<p>Well… Someday I may tell the story why I dumped the friend of 40 years, but now is not the time. The story isn’t over.</p>
<p>One thing I have learned is if I have a positive attitude it can be contagious. I understand what you are saying.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if a person is a cancer, he is a cancer. I can’t really change people. I can control myself to a large extent</p>
<p>I like your addition in post 7580. Your wife and you…</p>
<p>I can change people. I know I can. But never, it seems, when I try to.</p>
<p>Maybe I’d be doing the happy dance if my kids got all the education and opportunities and I didn’t have to pay for it all. Or maybe if I could have easily afforded to pay for it, but I can’t…it is painful, but I have to do the right thing for my kids, pain and all. Things are working out great for them, so I can’t regret it. But I can’t do a happy dance upon paying the bills.</p>
<p>Sure, Michigan weather can stink, but so can Seattle. Sometimes it rains until August.</p>
<p>Mini I can introduce you to a few that aren’t going to change. They like the negativity. They are comfortable with problems. They don’t know how to live otherwise.</p>
<p>"(I’m living for a very long time. My wife came to me this morning, amused by the current stock market move and asked when she could retire. “This afternoon,” I said. “You can be a travel nurse, and I’ll split my time between India and Burundi.” Really?" she asked. “Really,” I said. “But do we have enough?” “We’ve always had enough, dear, we just have to decide that we have enough…And ditch the dog.”</p>
<p>As I said, I am very, very wealthy."</p>
<p>I guess it’s all on your values. For those of us who truly love our dogs like family…“ditch the dog,” to follow your personal interests, is…horrifying and unfathomable.</p>
<p>I apologize for my meager attempt at humor. If it failed for you, it failed. (We - and especially my wife - love the dog.) But you must admit, you are easily horrified. ;)</p>
<p>Will they let me post his photo?</p>
<p><a href=“Redirecting...”>Redirecting...;
<p>(Sorry - I don’t have one of me doing the happy dance, which is an inner sort of thing.)</p>
<p>"(Sorry - I don’t have one of me doing the happy dance, which is an inner sort of thing.)"</p>
<p>Love this.</p>
<p>BD - This isn’t directed to you but one thing I really dislike is people complaining about a quarter million dollar tuition bill they are paying. It is not different from complaining about buying a bentley, is it? Any car will get you where you need to go, and most less costly colleges will get the right person a good well paying job. I find it distasteful top 5% population complaining about money. If it is so hard for them what would it be like for the rest 95%?</p>
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<p>I am with mini on this. For me, the only thing worth paying for is education and experience.</p>
<p>I’m glad you were just kidding about the dog, mini, but it takes a lot to horrify me. I really, really, really love my dogs. Now a cat might be a different story.</p>
<p>And Igloo, saying that paying tuition checks of more than we can afford is a pain is not exactly complaining. My point was that very few people are thrilled about it unless they are getting a deal. Kid #1 has a great job, but I am doing the happy dance because of no more checks for him. I can’t even visualize being excited about writing them.</p>
<p>Glad you weren’t complaining. I m mixing in a wrong crowd not that I mix a lot. So often I hear top 2%, the elites of the society complain how poorly they fare and how the society should help them.</p>
<p>Igloo, I hear the same thing.</p>
<p>Most people could never come up with 50,000 a year to pay for anything. </p>
<p>As the top 2 percent complain, society does help them. (roths are one example). Because society has limited resources, this makes little sense to me.</p>
<p>I saw people at special olympics yesterday that need dental work. A couple of athletes I don’t know were thanking me for showing up and watching. Thanking me? I should be thanking them for showing me how to behave and how to live a life.</p>
<p>Most of these athletes are on ssi or should be on ssi. Some are on medicaid.
I would rather have a roth than be on these programs.</p>
<p>These athletes don’t read threads like this.</p>
<p>Couldn’t agree more about the whining from people who make 250K and whine about how they have a hard time living a middle class lifestyle in NYC or San Francisco and how unfair it is that they have to pay full freight for one student in college.</p>
<p>Quick story on the latter point. S2 was a second level student in high school and ended up disappointed because he was turned down from the high prestige private college first choices. Ended up going to state u honors program tuition free. Loves it. Came back at Thanksgiving and told his friends “if you can’t to to Harvard, go to the cheapest place.”</p>
<p>EMM1, I am glad it is working out for S2.</p>
<p>Thanks. We have been very fortunate with all three of our children, although they have taken very different paths.</p>
<p>EMM1, So what are your kids doing?</p>
<p>I hate grouping people into percentages based on salary or wealth, it’s merely another way to pit people against each other.</p>
<p>Wow, talk about a great attitude, I just heard a speech from a guy who cut off his arm to survive…Aron Ralston. What a positive person.</p>
<p>Somebody in a Florida town near me bought last night’s sole winning Powerball lottery ticket worth $590.5 million. Not bad a return for a $2 investment…I’m so jealous!</p>
<p>Well, the other investors lost 100%.</p>
<p>S2 was at Amazon last summer and will be at Yelp this summer. After a semester in Hong Kong, he will take a job as a software developer but my end up doing a doctorate in computer science.</p>
<p>S1 and D is a classic story of the only thing being true about all kids is that all kids are different. Both of them got jobs for which they interviewed on the same day. S1 is an SAP consultant with a Big 4 company and D will start soon teaching at a boarding school for developmentally disabled children. Go figure.</p>