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"I really don't think finding a way to save up around 50k per child in 18 years is really too much of a sacrifice to ensure your kid has a decent start in life. It's around $2,800/year per child if you saved up from birth. If you can't put that much away a year per child, should you really be reproducing?"
This statement right here reeks more than garbage sitting out on a Texas summer day. Who the hell are you to dictate to others how much they should save (if they choose to save at all) in order to have children? Spoken like a true kid who has had her parents wiping her chin most of her life.
When I started college in 1980, minimum wage was $3.10/hr. and was raised to $3.35/hr in 1981. I went to a Texas public university and in-state tuition was never more than $400/semester. A college student could work 15 hours/week and make $400 in about 8 weeks to pay for a semester of school.
Now, minimum wage is $7.25 per hour (roughly doubled) and average tuition at a Texas two-year college is $1,111 per semester and at a 4-year college, $4,261. A college student working 15/hours per week would now have to work about 39 weeks to pay for a semester (of approximately 13 weeks) at a 4-year university .
That's not even talking about living expenses, but I know that rents have more than doubled since the early 80's.
I understand the value that comes from working hard for something and believe that children should work and pay for some of their education. But wages have NOT kept up with the cost of education. To the extent I can help my daughter go to college and not come out many thousands of dollars in debt, I'm going to.
I don't agree with the OP's premise that you shouldn't have kids unless you can pay for all of their college expenses, but it's IMO it's not fair to say "I did it so they can do it" when the financial reality has changed so much.
This entire point cannot be overstated.
Everytime I hear people say "well I worked my way through college", I wonder if they had enough math to understand the ratio of minimum wage to cost per credit is EXPONENTIALLY different now.
I'm the first person on either side of my family to go to college and nobody paid a dime for me to go. I did a year in community college (with a Pell Grant), then spent 4 years in the Air Force to get the GI Bill, and still had to work a lot and take out about $5K in loans to finish up. I also received zero guidance or mentoring from my parents as they had no clue about college, careers, or corporate America. So I floundered for years out of college, broke, trying to figure it all out.
As for my kids, I don't want them to have to go through that. We're guiding them to get the education they need to be able to get scholarships (music, foreign language, community involvement, etc.) and plan to downsize our house when they're ready for college and use some of the equity for their tuition. But we expect them to work part time in college for their own needs outside of tuition and housing. Not all kids end up appreciating a full ride from parents.
Counting on significant scholarships for the things you listed is naive at best.
from the O.P.'s first post: "only 77% of parents plan to help their kids out with college. "
Only? ONLY? I'm amazed that figure is that high.
Any college professor will tell you that their best, most serious students are either "nontraditional" (academic-speak for "adult") or those kiddies who are footing the bill themselves.
Everytime I hear people say "well I worked my way through college", I wonder if they had enough math to understand the ratio of minimum wage to cost per credit is EXPONENTIALLY different now.
The point for many parents, though, isn't how much the kid contributes, but that they are willing to contribute.
Like I've said before - no kid of mine would receive a dime of assistance from me in college if they weren't working part time and footing part of the bill. Like I said, they need some skin in the game.
a college degree in business is as good as a high school diploma. any less and good luck.
If you're smart, personable, and have ambition, you can succeed without a degree. There's a reason that even today it's optional. My husband is almost at a six figure salary and he didn't finish. No luck needed. Just the things I've aforementioned. We don't need to make more money. We are happy where we are in life.
from the O.P.'s first post: "only 77% of parents plan to help their kids out with college. "
Only? ONLY? I'm amazed that figure is that high.
Any college professor will tell you that their best, most serious students are either "nontraditional" (academic-speak for "adult") or those kiddies who are footing the bill themselves.
I don't know where the OP got this figure.
Only 35 percent of kids aged 19-22 receive tuition assistance from their parents.
What people say and what people DO are two different things.
From the article:
Quote:
As we're told on airplanes before every takeoff: In case of emergency, put on your own oxygen mask first, and only then help out your kids.
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