The Trump Economy

[Moiraine]

1 hour ago, RedDenver said:

She saved up the money for that purpose. Would it be better if she'd never saved that money and just had $1100 to her name?

 

 

I don't see where in the article it says she saved up money for that purpose. I see that she gave it to her daughter for college, not that that was always her plan. I didn't read every single bullet, but I read the first 15 or so.

 

It would have been better if she'd saved that money up for a retirement/emergency fund, done more research and realized she doesn't earn enough money to pay for her kid's college and didn't even need to feel guilty about it if she couldn't do it. I mean, it never even occurred to me or my brothers that my mom should have paid for college for us. We all took out loans, and now we make more money than my mom ever did at her peak, and she was able to save up for retirement. Yes, that's anecdotal, but people form opinions based on their experiences. I just don't think people need to obsess so much about saving up for their kid's college degrees, especially if they have the type of job this woman has. If they can actually afford it, great. But I also think it helps kids to know they're going to have to pay for it and really think hard about and calculate whether the degree they're getting is going to be able to pay it back.

 

That said, I don't think she "deserves" to be in her situation, I think college should be cheaper, I think she's very unlucky, etc.

[Moiraine]

1 hour ago, RedDenver said:

So she should live in fear of going broke instead of paying for her daughter's first year of college. That's not really any better.

 

 

Yes... it's called an emergency fund. People should have them, and if they're able to build them like this woman did, they shouldn't use them on something their kid could've gotten a low interest loan for. That's really risky even in normal times, IMHO.

[Danny Bateman]

30 minutes ago, Moiraine said:

Yes... it's called an emergency fund. People should have them, and if they're able to build them like this woman did, they shouldn't use them on something their kid could've gotten a low interest loan for. That's really risky even in normal times, IMHO.

 

By all accounts it sounds like she did everything well and was extremely fiscally responsible given her income, building up a decent nest egg...

 

But then blew it with a very selfless decision to try to help her daughter. Her heart was in the right place but she should not have done that.

[Moiraine]

8 minutes ago, Danny Bateman said:

By all accounts it sounds like she did everything well and was extremely fiscally responsible given her income, building up a decent nest egg...

 

But then blew it with a very selfless decision to try to help her daughter. Her heart was in the right place but she should not have done that.

 

 

Ya I agree with all this.

[funhusker]

8 hours ago, RedDenver said:

So she should live in fear of going broke instead of paying for her daughter's first year of college. That's not really any better.

It’s bad money management no matter how we spin the situation.  
 

it is ideal to have enough savings to cover 6 months of expenses.  Not many people do, that’s a different discussion, But this mother did, and she put herself in her situation.  It sucks, but it was her decision.

[teachercd]

1 hour ago, funhusker said:

It’s bad money management no matter how we spin the situation.  
 

it is ideal to have enough savings to cover 6 months of expenses.  Not many people do, that’s a different discussion, But this mother did, and she put herself in her situation.  It sucks, but it was her decision.

Exactly and really, parents do this all the time for their kids.  

 

[RedDenver]

10 hours ago, Moiraine said:

Yes... it's called an emergency fund. People should have them, and if they're able to build them like this woman did, they shouldn't use them on something their kid could've gotten a low interest loan for. That's really risky even in normal times, IMHO.

 

9 hours ago, Danny Bateman said:

By all accounts it sounds like she did everything well and was extremely fiscally responsible given her income, building up a decent nest egg...

 

But then blew it with a very selfless decision to try to help her daughter. Her heart was in the right place but she should not have done that.

 

2 hours ago, funhusker said:

It’s bad money management no matter how we spin the situation.  
 

it is ideal to have enough savings to cover 6 months of expenses.  Not many people do, that’s a different discussion, But this mother did, and she put herself in her situation.  It sucks, but it was her decision.

 

1 hour ago, teachercd said:

Exactly and really, parents do this all the time for their kids.  

These responses show me just how broken our system is. A single parent of two children who managed to save her money should just sit on it instead of helping her kids because there's this chance that something terrible could happen. This is why we need a social safety net.

 

I'm guessing none of you are parents. I'd blow my life savings to help my kid get through college without debt. Guaranteed helping my kid versus possible bad things happening to me isn't even a difficult choice.

[teachercd]

6 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

 

 

 

These responses show me just how broken our system is. A single parent of two children who managed to save her money should just sit on it instead of helping her kids because there's this chance that something terrible could happen. This is why we need a social safety net.

 

I'm guessing none of you are parents. I'd blow my life savings to help my kid get through college without debt. Guaranteed helping my kid versus possible bad things happening to me isn't even a difficult choice.

Everyone is saying what she did is awesome!

 

Everyone is also saying there are better ways she could have done it.  She even thinks that!

[Moiraine]

21 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

These responses show me just how broken our system is. A single parent of two children who managed to save her money should just sit on it instead of helping her kids because there's this chance that something terrible could happen. This is why we need a social safety net.

 

I'm guessing none of you are parents. I'd blow my life savings to help my kid get through college without debt. Guaranteed helping my kid versus possible bad things happening to me isn't even a difficult choice.

 

 

I think in every system in the history of earth where there was a currency, people should try to have a backup fund in case something goes wrong. College isn't a good use of an emergency fund since the rates on loans are so low.

Our system is definitely broken (including but not limited to college costs), but the idea that having an emergency fund is evidence of the system being f#&%ed up doesn't make any sense to me. It's not evidence of that. Having one has always been a good idea. And blowing it on a year of college, which isn't an emergency, isn't a good idea. If people have enough money to build up an emergency fund and a college fund, that's great. But the former should take priority.

 

I haven't even gotten into the fact that $46,000 for one year likely means a private school or an out of state school. I think people have messed up priorities when it comes to college and they need to stop telling kids that they should just do whatever the f#&% they want/whatever their dreams are even if it costs them $200,000 to get a degree for a job that pays $10,000 a year.

[RedDenver]

9 minutes ago, teachercd said:

Everyone is saying what she did is awesome!

 

Everyone is also saying there are better ways she could have done it.  She even thinks that!

So we want a society that's structured so that people need to hoard their money just in case?

 

Or - and hear me out - we could create a better society that doesn't let people fall through the cracks just because they want to help their kids.

[Moiraine]

Just now, RedDenver said:

So we want a society that's structured so that people need to hoard their money just in case?

 

Or - and hear me out - we could create a better society that doesn't let people fall through the cracks just because they want to help their kids.

 

 

Having a backup fund instead of constantly blowing your money hasn't been a bad idea in any society.

 

Good ways to help your kids - keeping them on their feet, helping pay rent/health insurance for several years, letting them live at home, etc. Not blowing 99% of your life savings for a year of college just so your baby doesn't have a loan. Maybe if she hadn't given the kid the $ she would have chosen a more affordable school.

[teachercd]

2 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

So we want a society that's structured so that people need to hoard their money just in case?

 

Or - and hear me out - we could create a better society that doesn't let people fall through the cracks just because they want to help their kids.

Or...be smart with your money AND help your family.  Crazy idea!

 

I guess I don't see saving your money as hoarding.  

[RedDenver]

1 minute ago, Moiraine said:

I think in every system in the history of earth where there was a currency, people should try to have a backup fund in case something goes wrong. College isn't a good use of an emergency fund since the rates on loans are so low.

Our system is definitely broken (including but not limited to college costs), but the idea that having an emergency fund is evidence of the system being f#&%ed up doesn't make any sense to me. It's not evidence of that. Having one has always been a good idea. And blowing it on a year of college, which isn't an emergency, isn't a good idea. If people have enough money to build up an emergency fund and a college fund, that's great.

Ok, how much money should people have for an emergency fund? $1000? $10,000? $100,000? I can give you examples where none of those were sufficient.

 

And when can you spend money on your kids or other things? Should we hoard our money "just in case"?

 

1 minute ago, Moiraine said:

I haven't even gotten into the fact that $46,000 for one year likely means a private school or an out of state school. I think people have messed up priorities when it comes to college and they need to stop telling kids that they should just do whatever the f#&% they want/whatever their dreams are even if it costs them $200,000 to get a degree for a job that pays $10,000 a year.

There's a whole other discussion of how stupid it is that we allow college to be so expensive, and how that's slowly limiting what education people should get based solely on what they can make afterwards.

[RedDenver]

3 minutes ago, teachercd said:

Or...be smart with your money AND help your family.  Crazy idea!

 

I guess I don't see saving your money as hoarding.  

It is when you're saying that you shouldn't spend it "just in case". And most people don't have enough money to both save and help their family.

[Moiraine]

5 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Ok, how much money should people have for an emergency fund? $1000? $10,000? $100,000? I can give you examples where none of those were sufficient.

 

And when can you spend money on your kids or other things? Should we hoard our money "just in case"?

 

There's a whole other discussion of how stupid it is that we allow college to be so expensive, and how that's slowly limiting what education people should get based solely on what they can make afterwards.

 

 

People should have a goal of an emergency fund worth half of their annual salary. Many people aren't able to save up even a week of their annual salary so there's no need to get into that - and if you've paid attention to my posts I don't think it's most people's fault that this is the case.

 

But if you are able to do it, you should only use it for emergencies. People can define emergencies however they choose, but I'm never going to consider college tuition to be an emergency and in my opinion this was very stupid of her. This was likely also her retirement fund which makes it even worse. Actually, I'm guessing this was 2 year's salary that she just blew on something that's not a real emergency. Things I consider emergencies: losing your job, getting into a horrible accident, getting a horrible illness, etc.

 

Yes, there is that discussion, but this reminds me of the football players and pot discussion. We know how much college costs going into it and we react based on that. Pot shouldn't be illegal but the players know it's illegal. I'm all for college costs not to be insane and for pot to be legal.