All Forum Posts by: Mike Seluk

I think it absolutely depends on the individual person. If a person doesn't know what they want to do yet, then there's no sense in going (right away, anyway). Even if they DO know what they want to do, it's important to ask yourself if going to college is the best way to get to that point - and that's not always the case.

I took a year off between high school and college to work as an auto mechanic. It worked for me, since I realized that I did NOT want to do that stuff for a living. My brother did the same thing, and worked for an industrial equipment refurbishing company for a short while. He used to come home looking like a coal miner! Man, he'd get so filthy! It didn't take much of that to get him to find his way to school.

It also depends on the field you go into, since some things DO require more know-how (doctors are probably the best example I can think of).

I've been out of school for about 6 years now, working as a low-voltage tech and project manager for an electrical contractor. From what I've seen, most small businesses don't really seem to care if you have a diploma - they just want effective people working for them. When I did my internship, the guy who was my 'mentor' was the same age as me. When I was entering college, he was starting in the field. By the time we met up, he was a project mananger with several years of experience. All I had was a stupid diploma. LOL...

Right now, I'm planning on going back to school in the spring.

The bank that I had my mortgage through has gone under, and while I would have thought that the note would have been sold by now, I don't think it is has been, just because I'm still making the checks out to the FDIC (it's been 6 months now, I think). I know they probably sell these things at a discount when they sell them in bulk, but what's to keep them from accepting an offer from me? It's not a huge loan anymore; is there an opportunity to save some money here?

Well, it IS an investing forum...there may be some car-guys in here, but when they want to talk cars, they don't come here. The vast majority is going to be people who don't probably know much about cars, and are perfectly OK with that.

Don't worry about your 'youth'. The party doesn't end when you hit a certain age. You want to stop being a kid? Get married and/or become a parent, from what I've seen. All my siblings did that, and I never see them anymore. I pretty much act and feel like a kid, but have my ducks in a row: excellent credit, good job, my own place, no debt besides the small mortgage and a small college loan, good savings and a good reputation in my field. But I don't want to have a job, which is why I come to sites like this - to learn how to get out of the rat-racery.

In a nutshell, I don't think that maturity and responsibility are mutually exclusive. And keeping it simple is soooooo key.

Tom, this is totally the wrong place to be asking this question. The car disease is just one of those things - 'If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand'.

Go read Dave Ramsey's book like everyone else said to - pay attention to the part in there that says, "Saving money without a goal in mind is pretty pointless", or something to that effect.

It might not be the best 'first' purchase out of school, but don't ever let anyone ever tell you that you shouldn't get something you really want. Cars like that can be impractical, yep, but so are a lot of things that people do. I'd never let someone who's married with kids tell me about impracticality.

Besides...I really can't understand how THAT particular engine - the Gallardo's 5 liter V10 could POSSIBLY be that maintenance intensive. It's motor is basically 2 Jetta 2.5L motors - the cylinder head is essentially the same, the bore and stroke are the same, they're both naturally aspirated...what's left? Why can't it also go for a gazillion miles of day in and day out driving like a Jetta?

When I was curious about buying a car like that for daily driving, I basically went to a Ferrari forum and asked who did their own maintenance and who drove their cars a lot. Turns out the V8 Ferrari's are pretty reliable, and you can service them yourself, more or less. That really turned me on to the 348/355/360s. And there are a TON of those down here. Also, I'm really into the Ford GT, since that's basically a truck motor with a blower - something Ford knows well.

So *that's* why the Chinese-drywall issue came back up on cnn.com this week!

I don't know how to NOT do it, really. I mean, I'd feel like I was going broke if at the end of the month the balance sheet came up negative - which would make perfect sense, I guess! :lol: And that would really freak me out, so to be totally honest, I think it's a bit of healthy paranoia to some degree. You might just be the type who doesn't worry about it. Or maybe you've always lived to a particular standard, and never considered what it would take to make a change.

Whatever the case, it was a bit of an surprise when I realized just how much I was helping myself by living a simple life. And what was satisfying was realizing that I don't even feel like I'm missing out on anything - I *do* have the means to do a whole lot more, but...well, I'm content.

Check this out! Illustrates the point really well -

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Jeff, I'm glad you posted! I was actually going to PM you and say, "Talk me out of this! It looks like it could work!" But condos...sheesh...man, I don't wanna go that way.

At one of the meetings a while back, a 'deal' very similar to this was brought up by someone and you and Tom B. kicked it around for a bit and pretty much shot holes in it every which way. THAT was an eye-opener. BTW - What happens when a place like that becomes toast, as you said?

This is too funny...I just found myself crunching the numbers on a unit in my neighborhood that is almost identical to the one he mentioned. It's a condo in a large development offered at 29.9k, rents range from $600-750, HOA is $227/mo.

Though we DID have an assessment spread over the last 3 months where we had to pay $300/mo., supposedly to make up for what they didn't collect due to foreclosures.