...or own rental properties from earlier in your life and marry a medical doctor who can provide financial stability while you make a large financial investment such as post-secondary education (which I want to mention not only carries a discreet financial cost but also many opportunity costs) when you are middle-aged.
Not pickin' on ya, TwoFingers, but your reductionist answers often totally ignore social and economic structures at both micro and macro levels. That's not some form of learned helplessness or justification for the po' to stay po'. It's just a general reality of our social world. Luckily in America, we can overcome these structures (although perhaps not as easily as we can in certain European countries), but to pretend it's simple is just not inline with reality. Again, I urge you to register for a sociology course beyond Soc. 101 if you still have electives.
For the record, I purposefully remained unencumbered throughout my young adult life to gain as much education as I can. There have been a lot of sacrifices (i.e., opportunity costs) along the way. But the reality is we all succumb to a certain amount of bounded rationality. What is an otherwise sound financial/career decision at 25 may not be so much at 45, because the world has changed. At that point in time, you need to adapt but adapting ain't always so easy.
1) I said simple, not easy. They are two different things (to me). Simple implies that the choice is obvious. You know what you need to do. Doing it is another matter.
2) I married a medical STUDENT. She is now a doctor. We are still paying on here $110K college loans from two universities. I was financially fine when I met her. Could have sold a business and gone back to school if I never had.
3) I bought my first rental property at 27 years old. I lived in an apartment that was not as nice as the house I was renting out. Banks didn't have a problem back then loaning me $35K to buy a house that had a good rental track record of paying more than twice the mortgage payment. Do that a half dozen times and BOOM, yer a real estate MOGUL! Ha! I have always driven old cars and worn old/cheap clothes. While my musician buddies were buying beer and weed, I was buying beer and houses/stocks. They worked Friday and Saturday (maybe another night here and there) and I worked usually full-time jobs during the week, taught lessons at night, and started side projects to play on off nights. I burned it at both ends for a couple of decades. (Wonder why my first marriage didn't work out. Hmmmmmm.
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4) Given the guy's dad's condition and age, he's absolutely correct. Moving would be a bad idea. However, my grandmother was in school until she was 75. She had long retired but was still taking nursing courses just to keep up with what was going on in her field. So there is no reason why the dad couldn't learn a new trade, even at 62. He could even learn one that wasn't so hard on his body. My father (also 62) does tax returns for extra money. He learned how in a few weekend courses. Perhaps that, and maybe working behind the counter at a paint store would pay enough and not beat him up. My POINT is, everybody seems to act as though things are HOPELESS! There's NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE! Oh woah is me!!!! If the dad is 62, he's been around the block a few times. Just simply saying "His pay sucks. His health is bad. His mom is bad off. And the real estate market is awful. There must be ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to make things better. It's OVER!" is a really sad way to see it.
I'm sure you guys think that somehow I got it made. Somehow I'm not telling the whole story. At some point I inherited a gagillion dollars. I married into money. Nope. I just never approached a brick wall or roadblock with the attitude of "Oh well. Can't go this way. Somebody put this here to stop me so I'll either turn back or stay right here." I went at it with "Hmmmmm. How do I get OVER or AROUND this thing? I don't give a crap who put it here, but it's in my way and it's gotta go!" (This is the same way I am approaching college algebra, even though I SUCK at it. What a useless bunch of bouncing numbers off of each other.) By the way, in case I have given anyone here the impression that I am filthy rich, that is not the case. Far from it. (Oh, but I will be before it's all over.)
Anyway. You guys did it. You dragged me back in here after I said I was done. I guess the thing that bothers me is that so many in this country today just seem so DEFEATED. So down. So helpless. And the problem is that they aren't. They are just either CONVINCED that there is no use in trying, or uncomfortable with what comes right AFTER they decide to try.
I'm not brilliant. I'm not special. I'm not mean or greedy. I'm just not giving up so easy. I'm just not throwing in the towel. I cut up the towel and ate it long ago. Throwing it in is no longer an option. Sounds like a cheesy "self help guru" line of BS. But I guess if you remove the safety net, you pretty much have to catch the trapeze when it comes by, right?
Either way, I truly hope everything works out fine with the dad and family mentioned here. Sorry things are tough. I don't have all the answers. but I don't give up if the answers don't land in my lap either.
Here's a tip for you guys (speaking of self help gurus). Check out Bryan Tracey. Learning his ways of staying motivated and using time wisely (Two Fingers says as he should be doing homework right now) will change your life.
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