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There's a thread over on an Early Retirement site I frequent. Posters are putting up their thoughts about paying for their Children's College Education. I'm shocked, Shocked I say, at the unbridled greed displayed by some of those parents towards their children.....it's almost as if the Kids were a burden to them after High School.
Phrases like "I paid for my College. My Kids can do the same" Your College costs were minuscule compared to what even a State School is getting today !! One poster said "I offered to pay for 2 years Junior College. My Son can pay for the rest of it" Two years of JuCo is the current equivalent of the old HS diploma. Try getting any kid of job with that GED certificate.
If you're not ready and willing to give your Kids the advantage of a College Education.....you are NOT ready to Retire Early.
That's one point of view. Retiring early is a complicated decision involving finances, health, social and mental states, how your mind perceives onset of other illness e.g. forgetting things is being interpreted as early sign for alz etc. Various pain and aches in different body parts with repetitive motions at works contribute to negative quality of life.
College education funding is a small portion in this equation. I believe people consider all factors before deciding.
There's a thread over on an Early Retirement site I frequent. Posters are putting up their thoughts about paying for their Children's College Education. I'm shocked, Shocked I say, at the unbridled greed displayed by some of those parents towards their children.....it's almost as if the Kids were a burden to them after High School.
Phrases like "I paid for my College. My Kids can do the same" Your College costs were minuscule compared to what even a State School is getting today !! One poster said "I offered to pay for 2 years Junior College. My Son can pay for the rest of it" Two years of JuCo is the current equivalent of the old HS diploma. Try getting any kid of job with that GED certificate.
If you're not ready and willing to give your Kids the advantage of a College Education.....you are NOT ready to Retire Early.
I know of financial planners that have told their clients to saddle their kids with college loans and put their money into the parents retirement accounts instead. And these were parents who could afford to pay for their kids education. Height of selfishness to me.
And there are individuals in that thread that set aside hundreds of thousands for their child's secondary education. Just different schools of thought and not necessarily anything to do with early retirement.
So whats your problem with parents giving their kids 1 or 2 years paid and then the kids take a loan for the rest?
Because College Loans have usury Interest Rates and some kids never dig their way out of debt because of it. If you want to cheap out on the last 2 years, that's your own version of Parenting.
I said some of the posters were begrudging their kid's futures....not all of them. I started saving for my Daughter's College the year she was born. Monthly Payroll Deductions, rather painless really. We may have had to skip a Caribbean Cruise along the way but it was the best $80K we ever spent -- today she has an MBA and is Director of Marketing.
My Original Opinion still stands. If you haven't accounted for your children's college -- you're not really a candidate to Retire Early.
I'm 32 and went to college at the regional state university nearby. When I started at 18 in the fall of 2004, the "all-in annual cost," sans room/board/meals, was roughly $5,000. That's nearly $10,000 today. The state flagship is considerably more expensive than that.
You can fairly easily run up a six figure "sticker price" education at a public university without room and board, and with no financial aid.
Oh, and unless you're majoring in STEM or something that leads directly into the workforce like nursing or education, that education is probably not going to be worth it for many years after graduation. I graduated into the recession, but it took for four years for me to find a job for which my degree was a benefit. It took another year or two to make the student loan debt (around $9,000) and opportunity cost worthwhile for where the degree was a positive ROI.
There are also tons of horror stories out there about underfunded retirements. You've got to take care of yourself first.
I'm not saying that parents shouldn't prepare for kids' college educations but they do have to also tend to their own futures & find a balance that might involve the kids working and/or taking out loans or attending lower cost colleges. Especially true for multiple children, they will have a longer time to pay off debts compared to parents.
If the kids are unable to get scholarships they need to apply for grants & consider less than Ivy League or perhaps join the military for schooling. Putting mom & dad in the poorhouse because they are unwilling to consider any of these is irrational & unfair just as mom & dad not agreeing to help at all is unfair.
And yes, I worked my way through university & I understand that it is much more difficult now to do, but this is the age that kids need to start putting some skin in the game.
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