Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 10:23     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
How do you plan to pay for college for three kids? It sounds like you have no ability to save.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 09:53     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
*even more
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 09:53     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
You'll love your porch but you'll love peace of owning a mortgage free home. Once its paid off, you can do porch or whatever luxury you want.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 09:20     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:Spent $50,000 on a porch in 2008. Started paying $50k/yr college tuition in 2009.

I love my porch. Two college tuitions paid. Private LACs. Two weddings paid. ($500k all in). All bills are paid. All we have is the very low mortgage on the house.

On <$250k/yr in current dollars.

Honestly this was the benefit of living on one salary for the first 22 years of our marriage.


If you lived on 2 salaries for the first 22 years, then you could live on one salary for the next 10 years and pay for college out of current income.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 09:18     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:Spent $50,000 on a porch in 2008. Started paying $50k/yr college tuition in 2009.

I love my porch. Two college tuitions paid. Private LACs. Two weddings paid. ($500k all in). All bills are paid. All we have is the very low mortgage on the house.

On <$250k/yr in current dollars.

Honestly this was the benefit of living on one salary for the first 22 years of our marriage.


22 years with no porch. What even was the point? You could have had the porch for 20 more years!
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 08:35     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OK I take the point that you are all aligned on college over porch. So I will take that into extreme consideration going forward.

On the mortgage vs. student loan thing - I think my DH and DCUM are going to have to agree to disagree. I get what you are saying about 6% being higher than 3.6%. But his feeling on the loans is the total amount of interest paid on $150K at 3.6% is more actual money than what you pay on $28K at 6% and then he also feels secure in where we have to live. Without being able to do the actual math on the interest myself - I think it's a close enough call to be a wash.

HHI is $300K. I don't know the actual amounts currently in the 529s - I will find that out ASAP.


Why are you incapable of doing the math? Also your husband is a complete moron.


If I go to bankrate.com and do the loan calculator - I get $11,283 in interest on the mortgage if we pay it off in 4 years, and $3,563 in interest on the student loans if we pay it off in 4 years. That’s the math I was talking about fwiw.


The way we are currently slated to pay off both mortgage and student loans in 4 years as calculated there is $14,846 in interest. I also put in 28,000 student loans paid off in 1 yr 2 months - with the $400 / week going to that instead of the mortgage ($1,204.84 in interest) and extending the mortgage to be paid off in 5 years 2 months (accounting for the loss of $400/week during the time it went to my student loans) for $15,084 in interest and a total of $16,289 paid in interest to pay off both student loans and mortgage in that time frame.

Again I’m open to suggestions but I am not yet fully convinced that I am brain dead.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:49     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Spent $50,000 on a porch in 2008. Started paying $50k/yr college tuition in 2009.

I love my porch. Two college tuitions paid. Private LACs. Two weddings paid. ($500k all in). All bills are paid. All we have is the very low mortgage on the house.

On <$250k/yr in current dollars.

Honestly this was the benefit of living on one salary for the first 22 years of our marriage.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:42     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I get that you all think we are being lackadaisical about college - but did none of you have multiple kids in daycare? At one point we had to pull $38,000 a year out of our butts with no such thing as an 529 or 18 years to save and we did it. ($1600x2).


What is your point? How does this affect mean it makes sense to pay off a mortgage at 3.5% deductible and then take out a loan at seven or 8% to pay for college?


Could pay cash for college at $43,000 / year


But seems I won’t go that route and will put in 529
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:42     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I get that you all think we are being lackadaisical about college - but did none of you have multiple kids in daycare? At one point we had to pull $38,000 a year out of our butts with no such thing as an 529 or 18 years to save and we did it. ($1600x2).


What is your point? How does this affect mean it makes sense to pay off a mortgage at 3.5% deductible and then take out a loan at seven or 8% to pay for college?


Could pay cash for college at $43,000 / year
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:41     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
For the car loans - I could pay off right now but instead about to put the money in a CD earning 5%. I feel that is better than 2.8% interest rate but if we taxes that is not correct could easily reconsider.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:40     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OK I take the point that you are all aligned on college over porch. So I will take that into extreme consideration going forward.

On the mortgage vs. student loan thing - I think my DH and DCUM are going to have to agree to disagree. I get what you are saying about 6% being higher than 3.6%. But his feeling on the loans is the total amount of interest paid on $150K at 3.6% is more actual money than what you pay on $28K at 6% and then he also feels secure in where we have to live. Without being able to do the actual math on the interest myself - I think it's a close enough call to be a wash.

HHI is $300K. I don't know the actual amounts currently in the 529s - I will find that out ASAP.


Why are you incapable of doing the math? Also your husband is a complete moron.


If I go to bankrate.com and do the loan calculator - I get $11,283 in interest on the mortgage if we pay it off in 4 years, and $3,563 in interest on the student loans if we pay it off in 4 years. That’s the math I was talking about fwiw.


That is because the principal is bigger. Omg. You have to factor that in. If you owe $1m at 1% and 10,000 at 50%, your interest will be higher for the $1m loan. That doesn’t mean you should take your first $10,000 and pay the $1m loan. Geez.


Just curious, OP, do you understand this logic?


I don’t disagree with the math here but it is more extreme than the actual numbers I posted.
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:39     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OK I take the point that you are all aligned on college over porch. So I will take that into extreme consideration going forward.

On the mortgage vs. student loan thing - I think my DH and DCUM are going to have to agree to disagree. I get what you are saying about 6% being higher than 3.6%. But his feeling on the loans is the total amount of interest paid on $150K at 3.6% is more actual money than what you pay on $28K at 6% and then he also feels secure in where we have to live. Without being able to do the actual math on the interest myself - I think it's a close enough call to be a wash.

HHI is $300K. I don't know the actual amounts currently in the 529s - I will find that out ASAP.


Why are you incapable of doing the math? Also your husband is a complete moron.


If I go to bankrate.com and do the loan calculator - I get $11,283 in interest on the mortgage if we pay it off in 4 years, and $3,563 in interest on the student loans if we pay it off in 4 years. That’s the math I was talking about fwiw.


That is because the principal is bigger. Omg. You have to factor that in. If you owe $1m at 1% and 10,000 at 50%, your interest will be higher for the $1m loan. That doesn’t mean you should take your first $10,000 and pay the $1m loan. Geez.


Just curious, OP, do you understand this logic?
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:37     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:I get that you all think we are being lackadaisical about college - but did none of you have multiple kids in daycare? At one point we had to pull $38,000 a year out of our butts with no such thing as an 529 or 18 years to save and we did it. ($1600x2).


What is your point? How does this affect mean it makes sense to pay off a mortgage at 3.5% deductible and then take out a loan at seven or 8% to pay for college?
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:32     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to spend more time responding to the questions here. Regarding the mortgage tax deduction- fwiw we take the standard tax deduction.

I slept on it, and googled some articles on the topic. It turns out you can Google should I pay off my mortgage or save for college. Still leaning towards using the $400 / week to pay off my student loans and then putting in 529s. Seems to make sense now considering how close oldest is to college.


Good grief. You are like a parody of a financial illiterate.


What is wrong with what I said? Feel free to enlighten me!
Anonymous
Post 09/26/2023 07:30     Subject: Savings - screened porch v college?
Anonymous wrote: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.


Thanks! I am trying to remember that!