i did and it was exactly how i described. easier to socialize, no need for car, and frankly, healthier bc i was walking everywhere!

Really depends on the campus, the dorm, and the individual’s personality. I liked dorm life, because everything was convenient and I could retreat to my dorm room when I wanted to get away from people. My brother preferred apartment life, where he could cook and grill and have people over. My brother’s children are in college now; one loves apartment life, one loves dorm life, and one is threatening to move home where he doesn’t have to share living space with other teenagers.

Unless dorm life is awful, I’d take the less expensive housing option.

Did you live on campus in college, or even go to college?

I wouldn't recommend trying to pick your own stocks. You should buy a total market index fund or ETF. The next Amazon probably won't be Amazon, and you'll have a better chance of owning some of it if you own the entire market.

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I-bonds with a high fixed rate were available years ago. Those would be good to have now and in the future. Today's I-bonds have a very low fixed rate. If and when inflation goes back to normal you'll have a fairly low-yielding bond with a very small premium over inflation. Any guaranteed return over inflation is desirable, but I think you need to put some of your capital at risk to earn better returns if you want to fund a retirement. That means stock markets, other parts of the bond market, etc. I think for people who have not or don't want to put the time in to learn all this stuff, the best way to save for retirement is in a tax-advantanged account like an IRA, RothIRA, 401k, etc., using a retirement target-date index fund. Those funds take appropriate risk for your age and reduce risk as you get closer to retirement. Start there.

You can be completely independent with a nice car after you graduate. Concentrate on school now, you have the rest of your life to stress over finances when you get out. That is my opinion as someone who has paid for both college and an apartment while in school. I basically had to get a full time job while in school. It worked out but I was lucky and would have liked to experience college life without working full time or worrying about how to pay for everything.

Good to know. I’ll be sure to make her aware of this!

Definitely a lesson for the future. Hopefully my aunt will call me before she signs next time!

Yep, and to get the value out of the service contract, she’ll need to make them aware of the contract. Don’t assume they’ll figure it out on their own and apply it correctly.

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Yes, 84 months. I assume this means she needs to bring in her car to a Honda dealership for servicing/maintenance (didn’t realize there was a difference between these two). I’m betting she’s not aware of this. Thanks for bringing it to my attention

I did two years of dorms and two years of living off campus and honestly both had their perks. In your situation I’d absolutely go with the dorm route because I found dorms were more convenient and conducive for school and it’s easy to just go to a friends apartment off campus when you wanted to have fun or hang out. Have a brand new car for free is also a major perk and financially puts you ahead with not having to worry about car payments and access to kore jobs after college.

It's better to take all the money intended for retirement and treat it as one portfolio.

Then set an acceptable asset allocation commensurate with your risk.

If your asset allocation calls for a cash allocation, then sure, perhaps Series I fulfills this purpose.

But it does not sound like you have decided on an asset allocation yet and have more reading to do.

Goes back to giving the money a defined purpose and timeframe.

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YMMV but I've got extra $$ in a HYSA making 3.5% and I plan on moving $10k to I-bonds the first week in January as I'm maxxed of for 2022. The rates may drop again in May, but I'm betting they will still be higher than HYSA yields.

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Here’s a general timeline for I-bonds to help you:

If you buy I-bonds, you cannot withdraw the money for 1 year.

After 1 year you can withdraw your money, but you forfeit 3 months of earned interest.

After 5 years, you can withdraw the full amount without having to pay the 3 month interest penalty.

General info: the rate does change every 6 months to adjust for inflation. And each individual can only buy $10k in i-bonds per calendar year. There are some tricks to buying more beyond the $10k limit through tax returns, or through children, or an LLC (if you have those options) but hopefully someone more knowledgeable on that can comment more.

> are we better off sticking with a consistent savings+interest

Nothing about your savings account is consistent, just last year you would have struggled to find anything above 0.5%. Your future savings account rate is just as temporary and unknown.

> I was planning on leaving them for the full 30 years, but it seems like people who understand this stuff far better than I do choose to take them out at 5 years?

Generally speaking, inflation has not been very high in the US. The last period of high inflation was the 1970s. The last decade of historically low interest rates has been driven by the federal reserve struggling to get inflation to reach 2%, and failing.

The general expectation is that there will not be long term high inflation in the US, basically nobody expects there to be. In that kind of environment, holding I bonds for the long term would be a poor choice, and so nobody is really planning on doing so.

Luckily, you can choose to redeem whenever you want (at least, after 1 year), so at any time between now and 30 years you can adjust your strategy.

You should decide on the purpose of the money and the timeframe.

If the use is within 12 months, Series I Bonds are inappropriate as the money is not accessible.

If the money is for use in 30 years, you really should consider investing in total market index funds.

Define the purpose.

Define the timeframe.

Give the money a purpose.

The Honda service contracts are a pain to work with… whe she wants an oil change, etc she has to ask for exactly the right service otherwise it won’t get applied. Sounds like they loaded her with every upsell they could think of and then she financed it, I’m guessing for 84 months?

She got screwed. Only way I’ll buy a new car these days is directly off the delivery truck: no dealer tint, add ons, no extra anything.

You may find these links helpful:

• US Treasury Savings Bonds
• "How to handle $"

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Take the dorm deal - then you can go to the party apartment and not have to clean up because you live there, you can clean up because you're a good friend

She got taken advantage of sadly :(

This is absolutely not an appropriate cost for the car she purchased.

Dealerships add bunch of random extra crap: add ons, questionable(usually unnecessary) warranties, service packages etc, to the sale of the car, thus inflating the price of the car. Then they tack on the APR on top of all this stuff they added. You really have to go through the list one by one to see what you are buying otherwise they will easily rob thousands of dollars off of you.

I hope this will help you make informed decision in the future in case you find yourself in the market for a new car. Dealership people are not your friend.

As someone who lived on campus her entire time at university - take the car. It’s not as bad as people make it out to be.

I’m also super introverted and was focused on academics more than anything else, and still enjoyed living on campus. The convenience is so incredible.