I sold my LJ Rubicon earlier this year

[AndyG]

I only have one kid, and I saved for him to go to college. Not much but I had $15k set aside to get him started. I didn't hand it to him either, he had to prove he'd earned it. He enrolled and paid what he had to, the rest was debt. When he could show me a transcript with a passing overall GPA I would pay off his debt. I think I paid about $5k over three semesters and we had a long talk. He dropped out of school and took a union job as an electricians apprentice with the IBEW local. He loves it, and just started his second year towards Journeyman this week. I still have $10k from his college fund. I told him when he can match it, I will give it to him for a down payment on a house. He has $6k in the bank and is talking about buying when the market cools.

My son isn't perfect but he's better than I was at his age in a lot of ways.

Realistically being an electrician may do more for him monetarily then any college could- You will never ever meet a poor electrician.

Edited- unless he has a jeep

 

[TheBoogieman]

I have zero debt or money. To me, my health is all I care about right now. Without good health, money means nothing.

 

[AndyG]

I have zero debt or money. To me, my health is all I care about right now. Without good health, money means nothing.

You know you saying that really brings something to mind- When they carried my dad away in an ambulance and basically I had most of the stuff he needed in a Walmart bag and was leaving the hospital- It made me realize what a thin line there is between here and eternity.

We have all this brick and mortar and societies and systems and government and all the stuff that we think gives us so much security- Layers upon layer- And we are all one breath away from being out of here.

 

[Mike_H]

I only have one kid, and I saved for him to go to college. Not much but I had $15k set aside to get him started. I didn't hand it to him either, he had to prove he'd earned it. He enrolled and paid what he had to, the rest was debt. When he could show me a transcript with a passing overall GPA I would pay off his debt. I think I paid about $5k over three semesters and we had a long talk. He dropped out of school and took a union job as an electricians apprentice with the IBEW local. He loves it, and just started his second year towards Journeyman this week. I still have $10k from his college fund. I told him when he can match it, I will give it to him for a down payment on a house. He has $6k in the bank and is talking about buying when the market cools.

My son isn't perfect but he's better than I was at his age in a lot of ways.

This is awesome. He's going to do great in life. You might give him a choice though...Let him work a few years and get some experience. That 10K matched will go a long way toward getting him a van and his own business. I don't know any electricians that are bored...

 

[AMS417]

This is awesome. He's going to do great in life. You might give him a choice though...Let him work a few years and get some experience. That 10K matched will go a long way toward getting him a van and his own business. I don't know any electricians that are bored...

If he makes Master and wants to open his own shop I'll bank roll it as partner. I could run the back end as a retirement supplement.

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

You know you saying that really brings something to mind- When they carried my dad away in an ambulance and basically I had most of the stuff he needed in a Walmart bag and was leaving the hospital- It made me realize what a thin line there is between here and eternity.

We have all this brick and mortar and societies and systems and government and all the stuff that we think gives us so much security- Layers upon layer- And we are all one breath away from being out of here.

I never thought about it that way, kind of scary to think about and really puts several things into perspective. It's making me realize I live too much in my future plans and I need to focus more on the moments that are happening here and now.

 

[AndyG]

I never thought about it that way, kind of scary to think about and really puts several things into perspective. It's making me realize I live too much in my future plans and I need to focus more on the moments that are happening here and now.

On living in the present, one guy said it this way - “what other choice do you have?”

Eckhart Tolle said “ Nothing has ever happened in the past and nothing will ever happen in the future- Everything that has ever happened or will happen will only happen in the present”.

I think we have the capacity to look ahead to plan and prepare, and the capacity to look behind to learn and to remember- but a dysfunction begins to happen when we start giving a large portion of time to either of those. Whether it is pain, regret or worry, we start trading present time for those imaginary events or ghosts of the past. It is a very bad trade.

 

[Irun]

I have zero debt or money. To me, my health is all I care about right now. Without good health, money means nothing.

Amen brother. All the possessions in the world won't do you a bit of good if you're in ICU or, worse, on a cold stainless steel table!

 

[AndyG]

Amen brother. All the possessions in the world won't do you a bit of good if you're in ICU or, worse, on a cold stainless steel table!

Was it Howard Hughes that was so amazingly wealthy and miserably sick?? That would be a curse.

And I’ll chime in - I got really sick a couple years ago with three infectious diseases at one time from cleaning up behind some animals-

Nothing matters when you get to a certain point but getting well again.

You know I wanna tell you guys that all the stuff that we plan to do and hold onto and everything else keeps us going- But realistically if we get really sick and can’t pull out of it none of the stuff we love is going to stop us from leaving.

I’m trying to be grim or anything- But I just saw my dad go from living on his own to being an invalid and dying in five weeks- I mean it just blew me away. It seems like yesterday he was my age taking care of his dad.

And we have pretty decent longevity.

Our family tradition is you live 80 years and make everybody miserable and then you have a stroke and hang on as long as you can just show them the things could’ve always been a lot worse and they should’ve been happy.