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My successor is doing just that. He intends to put in at least ten years in the public agency from which I retired to pay off his law school loans. (He is not working as a lawyer, but the legal background is a benefit to the position.)
Am I the only one?! I feel like it. I come across sooo many people who were lucky enough for their parents to pay for college. My loans have increased $12,000 in interest since the 8 years I’ve been out of college. It just sucks....
Most students today get some sort of loans/grants. If you went to some small, private school full of rich kids maybe that was true for your particular school. It is not the norm else where.
Additionally, without putting this into perspective by time, you are going to elicit a huge number of "well I worked my way through college" responses from people who went to school in the 70s or 80s when that was actually financially possible. It is not longer the case.
Mine have all graduated in the last 5 years, most of them carry between $30-50K in loans for their undergraduate degrees. As for the interest, even if you are underemployed you should be paying at least the interest on those loans. My daughter is a lowly grad student and while she is not required to pay anything towards her loans while she is in grad school she is paying the interest which is less than $100 a month.
Do you have some sort of massive (more than $100K) debt load that you cannot pay at least the interest?
Have less kids? I wouldn’t have three if I could not afford them. My mom had way to many herself. Yes kids cost money but everyone knows that. I am only going to have as many as i can afford and save money for them. 18 yrs to prepare. no excuses.
I would have six kids if i could. I just love kids. But if I had that many and couldn’t afford them that would be sooo selfish. Or to me it would be. sure having three kids sounds great but you have to think about money. If you don’t have enough then you are just having kids for yourself to be entertained but not thinking about the kids needs.
Obviously if I said I had three kids and I paid for most of the college, I guess I could afford three children. I did take care of their needs. They always had everything they needed and most of what they wanted within reason.
YOU said one has 18 years to prepare, I said it is not that easy. I tell parents all the time--it works out in the end. And sometimes even if you think you are prepared, you can be thrown a curveball and there are other expenses--such as medical expenses. We certainly had that--and it all worked out.
Parenting--it is the best job I ever had. Don't think you can be totally prepared...
My parents ended up with twice as many kids as they planned for. Their target number was two kids. They had me, and planned a second pregnancy when I was a little over a year old. Only that resulted in twins. When I was five, they had an unplanned pregnancy, so by six, I had a sister as well as twin brothers.
They ran a small, mom n' pop business in a rural area, and the type of savings necessary to foot four years of tuition for four children six years apart in age simply wasn't realistic. So we had to explore other funding channels. It's life. I don't have any anger whatsoever toward my parents. They did their best and were and are excellent parents. They also assisted and supported all of us in finding alternate routes, and none of us have been ruined by educational debt.
I'm sorry your parents didnt pay. I'd be upset about it too. mine didnt save anything for me or my siblings. i wish they had of. I'm trying to get into college now but its hard. Money is the main problem. early in life I had to get a job, even before i finished high school. I'm stuck in the trap of working in fast food. I'm trying to go to school but its a lot working full time. i know its possible to go to school and work full time but i wish i woul have had the opportunity to go away to school out of high school and get a degree. i wanted to but there was just no money. at the time i couldnt afford classes because i was the only one working supporting a family. its tough.
I don't have kids yet, but i badly want them. I would have a baby tomorrow, if I could and if i was in the right situation. but one thing I promised myself & my future kids was if I had any, I'm paying for their education. i just dont think it's right for a parent not to. How can you have kids and just not take care of them? Or help at all? you have 18 yrs to prepare. And if you can't come up with money for their education and you know this then honestly? dont have kids. if you do, your just having them for selfish reasons. they are alive only to make you happy. Later on they are going to need help with money and having an education is the best way to a better life... if you cant offer that then why have kids??
sorry i have a lot of thoughts on this but I work in fast food and Im trying to go to school now and I would kill for a chance to go to school full time without loans but it probably wont happen. Im still going to try. But if i ever have kids then they will have a better chance then i got. I will definitely pay for their education.
As you know, I care about you and always want the best for you. But, I did want to point out that even in loving families, who care very deeply about their children, being able to pay for all, or most, of college just may not work out. It isn't as simple as "you have 18 years to save the money".
In our case, we paid for several years of private school, elementary & middle school, to enhance their skills. The costs for our son (three years) and our daughter (eight years) totaled over $50,000 (in today's money). In addition, there were a number of extra-curricular activities, language immersion camp, international relations fellowship, etc. that greatly increased their skills, as well as their chances of getting into better Universities, these were spread over a number of years but probably added up to about $40,000.
Our children attended top ranked public Universities, they paid in-state tuition and the total costs (in today's money for attending four years was approximately $240,000 total (in today's money). BTW, never was able to make it out in four years so that added even more expenses.
So, with only two children, if we had paid their educational expenses in full, that would have been $330,000. Spread over 18 years that would have been saving almost $20,000 a year. Can you imagine having an extra $20,000 a year left over after you paid all of your own expenses of food, housing, utilities, cars, insurance, medical costs, etc. etc.? Not every families can do that.
Then you throw in a few monkey wrenches, such as job loss, or illness and it becomes even harder. We would have loved to pay for our children's full college expenses, but my husband/their father developed several serious health issues, including cancer, and was off of work for some time. And, later, he developed even more serious health issues (early onset dementia and the a traumatic brain injury due to a fall). Ditto, with me, I developed a serious health issue that meant that I was forced to retire early.
Upsadaisy, I'm just pointing out that it isn't always easy for parents to start saving for their children's college expenses. Heck, Hubby and I were still paying off our substantial college & graduate school loans when our first child was born. And, we needed to get those paid off before we could even think about our children's college expenses.
Most parents do the very best that they can manage under their individual circumstances.
Last edited by germaine2626; 05-18-2018 at 04:08 PM..
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626
As you know, I care about you and always want the best for you. [b]But, I did want to point out that even in loving families, who care very deeply about their children, being able to pay for all, or most, of college just may not work out.
It isn't as simple as "you have 18 years to save the money".
...
Then you throw in a few monkey wrenches, such as job loss, or illness and it becomes even harder. We would have loved to pay for our children's full college expenses, but my husband/their father developed several serious health issues, including cancer, and was off of work for some time. And, later, he developed even more serious health issues (early onset dementia and the a traumatic brain injury due to a fall). Ditto, with me, I developed a serious health issue that meant that I was forced to retire early.
....
Most parents do the very best that they can manage under their individual circumstances.
good points, as life does happen to parents and kids.
Especially the above noted physical impairments to work, business failures, property loss, economic crashes, liability claims, parent having to pay for their own retraining due to being laid off, eldercare, sibling disabilities...
So... since many parents are responding.... how about those ideas that many parents used to enable their kids to save /be expected and equipped to pay /earn / get sponsored for their own college expenses:
Just a few that my peers used. These cost far less than ‘paid tuition’), often very little financial cost to parents, and great benefit to kids,
Farming / 4-H... farm kids have been been raising and selling livestock for family income since before age 10, very possible to have accumulated $20k - $50k by age 18.
Real estate investments; several friends helped their college kids buy income real estate to manage and live during college (my own kid roomed with a student who bought a 4 plex, as a freshman and another as a junior, he got $3000 positive cash flows / month (each were 4 bedroom). After college he sold and made enough profit for 2 yrs overseas + 100% paid for grad school. Benefit* rental management and wealth building is a good life skill to learn while in college.
Business partnerships, as homeschoolers 30% of peers started / ran business enterprises as homeschoolers, usually @ college age... sold to a sibling, but sometime sold for profit. Sometimes turned over to a manager, and earnings fed the college kid and paid for college.
Skilled employment; 4 kids I know today are serving apprenticeships in the skilled trades. They make $40 - $60k during 4 yr apprenticeship. With journeyman papers they can make $50/ hr + working PT nights and weekends during college. The day they graduate... they have 2 careers to choose from plus 4 -6 yrs working experience.
Family business, many parents /grandparents who own companies will have the company sponsor the kids education in exchange for services.
Military, still a great option for hundreds of thousands / yr. = potentially valuable employment experience+Discipline+ responsibility + leadership skills.
Find employers who will help pay for college (mine paid for 5 of my degrees) Sharp minded coworkers got grad and PhD fellowships (full wages plus, stipend + free college (usually at Stanford, for my company (founded there))
Entrepreneur opportunities... eBay (BIL makes $60k doing eBay) SIL makes $20k using Etsy only working Saturdays
Public service / humanitarian aid. As above posts... you can serve time to repay loans. My MD did his time on a NA reservation.... he learned a lot! About life and Dr-ing
High risk gigs, My tenant went to Iraqs as a contractor and made $200k / yr. he used just a drop of 6 yrs income to fund his college.
Smart / high risk / reward... my manager went to the CBOT trading desk for a summer and made enough to fund 2 yrs college.
Saving & Investing early. Our kids started Roth IRAs at age 12. Each had $20k+ by college (FAFSA does not consider your IRAs, tho they can be used penalty free for college. )
There are many more options and success stories, let’s hear from those who have equipped thier kids to cover this small step in life.
I told our kids they could go to CC and live at home then transfer to a uni, and i would do all I could to pay for all of it or most of it, or I ould give them $5000 if I was able and they were on their own from there. All of them chose Option B. Our youngest however rather than boring his way through a top tier school, has decided to go to a lower tier school that offered him a full ride (half for academics and half for music). Attending a top tier school is very good but going to college for free is better.
For me I worked my way through college. My parents gave me nothing, but allowed me to live at their house and commute Also my dad helped me fix my $250 car when it broke. I got through and did ok (attended the same lower tier school my son is going to go to for undergrad). although I had to borrow my way through a top 3 law school. things were different back then, you could earn enough for school by working summers, nights and weekends. You could borrow money but then were pretty much guaranteed enough income to pay it back fairly quickly. We did end up buried in debt for a time, but not like kids are now. It is not possible to make enough summers and weekends at minimum wage or near minimum wage with today's costs. It is not hugely different but enough they cannot do it without huge loans or parental help. Mostly it is because wages are lower by comparison than they are now after adjusting. Kids do not make enough to pay off the debt. One big difference now though it interest rates are a fraction of what they were. My loans were at 22 -29% interest. My kids' are at 7%
My parents did not pay for one cent of my multiple degrees. I (and then my husband and me) paid out-of-pocket, took out some loans, and went for and received scholarships. My husband also paid for his own schooling. Neither of us has any student loan debt now.
Our parents told us from early on not to expect them to pay for college. Heck, my mom didn't even want me to go to college, and I wound up going when I was a little older. Without the expectation of parental money, both of us figured out how to pay for school. That included going to cheaper state schools, although 2 of my later degrees were at private universities.
We are doing everything we can to keep the kids from taking out loans. Still living at home, both work and have money stock piled for upper grad. If we have to help we will but they know it may or may not be there so have a backup plan.
As far as I'm concerned loans are a trap.
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These cost far less than ‘paid tuition’), often very little financial cost to parents, and great benefit to kids,
