wilburbear
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 3038 |
10-17-12 05:54 PM
A lot of people work through that thought process and come up with similar conclusions. But, there may be a few constraints that can be loosened.
I also used to think it would be best to stay near top schools, and have since changed my mind. My kids go to some of the top schools in our city, but after my youngest one finishes at her private grade school in the spring - I am outta here. The city doesn't deliver on a cost-benefit basis - especially if you work from home.
What an education can confer is worth less and less by the month. My oldest kid goes to a really top high school - best in our state, and for a few states around it. She has band class and is currently torturing a musical instrument (that she will permanently set aside after this year), so that a music teacher can draw a salary. But this kid carries her laptop computer from room to room and barely comes up for air, *yet, she has not had a computer programming class in her high school*. And, unless your kid is going to Harvard, college is pretty much the same - your kids will know the names of the European capitols for a cost of a $100,000, while the next door kid is doing an internet start-up in his basement.
One exception - the socialization your kid gets hanging around with the other sharp kids is a good thing. But just hanging around with well-behaved kids is also "good enough".
So don't let schools be a big constraint.
And finally - "being near a big city". There are websites that allow people to work from home and do jobs on a piecemeal basis if your trading edge doesn't hold up. You income could go down 30%, but your cost of living could go down 40%.
In the future, big cities will be less necessary. You pay much higher taxes and costs (sometimes just to clean up the messes of the worst-acting 10% of the population).
The biggest question - what about healthcare costs? How are you currently insuring your family as a self-employed person? Throw in one or 2 pre-existing conditions, and you can't be self-employed at all.
|
