on others.

Nothing being done will benefit them…they will continue to live hand-to-mouth while the world rubs them into an early death.

It’s bringing others to their level, not they achieving more than their shitty existence.

Sneering at working class Americans like this is why you have Trump now. Enjoy!

[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:

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.

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

Many people are losers in life and just want to inflict pain on others.

Nothing being done will benefit them…they will continue to live hand-to-mouth while the world rubs them into an early death.

It’s bringing others to their level, not they achieving more than their shitty existence.

Sneering at working class Americans like this is why you have Trump now. Enjoy!

It’s not sneering…it’s a fact.

I have family members like this that voted for Trump. They know their lives will basically suck forever…misery loves company.

They aren’t happy that people with stock portfolios are raking in the $$$s while their lives continue to go nowhere.

[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:

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

Many people are losers in life and just want to inflict pain on others.

Indeed. See: many of the baseless, condescending comments on this thread.

[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:

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.

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

Many people are losers in life and just want to inflict pain on others.

Nothing being done will benefit them…they will continue to live hand-to-mouth while the world rubs them into an early death.

It’s bringing others to their level, not they achieving more than their shitty existence.

Sneering at working class Americans like this is why you have Trump now. Enjoy!

It’s not sneering…it’s a fact.

I have family members like this that voted for Trump. They know their lives will basically suck forever…misery loves company.

They aren’t happy that people with stock portfolios are raking in the $$$s while their lives continue to go nowhere.

Because I bet they actually think "someday those taxes on people making over $400K will affect me, so I don't want to vote to increase them". It's have relatives who never made over $45K/year combined who worry about that. And it's not as if they were doing something to increase their likelihood of it occurring (other than purchasing lottery tickets). Yet at the same time, they were voting against the party that actually wants to help them, who did help them when they were unemployed and needed SNAP and other benefits. At this point, it's FAFO time and let's hope not too many who didn't vote for this are not affected (unforntunately many will be and already have been). It's hard to help people who don't want to be helped

[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.

LOLOLOL NO. We are a fed/teacher family making less than $200k. We are not planning on $90k+ universities for each of our kids because there's NO WAY we could save and cash flow that on our salaries. The math doesn't math.

But something you may not have considered about living on normal people salaries is that most people aren't even able to save the ENTIRE cost of attendance at an in state school before any of their kids actually enter college. We have been saving what we can after retirement accounts since our kids were born, and we're still going to be paying plenty out of pocket. Plus if you have ZERO income, the amount of parental assets you can direct to college is obviously going to be smaller, because you still need food and shelter.

I'm sorry the imaginary people you're making up are so irresponsible, though.

[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:

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.

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.

Many people in the private sector do not believe Feds should have job security and do not believe they contribute meaningfully to society.

"I'm really sorry if anyone loses their job due to this stupid administration." -- 77 million people voted for this and are not sorry.

Many people are losers in life and just want to inflict pain on others.

Nothing being done will benefit them…they will continue to live hand-to-mouth while the world rubs them into an early death.

It’s bringing others to their level, not they achieving more than their shitty existence.

Sneering at working class Americans like this is why you have Trump now. Enjoy!

It’s not sneering…it’s a fact.

I have family members like this that voted for Trump. They know their lives will basically suck forever…misery loves company.

They aren’t happy that people with stock portfolios are raking in the $$$s while their lives continue to go nowhere.

They have exactly as much sympathy for laid-off Feds as the laid-off Feds had for them when their jobs got sent to China.