This is why on-campus FT for the first 2 years is a bad, REALLY bad option. Keep em home in community college, save the dough wasted on taking stupid liberal arts classes and room & board and encourage them to pick up a part time job.
Heathy perspective from juggling work and class will guide them to make better decisions, instead of idly hanging out with addicts in the dorm all day and getting their heads pumped full of bullshit by campus authoritarians.
We’ll see. I am not on track to have enough money saved to pay for 4 years of on campus university for my kids. I will have SOME, enough to pay for what I have laid out above I think. Hopefully they will not be as foolhardy as I was at 18 and insist on taking out loans in the event I refuse to pay for on campus for the first 2 years.
Talk to me in a decade and we’ll see how well my plans worked out!
We didn't pay for our children's college. We'd seen too many friends' children use college as a long party. We told our kids they were responsible for paying their own way through college. We helped them apply for a zillion scholarships; they got some. They chose less expensive colleges, and they had jobs from the time they were 15. We paid for all their expenses: health care, gas, car insurance (and made sure they had good used cars), food, and clothing. But school was on them.
We saved up the money we would have spent on their college. We let them stand on their own two feet, struggling a little and living in cheap apartments after graduation. When they were established in careers and looking to buy a home, we were able to step in and put the cash down toward the houses.
We made lots of mistakes in parenting, but this was one decision we've been very pleased with. Our friends have kids who took seven years to get their four-year degrees, others have kids who partied themselves out of school and have menial jobs, and still others who decided they didn't like their degrees and had mom and dad pay for another one. Our kids got their degrees in good fields, have good careers, and, with our help, were buying their first homes before the age of 25.
This is why on-campus FT for the first 2 years is a bad, REALLY bad option. Keep em home in community college, save the dough wasted on taking stupid liberal arts classes and room & board and encourage them to pick up a part time job.
Heathy perspective from juggling work and class will guide them to make better decisions, instead of idly hanging out with addicts in the dorm all day and getting their heads pumped full of bullshit by campus authoritarians.
We’ll see. I am not on track to have enough money saved to pay for 4 years of on campus university for my kids. I will have SOME, enough to pay for what I have laid out above I think. Hopefully they will not be as foolhardy as I was at 18 and insist on taking out loans in the event I refuse to pay for on campus for the first 2 years.
Talk to me in a decade and we’ll see how well my plans worked out!
We didn't pay for our children's college. We'd seen too many friends' children use college as a long party. We told our kids they were responsible for paying their own way through college. We helped them apply for a zillion scholarships; they got some. They chose less expensive colleges, and they had jobs from the time they were 15. We paid for all their expenses: health care, gas, car insurance (and made sure they had good used cars), food, and clothing. But school was on them.
We saved up the money we would have spent on their college. We let them stand on their own two feet, struggling a little and living in cheap apartments after graduation. When they were established in careers and looking to buy a home, we were able to step in and put the cash down toward the houses.
We made lots of mistakes in parenting, but this was one decision we've been very pleased with. Our friends have kids who took seven years to get their four-year degrees, others have kids who partied themselves out of school and have menial jobs, and still others who decided they didn't like their degrees and had mom and dad pay for another one. Our kids got their degrees in good fields, have good careers, and, with our help, were buying their first homes before the age of 25.