Search found 617 matches

by Confused
Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:24 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: 70 is the New 65
Replies: 106
Views: 18097

Re: 70 is the New 65

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by Confused
Sat Oct 31, 2015 11:55 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How to backup DVD collection
Replies: 29
Views: 3055

Re: How to backup DVD collection

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by Confused
Mon Oct 26, 2015 9:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Health Insurance Premium for 2016
Replies: 70
Views: 10238

Re: Health Insurance Premium for 2016

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by Confused
Mon Oct 26, 2015 6:42 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Health Insurance Premium for 2016
Replies: 70
Views: 10238

Re: Health Insurance Premium for 2016

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by Confused
Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Health Insurance Premium for 2016
Replies: 70
Views: 10238

Re: Health Insurance Premium for 2016

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by Confused
Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:21 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Health Insurance Premium for 2016
Replies: 70
Views: 10238

Re: Health Insurance Premium for 2016

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by Confused
Sat Oct 24, 2015 12:36 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42474

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

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by Confused
Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:20 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42474

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

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by Confused
Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:02 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42474

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

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by Confused
Fri Oct 23, 2015 1:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42474

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

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by Confused
Fri Oct 23, 2015 12:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42474

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

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by Confused
Fri Oct 23, 2015 12:05 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42474

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

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by Confused
Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Is there an ideal age to retire?
Replies: 137
Views: 17359

Re: Is there an ideal age to retire?

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by Confused
Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:08 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for [chidren's] college education? Or not ...

<< If I'm able to not slip up in the final year (which is no guarantee), I'll graduate Cum Laude (but not Magna or Summa), and then hopefully parlay my CS degree into a $50k job. >> 1) You will be a fresh graduate without working experience with good CGPA. 2) I was a MSEE with 5 years of relevant working experience after I graduated. Nobody look at my CGPA at all. I never have to compete with fresh graduate while looking for job. 3) There is more than one way. I have no idea what the list is for and number three seems to be serious lacking context, but I actually have 3.5 years of experience as a professional programmer. I went back to school to become a better programmer with a formal education, rather than a self-taught programmer. So I ...
by Confused
Fri Oct 16, 2015 2:26 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for [chidren's] college education? Or not ...

1) I was foreign student in USA. Unless I worked in the University, I do not get in-state tuition rate regardless of how long I stayed in Texas since I was not US resident. Eh, you could've got US citizenship, if desired. Many people do it every year. May or may not have been worth the effort. << Also, who has time to work 20+ hours while in school? I work 9 hours/week and I don't know if I can continue to do so. School, homework, and work keep me with zero free time. >> 2) I took on 15 to 20 semester hours per semester and worked 40 hours per week on 2 part-time jobs. This was for my BSEE and MSEE. I slept on the average of 4 hours per day for 6 years. My CGPA suffered. It was only 3.2X for undergraduate and 3.5 for graduate. Exactly. I a...
by Confused
Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:57 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for [chidren's] college education? Or not ...

http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/employment/entitlement.html << Qualification on the basis of employment of the student (Request for Resident Entitlement By Reason of Student's Own Employment) (1) the student must work for a publicly supported Texas institution of higher education; (2) the student must be employed at least one-half time (twenty hours per week); (3) the beginning employment date must be on or before the twelfth class day of a long semester or the fourth class day of a summer term and the ending employment date must be no earlier than the last official class day; and (4) the job must be related to the student's degree program.>> KlangFool You were getting the in-state tuition rather than out-of-state. Not a discount, in my book. St...
by Confused
Fri Oct 16, 2015 12:33 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for [chidren's] college education? Or not ...

Confused, 1) You choose to attend this university. 2) You choose to believe that the only way to lower your tuition is via FAFSA. That may or may not be true but since you have chosen to do (1), your choice might be limited. <<Either you qualify for FAFSA or you don't. You're not going to get it at one school, but not at another.>> 3) You choose to think that way. I don't. << I'm certain you outspend me in every single category of expenditures. Including university tuition, which runs me about $2,500 per semester, without FAFSA or scholarships.>> 4) My son is. My son will run about 15K per semester in Virginia Tech (Tuition fee, room, and board). So, it is about 30K per year. That is the amount that I am willing to pay. 5) I spent a lot le...
by Confused
Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:31 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for [chidren's] college education? Or not ...

A car dealer does not have a sliding scale of price based on the consumer's income and assets. Schools do. No, they don't. The amount of tuition is the same for everybody. You're complaining about not getting a discount via FAFSA, etc. The amount of tuition is clearly posted on the university's website. If you don't qualify for any discounts, you don't qualify for any discounts. But the list price is the same. Confused, 1) I do not believe in paying full list price of anything. You might but that is your choice. And, I should thank you for that. It is because of people like you that I can usually get a better deal. 2) I believe in getting full value for my money. So, if the college cannot convince me that they are worth the extra money tha...
by Confused
Wed Oct 14, 2015 12:01 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for [chidren's] college education? Or not ...

e5116 wrote: A car dealer does not have a sliding scale of price based on the consumer's income and assets. Schools do.
No, they don't. The amount of tuition is the same for everybody. You're complaining about not getting a discount via FAFSA, etc. The amount of tuition is clearly posted on the university's website. If you don't qualify for any discounts, you don't qualify for any discounts. But the list price is the same.
by Confused
Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:04 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for college education ? Or not ...

Does anyone think it can be beneficial for a graduate to have at least a small amount of debt after graduating college? I can only speak for myself, but I had about $20,000 in student debt after college and when I got my first job, I budgeted almost every free dollar to go towards paying it off. It wasn't a terribly burdensome amount of debt but I feel like it helped me budget myself and learn financial responsibility right out of college. Also, when it was paid off, I has additional cash flow each month that felt like new money/savings. No, I strongly disagree. I don't think having debt after college would be beneficial. I also don't think $20k in debt is a "small amount." When I finished university, I had a couple hundred bucks...
by Confused
Sun Oct 04, 2015 12:25 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for college education ? Or not ...

$100 per semester for books is completely wrong. When I first did undergrad between 2005-2009, there were semesters where I racked up near $1,000 on books and related material (online access to book's website and such). Now that I am doing my MBA, there is more extensive renting services and it is cheaper but I am still paying way more than $100 a semester... I am spending more than that per class buying used online and such. If I rented the books rather than purchased used I probably could get it down to around less than $100 per class, it still would be a coupe hundrend for a full load. You're the second person to say I'm wrong. I'm doing an undergrad right now, and I just spent $180 for six textbooks for Fall 2015, and this is by far my...
by Confused
Sun Oct 04, 2015 12:21 pm
Forum: Forum Issues and Administration
Topic: Instead of Her and His, how about Spouse1 and Spouse2?
Replies: 20
Views: 2934

Re: Instead of Her and His, how about Spouse1 and Spouse2?

I support making the template gender-neutral.
by Confused
Fri Oct 02, 2015 3:03 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for college education ? Or not ...

http://www.savingforcollege.com/tutorial101/the_real_cost_of_higher_education.php among others gives the 5%. Some schools will be more. Some less. Tuition is only half the cost. R&B, fees and books is the other half. I included fees in those figures above. Books are a negligible cost. Maybe $100/semester between Amazon, Half, AbeBooks, and ValoreBooks. Room and board is something that has to be paid for regardless of whether or not you're attending university - still have to live somewhere and still have to eat - so it's not a "college cost." Obviously you'd need more money if you were paying for every expense your kid had, not just "paying for college education" as the title of this post would indicate. You'd proba...
by Confused
Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:55 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: To pay for [children's] college education? Or not ...
Replies: 206
Views: 24421

Re: To pay for college education ? Or not ...

My initial plan was to allocate around 200k per kid for college education Good lawd have mercy. What kind of college are these kids going to? Are they not going to work during school or at least over the summers? That seems like an insane amount to just give to the kids. I think 50k per kid would be more than generous. How many years of college do you think 50k will pay for in 8-10 years when these kids hit college? For reference here are some of todays public school costs for instate residents. The general costs have been going up 5% or so per year for the past 20 years or so. Michigan 27.8k University of TN : 27.9 UCSD 24k. Suny schools 23k University of FL: 20.6 Well, to be honest, I would expect $50k to pay for 14 semesters in ten year...
by Confused
Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:43 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: % Net Worth Change Since New Year's 2015
Replies: 95
Views: 12454

Re: % Net Worth Change Since New Year's 2015

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by Confused
Sat Sep 19, 2015 5:09 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Free Kindle Downloads Today
Replies: 49
Views: 7065

Re: Free Kindles Today

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by Confused
Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:53 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong [article]
Replies: 148
Views: 19845

Re: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong [article]

:confused So you've already graduated? I have, yes. I graduated right into the 2009 Depression, got a job making $9.50/hour. Worked my way up to $13/hour in 2013 and decided this was a waste of my life. Went back to school in 2013 and I'm still presently there, hence my recent payment of Fall 2015 tuition. First degree was Management, and it was utterly worthless. Current degree is Computer Science and I'm working as a programming intern for $15/hour while going to school. Looking forward to the possible prospect of being able to make $50k in the relatively near future, instead of a $13/hour job with no benefits. Then maybe we can work on getting my spouse a better job than doing manual labor in a warehouse for $12.50/hour with no benefits.
by Confused
Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong [article]
Replies: 148
Views: 19845

Re: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong [article]

35 dollars every other weekend is absurdly low. What kind of food are we talking about? How can that be healthy? A tiny thing of blueberries cost $4 alone and that is 2 servings... You aren't buying blueberries at this price point. My spouse and I, with our "dual" incomes don't buy blueberries. You eat cereal, sandwiches, microwavable burritos, etc. You expect to pay for college expenses and living expenses on your own and wonder why you can't afford blueberries? This is the kind of thing that shows how out-of-touch-with-reality this forum is. Also, arent you still assuming that someone lives in a lcol area? Yes, because anybody can move anywhere in the country. You want low cost of living? Move there. Oh, you don't get in-state ...
by Confused
Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:39 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong [article]
Replies: 148
Views: 19845

Re: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong [article]

Let's say you make $10/hour. Is that realistic for most students in your area to find steady employment paying that much? I would have thought that $7.50 or $8 would be more realistic. In my current high cost of living area, the students earn between $9 and $10 an hour. You get some FAFSA Pell Grant, as long as you haven't crossed over 150% of the required credits for your undergrad. Done and done. :confused What about students that come from families making too much? For a two child family, you have little chance of getting one if the parents make more than the mid 40s and low chance if they make more than the mid 30s. The only students that can take a "done and done" attitude with Pell grants, ie can be fairly confident of gett...