High Rental Market and what to do about it.

[brymoore]

Love my kids. Sons are at an age we’re now hanging out as friends hunting/fishing. Wouldn’t change a thing about how many, where, when about our kids.

Don’t kid yourself that you’re ahead with a tax deduction.

The worst financial decision of my life was having kids. They conservatively cost me a million dollars due to expenses and reduced income from my wife. We made a choice and planned for a single income to allow my wife to stay home to raise the kids but it still hurts to think about the costs.

 

[howl]

Is there any rationale to back up this statement? Why is three the magic number? Having kids for end of life care seems pretty selfish, but regardless, I have one and thats the farthest thing on my mind.

Three replaces current population. Just two doesn't because some die before reproducing.

 

[The Hedgehog]

An older man may consider renting rooms in his home to beautiful young single women.

The risks and concerns for the man could include issues related to privacy, safety, and potential misunderstandings. There may be risks of harassment or inappropriate behavior, as well as concerns about maintaining boundaries and professionalism in such living arrangements. It's important for the oler man to establish clear expectations and boundaries with his tenants to ensure a safe and respectful living environment for everyone involved.

 

[David658]

Life without sacrifices, does it exist?

Maybe you can't live in Bozeangeles right out of college, instead have to look at Cornhole, Iowa where you can afford to live. None of us are owed a challenge-free life. Not even me, or you.

Parents figure in to this calculation. Pressuring your kids to go to college where trade school can result in a paycheck and career without debt might not be the best thing to do. Or not counseling your kids against studying art history at a $50K/yr school.

It has never been simple. It is simply different now. What worked for me doesn't work for my kids, at least not given the contrast between choices they made compared to what I did.

We, all of us, have let a lot of these things get out of control. I could earn a year of college $$$ by working the summer (and during the school year). My youngest son finished grad school with $120K in student loans. I am going to the rifle range tomorrow to shoot holes in the final statement for $70K WE paid. I did my son no favors - he could have got where he is now career-wise in state schools, but we let him decide private. But back to the second sentence of this paragraph - we pushed our kids to take loans to go to schools that charged 10X what we paid for college - in my case, my son paid (well, WE paid) over 30X what I did.

It's capitalism. We, the marketplace, said "OK" to stupid college tuition increases. We keep upgrading our houses, moving from modest places to MacMansions and pushing the demand. Yes, it will implode at some level when we die off, but WE helped set this up.

We have to help our kids be creative, resourceful, and be willing to make sacrifices - maybe Cedar Rapids or Sioux Falls or Knoxville over Bozeman or Sun Valley. It's tough, it's different, but it can be done.

David
NM

 

[LousyResident]

Raising kids is the best combination of the Type 1, 2, and 3 fun that exists. The lows can literally be the worst thing that ever happens to you and the highs can literally be the best thing that ever happens to you. No other experience compares to it.

 

[Nick87]

Raising kids is the best combination of the Type 1, 2, and 3 fun that exists. The lows can literally be the worst thing that ever happens to you and the highs can literally be the best thing that ever happens to you. No other experience compares to it.

Hard to argue that.

 

[howl]

Avoiding a family, because you'll have more money without, makes as much sense as saying you saved money by buying something on sale you wouldn't have bought otherwise. You're almost certainly going to have kids and you're almost certainly going to live to an age old enough that your children will be concerned with caring for you. Not is extraordinary and improbable. Scarcity thinking will paint you into an ever smaller corner.

Relating wife-ing back to OP, fellas currently of age tell me the kind of woman us older fellas are thinking of doesn't exist anymore in great numbers. Where we are thinking of several old flames passed over who we could have ended up at about the same place with, younger men have fewer and need to wise up quicker.

If you know the goal, starting sooner saves in the long run because costs most probably increase. And, of course, we know values and earning ability increase along with costs. Here's the example. I have an uncle who dropped out of school, built a business as a lay engineer and raised several children. He did all the things this site is about and is living out his days in a large house on large acreage. When he found several of his nephews talking girls and marriage, he told us all he had two dollars in his wallet the day his oldest was born and wasn't real sure where his next dollar would come from. The jobs he had lined up hadn't called back just yet.

Another story he tells, only part of because my aunt likes to finish it, is how he found a wife. There was a girl he really had it bad for. They liked each other but it was an all-day walk across a swamp to get to her house. They only saw each other at church on Sundays. She was about the prettiest girl around, but there was another gal he could get to by a shortcut. He could see her several times a week. Guess who he married first change he got. The story is funny to us because there must be something in the water around that swamp that makes all the girls easy on the eyes. They still live in about the same area. It's pretty cheap there, but they traveled to places it's not. I have also found it best to live closest to the things you do the most, rather than the places you daydream about the most.