>Apply to college, apply for Financial
>Aid (if you can get
>it) no aid..take out loans...Major
>Finance/Accounting/Economics/Enginering/Comp Sci, or something else
>with a decent starting salary.....you
>make 35-45 coming out of
>college..while your girlfriend (soon to
>be fiance) does the same.
>In your late 20s...you hope
>to be making about 50-70...you
>get married...now you make about
>100-140 together. You buy your
>first house for about 150
>- 200k (either saving for
>the downpayment yourself, or through
>a combination of borrowing from
>family and your own savings)
>you fix up that house
>and sell it in 5
>years for about 200 -
>250k...or more. Then you take
>that money and buy the
>350k house, buy the BMW.....
>

i do get your point, but these numbers are questionable. i mean, it all depends on your college stuff, but 35-45 is a REALLY nice starting salary these days, and 50-70 by the late 20s is one HELL of a jump.

then we get to the house stuff. you cover the downpayment, but don't forget, there's a mortgage (or 2) on that. if your FIRST house costs 150-200K, even if you pull 125K combined, with NO kids, you'll be paying for that house for 10 years (at least). fix it up and sell it? well, that's where the second mortgage may come in. "fixing up" a house ain't cheap. throw 1 kid in the equation? add 5 years. 2 kids? add 10. a certain non-specific relative of mine moved into his first house with ihs wife and 1 child when he was about 30, had his second child soon after this. that house was WELL under 100K. 5 years later he did manage to move into his second house, a modest house costing under 160K. right now that relative and his wife make a combined 160K a year. and they're still not entirely out of debt. i get your point here, but i wanted to clarify how uneasy this whole thing can be.

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