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Old 05-30-2019, 08:40 PM
 
Location: in a pond with the other human scum
2,361 posts, read 2,529,031 times
Reputation: 2803

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Quote:
Originally Posted by raggedjim View Post
Things we did:

- paid college tuition, no loans, no debt
- bought first car (used Honda)
- started an UGMA when born and matched every dollar he put in it 1-to-1
- Started Roth IRA as graduation from college gift

He has a much better starting point than I did.

Good luck, Rg
We did the same with the better-adjusted son, and it was all he needed to take off and soar into what appears to be a bright future. The other one? His mother can’t face the possibility, but I can see that he’s likely to be a forever AWD (all but dissertation), yet she tacitly acknowledges the fact by planning her post-mortem financials so as to provide him some support. He’s got more issues than Readers Digest, but I’m just the stepfather, so I tread carefully. We were able to pay for their college by saving religiously in 529 accounts,and that both parents were faculty at the local university, where both went/go.

My parents gave my first wife and I enough for a down payment on a starter home, and then we were on our own. I think in both cases, it was a nice balance between giving the adult child an easier stepping stone than (s)he would otherwise have had, without spending six figures or more.
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Old 05-31-2019, 03:23 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
19,480 posts, read 25,056,304 times
Reputation: 51113
I stopped reading after about 40 posts. I can't understand how many parents paid in full for the children's college educations. Both Hubby and I paid for most of our college expenses ourselves and thus by the time that we were done paying off our student loans we couldn't save up very much money to pay for our children's college expenses. We did pay for as much as we could plus took out parent loans to also help out. Our son finally paid off all of his student loans about age 33 or 34 and our daughter should be done paying her loans at about that age, too. Obviously, they will have less time to save money for their children's college expenses, too. And, the cycle will continue.
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Old 05-31-2019, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
19,480 posts, read 25,056,304 times
Reputation: 51113
Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626 View Post
I stopped reading after about 40 posts. I can't understand how many parents paid in full for the children's college educations. Both Hubby and I paid for most of our college expenses ourselves and thus by the time that we were done paying off our student loans we couldn't save up very much money to pay for our children's college expenses. We did pay for as much as we could plus took out parent loans to also help out. Our son finally paid off all of his student loans about age 33 or 34 and our daughter should be done paying her loans at about that age, too. Obviously, they will have less time to save money for their children's college expenses, too. And, the cycle will continue.
"I can't understand how many parents paid in full for their children's college educations."

Ditto for other expenses. Hubby and I paid for our own wedding, our own first cars and we certainly did not get money for a down payment for our first house from our parents. We have not been able to pay for these expenses for our children either. And, the cycle will continue,
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Old 05-31-2019, 05:11 PM
 
6,503 posts, read 3,412,759 times
Reputation: 7903
Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626 View Post
I stopped reading after about 40 posts. I can't understand how many parents paid in full for the children's college educations. Both Hubby and I paid for most of our college expenses ourselves and thus by the time that we were done paying off our student loans we couldn't save up very much money to pay for our children's college expenses. We did pay for as much as we could plus took out parent loans to also help out. Our son finally paid off all of his student loans about age 33 or 34 and our daughter should be done paying her loans at about that age, too. Obviously, they will have less time to save money for their children's college expenses, too. And, the cycle will continue.
Tuition is so high because there are student loans and gifts. Students loans only continue to be offered because students keep taking them. If we starve the colleges, maybe they'll cut programs that take your money for 4 years without any real jobs that accept the degree (this would take a concerted effort during a good economy as not to backfire and leave the students jobless in a down economy, where you need a bachelor's to answer phones).

Education, I will argue, IS an industry. One set up to win irrespective of what markets are doing. There are both sentimental reasons why kids go to college, "my parents both went here!" and vicarious ones "you're the first one in the family to go to college!". Because, you know, everyone wants a story to tell their grand kids. And people take out loans to make that happen.
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