Major Mental Shifts

[yakers]

For some good reasons and some slightly arbitrary reasons I have selected a target retirement date of Nov 4, 2007. I have book marked the countdown website. At that time I would be 57 have enough time in for a decent pension with medical coverage and have a clear idea of younger son’s college costs. There are a couple things that could derail the plan one would be if younger son, who is in high school, got admitted to Stanford, CALTECH or the like (not likely) and the other is if the market takes a major dive; it would be better to work while the market is low and retire into a rising market. On the other side the thing that could accelerate the retirement schedule is a buy out offer which is possible.

Much more immediately is my wife's retirement from teaching. Her last day with students is this Monday May 8th and her last day on the payroll is a couple weeks later. It will be *very* interesting to see how this develops. How will her free time be used, how will we adapt to a lower income?

But with my wife's imminent retirement and my own tentative date, younger son getting older there are these major mental shifts. Stand by for reports...

[Caroline]

Here's one suggested mental shift from a blue-and-gold wearer -- Take off that RED SHIRT, forget Stanford, and send the kid to Cal! As in Berkelely.

[OldAgePensioner]

Just call Juan Kim, (my BIL) and ask him how much his Berkelely PHD in mathematics has earned in the South Bay. He still gets dressed and pretends to go to work.

Pretty sad.

[samclem]

I don't think the school is the issue, it's the degree he chose.

[Spanky]

According to an article that I read recently from Yahoo, the earning or success has a very low correlation to the school attended. A brand name school may help you to land your first job or to command a higher salary right after college. In the end, it's really dependent on your drive and abilities. If one really care about getting a brand name degree, it is much better to attain a graduate degree. No one really cares where you receive your BS when you hold a PH.D, M.D or MBA from Harvard.

P.S. It is very hard to justify spending 4x the tuition of a reputable public school (i.e., Cal, UCLA, U of Illinois, U of Wisc - Madison, U of Michigan, etc) to attend one of the Ivy Leages, ie., Brown, U of Penn, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, etc). If they offer a full scholarship, that will be a different story.

[Dreamer]

Yakers,

I too have a child who is finishing up her junior year. I decided to go ahead and go for the early out at age 53. My spouse is not retiring yet though.

My daughter was talking about going to college out of state and out of country. I decided that I was not delaying my retirement for her to go to college out of state, when we have a perfectly good college right in town. I told her that we had already paid for 4 years in state at a public university and if she went elsewhere she would need to take out loans. She has a good head on her shoulders and does not want to start out life in debt, so she is now planning on going to college here. The college here is very good for what she wants to major in also. Of course I know how majors change. Our state has a scholarship for in state students that pays for tuition, if you have a certain GPA and score high enough on the SATs or ACTs, regardless of your income. She just scored high enough on her ACT and her GPA is also high enough. They started this program after my son went to college (he would not have qualified for it) and are talking about making restrictions to it, because of the cost. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they do not change it on us. My brother is paying for his daughter to go out of state because of the major that she chose for college. Guess who has changed her major and does not want to change schools. My brother is racking up quite a bit of expense. He states that his son is going to go in state.

Good luck in your decisions.

Dreamer

[chris2008]

I see nothing wrong with telling the kid very early during high school years:
"We have set aside x $ for your college/university education. You can stay in state for that. If you are working hard enough to qualify for a scholarship you can even study whereever it takes you and will get y $ on top from us."

If the parents cannot or would not be willing to fully pay for college/university - nothing wrong with that, too.
Just tell your kids early enough to motivate them to qualify for scholarships and to prevent unrealistic expectations.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris2008 You can stay in state for that. If you are working hard enough to qualify for a scholarship you can even study whereever it takes you and will get y $ on top from us."

(Trombone Al, if you're monitoring the board then this'd be a great thread to jump in!)

A lot of local newspapers play up the claims that Oahu high-school graduates will do better at school and be more independent of the nest if they attend college out of state. Needless to say it's an expensive claim.

Other issues around here are the hassle of driving to a college class, finding parking, and dealing with rush hour again. Housing costs are sky-high and dorms are generally hard to find for local residents. Theoretically a lot of that hassle would be avoided if our kid was attending UCSD or Stanford (or wherever) and she'd be less likely to boomerang.

Anyone found any credibility in that claim?

[SteveR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords (Trombone Al, if you're monitoring the board then this'd be a great thread to jump in!) A lot of local newspapers play up the claims that Oahu high-school graduates will do better at school and be more independent of the nest if they attend college out of state.* Needless to say it's an expensive claim. Other issues around here are the hassle of driving to a college class, finding parking, and dealing with rush hour again.* Housing costs are sky-high and dorms are generally hard to find for local residents.* Theoretically a lot of that hassle would be avoided if our kid was attending UCSD or Stanford (or wherever) and she'd be less likely to boomerang. Anyone found any credibility in that claim?*

My oldest left the nest and went to a school several states away. He became so independent that I had the cops look for him once to see if he were still alive since I had heard nothing from him for days and he did not return my phone message. Turns out he was fine...his phone was being fixed. Whatever!

I now live where both my kids go to school. They both live on their own and off campus. I believe they wanted and needed to be on their own to grow. I did the same thing when I was in school. I left home but stayed in-state; just moved a couple hundred miles away. I loved the freedom and independence I had and it allowed me to goof off and get into all kinds of activities grow as a person.

I did live at home for the first year...that s*cked big time! Nothing like being a single male in college and still living at home with your parents.