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POLL: Money saved for college by family and student...


Nan in Mass
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Best guess - money your family (include students) saved for your children's college?  

2 members have voted

  1. 1. Best guess - money your family (include students) saved for your children's college?

    • Less than 5% of FOUR year college probably costing MORE than $25,000 per year (for all years)
      110
    • 5% - 9%
      11
    • 10%-24%
      19
    • 25%-50%
      19
    • More than 50%
      24
    • Less than 5% of OTHER type of college (for all years)
      47
    • 5% - 9%
      1
    • 10%-24%
      4
    • 25%-50%
      4
    • More than 50%
      29


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How much money has your family (including the student) saved for your children's college?

 

The child not have to be in college yet.

This is a best-guess, roughly sort of poll.

Just guess as to which sort of college the child is most likely to go to.

Multiple votes are allowed.

If you have more than one child likely to go to college, divide the amount of money saved by the amount of children likely to go to college and take your best guess as to which sort the majority of them will go to.

It would be nice if you could also vote in the grant/scholarship poll, if you have students who are in or beyond college already. I am hoping this will give us all an idea of how people are managing to pay for college.

Thank you!

-Nan

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I had to check less than 5% - any money that would have been saved for college was used over 15 years ago to fund ABA therapy, etc. for SillyAutismBoy. And then some - we ended up over $30,000 in dept (thank-you refinancing and Due Process for helping dig us out of that hole!) We have been paycheck to paycheck ever since.Should add - kid number 1 of three college-bound is a t a LAC costing about $40,000/yr but he a tad over half is covered by merit scholarships, he took out loans, and we are managing to scrape up the rest (still comes in cheaper than the state schools which do NOT give out merit scholarships!). Next kid may well be at CC (lacking the AP and grades of kid number 1) and last kid - too early to tell.

Edited by JFSinIL
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I am glad this poll was started. I have always wondered how in the world people can afford to send their kids to a 4 year school costing over $30,000 a year.

 

I have a friend(And Nan you probably know this school since you live in MA) whose daughter was accepted to Lesley University in Cambridge. And her other daughter(They are twins) was accepted to Springfield College for Criminal Justice. Both at the tune of $42,000 and $25,000 .

 

How in the world do you pay for this???

 

My middle daughter is going to a CC. So a full year tuition is about $4,000.

We qualified for a Pell Grant, so her tuition is covered since it is so low to begin with.

 

And how is it, that you go to a 4 year school, like my friends daughter who is attending Lesley, to major in Elementary Education, and come out making piddly for money? Teachers do not get paid well, and you have sunk all that money into a 4 year college?

 

I don't get it.

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We're buying GET units which is our state's 529 plan. So far we have 4 years worth. The plan is to have 6 years worth which would pay for 2 years for each boy at an in-state 4 year university.

 

Hopefully they will participate in Running Start and be able to complete their first 2 years at the local community college. That's the plan but as you can see my oldest is only 13 so I'm not sure how it will all play out.

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We live in a state that offers free tuition as long as the student earns a 3.0 GPA in high school and maintains that GPA in college (though the minimum required GPA is expected to rise over the next few years as money becomes lean), so we have always relied on that money to pay for our children's tuition. And figured they could take a loan out for room/board. We do have some money socked away that we could loan to them, but we would prefer not to.

 

They say that your student loan debt should not exceed your expected first year income. So, if you expect to get a job teaching school your first year and earn $25,000, you should not graduate from college with $50,000 worth of debt. The average college student graduated owing $24,000 last year. Not too bad considering the median income for college grads is $43,000, but I think it's too high. I am hoping my kids take lots of community college classes during the summer and maybe even one year of college while living at home. My oldest (now 17) will graduate hs with 4 AP class credits (hopefully!) and two college classes. I am hoping for more with my other two kids!

 

Margaret

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We've saved about 30% for each child, but they have worked before college, during and over the summers. If there isn't enough in the bank and through scholarships, we tell them to go to the local university. So far only one had to borrow $10,000 for the last year at a private college and that was due to a lack of thrift on the child's part.

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Well, we also live in a state that offers free tuition to any in-state college if you score high on the MCAS.

 

BUT, it is sneaky. For example. UMASS tuition is only 1,500 per semster. BUT you are responsible for the fees that equal to about $5,000 per semester.

 

We had a student here who recieved a partial scholarship to a very good university. Then he was told that he could go to any College in state, tuition free because of his MCAS scores.

 

He gave up that partial scholarship to attend UMASS. Until the parents found out that the tuition is CHEAP. It is the fees!! They were so angry. They felt as if they were mislead.

 

There was a lot of backlash and now, parents are aware that it only covers tuition. Nothing else.

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We're not saving.

Any money we do have that we can save is going into my retirement account. If we need to and choose to, we'll refinance the house and use that money for college - or I'll go to work full time (blech).

 

I'm counting on scholarships, grants, and maybe some loans.

We may be willing to take out some of those loans, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

 

I don't look towards cc because the education is significantly different - and in many ways less than - the same course at a 4-yr IMO. That was my experience. I took enough credits through cc and AP to start as a sophomore and even the general education classes taught by graduate students were at a higher level than the cc courses. I think it was mainly due to the caliber of students. So I expect our son to be 4 years at a university for undergrad.

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Well, we also live in a state that offers free tuition to any in-state college if you score high on the MCAS.

 

BUT, it is sneaky....

 

My son has a good friend who is a resident of Massachusetts. It was going to be considerably more expensive for him to attend U-Mass (Amherst) than the private LAC which he now attends. The LAC offered merit aid and grants which U-Mass did not.

 

And perhaps that answers your other question about students who attend pricier private schools. They are often very generous with aid! Did you check out Nan's other poll?

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We have NONE saved. I know my bad!!!! :glare: We are hoping for scholarships. We just do not know. We are not sure if my oldest will be able to go or not. Right now he is looking at Butler for their communications program. It is a very good program. He gets to live at home with us which will save money. He is investigating scholarships right now. So he has two more years to figure this out. We do expect our kids to pay for their college education (I did) and hopefully financial aid will help a bit. We will help them out in purchasing books or pay part of it. I know we will have to save for our other son due to him wanting to go to school to be a dr. We know he is aiming for medical field. Just not sure what field in the dr area....He got time to figure that out.

 

I do wish we savings to help our oldest son. Maybe things will change for us by the time he goes to college.

 

Holly

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She received good scholarships and works while taking 17.5 hours. We tell her she's building character. She lives here rent free and commutes. She pays gas etc. Ds 17 plans to go ROTC to pay for college. Ds15 is on track with exemplary grades and hopes for scholarships too. Dd12 wants to be a nurse. She has looked into getting a job as a CNA when old enough since many places here will help with expenses to get RN. Not sure what the last three will do. We would not consider loans to help them and would strongly discourage them from taking any themselves.

Edited by joyofsix
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I am glad this poll was started. I have always wondered how in the world people can afford to send their kids to a 4 year school costing over $30,000 a year.

 

I have a friend(And Nan you probably know this school since you live in MA) whose daughter was accepted to Lesley University in Cambridge. And her other daughter(They are twins) was accepted to Springfield College for Criminal Justice. Both at the tune of $42,000 and $25,000 .

 

How in the world do you pay for this???

 

My middle daughter is going to a CC. So a full year tuition is about $4,000.

We qualified for a Pell Grant, so her tuition is covered since it is so low to begin with.

 

And how is it, that you go to a 4 year school, like my friends daughter who is attending Lesley, to major in Elementary Education, and come out making piddly for money? Teachers do not get paid well, and you have sunk all that money into a 4 year college?

 

I don't get it.

 

Some do--average sal for DC is up to 90K.

Fwiw.

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I am not sure how to answer this. We have enough saved to cover books and room & board for the first two years or so. We work at a small LAC that participates in the National Tuition Exchange Scholarship program, which covers 100% of my son's tuition this year, though it will only cover about 97% next year, and I assume less each year as tuition rises more quickly than the scholarship dollar amount. I think of that money as money saved, which I know is silly. But if we'd chosen to work elsewhere (someplace, she says with a wicked grin) that paid an actual living wage, we'd have earned enough to save substantial amounts of money. I think. Or, if we'd been earning more, we certainly would have saved much more. But in my mind, I knew that scholarship was coming, and all my eggs were definitely in that basket.

 

So I guess I will answer based on what we *actually* saved, in the bank, not what we "saved" by choosing to work at a LAC.

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since our ds is only in grade 9. I answered based on what I plan to have saved, which is greater than 50%. I plan on funding 100% of my ds's college education. Granted we only have one child, but we have been saving diligently since he was born. He is bright and tests well, but I am not counting on any merit aid at all. I do not want cost to be the *sole* factor in his decision. Yes, I think it should be *a* factor, and yes, I do think one has to look at ROI given one's likely income from a chosen career v. the cost of the college chosen. But, I do not want his choices limited because of cost. If he can get in and it is the right fit, we will pay. As discussed in previous threads, our "family culture" is such that parents pay for the cost of college.

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I suppose we are in a similarly confusing category. I put down what we had saved in the bank also, but our strategy was to scrimp to pay off the house so that we would then have money to put towards college when the children got there. (The timing worked out just about right.) I, too, think of that as "money saved". It also turned out to be money "saved" from the vagaries of the economy.

 

This, too, is a pretty limited poll.

 

-Nan

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We didn't have ANY money saved until 5.5 years ago. Dh, a Certified Financial Financial, changed firms to be with his father. The recruiting firm paid a pretty penny in incentive bonus for him to move :) In current dollars, we have 1/3 of the state university's cost of attendance saved for all three kids. Ds will most likely attend there and we'll cashflow the rest of the costs, as we're now paying (discounted by merit scholarship) private school tuition. Dd16 is still uncertain what she wants to study---it fluctuates between pediatric surgeon :eek: and an editor (she has a strong love for grammar ;) ). Who knows what costs will be when dd11 starts college?!

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Our state has good scholarship programs for state universities for those who get good grades and high SAT scores. We don't have much money saved.... have suffered multiple job losses. Ds is in state college on a scholarship that covers most, and we are able to pay the rest as he goes. Dd is next. Both dc were told that their options would be limited if they didn't get the good grades to get the scholarships, so far one did well enough, and I feel this one will to.

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I voted because there was a request on the general board. We have 5-9% saved for both children. One is in 1st and the other isn't even in K yet.

 

I remember what difficulties my parents went through, even with me on scholarship, and didn't want to inflict the same on myself. However, with the rising cost of a post-secondary education, it may still be an exercise in futility.

 

I guess I'll find out in 11 more years...

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I had to vote less than 5%. If you had asked the same question 3 years ago I'd have voted greater than 90%.

 

The difference was the collapse of our investments and the falling economy which affected our (self-employed) business depleting what savings we had left and then some.

 

I'm glad my oldest two have had high scores and got decent merit aid + need based aid. We hadn't planned on falling back on that, but I'm thankful for it.

 

We'll see what happens when youngest is of age. I'm hoping for a better economy by then - perhaps a return of some of our investments too. In the meantime, I'm encouraging him to study, but he's the lowest of my academic guys (gifted in different areas).

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Yes, Nan, this is a very limited poll.

 

For example, it doesn't cover prepaid tuitions, as we have here in Florida. Although we did not put any money into a savings plan, per se, we did pay the State of Florida a little bit of money every month towards a locked-in tuition rate at a FL university. Essentially, we have paid for 4 years tuition and we are now tuition-free. Would that be considered the same as "saving"? I think so, and I voted that way.

 

Our dd has also been awarded several scholarships, but I don't consider them "saving", I consider them "money saved", as the scholarships can be rescinded at any time.

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We're investing in the Virginia Prepaid Education Program. We have two years at a state university paid off for my son and one full year paid off for my daughter. We are still making payments to finish paying off a second year for her.

 

Other than that, we plan to help pay for them to go to CC with the hopes that they transfer to one of the local state universities that has an agreement with the CC.

 

They are both young, but putting money any money they receive away in savings to help with their expenses while in college. I expect/hope that they will each work part-time during high school and set aside a significant portion of their income to help out with their living expenses while in college and maybe their books.

 

If they can get full scholarships, I'd love to see them be able to go away to small private colleges if they want to, but this is the best we can offer them at this point. If it takes them more than 4 years to graduate, they may have to take out a loan, but hopefully, it would be minimal and not overly burdensome.

 

When I went to college, my parents paid some, but I paid for most of it. However, tuition at the university I attended has increased from $1,200 per semester to $8,000, so I don't see them being able to pay for this on their own and I want to help them.

 

Lisa

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By working with his dad, Aaron saved about $30,000. He got a dollar raise a year, and was making $11 an hour his last year of high school. He's now a junior at university. He went to a community college the first three semesters and CLEPed out of two classes.

 

To show how much he worked, here's a chart from his transcript.

 

Work Experience:

Year Company Average # Hours / Weekly

2004 (Mar – Dec) 21

2005 (Mar – Dec) 19

2006 (Mar – Dec) 38

2007 (Mar – Dec) 36

2008 (Feb – Dec) 31

 

We haven't saved anything for the younger ones, but they'll start working in a few years.

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We are saving as aggressively as possible (oldest is in K) and will be moving halfway across the country soon to take jobs at a school that has a generous tuition assistance program, in no small part precisely because of that program.

 

My biggest worry, however, is that that tuition benefit will no longer be available in 13 years (or at least not without a lawsuit) so I'm trying to convince DH that we should save as if there will be nothing else and then if it comes through, fabulous.

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We have saved nothing for our girls yet, and I don't really anticipate doing so. I will expect them to get through on their own with me helping as I can when they get there. Given our situation, we will be more likely to be able to afford it then than we are now.

 

My parents did the same.

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We don't have anything saved, either. Dh wanted to do one of those 529 plans several years ago, and I'm so glad we didn't, as I heard they have lost money. I just didn't feel comfortable having money set aside for each kid. It's great if parents can help, but kids really shouldn't count on anything (see what happened to creekland as an example). That way no one is disappointed if it doesn't work out. I also think relying on oneself can spark some maturity in a kid.

 

The plan is to start saving around $10k a year starting next year, which should cover living at our house in America, driving our van, and tuition, fees, and books at the local public branch. What's really going to be tough is paying for med school afterwards, if dd is accepted. We'll see about that.

 

After dd, we have her four little brothers to put through school, so we'll be paying out at least that 10k for 20 years or so. I'm not really sure what we'll do if all of them want to do grad studies.

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We have nothing saved and honestly, I see us having nothing to save before my oldest gets to college. We're barely scraping by as it is living paycheck to paycheck. :sad:

 

So I suspect our kids will make it through college just like their dad did: loans and working through college. :)

Edited by cbmrj777
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We have nothing saved and honestly, I see us having nothing to save before my oldest gets to college. We're barely scraping by as it is living paycheck to paycheck. :sad:

 

So I suspect our kids will make it through college just like their dad did: loans and working through college. :)

 

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

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Stopping by from the other board. My oldest is just beginning K and my youngest is only a toddler. Our plan has been to save 20k for each by the time they turn 5. After that we only contribute $600/year for each child. Being somewhat conservative with investment returns, my projections show that we should have about $50k when they are of college age - hopefully that will buy them at least one year at a university. :glare:

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Stopping by from the other board. My oldest is just beginning K and my youngest is only a toddler. Our plan has been to save 20k for each by the time they turn 5. After that we only contribute $600/year for each child. Being somewhat conservative with investment returns, my projections show that we should have about $50k when they are of college age - hopefully that will buy them at least one year at a university. :glare:

 

Wow! Impressive!

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We're buying GET units which is our state's 529 plan.

 

Hopefully they will participate in Running Start and be able to complete their first 2 years at the local community college. T

 

:iagree:

 

I took the money I got from my parent's estate (which was built up over 40 years of investing the nest egg they got from my mother's mother) and put it into GET and what was left over went into Maryland's 529, in case Wa state defaults on its GET ("the legislature guarantees it" was what I was told when I called and pushed to see what the "G" really meant). I put in round numbers and had about 175$ left over. I wondered what my mother would like me to spend it on. She always set a beautiful table, and my silverware was random pieces from Goodwill. So at 49, I got a set of matching silverware with some nice servers. Every time I eat off them I can think of my son's college nest egg, and that tax sheltered money originally earned in the 1920s by my son's GGM. :001_smile:

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I voted over 50%. We plan to pay 100% (unless they get scholarships) of all of dc's college. Our oldest graduates in May and we have paid everything - except his first year when he had the LIFE scholarship. For all our dc we did the pre-paid tuition plan for our state too plus we have mutual funds for each, etc.

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We have zero saved. We just don't have enough extra income to save for their college.

 

Our kids have to earn scholarships, grants, take out loans, and work (if needed) to attend college. We just can't afford to send all our kids through college. We will help them out where we can, but we will not take out loans for them.

 

So far we have one who finished college. She graduated almost two years ago. But as we only had legal guardianship, and she was state ward, she received the Pell Grant and her grades got her several scholarships. She took out loans for the rest. Her younger brother had the Pell Grant and loans, but he didn't care about getting an education and flunked out his freshman year.

 

But while they are under 18, we do what we can to give them a lot of opportunities and pathways for them to earn scholarships and grants. If they take on their opportunities, then they will do just fine. If they choose not to, then they will find it harder to achieve a college education.

 

Honestly, I don't know if they all will attend college. Dh and I are highly encouraging them to attend at least an associates degree.

Ds#1 is very academically gifted but he is struggling with ambition/motivation. I am positive he will at least get an associates degree, but beyond that, I just don't know.

Dd has some goals that contradict each other. She plans to go to college and major in music. She wants to be a professional musician. She wants to own her own Kung Fu school. She wants to go to China for a year or two and study with the Shaolin Monks. And all of this she wants to do right now! LOL.

Ds#2 is such as space cadet and changes his mind about what he likes/don't like, what he wants/don't want, that he has me getting dizzy.

Ds#3 is, well..., he just has me wonder if he will ever be able to live independently let alone being able to attend college.

Edited by AnitaMcC
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We live in a state that offers free tuition as long as the student earns a 3.0 GPA in high school and maintains that GPA in college (though the minimum required GPA is expected to rise over the next few years as money becomes lean), so we have always relied on that money to pay for our children's tuition...

 

Just wanted to point out that there is a cap on the "free tuition"; the HOPE scholarship pays up to $3500 per year. My ds attends a private college in GA (we are GA residents), and he receives $3500 per year, which is nowhere near full tuition. And yes, the state is currently considering eliminating or reducing the payment for students who score less than 1700 on the SAT and who maintain less than a 3.7 GPA.

 

ETA: We have saved NOTHING for college. We have a college senior and a 10th grader. Our understanding with our children has been that they would have to either earn scholarships to cover the cost of college, or work to pay for it themselves.

Edited by ereks mom
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We don't have anything saved, either. Dh wanted to do one of those 529 plans several years ago, and I'm so glad we didn't, as I heard they have lost money. I just didn't feel comfortable having money set aside for each kid.

 

This is what stopped us from doing these plans. That and we just didn't have enough money to do so for all our kids.

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We have no money saved, living month to month getting debt paid off.

My husband can change employers and go to work for a college/university nearby and the whole family can go to school free. It would be a cut in pay while we did this. If both girls want to go I will also join them and we'll take a pay cut for a few years, get us all done at once.

Becky

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I am glad this poll was started. I have always wondered how in the world people can afford to send their kids to a 4 year school costing over $30,000 a year.

 

QUOTE]

 

Well, we started saving for each child when they were just a couple of months old. We set up an automatic draft on our account into at first an investment account and then a 529 when those became available. We started out just putting a piddly amount aside each month as dh was in still in school. We gradually increased it as his pay went up. So each of our 3 children has 2 accounts now: once guaranteed earning very little interest and another that has more risk according to their age. we just switched the oldest who is in 10th grade into something more guaranteed and very little of his is in mutual funds anymore since he is so close. We don't want all of our saving to go away if the economy takes a nose dive. Anyway, that is how we did it. College is VERY important to our family.

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Less than 5%

1st child: we helped out of our savings and took out parent loans, she lost her scholarship, we ended up in debt- never again.

2nd child: We paid for 1 year of community college. He took out loans for 4 year state school, he worked and saved in summers, we helped with small amounts when able. He will have about $25,000 total debt when he graduates this May.

3rd child: We will pay for 1st year of community college, then take it one year at a time. No more parent loans, ever. We couldn't right now if we wanted to.

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We have 100% saved, maybe plus more. Dh already transferred his GI Bill to the kids. Grandma has a good bit saved for them. I had a large inheritance 5 yrs. ago that went straight to college accounts for them.

 

They are expected to get scholarships. They are expected to pay for anything the GI Bill doesn't cover and then we'll pay them back upon graduation. No graduate, no money. Unless they have a really, really good excuse.

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Both sets of grandparents have saved money for college for our children from the time they were born. One set of grandparents put theirs in separate accounts, one for each child, and the other put it all in one account. We are saved that one for the last child (in case something happened). He is in 10th now, and like Choirfarm, we just switched the money to an account that has no risk, even though it won't earn any more interest between now and when he goes to college. (Creekland, thank you for being so open about your story.)

We considered one of the more formal savings plans. Some of my cousins have done that. Instead, we opted to work to pay off our mortgage so that we could then put that money towards college. Our two older boys' college has a monthly payment plan. If we take the money that used to go to the mortgage and combine it with some of the savings, we can pay as we go for one student. The rest is loans, which we will help pay off. In fact, they are the sort of loans where you have to start paying something right away, so we are making the payments while the boys are in school. They will contribute to them at least partially when they graduate. The plan is that our children will have some loans that they pay off themselves, but nothing they can't manage on whatever their after-college income turns out to be. Our children are all planning on going into fields that will make paying off school loans possible. If anything changes and someone goes into a field that makes paying school loans extremely difficult or impossible, we will pay them all off. Our family culture is one in which the parents pay for the bachelor's degree. Our parents paid for ours and their parents paid for theirs. Graduate degrees are the responsibility of the student, but parents will help if possible. We would have loved to give our children their whole college education. In times past, the savings we have accumulated would have done that, but college was comparatively cheaper when my husband and I went.

 

I would like to echo Jane in NC (who hopefully will chime in with some math at this point) and say that when we were in college, we knew many students who paid for it entirely, including room and board, themselves. The price of a college education has gone up making this much more difficult to do. I think you have to be very careful and not assume that because you managed to pay entirely for yours on your own, your children will also be able to do that. I think you also have to be very careful about borrowing. Make sure you take into consideration what your students' earning power is likely to be when they graduates and do the math to see if it will be possible for them to support themselves and pay off the school loans. Now a days, with many combinations of majors and colleges, this might not be possible. Make sure you do the math.

-Nan

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I voted less than 5%. We have 529s and savings accounts of the kids, but our oldest is just 7, so we have a few years...:tongue_smilie:. We have been saving almost every gift of money we have gotten for each child since their birth, so ds is far ahead of dd#2.

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Well, we started saving for each child when they were just a couple of months old. We set up an automatic draft on our account into at first an investment account and then a 529 when those became available. We started out just putting a piddly amount aside each month as dh was in still in school. We gradually increased it as his pay went up. So each of our 3 children has 2 accounts now: once guaranteed earning very little interest and another that has more risk according to their age. we just switched the oldest who is in 10th grade into something more guaranteed and very little of his is in mutual funds anymore since he is so close. We don't want all of our saving to go away if the economy takes a nose dive. Anyway, that is how we did it. College is VERY important to our family.

 

But your husband is a surgeon, right, Christine? So even at the beginning of his career he was making more than many husbands will ever make.

 

It's great to save, but if a family is just getting by, they just can't.

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I would like to echo Jane in NC (who hopefully will chime in with some math at this point) and say that when we were in college, we knew many students who paid for it entirely, including room and board, themselves. The price of a college education has gone up making this much more difficult to do. I think you have to be very careful and not assume that because you managed to pay entirely for yours on your own, your children will also be able to do that. I think you also have to be very careful about borrowing. Make sure you take into consideration what your students' earning power is likely to be when they graduates and do the math to see if it will be possible for them to support themselves and pay off the school loans. Now a days, with many combinations of majors and colleges, this might not be possible. Make sure you do the math.

-Nan

 

Sensible advice. And that is quite a commitment you have made to your boys, paying the loans right now and helping pay them off in the future. I bet your boys appreciate it already, and definitely will in the future.

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