Update on my "Challenge 102" - December 2018

There was an interesting effect I got from starting this challenge. 
In many ways I was just the same as many other people - struggling to lose weight which was slowly but surely creeping up.

After starting "Challenge 102" I stopped focusing on weight. My thoughts went deeper. Much deeper. 
Thinking my deeper thoughts I used my already available knowledge on the human body processes but suddenly the puzzle pieces became strangely rearranged. Suddenly I saw everything in a different new light. 

After applying my new understanding I lost weight without any struggle. 
I am physically stronger than I ever was and I wasn't as strong even in my twenties. I always was a weakling. 

My body shape has changed. Sometimes I look at it and can't believe it is my body. It is like I am living in a parallel reality where I got a different body. 

I always thought: genes are genes, you can't do much. And yes, genes are genes, but there was a hidden capacity I didn't know about and that is quite amazing. 

The phrase "I don't have anything to wear" doesn't exist for me anymore. I am happy.

This amazing transformation made me think about the mechanism behind this thoughts rearrangement which appears to be produced by asking a different question. 

What has actually happened? It looks like I stopped focusing on just one aspect of what I thought is a component of a healthy life. 
Instead I generated an overreaching goal: Leave to at least 102 years old. Achieving that goal already implies the underlying health. The answer to a question "What do I have to do do live that long?" came on its own and it was quite unexpected.

Now I am trying to deconstruct this example and apply it to another situation.
The example with the weight:
The conventional goal was "lose weight" as a representative for health.
The overreaching goal is "become at least 102 years old" which implies health as a major component.

What about money?
My conventional goal right now is to reach $3,000,000. It is a representative for financial freedom.
But what is the overreaching goal? The financial freedom? But comparing to the weight example that can't be my overreaching goal. The weight loss was representative for health, but the health was not the overreaching goal. I have to change magnification and see what is above the financial freedom. 

What do I want this freedom for? Having financial freedom  means that I will not bother by being dependant on work circumstances, on people, on people's opinions. But that is impossible when I live in a society. As long as I have connections and people I want to have relationships with, I will always have to adjust to some degree. And I don't mind that. I learned my ways and I like being in relationships with people. I also like my work. So relationship with others or work is not the factor. 

Maybe I want to reduce anxiety and have more fun. I want that much money primarily to feel safe. Feeling of safety is when you know that you will always have enough resources for your needs. What will I do when I know that I am safe? I will enjoy life? Is "Life joy" that overreaching goal where the financial freedom is a component, like health is a component for becoming 102 years old? 

It could be. 

Things that work, work fast. I started seeing the effects of my "Challenge 102" in about 5 months.
So if this new goal is defined correctly I could start seeing the effects in approximately the same time. I will add few months wiggle room and see what happens. 

So the results may come in May-September 2019. If nothing happens it will be either because of the wrong goal definition or maybe different goals require different times to work. 

I will think about it again in May-September 2019 and adjust. Of course I know that my interpretation of those mechanisms may be wrong, but  I will not know if I don't try. 

Thank you for your comments!

Thank you for very nice comments, guys!

I started this blog in September 2017 as a write up of information that I need to research for myself. Then one of my friends started to ask me financial questions which I found very interesting I and incorporated them as posts which usually start as "M. asked me".

Recently I started to see comments which are very positive. It is especially nice because I was not asking for any comments and I was not expecting any comments, sinse I am not producing any commercial material. 
I am glad that the information I collect and write up for myself is useful for someone else.

I have the comment moderation switched on so that no nonsense comments appear, something like "make money working from home" you can see on some blogs with unmoderated comments. But I have not had any of those yet.

I am not advertising anywhere. You can see the real time total blog view numbers on the right side which is at 3343 today. It is not much but it doesn't bother me. 


I do have some ads running but it is not a viable source of revenue because since the start of the blog they brought in $2.91.  Obviously this ad revenue is not a motivation for me to have this blog. But I will keep the ads out of curiosity to see if they will ever cover the blog costs which are $12 per year. The $12 are very tolerable and if I would classify this blog as a hobby it makes it a very cheap hobby. 

My main motivation is collecting reliable information which I research thoroughly myself because I trust so few people. I have to check everything myself, that always works best for me.

Why am I staying anonymous? I am writing down the information I have found and sometimes I also write down my thoughts to that. I like to write down my thoughts.
When I am anonymous, I can write what I really think. I am not bound by any need to keep my image because I don't have any. I really can write what I think. 
Only 5 people know who I am. 4 of them are not  interested in finances and they don't read my blog. I think that only one of them really reads it from time to time (that is M. who asks questions).

Basically I only use this blog for my personal needs and I am glad to see that it is useful for some people I don't even know. Thanks again for the nice comments!

How to pay for child's college? Does it still make sense to go to medical school?

Making a snow cat, December 2018 

I am not sure if my child will decide to go to college. It is very likely.

She is 8 and with determination she says that she wants to be a doctor. That means that there will be a college and maybe even a graduate school. If she chooses to go to college, it will be in about 10 years.

The college costs are rising. Per www.collegeboard.org the increase in college costs in the last ten years in 2018 dollars was $9,790 for private non-profit colleges and $4,910 for public colleges. 
The estimated costs for 2018-19 year for private non-profit college is $48,510 and $21,270 for public college. This includes room and board.

I used an inflation calculator and it looks like the increase is in keeping with the inflation of about 3% per year, at least for this data for the last 10 years. 
With the estimated 3% of inflation, the costs in the next 10 years will rise by approximately $20,000 to $78,740 for private college and by $9,000 to $35,183 for public college. 


If the pace of cost increase will not change, then in 2028 the costs will be accordingly $58,300 and $26,180 per year. Take that x4 for the 4 years of college and you will get $233,200 and $104,720 respectively.
If you add medical school, double it.


The physician's profession becomes less and less attractive with the recent increase in paperwork, new compliance hurdles, increasing costs of education and decreasing pay. Does it still make financial sense to become a doctor?

Taking the approximate education costs of $400,000, you will start working 6-7 years later than, for example a dietitian. The average dietitian's salary (per web search) is about the same as the resident salary. 

If as a dietitian you have approximately 45 productive years to work, as a physician you start later and have approximately 34 productive years. That is if you pick 65 as your retirement age.


If just as an example, you take a physician salary of $250,000 per year times 34 it will make $8,500,000. That is the money you will earn during the 34 work years.

The dietitian's salary of $50,000 taken x45, for the longer 45 years of working, will be $2,250,000.

Even including the high college debt the physician salary is still more attractive. These numbers are very approximate, not including inflation, raises or decreases. I did it just to see if the difference in total earnings even remotely makes sense. It looks like it still does.


Of course it is not just the money that makes you to choose a profession. When I told my mother that I have chosen pathology, she exclaimed sadly: "Why? Now I can't even tell the neighbors about that!  Why do you like the morgue? Who do you have that interest from?" And my father added gravely: "Are you doing it just for the money?"

I told my father that since his engineering genes didn't cross over to me, I had to do what I can. 
And since my mother opens every of her chickens that dies without an obvious cause, and calls me to ask what are the spots in that dead chicken's liver, I told her that she is basically "a chicken pathologist without a license".
My father agreed that you have to do what you can.
My mother was happy to discover that her interests are not that different from mine. And quickly everything was fine again.

I am curios what profession my daughter will pick. But in any case, there will be probably some college costs.


What are the options to save/pay for the college? 

Before making any decisions about supporting the child with the college costs one needs to make sure that his own financial well being including retirement is taken care of. After that I see following options:

1. Child will pay all costs. 
It would make sense to try to get stipends for which you need good grades and some outstanding extracurricular activities. The child's motivation to complete education will be high. Parents will have minimal or no costs.

2. Funding a 259 account.
That is doable but one needs to make sure there is enough motivation present to take the college seriously. One of the motivational ways may be the promise to pay for all college costs after college is competed but that will not work with the 529 account, because the costs have to be reimbursed in the same calendar  year.


3. Using gift to finance college costs.
3a. Each of the parents can give a cash gift of $15,000 (IRS reporting limit for 2018). That should cover $30,000 per year. The tuition can be paid directly to the institution and then it will not count as a gift.
3b. Gifts over the IRS limit are an option. Also the IRS allows taxpayers to give $75,000 into a 529 plan without paying tax or reducing the $11.2 million lifetime limit (see post on gift tax). 


4. Funding a custodial account.
There will be no penalty if the child doesn't go to college but the money will not be yours (like in 529 account) - you can't just take it back. It is officially your child's money. I have started one custodial account and which I plan to use for her wedding costs.

It also can be a combination of those methods.