[Joan.of.the.Arch]

My children do not have to go to high school or college. They did not have to go to grade school, either. They are free to direct their own education from within an institution or not. My oldest child just finished high school. He has known all along that if he went to college, we would help him pay for it. We would even try to pay for the whole thing if possible, depending on several factors which would include his needs, his ability to pay for himself, and our ability to pay. He also has known all along that if he wanted to start a business when he was finished with high school (or before if he wanted to persue another route), we would help him as much as we would for college. He is choosing college.

Child #2 may choose a different route that we will support as well. On the other hand, they also know that we are saving for retirement and that we must all be frugal. They are conservative with money and very modest in their needs. They uderstand that the family money supply is finite and that they too have obligatons to the family.

A help in affording college is the fact that there are so many scholarships available these days. When I went to college I had slightly higher SAT & ACT scores than my graduating son has. I got no scholarship offers; yet he has many scholarship offers including "full rides" to his top two choices. Both schools are out of town, so our contribution will go toward living expenses.