What's your number?

^ true yeah kayaking on mountain streams would probably be best … I get it

I’d love to see the view from Black Swan’s High Castle.

Just seemed relevant to this thread. Somebody posted this a while back.

https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/

Rise of the hillbilly, yeeeeeeehaw!!!

Only things I see that might be missing are health insurance and paying for kids’ college tuitions. I saw your earlier response on the health insurance, which is interesting that perhaps there is something beneficial to come out of the ACA. But what are your plans to pay for college for the kiddos? (If you even have kids.) I know this will cause me to be working a few years beyond my preferred timeline.

I’m in complete agreement with your plan otherwise, and I very much look forward to the day of acquiring sufficient assets to live a comfortable life and putting the daily cubicle grind behind me. I actually think about early retirement on a near-daily basis.

If I can, I will chip in towards my kid’s college. If not, I’ll be more than glad to send them to a state school with student loans. Either way, I plan to talk to them through high school to the point where they aren’t throwing tons of money at a $$$$ degree in a bullshit major.

In regards to paying for children’s college…

My philosophy is that I will never deprive my children of an opportunity to learn about responsibility, the power of choice and the consequences that come with making decisions. If they want free college, they can study hard and earn scholarships. I have no data other than what I’ve witnessed, but I would be willing to bet that those that paid their own way through college are harder workers, more satisfied with their careers and more well rounded individuals as a whole.

I’m the first person in my family to graduate college. I attended community college for a year (51 credit hours in 15 months), graduated from hacksaw directional state U 2 years later, earned my charter 3 years after that. I paid my way by working as a mechanic on weekends and a tutor during weeknights. I’m very thankful that my parents didn’t deprive me of the life lessons I learned along the way.

^That’s a hard line stance for sure, not that I necessarily disagree with the premise. Would def be hard to convince my wife of the same though…

How’d you earn your charter so fast considering the 48 months of qualified work experience requirement?

What field is she in? Earner or soft science?

While working as an auto mechanic, he told customers to rotate their tires to extend their life. For CFAI purposes, that equated to advising his “clients” on how to maximize their ROI by rebalancing a portion of their investment portfolio on a regular basis.

Internships and the amount of tutoring during school allowed me to meet the requirement before I was actually out of school a full 4 years.

lol I mean this…the customers never took me seriously for some reason…

Did you earn the charter 8+ years ago? I believe the requirement was 36 months back in the day.

I sort of disagree with your view on college. Without the financial burden, your kids might end up going to a better college and then, have better opportunities later in life. If you look at the people who enter Ivy League schools or such, very few scraped by on their own; they had parents and other people who supported them. If the kids were constrained by what scholarships they could earn, for instance, they would end up at much less competitive colleges.

The “earn your own success” lesson is important. However, you can probably still teach that lesson to your kids while giving them the best opportunities to succeed. Kids can be hardworking, balanced, and appreciative, while having families that invest fully in their success.

That’s making it sound easy, of course. Working in finance, I am consistently surprised by the outcome of some of my colleagues kids’. Maybe I am being unfair to them, but I find myself judging the kids when they go to third rate college or study arts and crafts, given their advantage. But at the same time, lots of the truly great kids I meet, have the best of everything - best advantage and best personality. If I have kids at some point, that’s what I would like them to be.

see i dont understand why ppl even pay for school in us. the school system k to 12 is free and very good (in the Philippines, you have to go private or you’ll get a shitty education so my parents paid $2-4k/year for that). when you go to college , us gives a ton in grants and scholarship, i had ~25k/year of free money. and they even gave the option for me to borrow more and find subsidized work at like $15/hr. and i think they actually reduced my fin aid package cuz i was getting outside scholarships. the funny thing is. it is easily replicable imo. i’ve helped others.

Ohai, I agree that if my children were raised to be hardworking, balanced and appreciative…and I provide that necessary boost for them to attend an Ivy league school…that they would possibly have incredible opportunities available to them later in life. High ranking politician, incredible opportunity in some of the world’s most innovative companies…something like that.

I would just suggest that the probability of that outcome is too low to justify the required actions. I’m not just talking about the substantial financial resources but also the lifestyle that my kids would have to live in order to reach that goal. Also, I believe that the opportunities that this would ultimately provide them are vastly overrated relative to the numerous opportunities that are available for them regardless of which college they choose to attend, if they attend at all.

I recognize that my philosophy removes my children’s ability to choose which path they want to go down (for the most part). If being a high ranking CIA officer is their life goal, I’m probably screwing that up pretty badly. My belief that a simple life is more fulfilling may not be their belief, and if that’s the case…sorry kids.

The answer, I believe, is that the school system is *even better* if you pay more. University of Michigan is a fantastic university, better than almost any university outside the US. However, Harvard is still better. Similarly, US public school is great - I would have loved to go there compared to where I went (which actually, is comparable to Phillipines). However, expensive US school gives you better teachers (some of these schools have PhD faculty), generally more competitive student body, wide range of activities with good funding, tutoring programs, relationships with college admissions, etc.

The benefits of the best schools are reflected in the outcomes of their students - almost all go to college, and a large portion go to Ivy League or similar schools. I saw the graduation roll of one $50k school that my coworker was thinking of sending his kid too. The placement was unbelievable. If you don’t succeed in that school, you’re a total loser.

Even among public schools, you will pay more to live in an area that will give you access to better schools. My friend has a house with $50k in taxes. However, he justifies this because he has 5 kids who can go to the very good local school. This is the main reason why most people live in those expensive places.

It’s funny to watch trust fund babies and those on the full parental scholarship argue that this is required for kids. Hah… I’ll probably support my kids with a few thousand a year in university to help out a bit. But that’s pretty low cost in the grand scheme of things.

^+1