Mariner

Vacations are expensive, but I am in the mindset of either choose to go and do it right, or don’t do it. Some people go on 3 or 4 mini vacations/getaways a year and are on a strict budget. I can’t go on vacation with strict discipline in place. The purpose of the vacay is to let go and step out of reality.

quote:

---

They hate pretty women

---

Bingo

You guys ever wonder why women get pissed at a pool/beach about another woman wearing those revealing bikinis? The ones where 90% of their cheeks are visible.

Turns out the comments come from women who cannot wear or are afraid to wear them. Some average women would look great wearing them but they are too self conscious.

The ones who never comment on it? Yes you guessed it....the attractive and confident women.

Its OK to have the music only if its managed well, which it is not.

You may be in a situation where you need a local wealth management firm, which has a team of people specialized in separate issues all under one roof.

Lots of great info so far.

The recognition here is to point out that you along with the responses are what model parents you all are, and what the standard should be in our society.....taking care of the family unit and maintaining a legacy. I worked with many selfish parents in my career. They literally have a goal to not leave a dime to their children.

My main focus has been their education. I have over $500K and growing in both college 529 and K12 accounts spread among three kids. With the rising cost of education, I want to be sure that they will never have to worry about student loans, educational opportunities, or shy away from grad/law/med school because of the cost. I don't want my children to be burdened with some massive student loan while also having a marriage and kids to deal with. Also, the concept of scholarships are great, but to me that's like someone relying on social security for retirement. That's part of the reason why obsessive sports dads exist. They need someone else to fund their kid's college education.

Also, I hope to leave a education legacy to my grandkids. I would have really appreciated if my father would have said hey son I have K-12 or college taken care of for your kids. While I did not expect that, it was some major anxiety for me when the kids were babies to figure out how to make that work. Lucky for us it did, but more than likely it would not have.

I also have a brokerage account for them in which they will get when they turn 18. I expect there to be $30-$40K in there by the time they are 18. It will do either one or two things....they will see the benefits of compounding and letting investments take their course, or they will blow it and will later on regret doing that, and hopefully teaches them a hard lesson.

At my next meeting with my advisors, I will ask about next steps for them. Lots of good input in this thread.

All in all I think a 529 is the starting point in helping your children. I like the protections it has in place, and that its used for a specific purpose, and a great one at that.

quote:

---

Help your kids, be there for them, give effort for them. Thats the only way anything gets better and get rid of this "DO IT ON YOUR OWN!!!" boomer nonsense.

---

I'm with you on this one. I always found the parents who help their children who help themselves to be true selfless leaders. Imagine if this world were full of parents who strived to get their children into a better life than they had, and the cycle continued.

First you need to look into the mirror and ask what are you doing wrong. Maybe you are not but try and reflect on your approach.

I have never really had an issue and I blatantly look like a family man right of center, drug free, a pattern of making the better decisions in life with my stuff together, and being financially and mentally secure. They still treat me well. There are a few isolated situations but I give them grace.

Its partly because I treat them well and are not judging them. I don't agree with them but I still respect them as people. If we were all like that we would be a more unified country.

I have seen the customers that take issue with it and its a whole different experience for them.

Never had a rigid budget to abide by. I do more cash flow forecasting with forecasted expenses as a general measure of how to live. I have a standard savings/investments in the forecast, and allocate more to that in the months with higher forecasted income. Knock on wood but we never have had a drop in income but only increases, so the increases would be split between savings and splurges. I have always liked it this way because it takes the nitpicky stress away from day to day living and worrying about money. If I brought in an auditor he would probably show me spreadsheet after spreadsheet of savings if I became a monk, but we enjoy the experiences provided by the fruits of our labor and sacrifice. We would not be where we are today if we had an accountant mindset.

For many, a strict budget is necessary, especially for those with a set income/salary along with a growing family. Not everyone's situation is the same. To each their own.

Word of mouth is usually best for getting a Latino. They know one another and if you don't get their housekeeper, you get their housekeeper's sister who is also a housekeeper.

Latinos are vey trustworthy, especially Hondurans.

You can use the formal services that have background checks, etc. I used them once and had a bad experience.

If you want to put them on personal payroll, Homework Solutions is a good service.

quote:

---

It has to do with waterways necessary to move the huge equipment.

---

This is also why I would think they would want to build data centers here. Just build it by a river and hook up a pump….done. All these people freaking out about water supply to cool them.

About 16 years ago my wife asked me why does everyone freak out about conserving water. This was during the Obama rise of save the planet. I told her what you are reading and hearing are all from skyscreamers who don’t live near rivers, marsh, and places where we are desperately trying to get rid of water.

Also sometimes it’s best for Louisiana to hoe themselves out. Like the LNG terminals. We got that because there were no protestors living here to prevent it.

quote:

---

self inflicted. I have what I regard as plenty of money (others probably would disagree) and have zero stress. That’s the point

---

When someone has three children with their whole life ahead of them and parents want to give them the best opportunities possible, I'll gladly accept that self inflicted stress.

When you know life is never guaranteed, you always worry about is what you are doing enough? If something is going great for you, do you just close the doors because you hit a magic number, or do you keep growing your wealth and your legacy, as you never know how/when times change?

When you accumulate wealth, you get anxiety over the million possible ways to lose it, and have to prevent and mitigate that. Much of my time is devoted to that.

We are still young and have decades left to go, and the life expectancy keeps increasing. You can't just leave a great thing that was created, but we can plan to delegate more and let go a little each year.