Ugh, again with the envelopes. Do people not understand a simple house fire can erase their savings overnight? Even a passbook savings account is better than an envelope.

Giving advice, especially to family members, is such a tricky endeavor. Can you show them a statement from your 529 plan so they can visually appreciate the account's growth? Not in a braggy way, but in a "hey sis, I want your kids to have this too" sort of helpful fashion. But if she rejects the info, you're going to need to back off.

One of the hardest parts of being "family" is respecting the right of others to do dumb things. Whether smoking, eating themselves into obesity, or being willfully ignorant about financial matters...those parents have every right to invest their funds poorly or not at all. Perhaps they've decided they don't owe their kids a college education....which they have every right to decide. Speak your piece if you feel you must, but move on. As long as they're raising happy, healthy children, the size of the college fund shouldn't matter.

I'd imagine that many MT posters who graduated from college had NO college funds at all...yet we managed, somehow. LOL.

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Posted by Salmon

On the trails

Member since Feb 2008

83631 posts

Posted on 4/20/15 at 11:21 am to hungryone

quote:
As long as they're raising happy, healthy children, the size of the college fund shouldn't matter.

I know, just frustrating to see the money being "wasted" just sitting there. According to my sister, each kid has a $5k envelope, and everytime my BIL sells a cow, he gives the money to the kids.

quote:
if she's doing a business owners taxes than she either knows what she's doing

His mom doesn't even have a HS education...

My BIL also sells cows. I tried mentioning to my sister that they are probably missing thousands of dollars worth of write-offs, but again, she deferred. I'm not going to touch this one though. That one seems much trickier

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Posted by Ace Midnight

Between sanity and madness

Member since Dec 2006

89622 posts

Posted on 4/20/15 at 11:28 am to hungryone

quote:
Ugh, again with the envelopes.

Yes.

quote:
Do people not understand a simple house fire can erase their savings overnight?

Once you get the system in place, you can use a bank account to store Baby Step 1 and 3. It is your monthly budget items that you use the envelopes in - envelope for groceries, envelope for misc., etc.

You don't have your 3 to 6 months (Baby Step 3) of $10 to $15k sitting around in envelopes in your house.

Please don't misrepresent the system if you don't understand it.

(ETA: Now the way that the folks in the OP were using envelopes is contrary to good practices. That's Baby Step 5, anyway.)

This post was edited on 4/20/15 at 11:30 am

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