I think that tends to be true, or at least it was at the time The Millionaire Next Door was written about 20 years ago. I think the most common auto driven by millionaires at the time of that writing was a Ford truck. Most of them owned a business, had spouses who worked for the business or at least supported it, and lived middle class lifestyles.

No tacky at all. :grouphug:

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Cute!

I'm sorry. He shouldn't beat himself up. Even in this thread there are so many people who've made this mistake. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Yosemite has some good kids' hikes up at Tuolumne, but the caveat is they should adjust well to the altitude. If it's a difficult adjustment they can spend an entire day just playing in the meadow without much climbing. The star gazing at night is fantastic, and there is a seasonal restaurant in a tent up there. Most years Tioga Road doesn't open till July and re-closes around November so it's a tight schedule.

I've hiked to the top of Half Dome and done the chains. It was really fun and harder on the way down the rock than up. That said, we did spend the night in Little Yosemite Valley the night before and after so we could have a more leisurely pace and not stress about any potential delays. I definitely recommend gloves. I used leather ones and I'm glad I did.

:grouphug: How'd it go with telling DH?

Sounds like he did a better job than half the drivers around here.... Gotta say, I love autodidacts!

How are you with avocados? Can you get coconut flour?

I'm sorry. :grouphug: I still can't believe your city would rely on a certain percentage. Our city notifies everyone within a certain number of feet and holds an in-person hearing once/month for permits above a certain threshold of work, and you can send a letter to be read if you can't make the meeting. The threshold is fairly high and only involves exteriors and changing historic features or fences, but your neighbor's project would have certainly met it. People around here grumble about the bureaucracy but I think everyone should at least have a chance for feedback, even if they're overruled. In your case, I think even if our city approved your neighbor's project it would have put restrictions on hours and a tighter time limit on how long they had to complete it, such based on your feedback of your DH working nights. And frankly I think it sucks that they didn't come over to notify you in person, apologize in advance for the noise, and bring a giant gift basket or gift certificate, along with some noise canceling headphones.

I'm surprised such a dense city doesn't have a neighbor notification system. We also live in an urban area with homes close together and we would have received an official notification from the city once the permit was filed so we could give feedback and know what was coming. Are you sure they have permits for this?

This happens to people in our neighborhood all the time, but the flyer is usually sent by a realtor representing the buyer and not the buyer herself.

Oops, I didn't mean to start anything! The data I posted does not factor in whether someone ended up in the career they wished to have, or even if the career for which they are counting earnings has anything to do with their field of study. I do think if a student has a very particular career in mind, it behooves the family to examine the best way to make that happen, and if that means looking at feeder schools or schools with very strong connections to particular employers, they should certainly run the numbers and the odds. There are often ways to enter as an outlier, but the extra effort and risk must be weighed against the cost and the characteristics possessed by the individual student. That said, I do think people, especially people who are not thinking of particular firms or grad schools, may overstate the importance of the name of the school.

I read somewhere about 10 years ago(?) in a print publication that controlling for many large variables, the ability to participate in unpaid or low paid internships and co-ops after college was a very large factor in long-term success, and of course that's more easily done if the student does not have loans payments due.

If she's an extra, maybe the money is little enough that she can forgo it and have it donated to a good cause instead?

All good questions. They certainly seem to have collected a lot of data on pay scales and compensation and it seems it's their business to see this info to companies. No idea where they get the data, but if I had to guess it's a combination of purchasing databases and doing their own surveys and research.

I suppose they're saying that, but what I took away was that within a particular field of study, the rankings don't mean nearly as much as many people perceive them to mean, and that many students get a good/equivalent ROI despite going to less selective schools.

Beautiful! And may I say you look like one of the sisters and not the mom?!

Here's an article from The Economist a couple of years ago, ranking ROI on various fields of study vs admissions rate (selectivity). I thought someone might find it useful. http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/03/daily-chart-2

Salaam! I think memorizing the Quran in the standard way many Muslims do absolutely aligns with the WTM classical philosophy of the poll parrot stage. :)

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

I'm sorry to hear the news. Sending good thoughts and prayers to your family. I'm glad to hear your daughter is home to help. :grouphug:

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

Melissa, I'm glad you are feeling better. I hope your time away will give you some rest and clarity on how to move forward. And Rosie, I'm so sorry to hear you've endured more trauma. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: