Happy Mother’s Day, one and all! Just thought I would check in and say hello. go2girl has been back a week now after a successful and happy freshman year. It was definitely the right choice and she blossomed. Great friends, terrific opportunities, joined a sorority, and got involved in a ton of activities. She was selected to be an admissions tour guide next year and they are lucky to have someone so enthusiastic about the school. Just as she was about to depart Nashville, she got a text that she got the internship she had interviewed for so she will be busy this summer (thank goodness, I did not want to have to continue to watch her sleep until noon!) It’s hard to believe that they are 1/4 the way through college. The year just zipped by! go2boy is still surviving freshman year of high school so all eyes are on him now! Poor kid!
Yes, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
Just said goodbye to Class of 2014/18 kid, who was home for a week and is now making the 15-hour drive back to Alabama (accompanied by my husband), so he can start a mechanical engineering co-op later this week. He had a great first year–excelled academically, made a ton of terrific friends, and learned to enjoy big-time college football. And that money we saved on tuition when he chose Bama over a few other schools allowed us to help him buy a really nice, reliable car.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms!
2016BarnardMom: So sorry that things did not go well for your son. Hopefully he can find a place where he can be happier.
Eyemamom: My son also did not have a car this past year, but wants to take one back. He desperately needs one so he can get back and forth to practice, particularly this fall since his MWF class ends about 15 to 20 minutes before practice. And he needs transportation to the facility. He also said he could make very good money refereeing youth soccer tournaments in the fall, but again, he needs wheels. So he’s working his buns off this summer refereeing soccer so he can afford the insurance (it is steep where we are), his fraternity dues (he wants to pay the whole year up front) and have some spending money as he has a girlfriend.
Tonight, when he comes home from the games, we need to pay for his two, online classes that he’s taking. And his girlfriend arrives tomorrow night, so I’m straighten up a few things.
We’re driving down to pick up DS tomorrow. He wont finish his last finals until about noon. One is physics which should prove fairly easy. He had to reschedule it to take it with a different section because he was rowing in Dad Vale regatta Friday. The other is differential equations which has proven to be a challenge. Based on his AP score he jumped right into Calculus III. In retrospect I wonder if it was a good idea. But, he is way ahead on credits and could possibly finish a BSE in 3 years. We went down for an earlier regatta and already picked up about half his stuff then. So, I’m hoping for a quick and easy pick up tomorrow evening.
D has her last class on Wednesday; finals start Friday. She’ll be home a week after that.
I got one of those Mother’s Day cards from her that makes it all worthwhile! Now here’s hoping it will be as good having her in the flesh!
DS flew home Saturday night after last final (physics) the day prior. No pickup on our end, DS just shipped a couple boxes and used the recommended storage company in NOLA for the rest. Grades are trickling in now, so far with excellent results. Overall son had a great freshman experience…even has a girlfriend! None of the summer biomedical engineering internships panned out however (some nice rejection notices,“close but no cigar”), so decided to take a genetics summer course at home to lighten the load in the fall…think he learned his lesson this semester with 19 hours…including calc III, phys, chem, cell bio, 2 labs, plus an engineering statics class…oh and also decided after all that 8am starts 5 days a week with 2 late afternoon labs makes for VERY long days…(tried ya tell ya !).
Think he’s loving being home…going to a Cavs playoff game tomorrow…good/free food, his bro, and his dogs!
DD came home for the weekend for my grandmother’s funeral…a sad reason to have her home but it was nice to see her for mother’s day. She took me out for ice cream on the way back to school 
. One more week of finals and then’s she home :D. She thinks things have gone well this semester and hopefully that’ll still be true after final exams and projects.
@2016BarnardMom, I’m sorry to hear that this year didn’t go well for your son. He has to be disappointed, but when they’re this young, they have so much room to pick themselves up and try again. Hopefully he’ll find the best place for his next year.
Last exam completed for DS. Our sophomore will be home in a few days. That went by pretty fast.
Son has been keeping plenty busy his first days of being home. He told me the other night that he has refereed enough youth soccer games already to pay one-half of his fraternity dues for the coming year. His goal is to hand the finance guy for the fraternity a check for the entire year when he returns to school in mid August. The additional monies that he makes will go to pay car insurance and maintain the car, as he really needs to take the car with him this fall. He pointed out that when he is not running at a cross country meet on a weekend, he can referee youth soccer games. At least the kid is a go-getter. He is already talking paid internships and saving for retirement! And he’s just 18!
His girlfriend came into town earlier in the week. She is lovely. He’s played tour guide, taking her all over Northern Virginia. Yesterday, they went to DC and saw various sights. He had never been to Arlington National Cemetery, and they got to see the changing of the guard. His girlfriend’s mom already invited him to fly down this summer and spend a few days at their home if he has time, which he should in early July.
@momreads
Can we clone your son and match her with my D. She has a bf but we’re not fond of him for a lot of reasons. But, what can we do?
My D will not come home until next week. She’s done with her finals but still working on some final project and papers.
Well, DS just got an internship! It fell into his lap yesterday, he interviewed today and he starts next week (he goes i tomorrow but just for HR paperwork). It’s not with an engineering firm, but a software company that needs data analysis help. So while not purely in his area of study, it will make use of his analytical and technical skills. His trip to Germany is off now but that is ok as he was really just tagging along with DH for fun.
And DS is another kid with a retirement fund – he has a Roth IRA.
I just told DS that he will need to put his summer internship earnings into a Roth IRA account. We will need to open one for him. Two summer ago, DS had a stipend from his summer internship. We didn’t even think about opening a Roth IRA for him thus lost the opportunity to save it with deferred tax benefit.
We opened a traditional IRA for my oldest. Now, as she leaves jobs, she has a place to put any 401K monies she’s earned. Believe it or not, she hasn’t even graduated from college yet, and she’s had 2 positions that took out retirement.
Speaking of Roth IRA, I’m planning to open one for my D. She had a job on campus this semester so she’s qualified.
@ordinarylives, I don’t know your D’s situation, but it often is good to fund Roth accounts when income and tax rates are low. Later in life it becomes more expensive.
Saving for retirement is wonderful, in whatever form, but young people can get years of tax-free growth from a Roth. I’m opening one for DS with his summer earnings (which we will match as a gift).
Yes, I know, but she already has small 401K accounts at institutions where she will not continue to work. It’s my understanding that those cannot be rolled into a Roth when employment is over. Am I wrong?
I am pretty sure I could not convince my kids to put their own hard earned summer money into a Roth IRA, but we plan to match it up to a certain point annually to get them started.
DD has finished exams and papers and is mostly packed. I pick her up tomorrow morning to bring her home … to meet our new puppy! DS’11/15 graduated last weekend and DD was with us for the weekend celebrations which was really nice. I brought her back to school on Sunday and had a nice Mother’s Day brunch with her. It was a wonderful weekend and nice to have the whole family together to celebrate with DS. And since he just accepted a job offer for a great job but in an unknown location (he won’t know where he’s going until about a month before he starts). So it was really nice to have everyone together for a happy time
Brought the new puppy home yesterday about an hour before DS arrived home with a lot of his stuff! It’s been chaos since. He’s on puppy duty tomorrow while I pick up DD. She’s had a good year and survived her roommate and is looking forward to being an RA next year (I’m not looking forward to moving her to the fourth floor of her dorm without an elevator!)
@ordinarylives, yes and no. 401k money is, most likely, pre-tax money, although more and more employers are providing a Roth 401k option. Typically, 401k pre-tax money goes to a tIRA (traditional IRA) and Roth 401k money goes to a rIRA (Roth IRA). Both of those moves are called rollovers. Some employers allow rollovers at any time (called “in-service” rollovers), but they have to let you roll over when employment ends.
You can also move money from a tIRA to a rIRA, and that’s called a conversion. In that case, the amount moved/converted becomes taxable income that year, which is fair, since the money has never been taxed before. At lower incomes, it is not particularly painful to pay those taxes and they can be distributed later, completely tax-free, when the tax bracket is probably much higher.
A much better description than I can give is here: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Roth_IRA
I got d’14’s stuff Friday when I picked her up for her sister’s graduation. She has enough left for the upcoming week. Holy cow, though, if that room isn,t still full. And mind you, they had a (small) triple with just 2people in it. Apparently roommate brought a lot to begin with and kept bringing more after every break. Yikes! They’re living together next year in a quad. D says she can get by with less. Well somebody’s going to have to!