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<p>Why not neither? Why not 1?</p>
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<p>Someday I want to walk into a dealership with two 10-packs of Gold Eagles to pay for a car. 20 ounces for two tons.</p>
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<p>Insomnia, I view an education is an investment in my children’s future. But a car depreciates.
I am among the ones who paid full fare at private colleges for both of my kids. They love their 4 years there, were very happy and now both have excellent paying jobs.We did what we thought was right at the time and we are very happy with the outcome.</p>
<p>As for savings, you will encounter some people who’ve saved more than you and some who are like your cousins. But you have done a good job. Enjoy life a bit more while you are young.</p>
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<p>That is awesome. I am glad everything worked out for your children.</p>
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<p>I enjoy life very much very much, but I also plan where I can always enjoy life and don’t have to worry about where my next penny will come from in the future.</p>
<p>BCEagle: Your friend is a thief. He “buys” something, uses it, returns it. It cannot be resold. You help to pay for it in higher costs or membership. We knew people who would buy a sweater because it was cold out. She would return it a few days later.</p>
<p>You want to buy a used sweater? I don’t.</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with saving money. It’s about ethics.</p>
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<p>This is why I don’t understand Costco and Kohl’s return policies. You can return anything within any time frame. Even 3 months for most stores is a lot.</p>
<p>As for as stealing, I wouldn’t put it in that category. I would say it is more of the stores fault for their very lenient return policy.</p>
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<p>They probably figured out that the cost of people abusing the generous return policy is less than the goodwill gained by having the generous return policy.</p>
<p>Also, since Costco is a membership store, it could theoretically track all returns to determine if there is a pattern of abuse and cancel the memberships of those who abuse the return policy. Even if they do not actually do that, the fact that they can may be a deterrent against some who abuse the return policy.</p>
<p>insomniatic, I suspect (hope) that when you have children, you will understand that most parents desire to do whatever they think is best for their children. Some people give too much and the children become spoiled, some give too little and no, their children do not benefit from that. But it’s not all a bunch of statistics and numbers, it is always a balancing act of trying to do what is right for your children. People who are wealthy or who have spent years saving (like many people here on cc) have many more options. It’s all relative, anyways. A million dollars to you is like a quarter to Bill Gates. You might find that, should you have plenty of money, you just might buy your kid that 30K car instead of the 20K one. You might decide the Volvo is safer and more reliable than the other options. It’s pretty much futile to argue much of this, shoot when I was your age, I was determined to get my tubes tied. Never going to have kids. But people evolve.</p>
<p>Money is energy. It can be stored or used. It is not like the sun though. And when you age you realize, you need some stored. My son and daughter are storing already and paying off oodles on school loans and living very carefully. They are in the first year of work.</p>
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<p>Based on personal experience, I think it’s best to give less to your children than more. I’m talking about material items. I’m not talking about going outside and throwing a football or spending time and playing a board game.</p>
<p>Let’s take your kids for instance. You are going to give your kids $440k over four years. I don’t know if that is a lot of money to you, but that is a large sum of money to a lot of people. I don’t know if you kids or spoiled or if they feel entitled.</p>
<p>To me, it is best to teach your kids the value of a dollar. You are going to give your kids almost half of a million dollars (and this is just in a four year time span). I would rather teach them that the most expensive choice is not always the best choice. Therefore, they will be more grounded and actually know the value of a dollar is.</p>
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<p>This is a great analogy. I never thought of it like that, but it makes perfect sense. </p>
<p>Great for your kids that they are doing that.</p>
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<p>More like 1/100,000 of a penny.</p>
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<p>You don’t have children, do you? So you don’t have any personal experience.</p>
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<p>“Personal experience of a human being is the moment-to-moment experience and sensory awareness of internal and external events.”</p>
<p>I don’t need to have children to know things about them.</p>
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<p>Ethically and morally, yes. But contractually, no.</p>
<p>It can be resold; just not as new.</p>
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<p>I don’t belong to any shopping clubs that charge me for membership but yes, people that scam generous return policies or other money-back guarantees do cost the rest.</p>
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<p>I shop at the New Balance Factory Outlet exclusively for shoes and some of them have been worn. People buy shoes, use them and then return them - you can sometimes see the wear on them when looking through them.</p>
<p>I buy clothes at Marshalls including seconds. Some of them may be returns, especially on the deep clearance rack.</p>
<p>Everyone in my family has received and worn used clothes at some point.</p>
<p>I even buy used tennis racquets to play with - you’d be amazed at how active a market there is for them.</p>
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<p>I think that those that do it do it to save money but I don’t know if it saves them money in the long run. It has resulted in a lot of junky products out there.</p>
<p>I once knew a woman who had stolen one of those guns which are used to put price tags on clothes (you know, the little plastic things that you have to cut out of clothes when you get home) from a store. She would buy nice outfits, wear them, then put the price tag back on them and return them. She felt very entitled to do this because she would always take them to the cleaners before returning them.</p>
<p>She finally got caught using her boss’ credit cards for her own benefit. She figured that because he was so wealthy, he would never notice a charge here, a little charge there. She was lucky she only got fired rather than arrested.</p>
<p>I don’t belong to membership stores. They aren’t near my home. The concept is the same whether you shop at Costco or Neimans: every item that is purchased/used/returned costs the rest of us money. The “contract” is that when one buys an item one expects to keep it unless it doesn’t fit, doesn’t work correctly or you don’t need it (not don’t need it after you use it.) The contract is that this is not a rental agency for items. It is a retail or membership STORE.</p>
<p>You want the flipside? I shop at a store which features Judith Lieber evening bags. My salesperson (yes, I have several regular sales people) said that during award season they are a virtual lending service.</p>
<p>Rich and famous people “buy” a purse. They tuck the price tag away and then return their $5,000 purse for a refund two or three days later after the event. (Actually, their assistants or stylists generally do this.) Generally the bags are fine, but there are those bags that come back with napkins or lipsticks still in them. And then comes the…This wasn’t right with my outfit.</p>
<p>Sorry, gps system or Judith Lieber bag…still the same concept. You don’t buy something with the intention of using it, use it and then return it because you don’t want to rent it/buy it/or you just want to use it one time.</p>
<p>There’s such a thing as a $5000 purse?</p>
<p>There are $1,000 handbags at Coach - $5,000 racquets sounds possible.</p>
<p>There are tennis racquets that go from $500 to $1,000 and $4,000 to $10,000. It’s hard to find them unless you know the right place to go.</p>
<p>Gucci, Prada, Nancy Gonzalez, Valentino, Chanel, Vuitton Fendi, Ferragamo etc. are mid priced luxury. There are purses that go far above that $5,000 mark.</p>