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As of today, our household is debt-free

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Fausto said:
..and sadly, you can spend even more than that if you try. Hell, there are wheelsets that are as much or more than that frame.
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Anyone see the episode of Pawn Stars where the Shelby GT Mustang frame was valued at $60k? Now that was crazy.
 
freegeeks said:
well, all racing bikes with carbon frames are expensive, a pina just happens to be even more expensive

it's also the other top of the end components (Shimano Dua-Ace, top of the line carbon wheels, etc..)
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This.

Only way you're getting carbon frames+other-top-end stuff is if you go gray market with frames labeled "Motobecane..."
 
freegeeks said:
well, all racing bikes with carbon frames are expensive, a pina just happens to be even more expensive

it's also the other top of the end components (Shimano Dua-Ace, top of the line carbon wheels, etc..)
Click to expand...

I miss my Ridley. Handing that thing in at the end of the season was painful.
 
Did you take out a second mortgage to pay off all your other debts? Or did you refinance your mortgage to roll all your other debt into your mortgage?

I'll assume not, so congratulations, but if I'm wrong, then let us all laugh at you 🙂
 
Fausto said:
I miss my Ridley. Handing that thing in at the end of the season was painful.
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I can imagine, they have nice bikes

a friend of mine moved to the USA a couple of years ago. He had his first child like 8 months ago. He's talking about moving back to Belgium when his son is starting school in a few years because of the expense of private schools. Apparantly the public schools in his district suck or something.

I don't understand how the system works in the US, you can only send your kids to public schools of the area you are living in? How does it works? When my friend first told me I was like, just bring him to another public school but apparantly it doesn't work like this
 
freegeeks said:
I can imagine, they have nice bikes

a friend of mine moved to the USA a couple of years ago. He had his first child like 8 months ago. He's talking about moving back to Belgium when his son is starting school in a few years because of the expense of private schools. Apparantly the public schools in his district suck or something.

I don't understand how the system works in the US, you can only send your kids to public schools of the area you are living in? How does it works? When my friend first told me I was like, just bring him to another public school but apparantly it doesn't work like this
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You can pay to send them to another public school. Otherwise, you have to send them to the one for the area you live in.
 
BurnItDwn said:
Did you take out a second mortgage to pay off all your other debts? Or did you refinance your mortgage to roll all your other debt into your mortgage?

I'll assume not, so congratulations, but if I'm wrong, then let us all laugh at you 🙂
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Nah, we just paid stuff off with cash. Tax refund, my (laughable) bonus, etc. All went to debt starting with the highest-interest stuff, and finishing with the car loan.
 
Naustica said:
Aren't you in GA near Dunwoody/Roswell/Alpharetta? Public schools in that area are decent.
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Some are good, some are crap. On top of this, there was a recent redistricting that closed some schools and moved kids around a bit. You have to really pay attention to where you buy a house around here and (unfortunately) when we bought we had no intention of ever having kids.
 
freegeeks said:
I don't understand how the system works in the US, you can only send your kids to public schools of the area you are living in? How does it works? When my friend first told me I was like, just bring him to another public school but apparantly it doesn't work like this
Click to expand...

For the most part, yes, it's zoned. The state sets up fairly arbitrary lines based on proximity to schools, neighborhood density, neighborhood wealth, etc and students must go to those schools, unless they can get into a magnet school, which are less proximal and available for students that have good grades, usually in a specific course (i.e. some magnet schools are meant for science-bound students, others for liberal arts).
 
freegeeks said:
ok, and how does the cost compare to sending to another public school or going to the school the area?
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This I'm not sure on. I've heard it being as low as $1 for a school neighboring where they were supposed to go, but I'm not sure how high it can get. Its mainly based on distance from the school and the school you pick. Highest I've heard of is $14,000, but I more commonly hear around $1500-$3000.
 
Tweak155 said:
This I'm not sure on. I've heard it being as low as $1 for a school neighboring where they were supposed to go, but I'm not sure how high it can get. Its mainly based on distance from the school and the school you pick. Highest I've heard of is $14,000, but I more commonly hear around $1500-$3000.
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There has to be space available in those schools as well. If not, you are SOL no matter how much money you are willing to spend.
 
Tweak155 said:
This I'm not sure on. I've heard it being as low as $1 for a school neighboring where they were supposed to go, but I'm not sure how high it can get. Its mainly based on distance from the school and the school you pick. Highest I've heard of is $14,000, but I more commonly hear around $1500-$3000.
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thx, yeah I can see that it can get expensive quick

you guys must all make a ton of money to be able to get your kids through school / college 🙂
 
freegeeks said:
thx, yeah I can see that it can get expensive quick

you guys must all make a ton of money to be able to get your kids through school / college 🙂
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It's not so much that as you have to drastically scale back spending. Looking back, we wasted a ton of money on stupid shit like going out to eat every night. We live pretty small on a day-to-day basis now with the bigger picture (education and retirement) in mind.
 
Fausto said:
Some are good, some are crap. On top of this, there was a recent redistricting that closed some schools and moved kids around a bit. You have to really pay attention to where you buy a house around here and (unfortunately) when we bought we had no intention of ever having kids.
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It seems redistricting comes up every year. Im in Roswell and the past two years they did the rezoning. My feeling is no where are you truly safe. You can buy a house in a good district and they can change the lines again in the future. As long as your kid is not in some awful school system like Clayton County, it'll work out fine. It's up to the kids and their parents to utilize the available resources and maximize it. After certain point, it's more about the student and their workhabit rather than the schools.
 
Texashiker said:
Title of thread is misleading, if you have a mortgage, your not debt free.
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Technically true, but if you look at a mortgage as a necessary cost-of-living item, then perhaps it's not really a debt? Consider the situation of someone who rents an apt--He doesn't have a mortgage, but he still needs to pay rent. Furthermore, if you're not upside-down on the loan, then the house's value balances out the mortgage.

Not saying I'm being logical. Just thinking out loud . . .
 
Naustica said:
It seems redistricting comes up every year. Im in Roswell and the past two years they did the rezoning. My feeling is no where are you truly safe. You can buy a house in a good district and they can change the lines again in the future. As long as your kid is not in some awful school system like Clayton County, it'll work out fine. It's up to the kids and their parents to utilize the available resources and maximize it. After certain point, it's more about the student and their workhabit rather than the schools.
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The trick is to buy in an area full of doctors and lawyers who will FREAK OUT if you even mention messing with their school. 😛

But yeah, I agree to an extent. I just don't want my kids in a situation where 90% of the other parents are uninvolved in their kids' education and mine are forced to learn at their pace.
 
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I should probably start paying off our car loans, but if I don't they'll be gone in about 2 years. Student loan interest rates are so low (especially if you qualify for tax deductible interest) that they aren't worth paying off early unless you hate the debt.

It will be nice to get all of that out of the way though. It's not a huge portion of our monthly net income, but it will be nice to direct the money elsewhere (ex. paying down the mortgage and/or contributing more to retirement accounts).
 
Mermaidman said:
Technically true, but if you look at a mortgage as a necessary cost-of-living item, then perhaps it's not really a debt? Consider the situation of someone who rents an apt--He doesn't have a mortgage, but he still needs to pay rent. Furthermore, if you're not upside-down on the loan, then the house's value balances out the mortgage.

Not saying I'm being logical. Just thinking out loud . . .
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A house should be an investment, but at this point I'm mostly looking at it as renting-plus. If we make 20% over what we paid 10 years ago, I'm going to call it good.

Either way, I wouldn't go back and change anything. I really like having my own four walls and my own little patch of Earth to inhabit and fiddle with as I please.
 
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