personal finance

[aldante]

I am in the business.
Waste of money if you can simply go on to one of the many many online tools offered for free.

[Coronita]

[quote=Nicole]So, here is my remaining question. Once my husband and I have our spending habits reined in and we have more money to save. Should we just continue to contribute to our employee retirement accounts and my son’s educational fund or would it be wise to use a PF to invest any savings we generate?[/quote]

I guess this depends on how you answer this question to yourself. How well has you/your husband done on the investments so far versus the market’s performance? You don’t need to answer it in this public forum. It’s a personal question you ask yourself.

[Coronita]

[quote=Nicole]So, here is my remaining question. Once my husband and I have our spending habits reined in and we have more money to save. Should we just continue to contribute to our employee retirement accounts and my son’s educational fund or would it be wise to use a PF to invest any savings we generate?[/quote]

I guess this depends on how you answer this question to yourself. How well has you/your husband done on the investments so far versus the market’s performance? You don’t need to answer it in this public forum. It’s a personal question you ask yourself.

[Coronita]

[quote=Nicole]So, here is my remaining question. Once my husband and I have our spending habits reined in and we have more money to save. Should we just continue to contribute to our employee retirement accounts and my son’s educational fund or would it be wise to use a PF to invest any savings we generate?[/quote]

I guess this depends on how you answer this question to yourself. How well has you/your husband done on the investments so far versus the market’s performance? You don’t need to answer it in this public forum. It’s a personal question you ask yourself.

[Coronita]

[quote=Nicole]So, here is my remaining question. Once my husband and I have our spending habits reined in and we have more money to save. Should we just continue to contribute to our employee retirement accounts and my son’s educational fund or would it be wise to use a PF to invest any savings we generate?[/quote]

I guess this depends on how you answer this question to yourself. How well has you/your husband done on the investments so far versus the market’s performance? You don’t need to answer it in this public forum. It’s a personal question you ask yourself.

[Coronita]

[quote=Nicole]So, here is my remaining question. Once my husband and I have our spending habits reined in and we have more money to save. Should we just continue to contribute to our employee retirement accounts and my son’s educational fund or would it be wise to use a PF to invest any savings we generate?[/quote]

I guess this depends on how you answer this question to yourself. How well has you/your husband done on the investments so far versus the market’s performance? You don’t need to answer it in this public forum. It’s a personal question you ask yourself.

[Coronita]

[quote=Raybyrnes]Nicole.
Remember , when the kids go to school they will have loans available to them.

JMTC[/quote]

Raybarnes,

The way things are going, this may very well not be the case… I was doing some research about this and discussing this with my friends who are in similar boats. From the looks of things, it appears more and more likely that for your kid to qualify for need-based financial aid…your home’s equity will start being used more significantly moving forward.

Hypothetically, if that is the case, if you were one of those people that worked hard to say pay down your mortgage and have amassed $500k in equity, but didn’t save for your kid’s college, you may very well be in situation in which your kid don’t qualify for a lot of the need-based financial aid, and be expected take out part of your equity for your kid’s education. That’s a big deal especially if you are dependent on a “job”, because at the time you are sending your kid off to college, you are most likely *not* in the peak of your incoming generating years and while you had looked forward to being less-debt ridden during your older year, and now need to take out equity to finance your kid’s college.

Based on what some folks that I’ve discussed this with, if you are able to afford a $500k+ mortgage right now, most folks advise me don’t count on your kid being able to get a meaningful amount of need-based financial aid unless you get totally financially wiped out. There’s also the risk if you spent your time paying down your mortgage and your home value gets slaughtered, your kid also will be SOL. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I’m not advocating to not paying down a mortgage early, but there is so much uncertainty into how some of these rules will be, and so much uncertainty in how our economy will be, it just seems like the safest thing to do is to pay yourself/kid first and then pay your debts. Also, i believe IRA’s/retirement plans generally are not assets creditors can seek (could be wrong). (College saving plans, I’m not to sure about.)
While no one plans on getting wiped out, you never know.

I contribute approximately $300-400 month to my kid’s revocable education fund, and any 10% of any financial windfall/bonus each year. She is 3 right now. Key word here though: “revocable” fund (If kid turns out horrible/doesn’t go to college/etc, it gets yanked) 🙂 I max out my 401k/espp/etc, and pay myself a fixed amount each month into a self-directed investment each month…Then I pay my bills (kids bill/utilities/mortgage/etc). Anything else goes into discretionary spending for next month (entertainment/etc). There are some months with no discretionary spending 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=Raybyrnes]Nicole.
Remember , when the kids go to school they will have loans available to them.

JMTC[/quote]

Raybarnes,

The way things are going, this may very well not be the case… I was doing some research about this and discussing this with my friends who are in similar boats. From the looks of things, it appears more and more likely that for your kid to qualify for need-based financial aid…your home’s equity will start being used more significantly moving forward.

Hypothetically, if that is the case, if you were one of those people that worked hard to say pay down your mortgage and have amassed $500k in equity, but didn’t save for your kid’s college, you may very well be in situation in which your kid don’t qualify for a lot of the need-based financial aid, and be expected take out part of your equity for your kid’s education. That’s a big deal especially if you are dependent on a “job”, because at the time you are sending your kid off to college, you are most likely *not* in the peak of your incoming generating years and while you had looked forward to being less-debt ridden during your older year, and now need to take out equity to finance your kid’s college.

Based on what some folks that I’ve discussed this with, if you are able to afford a $500k+ mortgage right now, most folks advise me don’t count on your kid being able to get a meaningful amount of need-based financial aid unless you get totally financially wiped out. There’s also the risk if you spent your time paying down your mortgage and your home value gets slaughtered, your kid also will be SOL. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I’m not advocating to not paying down a mortgage early, but there is so much uncertainty into how some of these rules will be, and so much uncertainty in how our economy will be, it just seems like the safest thing to do is to pay yourself/kid first and then pay your debts. Also, i believe IRA’s/retirement plans generally are not assets creditors can seek (could be wrong). (College saving plans, I’m not to sure about.)
While no one plans on getting wiped out, you never know.

I contribute approximately $300-400 month to my kid’s revocable education fund, and any 10% of any financial windfall/bonus each year. She is 3 right now. Key word here though: “revocable” fund (If kid turns out horrible/doesn’t go to college/etc, it gets yanked) 🙂 I max out my 401k/espp/etc, and pay myself a fixed amount each month into a self-directed investment each month…Then I pay my bills (kids bill/utilities/mortgage/etc). Anything else goes into discretionary spending for next month (entertainment/etc). There are some months with no discretionary spending 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=Raybyrnes]Nicole.
Remember , when the kids go to school they will have loans available to them.

JMTC[/quote]

Raybarnes,

The way things are going, this may very well not be the case… I was doing some research about this and discussing this with my friends who are in similar boats. From the looks of things, it appears more and more likely that for your kid to qualify for need-based financial aid…your home’s equity will start being used more significantly moving forward.

Hypothetically, if that is the case, if you were one of those people that worked hard to say pay down your mortgage and have amassed $500k in equity, but didn’t save for your kid’s college, you may very well be in situation in which your kid don’t qualify for a lot of the need-based financial aid, and be expected take out part of your equity for your kid’s education. That’s a big deal especially if you are dependent on a “job”, because at the time you are sending your kid off to college, you are most likely *not* in the peak of your incoming generating years and while you had looked forward to being less-debt ridden during your older year, and now need to take out equity to finance your kid’s college.

Based on what some folks that I’ve discussed this with, if you are able to afford a $500k+ mortgage right now, most folks advise me don’t count on your kid being able to get a meaningful amount of need-based financial aid unless you get totally financially wiped out. There’s also the risk if you spent your time paying down your mortgage and your home value gets slaughtered, your kid also will be SOL. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I’m not advocating to not paying down a mortgage early, but there is so much uncertainty into how some of these rules will be, and so much uncertainty in how our economy will be, it just seems like the safest thing to do is to pay yourself/kid first and then pay your debts. Also, i believe IRA’s/retirement plans generally are not assets creditors can seek (could be wrong). (College saving plans, I’m not to sure about.)
While no one plans on getting wiped out, you never know.

I contribute approximately $300-400 month to my kid’s revocable education fund, and any 10% of any financial windfall/bonus each year. She is 3 right now. Key word here though: “revocable” fund (If kid turns out horrible/doesn’t go to college/etc, it gets yanked) 🙂 I max out my 401k/espp/etc, and pay myself a fixed amount each month into a self-directed investment each month…Then I pay my bills (kids bill/utilities/mortgage/etc). Anything else goes into discretionary spending for next month (entertainment/etc). There are some months with no discretionary spending 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=Raybyrnes]Nicole.
Remember , when the kids go to school they will have loans available to them.

JMTC[/quote]

Raybarnes,

The way things are going, this may very well not be the case… I was doing some research about this and discussing this with my friends who are in similar boats. From the looks of things, it appears more and more likely that for your kid to qualify for need-based financial aid…your home’s equity will start being used more significantly moving forward.

Hypothetically, if that is the case, if you were one of those people that worked hard to say pay down your mortgage and have amassed $500k in equity, but didn’t save for your kid’s college, you may very well be in situation in which your kid don’t qualify for a lot of the need-based financial aid, and be expected take out part of your equity for your kid’s education. That’s a big deal especially if you are dependent on a “job”, because at the time you are sending your kid off to college, you are most likely *not* in the peak of your incoming generating years and while you had looked forward to being less-debt ridden during your older year, and now need to take out equity to finance your kid’s college.

Based on what some folks that I’ve discussed this with, if you are able to afford a $500k+ mortgage right now, most folks advise me don’t count on your kid being able to get a meaningful amount of need-based financial aid unless you get totally financially wiped out. There’s also the risk if you spent your time paying down your mortgage and your home value gets slaughtered, your kid also will be SOL. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I’m not advocating to not paying down a mortgage early, but there is so much uncertainty into how some of these rules will be, and so much uncertainty in how our economy will be, it just seems like the safest thing to do is to pay yourself/kid first and then pay your debts. Also, i believe IRA’s/retirement plans generally are not assets creditors can seek (could be wrong). (College saving plans, I’m not to sure about.)
While no one plans on getting wiped out, you never know.

I contribute approximately $300-400 month to my kid’s revocable education fund, and any 10% of any financial windfall/bonus each year. She is 3 right now. Key word here though: “revocable” fund (If kid turns out horrible/doesn’t go to college/etc, it gets yanked) 🙂 I max out my 401k/espp/etc, and pay myself a fixed amount each month into a self-directed investment each month…Then I pay my bills (kids bill/utilities/mortgage/etc). Anything else goes into discretionary spending for next month (entertainment/etc). There are some months with no discretionary spending 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=Raybyrnes]Nicole.
Remember , when the kids go to school they will have loans available to them.

JMTC[/quote]

Raybarnes,

The way things are going, this may very well not be the case… I was doing some research about this and discussing this with my friends who are in similar boats. From the looks of things, it appears more and more likely that for your kid to qualify for need-based financial aid…your home’s equity will start being used more significantly moving forward.

Hypothetically, if that is the case, if you were one of those people that worked hard to say pay down your mortgage and have amassed $500k in equity, but didn’t save for your kid’s college, you may very well be in situation in which your kid don’t qualify for a lot of the need-based financial aid, and be expected take out part of your equity for your kid’s education. That’s a big deal especially if you are dependent on a “job”, because at the time you are sending your kid off to college, you are most likely *not* in the peak of your incoming generating years and while you had looked forward to being less-debt ridden during your older year, and now need to take out equity to finance your kid’s college.

Based on what some folks that I’ve discussed this with, if you are able to afford a $500k+ mortgage right now, most folks advise me don’t count on your kid being able to get a meaningful amount of need-based financial aid unless you get totally financially wiped out. There’s also the risk if you spent your time paying down your mortgage and your home value gets slaughtered, your kid also will be SOL. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I’m not advocating to not paying down a mortgage early, but there is so much uncertainty into how some of these rules will be, and so much uncertainty in how our economy will be, it just seems like the safest thing to do is to pay yourself/kid first and then pay your debts. Also, i believe IRA’s/retirement plans generally are not assets creditors can seek (could be wrong). (College saving plans, I’m not to sure about.)
While no one plans on getting wiped out, you never know.

I contribute approximately $300-400 month to my kid’s revocable education fund, and any 10% of any financial windfall/bonus each year. She is 3 right now. Key word here though: “revocable” fund (If kid turns out horrible/doesn’t go to college/etc, it gets yanked) 🙂 I max out my 401k/espp/etc, and pay myself a fixed amount each month into a self-directed investment each month…Then I pay my bills (kids bill/utilities/mortgage/etc). Anything else goes into discretionary spending for next month (entertainment/etc). There are some months with no discretionary spending 🙂

[anxvariety]

When you hire someone to mow your lawn, it makes ending up with a cut lawn cut pretty easy. I don’t think hiring a financial planner makes reaching objectives any easier unless you don’t know how to create objectives. If your troubles are discipline related, then you can hire a disciplinarian for much cheaper. Saving money should be pretty easy, it requires you do nothing, nothing that costs money ;} Doing nothing with money though I guess is pretty hard.. but if you have a plan and you’re not hitting your targets, you probably only need to adjust/refine the plan or your level of discipline. It doesn’t seem like you need a FP for a basic/personal plan but maybe a drills sargent could help :} I think focusing on either discipline or plan results versus any temptations for a magic bullet will help alot – just reflecting my own experiences. One of the area I do business frequently has newcomers many who will ask “how much money can I make if I do X?” They usually dissappear shortly after.. the ones that don’t ask that question and just try their hardest seem to end up on a better track.

[anxvariety]

When you hire someone to mow your lawn, it makes ending up with a cut lawn cut pretty easy. I don’t think hiring a financial planner makes reaching objectives any easier unless you don’t know how to create objectives. If your troubles are discipline related, then you can hire a disciplinarian for much cheaper. Saving money should be pretty easy, it requires you do nothing, nothing that costs money ;} Doing nothing with money though I guess is pretty hard.. but if you have a plan and you’re not hitting your targets, you probably only need to adjust/refine the plan or your level of discipline. It doesn’t seem like you need a FP for a basic/personal plan but maybe a drills sargent could help :} I think focusing on either discipline or plan results versus any temptations for a magic bullet will help alot – just reflecting my own experiences. One of the area I do business frequently has newcomers many who will ask “how much money can I make if I do X?” They usually dissappear shortly after.. the ones that don’t ask that question and just try their hardest seem to end up on a better track.

[anxvariety]

When you hire someone to mow your lawn, it makes ending up with a cut lawn cut pretty easy. I don’t think hiring a financial planner makes reaching objectives any easier unless you don’t know how to create objectives. If your troubles are discipline related, then you can hire a disciplinarian for much cheaper. Saving money should be pretty easy, it requires you do nothing, nothing that costs money ;} Doing nothing with money though I guess is pretty hard.. but if you have a plan and you’re not hitting your targets, you probably only need to adjust/refine the plan or your level of discipline. It doesn’t seem like you need a FP for a basic/personal plan but maybe a drills sargent could help :} I think focusing on either discipline or plan results versus any temptations for a magic bullet will help alot – just reflecting my own experiences. One of the area I do business frequently has newcomers many who will ask “how much money can I make if I do X?” They usually dissappear shortly after.. the ones that don’t ask that question and just try their hardest seem to end up on a better track.

[anxvariety]

When you hire someone to mow your lawn, it makes ending up with a cut lawn cut pretty easy. I don’t think hiring a financial planner makes reaching objectives any easier unless you don’t know how to create objectives. If your troubles are discipline related, then you can hire a disciplinarian for much cheaper. Saving money should be pretty easy, it requires you do nothing, nothing that costs money ;} Doing nothing with money though I guess is pretty hard.. but if you have a plan and you’re not hitting your targets, you probably only need to adjust/refine the plan or your level of discipline. It doesn’t seem like you need a FP for a basic/personal plan but maybe a drills sargent could help :} I think focusing on either discipline or plan results versus any temptations for a magic bullet will help alot – just reflecting my own experiences. One of the area I do business frequently has newcomers many who will ask “how much money can I make if I do X?” They usually dissappear shortly after.. the ones that don’t ask that question and just try their hardest seem to end up on a better track.

[Author]

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