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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As I’ve gotten more senior in my career (former Biglaw), I’ve realized that all the striving leads to a dead end.  We have enough money now to sustain our relatively modest life. I ask myself whether I want my kids to follow a similar path.

In other words do they bust their butts to do well academically, work in a high-pressure, thankless job, and then get disillusioned with their lives thus far?  Or do they take the long view even from high school, and realized that a balanced life, well lived is better than a high-achieving burst that burns out after 15 years.

And I’m also Asian, second generation American with parents who grew up in a country with a national test for college.[/quote]

"We have enough money now to sustain our relatively modest life" is key here. Median income is 70K in the DMV. Would you be happy with 70K? Or is 200K+ your definition of "relatively" modest?

If my DC didn't have to "strive" to guarantee themselves an UMC lifestyle, let me know how to achieve that.  I do know many "nonstrivers" from my high school that are struggling with their bills and dealing with much more stressful LMC and MC problems, rather than DCUM's relatively banal UMC problems.[/quote]

Agree.  UMC is expensive.  Your income and your lifestyle are a direct reflection of you working very hard for many years. It builds character to apply your maximum effort and develop a stellar work ethic in the process.  The grass isn’t greener on the average/middle class side.  There are plenty of them wishing they would have worked harder, had more parental support with academics, etc. so they could have had the ability to obtain a higher paying career- while their life may be “balanced” they are shut out of a lot of opportunities and experiences for themselves and their children bc they can’t afford them, not to mention if a disaster happens and they don’t have enough savings to cover.

How hard you work in high school, college, and the early years of your career definitely sets the trajectory for the rest of your adult life.  Slack off early on and it is hard to recover.  If you front load all the work, mid career you can start stepping back.  [/quote]

Not true at all.   Most Middle class people did well in high school and college, work hard in their fields and have no interest in living any differently.     And guaranteed most people wouldn’t want to live in the DC area.

There are plenty of lawyers who want a nine to five job and are happy with their $80 - $100,000 salary.   Plenty of people who excelled at school love teaching preschool through college with the middle class salary.  Nurses, techs, small business owners, firefighters are not pining after your lifestyle.

So many posters on here think their child is gifted, is going on to a top school and top graduate program and graduating with a $200,000 job waiting for them.    Maybe, but probably not.   And I can’t imagine they want to be a townie who never leaves the neighborhood so no need to worry about housing prices in your area.   They will find a place to live that they choose.  [/quote]

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