[mccartygirl]

I do not agree with having your kids take out student loans. I worked 2, sometimes 3 jobs to go to college and a week before I graduated I found out that my mom forged my names on $25,000 worth of college loans. Starting out your adult life owing $10,000, $15,000, $25,000 is not good - you're starting out in debt and a lot of debt at that. I know that you can take 10-20 yrs to pay it back but still, that's a lot of money and when you look at the interest added up, it's unGodly. My child will have her college paid for, she will learn money responsibility before she even goes to college. She will not depend on mommmy and daddy for everything. We will put away into a 529 account and I've signed up at Upromise but the 529 account is basically to pay for books and room/board. We are going to get a Educational IRA that our credit union has and we'll also invest and save. I don't want to put all my money into a 529 account in case she doesn't go to college. I know we can transfer to a sibling but at this point we're not sure on a sibling. I went to college, had no fun because I was constantly working. My mom picked my college and picked my major - I hated the school and the major. I didn't have much of a voice then. My child will work in the summers to pay for her bills while in college but the tuition we will pay for. We have started funds for the various things we will be buying for her when she gets older - car fund, college fund, wedding fund and a savings fund. We take her money she gets now as gifts and put it into a savings account. She's still an infant yet so when she gets older she'll get a %age of her birthday money and such and the other will go into savings. That's just how we've figured it will work for us though. Looking at some of the websites that tell you how much college will cost in 16-17 yrs is scary!