<p>Mainelonghorn, a prayer for you and your family. My daughter took a year off after her first two years, and I am forever thankful that she finished college. </p>
<p>To posters who obviously have excellent memory-I don’t recall laughing so hard on a Cc thread.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear about your son, Maine! My cousin’s sister had to deal with the same thing with her son last year. +++++ to him and your family d hiuring this difficult time. </p>
<p>As for DAD - I haven’t had the pleasure of reading his bragfests but nonetheless his predicament is bringing a smile to my face. My advice to him is simple: buck up and stop whining.</p>
<p>Oh my- almost forgot about the private banker resource you/your family qualified for. That person/department should be able to provide the needed financial guidance. Daughter should be graduating this year, IIRC. She is a bright young lady sure to get a high-paying job. Perhaps she can be of assistance if son’s school costs rise when you no longer have 2 in school. Lots of opportunities/ways to handle this.</p>
<p>*** Forgot to ask-- which fancy/high end suit did your s/d buy? Was it for one or both of them?</p>
<p>… and here are some other suggestions:
</p>
<p>Be thankful for what you have! </p>
<p>I just traded in my 11 year old mini-van with about 214k miles on it for another used one! No magazine subscriptions, clip coupons, those CFL light bulbs are great, no eating in restaurants, no take out pizza, no spa/heath club memberships, no country club memberships, hair cuts-just the basic cut-no fancy hair salons for us! How about your cell phone plans? How about your car, home, life insurance policies, have you reevaluated them lately, can you save on those? What about your cable/satellite TV, could you do without all the fancy channels? </p>
<p>Dad II, sometimes when people brag a lot, it comes back to bite them on their butts. So I guess in your case, other posters remembered this & responded to you in a negative way. Do be thankful for what you have, not what you don’t have.</p>
<p>SLUMOM, exactly.</p>
<p>I expect that when you are surrounded by people who spend most of their higher income it can be difficult to keep perspective.</p>
<p>Here is a family that lives on $17,000 a year!
[Home</a> & Garden | Gifts from the sea, and the landfill create a stylish home | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2016084161_furnishings01.html]Home”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2016084161_furnishings01.html)</p>
<p>That was a great link, emeraldkity! Those people are wonderfully talented, wow! I tend to furnish from the dump and I’m afraid it’s more readily apparent!</p>
<p>SLUMOM-
Brilliant suggestions. Lots of savings can be had when a person cuts down from a situation in which
. One could sell some of those multiple phones/computers and cover some additional college expenses.</p>
<p>Our town dump has a little house where people leave stuff, one is for books, CDS, VHS tapes etc. The other little house is for other stuff-toys, knick knacks, etc. unsold stuff from people’s yard sales and so on! We leave stuff & we bring home stuff! I almost hate to go up there to our “recyling center”. Usually I pick up a couple of paperbacks, read them & bring them back! It is like a little lending library… Every once in a while the people at the Recycling Center empties the two little buildings and it starts over again. I think the Salvation Army truck comes & takes everything away… I have even found stuff up there and then sold it on Ebay! :)</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear your news Maine! That is so sad, and definitely puts things in perspective. I am wishing so much the best for your son, that he is able to make a full recovery and this will one day be a minor setback.</p>
<p>I thought the CC energy had been dying down a bit lately. Good to see you back Dad II :)</p>
<p>starbright-
See post # 6. Great minds think alike :)</p>
<p>Mainelonghorn…hugs from me too.</p>
<p>Dad II…you knew the costs of your kids’ colleges from the get go. Both could have gone to your instate flagship university which is a fine research university. You were very fortunate to have FOUR YEARS of extremely generous financial aid at Stanford (you said it was costing you $10K per year to send your D there…a deal by ANYONE’s accountiing). Your son surely has a decent financial aid package at his top university…and will have had two years of such aid by the time your daughter graduates. If ALL you have to do is pay your family contribution for TWO YEARS for your son, you should be very grateful. Your kids did work very hard to get where they are…schools with very generous financial aid…that are also excellent universities.</p>
<p>Re: the next few years for your D. She should be applying to grad school where she will receive full funding. Certainly she has the credentials to do so, right?</p>
<p>I think Response #4 hits the nail on the head as far as what all the stress and planning and life-style altering budgeting is for. Yes, even with financial aide - college costs/expenses can be staggering to a budget that hasn’t had to accommodate them.</p>
<p>(Mianelonghorn, my sincerest wishes for your son and his well-being!)</p>
<p>I am not familiar with the ops prior postings, and have no desire to go investigating…(sure sounds like he did some serious bragging though.) $100,000+ income provides a very different life in different parts of the country. San Francisco/LA/NY/Boston vs. smaller town/midwest. It’s a hard thing to have to learn to control spending especially for someone who is not used to it. It can be depressing. My contribution to the OP will be -> You are 1/2 way through…You need to start eliminating luxuries. Remember why you/your kids chose the collges they did. You’ll probably have to work extra years than you might have originally thought…The economy obviously changes the entire picture from what it was several years ago.</p>
<p>Look at it this way - there are many worse problems than having to go without luxuries, travel, or toys for a limited amount of time in order to provide our kids with excellent educations. Chin up - it’s not forever. And we’ll be living on much more limited incomes some day (if we should live so long). So this is good practice.</p>
<p>Jym626- that’s so funny.</p>
<p>Frazzled- great advice!</p>
<p>Dad II – The perception of wealth is relative. If you hang out with people who have more than you do, you will feel poor. Conversely, if you don’t want to feel poor, then find friends who are living cheaply. They will teach you to enjoy free or inexpensive activities: hiking, working in a public garden, free concerts in the park, book club, penny-ante poker, etc.</p>
<p>Another way to make your situation less depressing is to use your energy helping others less fortunate than yourself. Go volunteer at a food bank, or at a public school in a disadvantaged part of town. Maybe you can use your computer skills to tutor folks through a community college or senior center. Maybe you can be an adult literacy coach at the library. Leverage your talents to help others, and you will enrich your life too.</p>
<p>Oh good – laughs and entertainment are back here at CC!</p>
<p>Dad II…shame on you</p>
<p>paying3(private)tuitions: Do we really want to go here? </p>
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<p>Maine - all the best to your son and your entire family.</p>
<p>Having made the decision (for educational and religious reasons) to send our three kids to a private elementary school where our car was routinely the least expensive one in the lot and our kids one of the few whose “where I went on spring break” essay involved grandparents rather than foreign travel, where my son’s dress blazer was purchased from the high-quality hand-me-downs at the local consignment shop and the rest of the cost of a new blazer applied to things like books and music lessons, where a special dinner meant takeout pizza rather than a restaurant visit…I’m not sure I understand the question.</p>