Q: our parents grew up in much better world than we did??
A: Let’s see here… Jim Crow, Cold War, MadMen… No, no, I don’t think so. (And for my father: great depression, Nazi bombings…)
Q: what kind of husband is an engineer
A: The best kind
Q: why mr money mustache sucks
A: Because he has a limited viewpoint and his life doesn’t resemble yours? Possibly because you have different values and different circumstances?
Q: why don’t i agree with laura vanderkam
A: Because she has a limited viewpoint and her life doesn’t resemble yours? Possibly you work outside the house for the Man and have a scheduled work environment and your spouse doesn’t make a hefty six-figure salary?
Q: how do people not become miserable in an environment of misery
A: Resilience of spirit?
Q: is tiaa-cref a rip off?
A: not usually
Q: why do people deliberately try to make things hard to understand?
A: Because it makes them seem smarter to people who don’t know any better.
Q: how to live on a 600k inheritance
A: Choice 1: move to my husband’s hometown, buy a small house with a nice plot of land to garden on, learn to can, spend very little money. Choice 2: Keep your dayjob and put that money in a target-date fund or in a mix of stocks and bonds.
Q: monthly allowance for upper-middle class
A: This is going to vary a lot and it’s going to depend on what you use it for. If, for example, all of your eating out budget comes from it, then you’ll need a different amount than if none of your meals come out of it. If you’re just looking for a number, DH has $35/week and gets $350 at each of Christmas and his birthday.
Q: why does my gifted son need so much more sleep
A: Luck? Maybe he’s getting challenged enough. Or maybe he’s growing. Or maybe he’s missing some kind of vitamin.
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
January 30, 2015 at 9:32 am
These are all actually really good questions (as opposed to the hilarious idiocy of previous google roundups)—I’ve asked several of these myself recently (MMM, LV, allowance, TIAA-Cref) but not via google to your blog.
January 30, 2015 at 9:33 am
We swear it’s just random! We put ’em in order, answer them, and grab 10 every other week. Some weeks are more mixed than others.
January 30, 2015 at 9:34 am
though to be completely above-board we did put the MMM and LV questions closer together than they were in the original list because the juxtaposition tickled our senses of humor.
January 31, 2015 at 1:02 am
I think the “gifted” part has nothing to do with how much sleep a child needs. My youngest of three slept 12 hours when she was in kindergarten and first grade. I put her to bed before we ate dinner. She always had leftovers I saved her from the night before. THEN, I had to wake her up 12 or 13 hours later. All her life she has needed more sleep than anyone else. If she does not get enough sleep, she gets fever blisters.
January 31, 2015 at 6:27 am
Research on giftedness and sleep needs disagrees. There is definitely a correlation. As always, individual experiences may not reflect the average.
January 31, 2015 at 5:15 am
I used to enjoy both MMM, LV and GRS. Now they all frustrate me and the number of blogs I enjoy is dwindling. Upside: I started reading this one and my book reading has increased!
January 31, 2015 at 6:25 am
Yay books!
January 31, 2015 at 10:35 am
I read Laura Vanderkam and find some of her advice useful when I’m busy, but I just find the entire every-minute-must-count attitude toward life off-putting. It makes me want to just put my feet up and read a good book.
I was reading her latest post about her new baby who showed up the morning before her scheduled labor induction and I affectionately wondered if this kid is going to be the one who rebels against her schedule-making.
January 31, 2015 at 10:49 am
From comments she’s made on other blogs, the other kids are already rebelling. She doesn’t understand why they just want to stay at home on the weekends.
Now that my husband is working from home, I better understand why she does what she does. It’s precisely because she doesn’t socialize at work or have a regimented work day like the rest of us. If we had 8am-5pm completely unscheduled without much adult interaction, then we would also want more scheduled free time.
It all comes down to diminishing marginal utility.