In reply to Furious_E:
Yeah, you and me both. I gradumatated before they started building that thing, and I haven't been back to the campus since it was completed. I also haven't given a dime to them. If they have $300M to blow on a boondoggle like they don't need my paltry little donations.
I also have...shall we say...political differences with the current administration of the Institute.
Datsun310Guy wrote: 1. He studied hard in high school and took AP classes and tests. This allowed him to get college credit and skip his last semester. 3. He worked every break and summer and saved all his money. He saved enough to pay the tuition bill for one semester. 5. He cut out the schools cafeteria food plan the last two years and cooked for himself – he figured he cut out $2,000 off his yearly school bill.
Everything in your post is wonderful advice, but I wanted to call these 3 out specifically. An AP test is a lot cheaper than taking a general ed class that you'll never use.
He worked every break and summer and saved all his money. This is what I did as well. It adds up. It all goes away quickly, but as a kid, you don't pay rent, you don't pay for your food... how much can you really be spending?
And lastly, the food plans. Unfortunately required for the first two years, but holy cow were those insanely expensive. I calculated it out; with the cheapest food plan (that did not get me 3 meals a day) I could have eaten out with $30 every day. I work in downtown Chicago now and when I eat out BL+D it is rarely over $25. And I do that NEVER. Why is it so gawddamned expensive? I could have gone to Dennys for breakfast, Chipotle for lunch, and had pizza for dinner EVERY DAY for less than I spent on the CHEAPEST FOOD PLAN AT A STATE SCHOOL.
pushrod36 wrote: I have one young one and another on the way. Currently I have a 529 account. Are there other tax advantaged ways to invest/save money for college? I am somewhat familiar with series EE and I bonds, but bond rates are pretty sad these days.
rental real estate - view it as an annuity. Finance it over 20 years, use the rents to pay it off, sell it or use the cashflow when the kids are in school.
In reply to mtn:
Yeah, I remember doing the calcs while I was in school too, and found campus housing to be very affordable compared to renting your own place, yet the food was riDONKulous. At my school at the time you could not do one without the other, so why they even listed prices separately was beyond me.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse:
Yea I'm not exactly on board with Shirley's political viewpoints either. I'll leave that alone before I end up floundering this thread.
It's pretty mind blowing the amount of money that place has spent in the past decade or so on various facilities. The aforementioned $300+m media center, a ~$250m biotech building, who knows how much on an athletic complex and new palace for Queen Shirley, and an additional tens or hundreds of thousands a year on silly and unnecessary landscaping projects, all while the president draws the highest salary of anyone in her position in the country at a school with ~5000 undergrads. The real kicker for me is the common theme in all of the above is that there is very little, if any, accessibility (let alone actual educational benefit) for the vast, vast majority of the student population at any of these facilities. But they sure do look good in front of a tour group.
So much for not ranting i guess.
In reply to Robbie:
Off campus housing was actually way cheaper for me, and my calculations on the meal plan came out being very similar to MTN IIRC. I got off campus and off the meal plan as soon as I could, which was sophomore year. My class was the last that was allowed to live off campus during our 2nd year. Which was a ridiculously silly rule because they didn't actually have the housing capacity to meet demand and had to basically push the Greek system to make up the difference.
Furious_E wrote: In reply to Robbie: Off campus housing was actually way cheaper for me, and my calculations on the meal plan came out being very similar to MTN IIRC. I got off campus and off the meal plan as soon as I could, which was sophomore year. My class was the last that was allowed to live off campus during our 2nd year. Which was a ridiculously silly rule because they didn't actually have the housing capacity to meet demand and had to basically push the Greek system to make up the difference.
I think he's saying the same thing as we are. The dorms were pretty cheap when you considered that we got full cable and internet, heating and cooling, use of the weight room and computer labs and printers, and a maid to clean up the bathrooms. I think it worked out to about $500 a month for the time I was there, which wasn't bad. Until you added in the necessary food package.
mtn wrote:Furious_E wrote: In reply to Robbie: Off campus housing was actually way cheaper for me, and my calculations on the meal plan came out being very similar to MTN IIRC. I got off campus and off the meal plan as soon as I could, which was sophomore year. My class was the last that was allowed to live off campus during our 2nd year. Which was a ridiculously silly rule because they didn't actually have the housing capacity to meet demand and had to basically push the Greek system to make up the difference.I think he's saying the same thing as we are. The dorms were pretty cheap when you considered that we got full cable and internet, heating and cooling, use of the weight room and computer labs and printers, and a maid to clean up the bathrooms. I think it worked out to about $500 a month for the time I was there, which wasn't bad. Until you added in the necessary food package.
No, I'm saying the housing alone, less meal plan, was still more expensive than renting. IIRC, my sophomore year place was like $400/month for my share with all utilities, cable, internet, ect. included. I think the cheapest on-campus option was in the $6k neighborhood, so that's a $1200 savings. PLUS, my lease ran 12 months vs 9 or 10 for on campus. After that year I spent two in a fraternity house, which was even cheaper yet.
Furious_E wrote:mtn wrote:No, I'm saying the housing alone, less meal plan, was still more expensive than renting. IIRC, my sophomore year place was like $400/month for my share with all utilities, cable, internet, ect. included. I think the cheapest on-campus option was in the $6k neighborhood, so that's a $1200 savings. PLUS, my lease ran 12 months vs 9 or 10 for on campus. After that year I spent two in a fraternity house, which was even cheaper yet.Furious_E wrote: In reply to Robbie: Off campus housing was actually way cheaper for me, and my calculations on the meal plan came out being very similar to MTN IIRC. I got off campus and off the meal plan as soon as I could, which was sophomore year. My class was the last that was allowed to live off campus during our 2nd year. Which was a ridiculously silly rule because they didn't actually have the housing capacity to meet demand and had to basically push the Greek system to make up the difference.I think he's saying the same thing as we are. The dorms were pretty cheap when you considered that we got full cable and internet, heating and cooling, use of the weight room and computer labs and printers, and a maid to clean up the bathrooms. I think it worked out to about $500 a month for the time I was there, which wasn't bad. Until you added in the necessary food package.
Ah. Different situations then--I had to sign a 12 month lease which was worthless since I had work back home during the summer. That was $412, not including cable or internet, for 12 months compared to the average of $500 for the dorms.
Furious_E wrote: In reply to mikeatrpi: Your 280Z isn't yellow is it?
Nope, and I didn't have it when I was there.
They started the biotech building part way through my time, and although I've since been back for recruiting, I've never even seen EMPAC. In fact I had to load up a map to figure out where it was. The reflection in that picture is of the library and I thought, huh?
Yes the irony is that we're all grads of an expensive private school, probably at similar times in our lives, trying to figure out how to afford the same for the next generation.
In reply to Furious_E:
Yeah, the economics at our 'Tute were strange. When I graduated (1999) the on-campus room was something like 6 grand per year. I had a small, 1 bedroom apartment all to myself my Junior and Senior years, for $350/month. It was no palace, but it was an easy 1 mile bike ride to campus and kept me dry and warm. I had friends who shared apartments for ~200 each a month, but I don't roommate well. Still, it was ridiculously cheap. Likewise, meal plans were about 6000 a year. My weekly trips to Price Chopper averaged about $30. And I knew a few of the attendants at the cafeterias on campus so I could occasionally sneak out a sandwich or something.
I worked a part time job at a local hardware store, making $5.25 an hour, did a work study one semester, a co-op another ($12.50 an hour! Big Bucks!) had two summer jobs (a landscape place and my own lawn mowing/ landscaping business) and saved money like crazy. One summer I worked B shift at a local Delco plant, putting windshield washer motors on assembly line. I was UAW and everything.
Tuition was 19k a year when I graduated. I had about 20k in student loans after all that. (Dad paid a lot of tuition, too- Thanks, Dad!) Paid it off completely a long time ago, on a not-at-all aggressive repayment schedule. But hey, back then money was cheap- I think I was paying about 4% on my loans. It made more sense to dump extra income into my 401k and make the minimums on the loans.
mtn wrote:Datsun310Guy wrote: 1. He studied hard in high school and took AP classes and tests. This allowed him to get college credit and skip his last semester. 3. He worked every break and summer and saved all his money. He saved enough to pay the tuition bill for one semester. 5. He cut out the schools cafeteria food plan the last two years and cooked for himself – he figured he cut out $2,000 off his yearly school bill....but as a kid, you don't pay rent, you don't pay for your food...
Most kids don't, some kids do.
mikeatrpi wrote:Furious_E wrote: In reply to mikeatrpi:Yes the irony is that we're all grads of an expensive private school, probably at similar times in our lives, trying to figure out how to afford the same for the next generation.
Yes. My parents probably laid out around $50k (on top of my own contributions and loans) to put me through undergrad for 4 years. Now, I know with inflation and all that's roughly equivalent to $75,000 today. But 4 years of that school with room and books and "activity" fees and whatnot is floating around a quarter mil. Ain't nobody got that kind of green, son.
At least they had a cool auto shop run by the students. I spent a lot of time there. I wonder if it's still around?
Edit: Yup, it is!
I started school 15 years ago. I can't find an exact number, but I think tuition has gone up by 80%.
If it paced inflation it would've gone up by ~36%.
The Dow Jones has gone up by ~100% in that time frame.
wow. My kids are so berkeleyed if this trend continues.
In reply to mikeatrpi:
You're probably a few years before my time then. There was a dude there I think the same year as me that had a pretty cool bright yellow 280Z. Talked to him once or twice and thought you might be the same guy.
ProDarwin wrote: I started school 15 years ago. I can't find an exact number, but I think tuition has gone up by 80%. If it paced inflation it would've gone up by ~36%. The Dow Jones has gone up by ~100% in that time frame. wow. My kids are so berkeleyed if this trend continues.
Unless you invest in the DOW. 
Yeah, for me, inflation's 49% since I left college, and tuition's gone up 137%
volvoclearinghouse wrote:ProDarwin wrote: I started school 15 years ago. I can't find an exact number, but I think tuition has gone up by 80%. If it paced inflation it would've gone up by ~36%. The Dow Jones has gone up by ~100% in that time frame. wow. My kids are so berkeleyed if this trend continues.Unless you invest in the DOW.
Perhaps this is a normalization that "resets" the average to not having a college degree? Well, it would be if it wasn't for the easy to obtain loans.
volvoclearinghouse wrote:ProDarwin wrote: I started school 15 years ago. I can't find an exact number, but I think tuition has gone up by 80%. If it paced inflation it would've gone up by ~36%. The Dow Jones has gone up by ~100% in that time frame. wow. My kids are so berkeleyed if this trend continues.Unless you invest in the DOW.
Just found real numbers. Its increased ~120%.
Its outpacing the Dow. Even investing in the Dow (which I do, heavily), I'm still losing money compared to tuition. If they were equal, I'd have to be able to sock away all 4 years of college tuition by the time the kid is 7 in order to pay for them.
My fingers are crossed that this doesn't keep up. I think it cannot for another 15-20 years. If it does, it simply won't be worth going to college.... just take the 500k you would've spent, the 200k you'd have earned during those 4 years invest it, and use the earnings to supplement the lower income you'll have without attending school.
So this is a highly specific question and I know I should likely see a professional about it but I'm overseas for the next two months yet:
I have a non contributory pension provided by my employer. My options when I leave, as I understand it, are to:
A) Cash it out - nominal taxrate +10% so I'd lose about 50% of it.
B) Roll it into a retirement account - In theory I'd be able to roll it into my pretax 401k.
Everyone I talk to that has left the company has taken the tax hit and used it as a separation "bonus" that seems rather short sighted to me. I'd actually like to go with option C) roll it into a ESA or a 529 for two very young kids. If that is even possible.
I figure there's roughly $52 thousand in there which should be almost enough to provide state school tuition for two kids in 16 and 18 years.
Anyone have any insight into this?
The0retical wrote: So this is a highly specific question and I know I should likely see a professional about it but I'm overseas for the next two months yet: I have a non contributory pension provided by my employer. My options when I leave, as I understand it, are to: A) Cash it out - nominal taxrate +10% so I'd lose about 50% of it. B) Roll it into a retirement account - In theory I'd be able to roll it into my pretax 401k. Everyone I talk to that has left the company has taken the tax hit and used it as a separation "bonus" that seems rather short sighted to me. I'd actually like to go with option C) roll it into a ESA or a 529 for two very young kids. If that is even possible. I figure there's roughly $52 thousand in there which should be almost enough to provide state school tuition for two kids in 16 and 18 years. Anyone have any insight into this?
I'd roll it into the retirement accounts. Long run the money will be worth more there because you can put it in riskier funds. If the market crashes, you can delay your retirement. It is much harder to delay school.
In reply to mtn:
At my current age the money would be a bit over 2.5x what I'd get from an ESA for the kids from my rough compounding estimate with no additional monney added. That's probably not a bad call.
Edit: Wow that's a lot of money 33 years from now only adding a Roth IRA to the mix to what I have in there plus the pension. Like nearly my annual salary money every year in retirement, just not having to visit the crappier parts of the world to get it. I just liked the idea of being done with the kids school but damn...
The0retical wrote: In reply to mtn: At my current age the money would be a bit over 2.5x what I'd get from an ESA for the kids from my rough compounding estimate with no additional monney added. That's probably not a bad call. Edit: Wow that's a lot of money 33 years from now only adding a Roth IRA to the mix to what I have in there plus the pension. Like nearly my annual salary money every year in retirement, just not having to visit the crappier parts of the world to get it. I just liked the idea of being done with the kids school but damn...
You have 16 years to save for the kids college, and even then they can take loans to cover the difference. Start saving for their college now, but it doesn't need the jumpstart. Your retirement can probably use it.
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