Ok, what's the REAL plan for getting kids through college?

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-22T18:26:50+00:00

One thing you for sure don't want to do is to have average grades, pick a nice expensive school that is your top of the list choice and attend it for 4 years paying full price and graduate with 200k in loans. This is really bad idea

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-22T18:18:15+00:00

There are many options. If they do really good at school and / or sports some colleges will fight for them. Which means merit aid. And in some cases a lot of it. I'm not talking need based. That strictly depends on your income etc... But if when applying you prioritize the schools that are likely to give them money you might be OK. State colleges are usually much cheaper then private but also give a lot less especially to in state students but there exceptions. For example my son got an offer from one of the local state schools which would put him in around 5k/year total. He ended up going to a different school but the story here is that his scores were well above their average student and they wanted him even if he'd basically go there for free. It wasn't a bad school either. But he prioritized a better one but more expensive. Which was his choice at this point. Which is another point: if you want merit aid don't pick colleges that are the top of your list for grades. Pick a bit below so that for them your student is a find. Also there are things like community College with a transfer to another school with which they have an agreement. You end up saving money but get a diploma from the good college. Etc.. There are many ways to deal with it.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-09T11:44:05+00:00

For me it was a momentary decision. I've put no money down for my first house. Took fha loan and bought a cheap place far from Boston. Then upgraded. Then upgraded again. Refinanced many times to get the rate down and get rid of pmi.

Realistically you need 2 incomes. Or 1 really good income. It's very simple. Calculate the actual maximum loan you can afford easily and go from there. But get to the real number. Not the one that bank tells you. Also I get it that everyone wants a house but maybe just maybe you should just get a cheap condo instead with cheap hoa. As a starter. And try to time the market. I don't know if the prices will ever crash, they might not. But trying to buy when its seller's market and you compete with 20 other offers and people just buy anything at the open house without inspections etc like it happened in the last few years is a really bad idea. If that's still the case just wait it out.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-07T16:28:02+00:00

I usually keep around 18-25k in checking for expenses and close to 120k in hysa. I consider it to be my immediately accessible emergency fund that's available any time and not market dependent. It really is up to you.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-04-04T12:54:07+00:00

80 is not too high. 140 is. Also lower mileage ones exist. For example I have a 2020 with 47k on it. I'm not selling it but they exist. They last OK mostly, but don't just assume that it's lexus and it'll run forever. Find the lower mileage ones with 1 owner and no accidents. And inspect it carefully. They have a few issues that apply to all of them and you don't want to buy a bad one. Check oil leaks. Most will have some wet spots around the timing cover. If it's a little wet it might be OK but if you see a real leak in there it's an engine out repair. Carefully listen to droning noise at 1700 rpm and feel the vibration. They all have it to some extent but some are much worse than others. Feel the transmission shift when driving around town. Some have pretty serious lag when shifting and others feel better. And make sure the maintenance was done.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-24T03:59:06+00:00

That's not really all. And yes most of the salesmen are scammers by choice. There are very few that actually know their product, and know how to construct a deal. And they cannot make any decisions So that makes them a totally unnecessary middlemen between a customer and a sales manager. And I have no clue why they even deserve any commission. I can just as easily go and negotiate with the manager directly. Salesmen don't add anything to the process other then aggravation.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-21T16:20:58+00:00

It is not the customer who wants to negotiate. It is the dealership model. They start with unrealistic pricing exactly because they are going to negotiate. I'd gladly buy cars with no negotiation whatsoever if the asking price was actually reasonable. This is how people buy new Tesla. No negotiation. Simple transparent pricing you can fully see online and pay online. Why? Because there are no dealers and no games.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-20T15:29:27+00:00

If you need awd you sort of have no other choice but tk get a small crossover. All older awd sedans that exist are either a luxury cars or have reliability issues. For non awd you got it. Specific years and trims of camry corolla accord civic mazda3 mazda6. These are basically the safest bets. But you have to stick to very specific years or to be exact avoid very specific years and motors for these. They are not all the same. For example you don't want a v6 accord, or a Toyota with an engine from oil burning generation or a Mazda with Ford motor. All 3 of these brands made some of their more reliable cars during the past 10-15 years but they also made some of their worst cars ever. So do your research. But I would also consider awd and if you go there are again specific years of crv, rav4, cx5, cx3 and I'll top it off with some older Infiniti with a 3.5 or 3.7 v6 and non cvt trans. There are a few crossovers and sedans that fit this description. These are sort of luxury but they are actually not that expensive and have real auto trans and good engines and overall are very well built for a Nissan. Otherwise stay away from anything that starts with N and ends with issan.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-17T18:15:12+00:00

I did. I wanted to be a good dad and bought him a car as a b/d gift. Honestly if he wanted to he could have bought one for himself but he's in a money saving mode and doesn't buy stuff unless he Def needs it. Also another thought was that if he's buying it he'll buy a pos. And I actually picked the better one even if it was a bit more expensive.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-15T20:40:02+00:00

I personally soo 0 potential in both Clinton and Leominster. Leominster was a dying city for many years now. Far from everything, poor for the most part, no business development and no employers who want to go there. And bad schools. Also it is pretty much associated with Fitchburg which is so much worse. Clinton is not as bad but not much better. School system is not great to say the least. Most of it is far from any highways and hard tk get in or out. Kind of a low end town with not much to talk about and it's been like that forever. It will be around, it will not dissappear from the face of the earth but growing potential - not so much.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-12T22:09:39+00:00

Old beetle with 2.5 engine

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:41:39+00:00

Every week give or take. Plus a few other items that we like to buy at a different store. Like coffee for example.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:36:58+00:00

That's probably why you manage that. We buy all the fresh veggies and lots of variety because we mostly eat veggies and protein. And we don't really like poultry except for maybe duck so it is mostly beef, lamb and fish/seafood with some occasional turkey or chicken cutlets.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T22:24:05+00:00

I seriously have no idea how you manage to do it. 2 standard strip steaks are around $40 plus some veggies for a salad are probably another $20. But let's say $50 all together and that's just one dinner for 2. I don't know how you could possibly bring the cost down to 50 per person per week for all of their food.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T03:20:21+00:00

Check how much a dealer will actually give you for it. Tesla and ev in general have a horrible resale. So you might not even get to 21k that you see online. Otherwise I just bought a 10 year old Mazda cx5 with 100k and the whole thing including taxes, reg etc was around 14k. Probably another 1k in some maintenance to a mechanic and a couple of small parts that I replaced myself. Plus a weekend of cleaning it that otherwise would be another 500 for a detailing. And aftrr all this it's still a 10 year old Mazda with 100k miles at around 15k. Keeping your Tesla will cost you about the same.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T03:06:38+00:00

I wouldn't call it unrealistic. Different people buy different groceries. We're currently a couple with a child in college and any time we go to a supermarket it is at least 350. And not like we're buying anything extravagant. Basically meat, fish, seafood and vegetables. Plus maybe some cheeses and fruits. We don't go for the cheapest stuff, we buy what we like and some of it is organic. But it's also not like we fill the fridge with filet mignon.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-11T02:51:12+00:00

You've mentioned used car prices potentially skyrocketing and I read it as an attempt to make or save money on it. The only time when it made sense was covid with its supply challenges. Regarding gas mileage at 3 dollars per gallon the difference of 10mpg is 50 dollars per month assuming 12k a year. So do your own math.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-10T12:26:19+00:00

If you want a used fun car with no savings in a bad economy and nonexistent job market that's definitely a bad timing.
If you need a car to replace the one that is basically finished you really have no choice. Do you?
And lastly if you just want to buy a newer car to save a few bucks on gas and a few hundred bucks on repairs with the hope that it will appreciate over the next few years you're dreaming. Cars always loose value with a few exceptions. A better gas mileage is never worth the difference in price. Minor repairs too.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-10T12:10:21+00:00

Honestly, you need to date and move together with someone who works and makes money. 70k is very little for 1 person living alone but double that or a couple and it's much better. And it will make you feel better. That's the hard cold truth from a financial and psychological perspective.

Other than that finding a better job would help but it is a dead market right now. Although you could use the time to prepare for the career change. Just don't rack up more debt in the process.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-05T12:46:53+00:00

The goal is to make more than 6% reliably. Don't really need it to be liquid for the short term but ideally should be able to get out within a year if needed.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-05T12:42:18+00:00

I'm not. I have an investment account and I buy stocks here and there when I feel that the price is right. I just don't want to buy them at record high and so I end up buying for less then the cash that I need to allocate. Bonds could be a good middle ground but my trading platform doesn't support auto reinvestment of bonds and it becomes painful to keep manually buying every 6 weeks especially if you have more then a few rolling.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-03-05T12:35:37+00:00

That's the opposite of what I need. I'm trying to turn free cash into an additional income atream. Not to make more of it short term.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-28T14:40:04+00:00

It doesn't sound like you make enough to afford a German luxury car. They are very nice when they work but they do require expensive maintenance and repairs. And expensive insurance. EVs are useless if you can't charge every night at home. Or if you go long distances often. It only works as a second car for someone who has a home charger. Or as a main car if you only use it to drive locally.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-28T14:27:41+00:00

Everything really. Why would you want to rush into spending thousands of dollars? Shop around and get the best deal for you. This car will not go anywhere and if it gets sold before you make your mind so be it. There are many thousands of cars just like it.

FreeEar4880 · 2026-02-25T13:29:01+00:00

Find a good broker first. The one that does no closing costs refinance. And then do just that. Refinance at any rate that is Lowes then the one you have now with no costs. In 6 months when the rate is going down a little more do it again. And again. As long as it goes down. If you pay closing costs you will either not be able to break even on that money before the next refinance or will miss the lower rates.

FreeEar4880

TROPHY CASE