Savings - screened porch v college?

[Anonymous]

OP, did you get an estimate for the screened in porch? That might help put this into better context for you and make the decision easier. If you stated the cost and I missed it, sorry. We recently received an estimate for a screened in porch and it was almost $100k. Gosh, I would really love it and know we'd use it all the time, but it is just not something I'm currently willing to put our money towards when we have 2 kids going to college in 2 and 4 years.

I would be sure you know what it would cost and then try to convey to your DH that it is a want and not a need (and vow to do it just as soon as it makes the best financial sense).

[Anonymous]

Stop spending so much and save for college.

[Anonymous]

My personal strategy would be to pay off everything but house and then start saving for college. Porch is out of the question until house is paid off and colleges are funded. Good luck with any way you do it , just try to stay on same page as a couple. Have a great time with your kiddo until they leave for college, everything will work out in due time but these are precious years as a family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why did you post if you don’t want to accept any feedback? As others have said, stop paying extra on the mortgage and funnel any extra funds to your student loans. After that, save as much as possible in 529s and don’t stop until the second child has finished college. With a HHI of $300k, you won’t receive any financial aid. Also, please start speaking with your children to let them know they have limited funds for college.

We never broke $300k in HHI until last year and have $400k saved for three kids and a NW of $3.5. What have you been spending your money on?

I am not, not taking feedback - I said got it to consider adding more to college over porch.

I am talking to my kids - that we will pay for 4 years of in state tuition/room & board or the equivalent amount at a private college. And they need to pay their own spending money. I want them to have some skin in the game. I am ok with this.

The way I had previously been looking at it which I guess everyone else is against - is UVA costs $40,000 a year to attend now (just an example). We have the 529 - plus assuming after we pay off mortgage and just put that straight to college - an extra $3600x12= $43,200 a year to put towards college - so that's more than tuition. (And, that leaves $1000 for insurance and taxes / month on the house). I believe there are only two years where I will have 2 kids in college at the same time fwiw also.

You haven’t answered this question: how much do you have in non-retirement savings? Your (taxable) HYSA or otherwise. That is how we will be able to tell you how off-base this situation actually is.

Oh - I thought I said in the original post $1.2m.

[Anonymous]

Smallest amount and highest interest rate debt should be paid first. Porch is an unnecessary splurge at this point in your lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why did you post if you don’t want to accept any feedback? As others have said, stop paying extra on the mortgage and funnel any extra funds to your student loans. After that, save as much as possible in 529s and don’t stop until the second child has finished college. With a HHI of $300k, you won’t receive any financial aid. Also, please start speaking with your children to let them know they have limited funds for college.

We never broke $300k in HHI until last year and have $400k saved for three kids and a NW of $3.5. What have you been spending your money on?

I am not, not taking feedback - I said got it to consider adding more to college over porch.

I am talking to my kids - that we will pay for 4 years of in state tuition/room & board or the equivalent amount at a private college. And they need to pay their own spending money. I want them to have some skin in the game. I am ok with this.

The way I had previously been looking at it which I guess everyone else is against - is UVA costs $40,000 a year to attend now (just an example). We have the 529 - plus assuming after we pay off mortgage and just put that straight to college - an extra $3600x12= $43,200 a year to put towards college - so that's more than tuition. (And, that leaves $1000 for insurance and taxes / month on the house). I believe there are only two years where I will have 2 kids in college at the same time fwiw also.

You haven’t answered this question: how much do you have in non-retirement savings? Your (taxable) HYSA or otherwise. That is how we will be able to tell you how off-base this situation actually is.

Oh - I thought I said in the original post $1.2m.

PP was asking for non-retirement savings. Do have $1.2 m in taxable accounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why did you post if you don’t want to accept any feedback? As others have said, stop paying extra on the mortgage and funnel any extra funds to your student loans. After that, save as much as possible in 529s and don’t stop until the second child has finished college. With a HHI of $300k, you won’t receive any financial aid. Also, please start speaking with your children to let them know they have limited funds for college.

We never broke $300k in HHI until last year and have $400k saved for three kids and a NW of $3.5. What have you been spending your money on?

I am not, not taking feedback - I said got it to consider adding more to college over porch.

I am talking to my kids - that we will pay for 4 years of in state tuition/room & board or the equivalent amount at a private college. And they need to pay their own spending money. I want them to have some skin in the game. I am ok with this.

The way I had previously been looking at it which I guess everyone else is against - is UVA costs $40,000 a year to attend now (just an example). We have the 529 - plus assuming after we pay off mortgage and just put that straight to college - an extra $3600x12= $43,200 a year to put towards college - so that's more than tuition. (And, that leaves $1000 for insurance and taxes / month on the house). I believe there are only two years where I will have 2 kids in college at the same time fwiw also.

You haven’t answered this question: how much do you have in non-retirement savings? Your (taxable) HYSA or otherwise. That is how we will be able to tell you how off-base this situation actually is.

Oh - I thought I said in the original post $1.2m.

Oh sorry that is retirement. Right now I have about $30K myself that I was ideally wanting to earmark for the porch and put more in. Some people seem to hate debt more than we do. We are generally ok with having mortgage, car payment, and student loans - as long as we don't have credit card debt. Though I suppose it would be nice to not have debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I missing something or did you not tell us how much you have in 529s or other college savings? Also what is your HHI?

This plus I am confused. Why do you say you want to pay for all on college....but you also plan to take out student loans?

Why would you pay down a mortgage at 3.6, whose interest is tax deductible, to take out student loans when interest rates for loans are currently at 8 percent?

OP here. My parents paid for me to go to college but some of it was loans that they took out in my name (that have since been paid off). DH put himself through college and grad school - and we were married when I went to grad school - he paid for most of it, except I still have some small loans to finish.

No. No no no no no. It does not make sense to pay off a mortage with deductible interest of 3.6 percent and then take out loans at a much higher, non deductible interest rate to pay for college!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, did you get an estimate for the screened in porch? That might help put this into better context for you and make the decision easier. If you stated the cost and I missed it, sorry. We recently received an estimate for a screened in porch and it was almost $100k. Gosh, I would really love it and know we'd use it all the time, but it is just not something I'm currently willing to put our money towards when we have 2 kids going to college in 2 and 4 years.

I would be sure you know what it would cost and then try to convey to your DH that it is a want and not a need (and vow to do it just as soon as it makes the best financial sense).

If you can imagine I got a quote a number of a years ago - at least 5 years ago and decided it was too expensive and didn't do it. I still want it and set it as a long term goal.

I don't disagree with not taking out debt but I think other people take out a home equity line of credit to do it- which I am not.

Anyway - I am thinking about the kids' college funds and how much I really want / need there.

[Anonymous]

When all 3 kids have college funded to the full amount you are willing to pay, you can start putting the college money into a porch fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, did you get an estimate for the screened in porch? That might help put this into better context for you and make the decision easier. If you stated the cost and I missed it, sorry. We recently received an estimate for a screened in porch and it was almost $100k. Gosh, I would really love it and know we'd use it all the time, but it is just not something I'm currently willing to put our money towards when we have 2 kids going to college in 2 and 4 years.

I would be sure you know what it would cost and then try to convey to your DH that it is a want and not a need (and vow to do it just as soon as it makes the best financial sense).

If you can imagine I got a quote a number of a years ago - at least 5 years ago and decided it was too expensive and didn't do it. I still want it and set it as a long term goal.

I don't disagree with not taking out debt but I think other people take out a home equity line of credit to do it- which I am not.

Anyway - I am thinking about the kids' college funds and how much I really want / need there.

If you want to pay 4 years of instate at UVA to include room and board, you are looking at minimum $200k per child by the time your kids attend.

So hopefully your number is pretty big.

[Anonymous]

OP, just a hunch - do you split finances with your spouse? That is, is the house debt "our" debt but student loans and car are "your" debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why did you post if you don’t want to accept any feedback? As others have said, stop paying extra on the mortgage and funnel any extra funds to your student loans. After that, save as much as possible in 529s and don’t stop until the second child has finished college. With a HHI of $300k, you won’t receive any financial aid. Also, please start speaking with your children to let them know they have limited funds for college.

We never broke $300k in HHI until last year and have $400k saved for three kids and a NW of $3.5. What have you been spending your money on?

I am not, not taking feedback - I said got it to consider adding more to college over porch.

I am talking to my kids - that we will pay for 4 years of in state tuition/room & board or the equivalent amount at a private college. And they need to pay their own spending money. I want them to have some skin in the game. I am ok with this.

The way I had previously been looking at it which I guess everyone else is against - is UVA costs $40,000 a year to attend now (just an example). We have the 529 - plus assuming after we pay off mortgage and just put that straight to college - an extra $3600x12= $43,200 a year to put towards college - so that's more than tuition. (And, that leaves $1000 for insurance and taxes / month on the house). I believe there are only two years where I will have 2 kids in college at the same time fwiw also.

You haven’t answered this question: how much do you have in non-retirement savings? Your (taxable) HYSA or otherwise. That is how we will be able to tell you how off-base this situation actually is.

Oh - I thought I said in the original post $1.2m.

Oh sorry that is retirement. Right now I have about $30K myself that I was ideally wanting to earmark for the porch and put more in. Some people seem to hate debt more than we do. We are generally ok with having mortgage, car payment, and student loans - as long as we don't have credit card debt. Though I suppose it would be nice to not have debt.

That is completely at odds with your behavior, and your description of your husband's attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, just a hunch - do you split finances with your spouse? That is, is the house debt "our" debt but student loans and car are "your" debt?

Im sure. The husband is trying to pay down the marital asset of the house while not paying off her debts even though from a financial standpoint that is not beneficial to their overal financial picture - but good for him if they get divorced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, just a hunch - do you split finances with your spouse? That is, is the house debt "our" debt but student loans and car are "your" debt?

Not exactly. It’s all of our debt. I incurred the student loan debts while married fwiw.