Recent content by sergio

Awesome job. I'm in a somewhat similar situation (37 y/o, $1.2m net worth, 3 kids). But I started in 2015-ish as I got a STEM PhD which delayed things... a lot. With the small kids, I'd slow down for a year or two and just focus on hoarding cash and maybe putting some money in the taxable...

Absolutely. Not to mention, full-time daycare for an infant around here is like $2k/month, which means pre-tax you need to make $3k/month, or about $36k/yr. Her teaching job didn't pay much more than that and we weren't using any of her benefits. The only real financial "loss" is pausing her...

Been on here since 2015, right around when I graduated. In fact I just revisited my first post on here, almost 9 years ago, and my net worth was a whopping $46k. As of this week, we (wife + 3 kids) are now over $1.1m. And neither of us are doctors, lawyers, investment bankers, or have gotten...

Reading all these stories is freaking me out... and really making me miss the years I lived in Hong Kong car-free...

I also used to be fairly active but now mostly lurk here. I joined in 2015 and your post inspired me to re-view my first post 8 years ago. I was single, renting, unmarried and had no kids. My net worth was a whopping $46k and my dream was to retire in my early 40s. Now I am married, three kids...

When I was doing some research on this, I was seeing estimates of $3-6k which means I'd still be on the hook for most, if not all, of my $4k deductible even if it's 'covered'. According to my PCP, people in less-fortunate countries often live with umbilical hernias for life without any major...

Good luck to you OP - Mid 30s here with a small umbilical hernia. I'm in fairly decent shape (BMI of 23.7, longtime runner) and my PCP told me that my goal should be to "take it to the grave" ie avoid surgery as long as possible. Told me that hernia surgeries are a cash cow for surgeons and...

I'm generally strongly in the "pay it off camp". We paid ours off - it was 3.75% with 1.5% inflation. No way I would pay yours off unless you have an edge case (e.g. you need home equity that can't be touched by creditors/lawsuits). You have an absolute bargain basement rate, equities have...

This is why I just can't do boating anymore with my family. We were on a friend's boat during Labor Day some 10 years ago and nearly got hit by group of raging drunks. And last year we also decided to reduce our savings rate a bit an enjoy more of life now. I ran the numbers under two...

I think ultimately the pendulum will swing the other way, or at least more towards the middle, but it's a shame that so many kids get shafted during these 'experiments' that are nothing but the latest fad in academic journals.

I agree in theory, but colleges DO care about grades, tests scores, and how everyone ranks against one another. Obviously we don't expect perfection but I do think that giving props to good work is motivational

We have considered it but we are at risk of the new district changing as well, and only have a more expensive home to deal with. We do tons of extra fun activities at home that are also educational. Last year, she was put in a math class one grade-level above (e.g. taking 7th grade math in 6th...

The recent trend in middle/high public schools around here has been to slowly eliminate honors courses, switch from A-F grading to more of a pass/fail system, setting minimum grades of 50%, and substantially reduce the numbers of students suspended or expelled for major discipline issues. And...

Someone who was never taught properly is going to have to learn eventually. My upbringing was not great and I had to learn a lot of stuff on my own in college and later in life. I always appreciated when someone was a 'bro' about it, versus calling me out and acting like a wannabe tough guy...

If his upbringing was poor, that's not actually the guy's fault. Maybe he started to feel sick. Maybe the food just sucked (we're talking take out Chinese here). There are a million more tactful ways to get the point across without harshly telling him that if he does this again he's not welcome...