<p>I am enjoying paying ‘rack rate’ at a private university,lol…no debt at all for kids as they leave college…i think that is a good start to adulthood,though i also believe it is my responsibility as a parent…</p>
<p>I am planning to pay for Med. School partly because I do not believe that my money will survive in current environment, might as well use it.</p>
<p>We definitely believe in retirement funding first. I will turn 60 this month; DH is almost 61. At our ages, we cannot afford to drastically deplete our savings.</p>
<p>And, as other have noted, it’s a scary world out there. :)</p>
<p>If you are planning to put money aside for retirement, do so in actual retirement accounts and start doing so ASAP. Put the maximum you can each put into these accounts into them. I realize you are an expat…but many retirement contributions actually reduce your taxable income. This can be helpful too. If you just put your money into regular savings accounts or CDs…colleges will expect you to use 5.6% of so of the value of those savings accounts as payment for college. If you want to “protect” the principal…if it’s in an authorized retirement account, the balance in that account is not counted as an asset for financial aid purposes. Having said all that…it doesn’t sound like need based aid is a concern for the OP…but there it is anyway.</p>
<p>I would talk to a financial planner about your retirement, about diversifying your 401k, putting the max into it, and also investing your savings into retirement as well, and hopefully your savings aren’t in the bank. It should come first, while like you we sacrifice a lot for our child, you need to take care of that, even if, for example, you are planning to work beyond 65. </p>
<p>As far as the gold craze, keep in mind that gold is cyclical and it goes bust, too. The gold guys are banking on fear about the federal deficits and about the government ‘inflating their way’ out of the debt, but that scenario is not that clear. Among other things, this isn’t the old days, the money supply is a lot more complex then simple cash, and simply printing more money isn’t going to work the same way it did even 30 years ago, the economy is very different. More importantly, gold today adjusted for real prices, is trading at much less then its peak in the 70’s, when gold hit 1000 in 1970’s dollars, which is roughly at least 5k today…and it dropped in the 80’s…</p>
<p>Miami, the dollar hasn’t been backed by anything since the 1930’s, the whole dollar=1 dollar of gold or silver died then. The value of the dollar is based on faith in the currency, which in turn is based in exchange rates and such, has been since then. The budget deficits and the like can affect the value of the dollar, if people feel that makes investing i n US dollars insecure, but that is different then printing money like they did in the old days. My big concern isn’t about that, my big concern for inflation has nothing to do with the value of the dollar, it is commodities like energy, metals and food products. With the huge populations in places like China and India, and their industrialization, demand is soaring and those prices are skyrocketing, and I am not even sure gold will help that, because those prices are supply and demand at work. I went to the store the other day to buy some Romex home wiring (uses copper), that I bought roughly 10 years ago or so…back then I bought a 200 foot roll, and it was like 30 bucks. I just bought a 25 foot roll, and it cost me 35…</p>
<p>In any event, however you do it, I would put the emphasis on saving for retirement and with your sons’ educations, put aside what you can while saving for retirement, and find educational opportunities that between savings, financial aid and possible loans can handle that.</p>
<p>No…</p>
<p>Cool Running…NO what???</p>
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<p>I think this should be the order of putting your money.</p>
<ol>
<li>Mortgage - If you still have mortgage on your primary house then put the money towards it. You can’t retire unless you own your primary house fair and sqaure.</li>
<li>401K - If you can’t put away max 401K contributions ($20K for > 50) annually then add to that fund.</li>
<li>Tuition - Spend on tuition because you can’t retire in peace if your children are struggling to make ends meet. Assuming if you don’t pay then children need to take out loan.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you do not have a nice nest egg already, save for retirement. There are no guarantees, but if you do not save, you know for a fact that you will be poor eventually. Your children, whose expensive educations you have funded, may not get high-paying secure jobs in adulthood. If you have no money, you will become dependent on them, and you will have done them no favors by sacrificing your retirement for their expensive schooling. On airplanes they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before assisting others, even your own children. Saving for retirement is the financial equivalent of putting your own mask on first, so you can help your kids (or at least not be a burden).</p>
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<p>Really? It goes bust once and that makes it cyclical?</p>
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<p>Listen to our central banker. Watch what our politicians have done for
the last thirty years. Study the Kondreytiev cycle. The way of
inflation and bubbles happens over and over and over again. We may be
far smarter than we used to be but we still have the same things
happen over and over and over again.</p>
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<p>If you create bubbles that grow faster than the money supply, then you
will pull money out of precious metals. Historically, the two main asset
classes to do that are real estate and the stock market. Ideally, when
one is down, you prop the other. When both are down and falling, the
economy stinks. Run up an internet bubble and greed will dictate that
you can make money faster in that kind of a bubble than the expanding
money supply grows that pushes gold and silver up.</p>
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<p>Gold and silver most strongly react to confidence in central bankers.
How strongly do you trust Ben Bernanke? How about Congress? How about
the President? How about Wall Street?</p>
<p>I bought most of my gold in 2000 - 2002. I haven’t bought much in many
years though I do own substantial holdings in precious metal miners.
Silver is up almost ten-fold since the $4 point about ten years ago.
There are various explanations as to why silver has outperformed gold
but they are related to supply and demand.</p>
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<p>US Half Dollars, prior to 1965, contained 0.36169 ounces of silver. Prior
to 1965, US quarters and dimes were made of mostly silver.</p>
<p>Nickels are made from mostly nickel and they actually command a premium
to face value in the metals alone. Nickels have a melt value of $0.0665.
Ths US Mint implemented rules criminalizing the melting and export of
nickels and pennies. Pre 1982 pennies are worth about $0.0289. Those
following are made of mostly zinc and have a melt value of less than a
cent.</p>
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<p>One can buy commodity ETFs, food production companies like Bunge,
foreign country ETFs on those kinds of concerns. We hold accounts in
foreign countries as a hedge on a dollar collapse. There are inverse
dollar funds too and those that buy a basked of commodities and
currencies.</p>
<p>Agree with the others - retirement first, then education. When you return to the US, what state will you be in? Any good state schools? </p>
<p>I completely understand your situation. We were overseas for 7 years with our kids and were able to put away a good deal of money. We’ve been back in the US for the last 3 years, but now with 1 child a freshman in college and the 2nd child starting in August - we are looking to go back overseas to help cover the college costs so we don’t have to dip into our retirement savings.</p>
<p>
No. You should not do this. How would you handle your retirement if you did? You should spend on college what you can afford <em>after</em> you have taken your retirement needs into account.</p>
<p>Thumper1: “No” means that I thought you were . . . well, you know. In the end, you ALMOST got it right.</p>
<p>ALL: Please consult a real professional in this regard. It helps to know what works, and what does not. It matters.</p>
<p>In discussions of retirement finances, including the one here, there usually seems to be a much bigger emphasis on income than expenses. But you have to look at both sides of the equation.</p>
<p>If you don’t know how much money is necessary to maintain the lifestyle you want/need when you retire, how can you know how much to save?</p>
<p>Simple example - two families in the same neighborhood in the same model house. Both couples want to stay in their homes when they retire. But one couple will still have 10 years left on their mortgage when they retire, while the other will own their home free and clear. All other things being equal, who needs the larger retirement income?</p>
<p>^ Yep. Well said Delamer.</p>
<p>ALL: Please consult a professional rather than a CC message board. It matters.</p>
<p>Peace / Out</p>
<p>Depends.</p>
<p>I consider myself a fairly sophisticated planner.
The professional planners and money fund companies had worse returns than our self planned retirement and college accounts.</p>
<p>Seek alternative advice so that you are aware of other Possible solutions. Don’t believe everything. Those once in a 100 year disasters have a propensity to occur too often and at the wrong times.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the cost of the 4-year college as a percentage of your savings and assets. At least that is the ration I would go by to determine where I should pay or not. How reliable is you and your spouse future earnings ? </p>
<p>BTW, Bernie Madoff was a professional wasn’t he? I think you do get more honest advice from CC than from some other professional out there.</p>
<p>“I think it depends on the cost of the 4-year college as a percentage of your savings and assets.”</p>
<p>-Exactly the point.</p>
<p>And BTW, Bernie just has followed govenrment example of our Social Security system. Yes, he failed few people, while government is failing millions without any kind of punishment which makes me wonder about level of hypocrisy. In addition, millions of married working couples are plainly screwed and will never recover their SS money and it is known and nothing is done. One would asume if gov. is doing something illegal (or made it legal by passing law to extract our money forcefully) without any consequences, then it is available to others? Right… At least Bernie did not force anybody to participate…</p>
<p>BCEagle91 – I need to read more of our posts. You definitely know what you’re talking about. I am a financial nincompoop, but I have a visceral feeling that we’re in a scary mess right now!</p>