Subject: Re: Million to Billion
it gets harder and harder to maintain trust in the US Government. Feel a bit like having been given a bait and switch where they get to change the rules

I took out a ginormous amount of student loans in the 1980s, almost all for med school. Their obligation resulted in lost opportunity costs for literally decades. (Goodbye, Professor! Goodbye, bench research! Goodbye, Department Chair! Hello, private practice! (1))

I partially consoled myself at the time that at least the interest on those loans was tax-deductible.

...until, oops, a year or so into my residency, right at the time when the first payments became due (Hello moonlighting! (2)), the tax deduction abruptly vanished (3), effectively making my loans, what, suddenly 30+% bigger? There was no grandfathering, which I thought was the least our selfless public servants should have had the judicious wisdom and foresight to do.

So, a decade or so later when the 529 plans came out (and I had rugrats crawling around, who -- unlikely as it seemed in the moment -- would probably want to go off to college someday), I never got further than printing out the enrollment forms a time or two. Just couldn't pull the pin. Fool me once, etc

So, 15-20 years after that, I mostly paid list price for DS's undergraduate degrees. And did that cost me a bunch? Yes, it did.

I don't trust the bahstids. Not for the last 40 years or so. And while I'm happy to be on Medicare and am looking forward to SS at age 70 or so, we could get by without the latter at lease. (And the former, if the ACA isn't gutted. Not holding my breath on that one either)

-- sutton

(1) not that that's not the decision I might have made anyway, but there's a difference between optional and not-optional

(2) including thirty-hour weekend shifts as the only medical officer on duty for the entire state prison system. Yes, inside the fence. (Free advice to readers: try not to go to prison. It's bad in there)

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...