Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

[Tree0164]

I was listening to talk radio yesterday to one of my fave finanical shows. They had a caller who owned a primary house, 2 investment properties, had money in cds, mutual funds of atleast $500,000. So in otherwords well off. They were in the mid 40s with 2 children in their teens.

The call was where to invest some money to help with college savings.

The advice was you can afford to pay for 4 years of state college but not private. Take 80,000 of non retirement money and put it in a 529 plan. If they want to go to private, it is up to them to pay for the difference with scholarships, grants and loans. For someone of their means, I think that it is good plan. However hubby thought wow they are rich they should offer to pay as much as they can to private or state school. They could probably sell one of their investment properties.

Now personally I don't even know if I could foot the bill for 4 years of state college for my 3 boys (all under 6 yr) but I am putting $50 a month each away from them so they will have something to go to the school with. I will not take a home equity loan but will try to help them as much as I can when the time comes. Hubby thinks that we should bend over backwards. We were both lucky in that our parents both helped us go to state college and neither one of us have any loans. But I think that it is different world today and even more in 10-15 years.

Thoughts

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

Personaly I don't have a degree and niether has my husband, not due to any parental financial troubles. He just couldn't make up his mind on what he wanted to do, and I couldn't quit thinking teaching was a lot more important than learning at what average age a kid does X. So he spen 8 years using up his parents money and I spent 2 teaching.

Also my father with his 2 year certificate makes more than my mother with her masters, somehow I think college is very over rated. Oh and we wont go looking at my FIL or MIL's income, they way beat all but my lawyer uncles income on the degreed side.

Now for my kids we take half of all monetary gifts after age 2 (he just hit that, some went in earlier) and put it away for college. Or more. My husbands family is very generous (they would bail us out if we asked) and he should have a large amount by the time he hits that age, but I don't guarantee he will use it for college any more than I did (I bought a car with mine, a neccessary car, course then I totaled it , not so good). Anyway I do not bend over backwards for my kids, they appriciate more what they earn. That doesn't mean I'd go the other way and refuse any help though.

[vendigirl]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

We are planning (and saving) to help our kids with their education. I'm not sure I want to pay for all of it, but my Dh does. He had all of his education paid for where I did not and had a 30K student loan to prove it. I believe that the kids should put in some money for their education but I don't want to see them in debt like I was. It just seems to me that they might appreciate the opportunity a little more if they have to work for it.

[crosses]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

I paid for most of my children's college expenses. They were responsible for thier spending money and had to get jobs for that. They went to state schools so the expenses were not the same a a private college.

If they had chosen a private college, then they would have had to take out loans.

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

Hey if all else fails you could get them a cheap degree online, like these guys did for their cat

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/07/bogus.degrees.lawsuit.ap/index.html

I'm sorry I don't know how to turn that into a cute "click here" thing.

[PennyPincher]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

I don't have children yet, so I'm certainly not one to contribute much advice. However, I did set up an account at www.upromise.com to start saving money for the future. For those of you who are not familiar with it, you earn money for certain purchases, and it is put into an account for a child's education. Many stores offer 'rebates' for this program, and hundreds of grocery items pay back too. All you do is register your credit cards and grocery cards, and watch the pennies add up. The money is automatically credited to your account within weeks. Here are just a few of the brands and companies that offer percentages back ~ anywhere from 1%-6%: Tylenol, Coca-cola, Minute Maid, Enfamil, Tide, Bed Bath & Beyond, Exxon, Mobil, Barnes & Noble, Overstock.com, RedEnvelope.com, etc. Friends and families can help you save too! Check it out... Every bit will help.

[DivaJen]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

We're planning on paying for some or all of DD's college expenses and have started saving already. My parents paid tuition, rent, food and books for me, plus a little extra here and there if I recall correctly - anything else (i.e. fun money) was up to me to earn. I tutored to make extra money. I'm very glad I didn't have to start my professional life saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

Our home will be nearly paid off by the time DD is college age, so one idea we've tossed around is to pay off early (if we can) and then use that money to help with tuition costs. Another idea is for me to return to work, knowing that that money will go towards her education (though not any time soon, as we're homeschooling).

Personally, I think that if kids are raised with a healthy respect for the value of money, it is possible to pay for their education and still have them come out on the other side as financially responsible adults. At least, it worked for me.

[akaivyleaf]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

My private school education was completely funded from Kindergarten through my undergraduate degree. Being the snobbish brat I was then, I wasn't as appreciative as I came to be when the cold hard world slapped me around a few times. I did go back and repent for my resplendent spending on momma's credit card throughout college. I decided to pursue a master's and doctorate and paid for these endeavors on my own and the feeling is different working for and paying for it on my own. I don't have children, but I would insist that they contribute financially to their post secondary education. I'll help them out early in life with a savings plan and regular contributions but as they mature, they must add to the fund too.

[terry1156]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/07/bogus.degrees.lawsuit.ap/index.html

I'm sorry I don't know how to turn that into a cute "click here" thing.

[ url = (the url) ]Click Here [/ url ] with no spaces (if I didn't put in the spaces then it would try to make it into the link)

<A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/07/bogus.degrees.lawsuit.ap/index.html">Click Here</A>

[amomof4]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

At one time, I was making about $100,000 a year, yet I only went through the 9th grade. Most of the people at my church only go through the 8th grade, yet none have never been on public services. Usually, the fathers teach their sons a trade and the child eventually starts their own business. None of the wives work outside the home. Some of them might live below proverty (financially speaking) but none of them look or act like it because of their frugal lifestyles.

Are we going to pay for our children's college? It depends.

[zakity]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

I am telling my three boys that we are not paying for college and they will have to pay for it themselves. I have an 8 yr old and twins who are 6, so three kids in two years will make it difficult to pay for all of it for them. We do plan on helping a little, but we don't want them to know it.

[henrybemis]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

Private schools are incredibly overrated. There are hundreds of state schools that are excellent and worth the money spent and usually have far better resources than private schools. It's funny I haven't heard one parent say we are going to try to get our kids to be the best academically successful kids we possibly can so we can go for scholarships and grants. This is the real starting point for every thrifty parent.

1. Nurture academic excellence and achievement. Just getting by just doesn't cut it. Help them develop excellent study skills, a love of learning, an ample amount of critical thinking skills, a love of math and science, a habit of industriousness and resourcefullness.
2. Start saving for their education the second you see baby's little fluid body parts on the ultrasound at your doctor's office.
3. Search out the best State University educations in the country.

That's it.
HB.

[asrai]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

We want to pay for as much stuff as we can for DD's college. My cousin who is 4 years younger than me cannot get a student loan becuase her parent's make too much and she made too much at her summer job. So, they are screwed, because they never saved anything for her.

One thing that people are pushing now is AP classes some which qualify as college courses.

[terry1156]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

Another option is to have the kids go to a junior college for 2 years and then transfer to the college of thier choice. They still get the degree from the college they want usually at a fraction of the price. Most of the first 2 years in college are taking basic courses that are available at any community college.

[njw9272]

Re: Are you planning to help your kids go to college?

At one point we had three in college; two of our children and me. I went back at 40 to get a degree in BA. Did we pay? Yes, for most of it. We funded them to get started, we paid for things their grants and loans wouldn't. Our son spent $10,000 in one year at a college away from home - he partied all the time and got seriously bad grades. His Dad yanked him home, had a talk, and he went to the tech college next fall - helping to pay for extras with a part-time job. Grades were much,much better, and he will tell you that paying for some of it made him realize he'd better be serious. We paid for our daughter's education (two + years) until she decided she had to get married; they got loans after that.