Dow 9500 ... Where we go from here...

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1
It doesnt take much to save for kids college. $50/mo starting at birth with a moderate intersest rate can grow to over $25000 at age 18. It doesnt take much.

That'll cover their first year, depending on where they go

You and I both know with a few exceptions no one's kids are going to Ivy league. |Please. Reality check!

Mine is. How DARE you!

edited my post.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1
It doesnt take much to save for kids college. $50/mo starting at birth with a moderate intersest rate can grow to over $25000 at age 18. It doesnt take much.

That'll cover their first year, depending on where they go

You and I both know with a few exceptions no one's kids are going to Ivy league. |Please. Reality check!

Fine. $75/mo will yield approx 79,000. Still cheap.

That will give you $30,000. 9.5% is historical return of the market, let's kill 3% for inflation and with 6.5% we're left at the equivalent of $30k in contemporary money.

 

[Thump553]

A couple of hints for you with young children & planning on saving for school. Study the FAFSA and its instructions. Without a doubt the rules will change dramatically over in the dozen plus years ahead of you but you will have a heads up on what to expect. Some basic principles from one who has been through the mill:

1) if you have more than one child going through school, they will basically clean you out on the first kid, you will get a lot more aid and loans for the subsequent kids (especially if at the same time in school).

2) Money in the child's name will HAVE to be spent on school. Point this out to grandparents.

3) Under the current rules equity in your house is disregarded. IRAs, 401ks, etc. funded in the years before you apply for FAFSA are ignored, your current year contributions are not. Basically except for the house and those older retirement assets, everything else is fair game. FAFSA doesn't care what your household expenses are for the most part (are disregarded), just what your income and assets are.

PS-You don't need to go to an Ivy League school to get bled dry-in fact most of them have huge scholarship funds available so that no student will be turned away regardless of need. State schools tend to be cheaper-but the school I attended in the early seventies now costs at least ten times as much as it did back then.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Thump553
A couple of hints for you with young children & planning on saving for school. Study the FAFSA and its instructions. Without a doubt the rules will change dramatically over in the dozen plus years ahead of you but you will have a heads up on what to expect. Some basic principles from one who has been through the mill:

1) if you have more than one child going through school, they will basically clean you out on the first kid, you will get a lot more aid and loans for the subsequent kids (especially if at the same time in school).

2) Money in the child's name will HAVE to be spent on school. Point this out to grandparents.

3) Under the current rules equity in your house is disregarded. IRAs, 401ks, etc. funded in the years before you apply for FAFSA are ignored, your current year contributions are not. Basically except for the house and those older retirement assets, everything else is fair game. FAFSA doesn't care what your household expenses are for the most part (are disregarded), just what your income and assets are.

PS-You don't need to go to an Ivy League school to get bled dry-in fact most of them have huge scholarship funds available so that no student will be turned away regardless of need. State schools tend to be cheaper-but the school I attended in the early seventies now costs at least ten times as much as it did back then.

So assuming I'm saving in a 539 now for each kid and expect (hope) to have a pretty decent retirement already saved up by the time they hit school I'm SOL on any assistance? I did see that Harvard (?) has a plan something along the lines of they guarantee that if you make only 150k or less you'll never be on the hook for more than 10k/year or something like that.

The amount these schools charge has to be a scam. I do know a guy who just became a professor at a school in Canada and he barely works. He's almost semi-retired at 30. He has like two classes/week and even with grading, research, etc. it's an extremely low stress environment. The benefits are absolutely criminal, too. Like one year off with full pay per child.

 

[First]

^ If your child is listed as a dependent until the age of 24 and they're still in school, they'll get a Pell grant from the gov't, a pretty big one too. FYI.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1
It doesnt take much to save for kids college. $50/mo starting at birth with a moderate intersest rate can grow to over $25000 at age 18. It doesnt take much.

That'll cover their first year, depending on where they go

You and I both know with a few exceptions no one's kids are going to Ivy league. |Please. Reality check!

Fine. $75/mo will yield approx 79,000. Still cheap.

That will give you $30,000. 9.5% is historical return of the market, let's kill 3% for inflation and with 6.5% we're left at the equivalent of $30k in contemporary money.

There are many, many options to get better than market average.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1
It doesnt take much to save for kids college. $50/mo starting at birth with a moderate intersest rate can grow to over $25000 at age 18. It doesnt take much.

That'll cover their first year, depending on where they go

You and I both know with a few exceptions no one's kids are going to Ivy league. |Please. Reality check!

Fine. $75/mo will yield approx 79,000. Still cheap.

That will give you $30,000. 9.5% is historical return of the market, let's kill 3% for inflation and with 6.5% we're left at the equivalent of $30k in contemporary money.

There are many, many options to get better than market average.

With the same risk (as if it's low, but pretend for a moment, I mean...)?

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: blackangst1
It doesnt take much to save for kids college. $50/mo starting at birth with a moderate intersest rate can grow to over $25000 at age 18. It doesnt take much.

That'll cover their first year, depending on where they go

You and I both know with a few exceptions no one's kids are going to Ivy league. |Please. Reality check!

Fine. $75/mo will yield approx 79,000. Still cheap.

That will give you $30,000. 9.5% is historical return of the market, let's kill 3% for inflation and with 6.5% we're left at the equivalent of $30k in contemporary money.

There are many, many options to get better than market average.

With the same risk (as if it's low, but pretend for a moment, I mean...)?

Yes. Many mid cap MF are pretty safe. Im not going to get into a post fest, as Ive done it on other threads, but Im speaking as a former licensed series 6/63/7 person. Are these the norm? Average? Maybe maybe not. If not it doesnt negate the fact they are available. Knowledge is power. Here's a list to get you started.

edit: Here's a list from Morningstar also.

 

[Budarow]

No...the DOW is NOT at 9,500 again. Just thought I bring this thread back from the dead with my experiences "shorting" the market using ETFs such as SRS, EEV and QID. I started off GREAT, nearly lost all my gains, but have gotten back a good chuck back over the last few weeks.

These ETFs are quite difficult to master since they only track the market day to day and NOT over the long haul. That's why I lost gains as indicated above. Since I better understand the game rules, I've done a LOT better.

Still, if you predict swings of the DOW correctly, SRS will be a good friend.

Looks like we're going to get a new bottom (DOW at <7,500) if Washington does not soon anounce a plan to off-load $3T worth of bad assets off the books of the banks (and NOT nationalization of the banking system).