An acquaintance’s daughter just left her job after several years (8 I think), and plans to travel for the rest of the year. She said it’s a somewhat common thing for the younger generation to do.
My brother did that over 20 years ago. He was a single Dad (he had full custody) working long hours as an engineer. So he took the summer off and they traveled in his truck around the US. No plans, no reservations. Wherever they felt like going for the day. He repeated the same thing a few years later except they backpacked over Europe. And then the year his son was an exchange student, he just quit his job and lived off of savings.
As a ME/EE he never had trouble finding a well paying job. And he can live off of nothing.
But 1-2 weeks a year to me just sounds like a regular work vacation where you don’t check email.
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When we were in Japan, we met a couple who had recently quit their jobs in Europe and were traveling and would go back and work when their funds ran out. I believe they did had worked at a ski lodge or something. They were younger with no kids. There was also a single young woman traveling Japan alone. We and our friends traveling with us were all seated together at a grill to eat Kobe steak together. It was interesting as these younger people were near the ages of our kids.
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Little kid was doing a 2 week unpaid “vacation” this summer. The startup where she worked was raising funding, and her boss indicated she might want to start looking for another job as a backup plan. Well, she found a job and gave her 2 week notice. Her ex boss got upset and fired her on the spot. She said while she missed the paycheck, the time off was enjoyable.
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Sounds like your kid’s former boss was pretty unreasonable for firing her because she successfully followed boss’ advice to search for another job. Oh well, his loss! Nice the kid got a vacation — even if unpaid.
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Baltic cod used to grow up to three feet long in the 1980s-1990s. But now, they are only about half as long as before. This appears to be the result of predation, specifically human fishing using large nets that smaller fish can more easily escape from.
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gift limk
gift link
No real good place to put this so that parents of older students in repayment might see it, but federal loan repayment plans are changing due to the new law signed the other day (sorry, but I can’t call it by its name). Info is in this synopsis of how financial aid is affected: https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/36704/Trump_Signs_Sprawling_Reconciliation_Package_Into_Law_Here_s_How_it_Impacts_Higher_Ed
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Article on endowment tax changes for fiscal year 2026:
Could you list the schools? It’s paywalled.
Weird. Not paywalled for me.
| Institution | State | Endowment Value (mils) | Endowment Per Student (thous) | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Institute of Technology | CA | $3,598 | $1,489 | 2,518 |
| Amherst College | MA | $3,342 | $1,625 | 2,017 |
| Williams College | MA | $3,310 | $1,424 | 2,355 |
| Wellesley College | MA | $2,889 | $1,069 | 2,538 |
| Pomona College | CA | $2,797 | $1,486 | 1,814 |
| Swarthmore College | PA | $2,720 | $1,596 | 1,713 |
| Grinnell College | IA | $2,506 | $1,454 | 1,790 |
| Bowdoin College | ME | $2,422 | $1,306 | 1,996 |
| Washington and Lee University | VA | $1,974 | $890 | 2,255 |
| Trinity University | TX | $1,664 | $635 | 2,762 |
| Medical College of Wisconsin | WI | $1,639 | $1,105 | 1,644 |
| Baylor College of Medicine | TX | $1,466 | $858 | 1,717 |
| Davidson College | NC | $1,322 | $632 | 2,091 |
| The Juilliard School | NY | $1,320 | $1,351 | 1,061 |
| Hamilton College | NY | $1,282 | $608 | 2,131 |
| Berry College | GA | $1,261 | $552 | 2,466 |
| Claremont McKenna College | CA | $1,206 | $862 | 1,413 |
| Carleton College | MN | $1,177 | $599 | 2,106 |
| Bryn Mawr College | PA | $1,142 | $618 | 1,814 |
| Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science | MN | $1,095 | $750 | 1,573 |
| Hillsdale College | MI | $1,003 | $584 | 1,794 |
| The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art | NY | $908 | $939 | 980 |
| Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | NY | $866 | $704 | 1,282 |
| McPherson College | KS | $692 | $859 | 858 |
| Earlham College | IN | $419 | $637 | 718 |
| Concordia Seminary | MO | $206 | $755 | 613 |
Thank you!
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Here’s why (from the article):
That’s because schools with fewer than 3,000 full-time equivalent tuition-paying students will be exempt from the revamped endowment tax beginning next year. It currently applies to private schools with more than 500 full-time equivalent tuition-paying students and endowments worth more than $500,000 per student.
Guess they had to figure out a way to exempt Hillsdale?
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How many well endowed colleges have slightly more than 3,000 students? They have an incentive to reduce enrollment to 2,999 students or fewer.
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The tax is only on earnings. If you make 10% on your $1 bil endowment and pay 1.4% on that, that’s only $1.4 mil, which is the tuition of 20-25 kids.
I don’t think you are going to see a big rush to reduce enrollment. More likely, they’ll just enroll 20-25 more to pay the tax.
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I am willing to bet the ultra wealthy who got the tax cuts they were promised wouldn’t feel the same if they were slapped with a similar tax on their “personal endowments.”
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I am also now seeing a trend where employers are reacting to employees discovered to have posted inappropriately or frequently during work hours.
Worth reminding your kids to be careful. Their electronic history isn’t private and has serious potential consequences.
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gift link
Now what might make more sense?? I got nothing. The paint on the new UW CS building is still drying. MSN
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