controversial opinion: money & finances edition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People (other than business owners) who lease cars like to waste money

Not really. Or at all.


People who buy new cars outright pay the lease too. Only for them it's called depreciation and comes out of their net worth instead of their income. Leasers pay the depreciation too and have the benefit of tens of thousands of dollars being tied up in a depreciating, non productive asset.


There are a lot of people, here especially who really have no clue about finance (you included)

There are also additional costs incurred with registration (pro rated based on purchase price, so luxury cars cost more to register). These fees aren’t incurred when leasing. We had always purchased up until recently, but there are definitely some big benefits to leasing as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no donut hole in regards to college financial aid, just poor planning.

It may well be that people plan poorly and you are entitled to your opinion that there is no donut hole.

The FACT is, however, that college costs relative to average household income have skyrocketed in the last few decades, such that the cost of college for people in 2018 is disproportionate in relation to their earnings in ways that it was not for their parents or grandparents.

I said the above as a parent with two children in college. College is a known cost for decades.

Yes, I have two children in college as well. Full pay, no loans.

College is a known cost for decades.

The difference from a few decades ago, however, is that college costs relative to average household income have skyrocketed in the last few decades. Therefore, the cost of college for people in 2018 is disproportionate in relation to their earnings in ways that it was not for their parents or grandparents.

This is not my opinion. This is a fact.

https://www.marketwatch.com/graphics/college-debt-now-and-then/

[Anonymous]

ARM loans would've worked for more people than ever considered them. Pay the lower % for 5 years or 7 your chances of moving or having some other reason to refi are higher than you think meaning that you paid a premium for a fixed when an ARM would've worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Investing in bonds for the last 10 years, with interest rates close to zero, was plain stupid.

It remains stupid today.

No it wasn't. If you invested $10,000 in Vanguard Total Bond Market 10 years ago, you would have $14,200 total. That is close to a 4% return in a very low risk investment. Did it perform as well as the stock market over that time frame, of course not, but the risk wasn't the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who makes $200k plus and is "scraping by" has poor judgment.

+1

+1000

There is this bizarre mentality where on one hand a person “struggles” on 200k, but at the same time that person believes that minimum wage or blue collar worker would do fine if s/he were just more responsible with their income. Or where you would never send a child to a particular school because of the poor education, but think a graduate of that same low performing school would have been fine if s/he had just studied more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no donut hole in regards to college financial aid, just poor planning.

It may well be that people plan poorly and you are entitled to your opinion that there is no donut hole.

The FACT is, however, that college costs relative to average household income have skyrocketed in the last few decades, such that the cost of college for people in 2018 is disproportionate in relation to their earnings in ways that it was not for their parents or grandparents.

I said the above as a parent with two children in college. College is a known cost for decades.

Yes, I have two children in college as well. Full pay, no loans.

College is a known cost for decades.

The difference from a few decades ago, however, is that college costs relative to average household income have skyrocketed in the last few decades. Therefore, the cost of college for people in 2018 is disproportionate in relation to their earnings in ways that it was not for their parents or grandparents.

This is not my opinion. This is a fact.

https://www.marketwatch.com/graphics/college-debt-now-and-then/

Why haven't you been saving all along though? That is the question.

[Anonymous]

DCUM Edition

All of you are way way way too conservative

Over saving for retirement
Thinking you can't afford a house when you can easily talking the people with an income of 300k worried about mortgage on a 750k house those types

[Anonymous]

To add to the above, I think it's crazy when UMC get on the college forum and say "My kid got into X private college but we can't afford it. Wah wah wah. Life is so unfair for us UMC."

And it turns out they make like 300k.

Why weren't they saving all along? That's what I want to know. When you have a baby, the baby's needs come first. That means college savings before a big house or fancy vacations and cars, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, I think it's crazy when UMC get on the college forum and say "My kid got into X private college but we can't afford it. Wah wah wah. Life is so unfair for us UMC."

And it turns out they make like 300k.

Why weren't they saving all along? That's what I want to know. When you have a baby, the baby's needs come first. That means college savings before a big house or fancy vacations and cars, etc.

Maybe, but just forego the kids and enjoy the vacations and cars!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, I think it's crazy when UMC get on the college forum and say "My kid got into X private college but we can't afford it. Wah wah wah. Life is so unfair for us UMC."

And it turns out they make like 300k.

Why weren't they saving all along? That's what I want to know. When you have a baby, the baby's needs come first. That means college savings before a big house or fancy vacations and cars, etc.

Maybe, but just forego the kids and enjoy the vacations and cars!

Baby's needs are not college savings. College tuition and other costs are insane, regardless of your income. I can live several years on college tuition for one year. Just room and board is more than I spend. That's in a dorm with subpar food. Why would anyone save for college first. If you work, like many of us, in jobs that don't provide much enjoyment except for the paycheck, then you need vacations and many other small life pleasures. If you just work to save for college, then why would your kids will want to work. For a miserable life with no pleasures to pay bills and save?

[Anonymous]

Taking 20 years to pay off student loans is ridiculous, especially if it's undergrad. Tighten the belt and pay it off.

Many teens should not go to college, and should enter a trade or military to learn skills on the cheap.

Financial advisers are a rip-off for most people in normal situations. Buy Vanguard mutual funds and 529s and be done.

Parents waste too much time and money on the extreme travel sports lifestyle. Individual coaching, camps, travel team fees, the cost of weekend tournament travel. Your kids will be fine with rec sports and you can use that money on real vacations instead of the Holiday Inn Express Midlothian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, liking our current insurance system! You are definitely one of maybe ten people in the whole country!

Oh I can do this one.

The way Americans do healthcare is better for the sickest people who want to proceed with expensive treatments to fight for their lives and so, to my mind, the best way.

Can you explain further? Genuinely curious.

Not that PP

Lived in Australia, "free healthcare" leavy is 2% of income and a further 2% if you don't have private health care


Just because you don't get the bills, doesn't mean you don't pay them

2% is less than my monthly premium for the cheapest fed family health insurance plan. When I bought ACA coverage last year it was almost 4 times as much for slightly worse coverage. So the problem is....?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who makes $200k plus and is "scraping by" has poor judgment.

So is having two kids poor judgment? Because the average daycare in this area is $2,100. Per child. You can probably find a cheap nanny for $3k per month. Let’s say your mortgage is at least $3k. You also need to save at least $500 per month per kid in a 529. This means you have $7k of fixed expenses and you probably bring home around $10k per month.

That being said, I waited until I was older to have kids and we make way more than 200k. But I absolutely understand why once you have kids in this area it’s hard to get by on 200k and have anything leftover unless you want to live with your family in a one bedroom apartment, not save for college etc. Having one parent quit working only helps in the short term and will screw you in retirement.

This is literally absurd. You have just desceived a prosperous UMC life with home ownership, kids, and substantial savings. Listen to yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no donut hole in regards to college financial aid, just poor planning.

It may well be that people plan poorly and you are entitled to your opinion that there is no donut hole.

The FACT is, however, that college costs relative to average household income have skyrocketed in the last few decades, such that the cost of college for people in 2018 is disproportionate in relation to their earnings in ways that it was not for their parents or grandparents.

I said the above as a parent with two children in college. College is a known cost for decades.

Yes, I have two children in college as well. Full pay, no loans.

College is a known cost for decades.

The difference from a few decades ago, however, is that college costs relative to average household income have skyrocketed in the last few decades. Therefore, the cost of college for people in 2018 is disproportionate in relation to their earnings in ways that it was not for their parents or grandparents.

This is not my opinion. This is a fact.

https://www.marketwatch.com/graphics/college-debt-now-and-then/

Why haven't you been saving all along though? That is the question.

As you can see above, we did save. We are putting our kids through without loans.

That said, you are moving the goal post. The issue isn't whether people save. The issue is whether people in a given income bracket have more difficulty paying for college than the people in the same income bracket did a few decades ago. The answer - fact-based answer - is yes. Why? Because college costs much more relative to HHI than it did a few decades ago.

That is true regardless of whether people have saved for college expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, I think it's crazy when UMC get on the college forum and say "My kid got into X private college but we can't afford it. Wah wah wah. Life is so unfair for us UMC."

And it turns out they make like 300k.

Why weren't they saving all along? That's what I want to know. When you have a baby, the baby's needs come first. That means college savings before a big house or fancy vacations and cars, etc.

They probably have been saving all along. They also weren't making $300K or anything close to it 20 years ago; spent 5-10 years paying thousands of dollars a month for childcare; had student loans to pay off; other (disability, elderly parents, medical disaster, other).

The real question is, why is it ok for the increase in college costs to far outpace inflation?