Yay! Adjusting well made me happy to read. 
Nice job with the feeding her, too.
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We got back last night from our first empty nester adventure to Las Vegas. The weather was divine and we had a great time. Had one of the best meals of my life at JoĆ«l Robuchon, saw a show, went to a ridiculous day club where we were just about the oldest people there, and enjoyed laughing and reconnecting. While I missed S25, I realized one upside of not traveling with him: We could fill out time the way we wanted to without having to take his MANY opinions into account. It was really great to get away and weāre committing to planning more getaways regularly.
S25 is doing well. Still going through rush and seems to be doing fine in classes. He has midterms this week, and so far he said he feels good about his performance. Iām so excited to see him for fall break in two weeks.
Hope everyone has a great week!
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Sounds great! Even including how you could travel according to your own parental desires
Whatās a day club?
This is the day club: Official Website of TAO Beach at the Venetian Resort And, yes, it was ridiculous.
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Can anyone say āsandwich generationā? D25 started school officially (counts on fingers) five days ago. Today my father was told he has a cancer that has spread to other areas of his body.
Iām not sure how to balance life here with supporting my parents (7-8 hrs away). DH is leaving for a 10 day business trip, and I want to be present for S27. Leaving D25 made me realize how quickly these next two years will go. The adrenaline from dropping her off has faded, and I wrote some sad poetry this weekend.
One day at a time. One step at a time. Grateful for faith, family, and friends in the midst of looming shadows.
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I am so sorry to read this.
Similar story here, with aging and ill parents in another state, D22 applying to grad schools, S25 still settling into college life, and D26 slogging through college apps and a tough senior year. I thought it would get a little smoother as the kids started launching, but oof, apparently not.
Sending all good thoughts for your dad!
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Iām so sorry to hear about your fatherās health. Sending good thoughts his way and yours.
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So sorry to hear about your dad. Moved S23 into his dorm and flew home as I had to start my semester (the college I work for started the same day). I was at a hospital giving an orientation to my students when I got the emergency call from my dad, my 46 year old brother had a life altering stroke. I quickly wrapped up the orientation and drove to where my brother was (luckily minutes away). It is hard!
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I am so very sorry about your dad. That is awful, and even harder with all that is going on:(
Sending you and your family good thoughtsā
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So as I may have mentioned before, spouse and I are both federal employees. So today is first day of furlough for us during shutdown. Iām excepted, he isnāt, which means Iāll be doing some work but Iām only intermittent, so itās sort of as needed work. Today I did a little over four and half hours of work, I spent a half hour putting away all the clean clothes Iāve been ignoring, and I did three hours of virtual continuing education (not through or for work, because that isnāt allowed during a shutdown, but on my own dime that I would otherwise be doing at night). Iām already bored.
Iām trying not to fixate on finding jobs for S22 to apply to. He can (and will) do this himself and while he likes to bounce ideas off me and has always been happy for my assistance in the past, I could see myself accidentally annoying him. So Iām trying to not do that.
Other exciting activities for me this week include getting my shingles shot and going to the dry cleaner. Necessary, but if THOSE are the highlights, then I better really work on finding a hobby before I retireā¦
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Iām so sorry that are having to go through this stress (and tedium). I hope that things are sorted out quickly.
I just got my shingles shot this week, as well. Aging is so exciting!
Hang in there!
Thanks! We are lucky in that we have enough of a savings cushion that forgoing some paychecks wonāt be a disaster for us. But I worry about my younger colleagues who havenāt had time to build it up, or the ones who are still paying exorbitant daycare rates that theyāll have to cover or lost their spots. Luckily for us, weāve got enough in the 529s for both S25 and S22 that we wonāt have to write much of a check for next semester. S25 is fully covered, S22, since itās the last semester, weāve been spending down the 529 and whatās in there is a good bit, but not a whole semesters worth.
Which reminds me (and maybe that will be my next shutdown project) I need to figure out how to close and use all of the 529. The last time I went to make a payment from it, the account said You Have $X, the amount you can use is # Smaller Than X.
I have no idea why I couldnāt just use it all and I donāt know what to do to make it so I can use it all. I also need to turn off my recurring deposits into it. This sounds like a Monday projectā¦
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Iām pretty sure you can transfer whatās left in the S22 529 over to the S25 529. Just maybe need to clarify with the 529 management company. Or maybe transfer enough to make the S22 529 usable over from the S25 529? Something like that.
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You can definitely just change the beneficiary on the account to your younger child once youāre done using it for the older one. Then you can use any remaining funds for the youngest. Thatās what weāll do for my youngest. (He always gets the hand-me-downs for everything!)
Or (this is pretty new) if the account has been open for a certain number of years (I think 15?) you can now convert unused funds to a Roth IRA for the beneficiary. Understanding 529 rollovers to a Roth IRA
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We just closed out D22ās 529 because weād used all the funds ā my husband did the actual work, so I donāt know specifics, but I can ask him if youād like.
We had also transferred a good portion of S25ās 529 to D22 because heās going to a much cheaper school and wonāt be using all of his.
Oh, I didnāt explain my 529 issue well. I wonāt have anything left, I want to use it all for S22, I just donāt know how to use it all. Last time I pulled from it letās say it had $10 in the account, the system told me I could pull up to $8. But I want the whole $10, I donāt want to leave any remainder. Maybe itās part of the close out process and since I was just doing a withdrawal and not a close out the system makes you keep a minimum balance? Who knows. Research project for me!
I had an option in Virginiaās 529 when I expended all my funds, I was prompted if I wanted to close the account.
We had an issue like that, and it took a call to the brokerage that holds ours to get it zeroed out.
This gives me hope - as we are also Virginia. Really, I just need to play with the system more.
Is it weird that I was so happy to learn that my homebody, chronically online kid was out at a club on a Thursday night? Theyāre in their dorm tonight (Saturday) catching up on homework, but they told me they and their friends (yay!) were out for college night at a club two days ago? (Just one class at 2 pm on Fridays.)
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