A++ Trolling

[Milwaukee]

Jacksonville State University undergrad. 1 in 8.367 have accumulated 1M net worth later in their life.

I'm gonna reach out to the alumni association and get this impressive graphic out to the masses.

Take that for data.

 

[northgajacket]

Only approx. three months away from the start of the season.

 

[kg01]

Jacksonville State University undergrad. 1 in 8.367 have accumulated 1M net worth later in their life.

I'm gonna reach out to the alumni association and get this impressive graphic out to the masses.

Take that for data.

That's strong, sir. Real strong.

I took back my 'like' 'cause you didn't slam the table afterwards.

 

[flounder]

One rule of thumb for pulling money out of your savings during retirement is to limit it to 4% per year. With retirement savings of $1 million, that's $40k a year. Unless you have a lot of faith in the fiscal well-being of Social Security and Medicare, I think $1 million is just about the bare minimum people need to have saved.

 

[LibertyTurns]

And my original doubt was not that one might become a millionaire, but that 20% of all GT grads are. It doesn't pass the smell test. We need a game, bad.

I'm close to a couple dozen GT grads mostly in the 40-60yo range and although I don't know their specifics I'm going to guess at the net worth of the 10 I know best:
A. Married GT couple- 50yo, multi millionaires. Huge house, wife a neurosurgeon or something like that, husband a brilliant computer geek type. No kids.
B. Single GT male- higher up government exec in high priced housing area. Probably sitting on $800k of house. No kids. Definitely a millionaire.
C. Married GT male- bought a shack off campus after grad which is now probably worth $300k. Wife added a house, both professionals. Most likely net worth over $1M. No kids.
D. Married GT male, PhD- house is nearly paid off & lives in area where houses average $900k. Both drive 10-15yo cars. They got some money. Definitely millionaires. No kids.
E. GT male married a Dookie- he retired at 52 from government service. She still works. Same house for 40 years. They travel around the world on a whim. Definitely millionaires and you would never guess it outside of their travels. 3 kids, 3 scholarship rides.
F. Divorced GT female- she's really smart but I think her deadbeat husband probably took her for a ride. Had a kid that's needy. I'll count this as no.
G. Divorced & remarried GT male- owns own multi-national business. He's either putting up a good show & he's broke or he's got a pile. I say he's got the pile despite paying some alimony from an earlier bad decision & now kid with 2nd wife.
H. Retired GT male- could be a closet millionaire but 2 divorces and some health issues would say not likely.
I. Retired military GT male- wife's high maintenance. He's got some money but not 7 figures worth probably.

That's 8 of 10 from a pool of guys with exception of the first 2 did not have spectacular grades or were particularly brilliant. In fact 2 on this list got kicked out of GT (one got kicked out twice) at one point & came back on academic contract. Heck I forgot about 2.05 GPA timeshare dude that's probably the wealthiest of all. I'm guessing if I kept going down the list the percentages would be about the same. If you surmise that half the GT grads are over 50, that would put the percentage at around 40%. The 50% seems reasonable to me & that's carrying the youngsters that haven't had time to amass their wealth yet as they're buying houses, raising kids, etc.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I'm close to a couple dozen GT grads mostly in the 40-60yo range and although I don't know their specifics I'm going to guess at the net worth of the 10 I know best:
A. Married GT couple- 50yo, multi millionaires. Huge house, wife a neurosurgeon or something like that, husband a brilliant computer geek type. No kids.
B. Single GT male- higher up government exec in high priced housing area. Probably sitting on $800k of house. No kids. Definitely a millionaire.
C. Married GT male- bought a shack off campus after grad which is now probably worth $300k. Wife added a house, both professionals. Most likely net worth over $1M. No kids.
D. Married GT male, PhD- house is nearly paid off & lives in area where houses average $900k. Both drive 10-15yo cars. They got some money. Definitely millionaires. No kids.
E. GT male married a Dookie- he retired at 52 from government service. She still works. Same house for 40 years. They travel around the world on a whim. Definitely millionaires and you would never guess it outside of their travels. 3 kids, 3 scholarship rides.
F. Divorced GT female- she's really smart but I think her deadbeat husband probably took her for a ride. Had a kid that's needy. I'll count this as no.
G. Divorced & remarried GT male- owns own multi-national business. He's either putting up a good show & he's broke or he's got a pile. I say he's got the pile despite paying some alimony from an earlier bad decision & now kid with 2nd wife.
H. Retired GT male- could be a closet millionaire but 2 divorces and some health issues would say not likely.
I. Retired military GT male- wife's high maintenance. He's got some money but not 7 figures worth probably.

That's 8 of 10 from a pool of guys with exception of the first 2 did not have spectacular grades or were particularly brilliant. In fact 2 on this list got kicked out of GT (one got kicked out twice) at one point & came back on academic contract. Heck I forgot about 2.05 GPA timeshare dude that's probably the wealthiest of all. I'm guessing if I kept going down the list the percentages would be about the same. If you surmise that half the GT grads are over 50, that would put the percentage at around 40%. The 50% seems reasonable to me & that's carrying the youngsters that haven't had time to amass their wealth yet as they're buying houses, raising kids, etc.

It sounds elitist to say so, so I have been trying to figure out how to say it, but I honestly don't know any GT grads who aren't millionaires. I'm > 40 years old and still keep up with a couple dozen friends from college. They're all millionaires. But honestly and truly, anybody with a college education in something worthwhile that watches their money should be able to get there in there 40s.

 

[Skeptic]

Actually you said 2 things that I disagreed with.
1) How can 20% of GT grads be millionaires.
2) You need to be given money in order to become wealthy.

Both can easily be explained with simple math. All you have to do is not be the typical American that lives beyond your means. It helps even more to be a GT grad, because odds are you are making well into six figures every year. And, GT grads are known for being rational thinkers and reasonable people. It wasn't very long ago that the average value of a millionaire's home was $300,000...that stat reflects the fact that most millionaires got that way by working hard and saving their money. The only reason I suspect the GT number is not higher than 20% is because we just recently started expanding the school size, so I suspect a large number of grads are still under 35 years of age.

My complaint about #2 was because most of the people that I hear state that you can't make your own way in life think the way of the snowflakes. So if that doesn't apply to you, then just ignore it. But saying you can't get wealthy unless someone else gives you a lot of money to get started is defied by more data and evidence than is worth spending time replying to.

I agree. So let's end it, to the immense relief of the board. But as a point, I never said you can;'t get wealthy unless it is given to you. Not even close. Now, onward. And at least, sideways.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Well you said in order to get wealth a person must be handed wealth first. And you gave an example of Trump and his inheritance. "It takes money to make money." Yes, you said exceptions granted. But the data shows the exceptions to wealthy people are the ones who were just given it originally. If you meant something completely different, I apologize. I am known to make a mistake every so often, just ask my wife.

 

[wrmathis]

I'm close to a couple dozen GT grads mostly in the 40-60yo range and although I don't know their specifics I'm going to guess at the net worth of the 10 I know best:
A. Married GT couple- 50yo, multi millionaires. Huge house, wife a neurosurgeon or something like that, husband a brilliant computer geek type. No kids.
B. Single GT male- higher up government exec in high priced housing area. Probably sitting on $800k of house. No kids. Definitely a millionaire.
C. Married GT male- bought a shack off campus after grad which is now probably worth $300k. Wife added a house, both professionals. Most likely net worth over $1M. No kids.
D. Married GT male, PhD- house is nearly paid off & lives in area where houses average $900k. Both drive 10-15yo cars. They got some money. Definitely millionaires. No kids.
E. GT male married a Dookie- he retired at 52 from government service. She still works. Same house for 40 years. They travel around the world on a whim. Definitely millionaires and you would never guess it outside of their travels. 3 kids, 3 scholarship rides.
F. Divorced GT female- she's really smart but I think her deadbeat husband probably took her for a ride. Had a kid that's needy. I'll count this as no.
G. Divorced & remarried GT male- owns own multi-national business. He's either putting up a good show & he's broke or he's got a pile. I say he's got the pile despite paying some alimony from an earlier bad decision & now kid with 2nd wife.
H. Retired GT male- could be a closet millionaire but 2 divorces and some health issues would say not likely.
I. Retired military GT male- wife's high maintenance. He's got some money but not 7 figures worth probably.

That's 8 of 10 from a pool of guys with exception of the first 2 did not have spectacular grades or were particularly brilliant. In fact 2 on this list got kicked out of GT (one got kicked out twice) at one point & came back on academic contract. Heck I forgot about 2.05 GPA timeshare dude that's probably the wealthiest of all. I'm guessing if I kept going down the list the percentages would be about the same. If you surmise that half the GT grads are over 50, that would put the percentage at around 40%. The 50% seems reasonable to me & that's carrying the youngsters that haven't had time to amass their wealth yet as they're buying houses, raising kids, etc.

Sounds like its best to not have kids

 

[smathis30]

admissions spent the year trying to update the 1 in 6 number so I'm guessing they came up with 1 in 5. Of the millionaires, 1 in 3 were CS majors so I'm interested to see if we will see that statistic get updates too. For reference, It's always taking net assets into account, which basically means anyone in the verge of retirement qualifies. National average is 1 in 30 (10.4 million) and national average for college grads is 1:12 (8 million millionaires, ~104 million college grads)

 

[augustabuzz]

Sounds like its best to not have kids

Or get divorced.

 

[northgajacket]

Or get divorced.

Or married

 

[CHE90]

Only approx. three months away from the start of the season.

I read "Only approx. three months away..." and i thought you were going to say "from becoming a millionaire!" Now that would have been funny.

 

[northgajacket]

I read "Only approx. three months away..." and i thought you were going to say "from becoming a millionaire!" Now that would have been funny.

I wish that was the case.

 

[CHE90]

I'm actually surprised it's not more than 1 in 6. What Liberty and Bwelbo have posted is spot on. Keep in mind that $1mm net worth doesn't mean what it did in the 1980's, but between real estate, 401k's (profit sharing), stock options, savings and brokerage accounts, it doesn't take much to accumulate that kind of wealth. For a Tech grad, I think the percentage of millionaires should be much higher. I forget who said it in an earlier post but there are probably plenty of millionaires who are your neighbors living in a pretty modest middle class neighborhood. Not everyone flaunts their wealth with McMansions and fancy cars.

 

[smathis30]

Tech's ratio of grads to millionaries is 6x the national average for all americans and 2x the national average for college graduates. I'd say thats hella good.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Both can easily be explained with simple math. All you have to do is not be the typical American that lives beyond your means. It helps even more to be a GT grad, because odds are you are making well into six figures every year. And, GT grads are known for being rational thinkers and reasonable people and extremely tight with their money (hence the issue with low relative donation to GTAA and part of the reason we have difficulty competing with the biguns).

FIFY.

 

[MidtownJacket]

Granted we don't have kids yet, but my wife and I (both GT grads and in early 30s) are knocking on the door, and should be above the 7 figure mark before we turn 35.

That said, most of our friends (not GT grads but white collar workers) are in the same ball park. They mostly have law or other graduate degrees, but are on par or even outpacing us. I think it has already been said but it is more about managing money well than making huge sums for the majority of people.

Where GT excels though IMHO is enabling you to do both. A degree from GT teaches / demands discipline. That enables the responsible management of $$ and the education sets us up to go high in corporate jobs, or start our own thing. The brand value of our degrees gives us better starting opportunities than most and from there it is about hard work or smart work (both of which you need to have made it through GT).

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Granted we don't have kids yet, but my wife and I (both GT grads and in early 30s) are knocking on the door, and should be above the 7 figure mark before we turn 35.

That said, most of our friends (not GT grads but white collar workers) are in the same ball park. They mostly have law or other graduate degrees, but are on par or even outpacing us. I think it has already been said but it is more about managing money well than making huge sums for the majority of people.

Where GT excels though IMHO is enabling you to do both. A degree from GT teaches / demands discipline. That enables the responsible management of $$ and the education sets us up to go high in corporate jobs, or start our own thing. The brand value of our degrees gives us better starting opportunities than most and from there it is about hard work or smart work (both of which you need to have made it through GT).

Especially since so many other schools like Notre Dame copy our 'its a 40 year decision' mantra towards recruits, and especially because of our graduates' success like you just highlighted, we need to start saying its a 25 year decision. Because Tech grads are so successful, you'll be able to retire if you want to in your late 40s. Don't go to Notre Dame or somewhere like that where they advertise publicly that you'll have to work for 40 years.