Why pay all of kids' college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always loan your kid some portion of college tuition if you want them to have skin in the game but not subject to the public markets.

Make it official and have them sign a loan agreement…and then decide if you want to forgive it if the kid has turned out OK.

It's not skin in the game as most have no concept of debt or what it means till after they graduate. Skin in the game would be working through college.

plus most educational loans are forgiven, especially if you work in public service.

Some are some aren't. I was told they only paid off specific loans in the field I was in and my parents decided against it.

the PP is wrong. Very few have been "forgiven". It was a campaign stunt to get votes by Biden. a few were forgiven but there were highly prescribed. My kids received NO forgiveness on any student loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I would say that you just don't get it. Many people here are working to give their children a nice life with advantages we didn't have growing up. My kids won't have student loans when they graduate. You learn absolutely nothing from having student loan debt weighing you down just as you are working your first real job and trying to save money. What that debt does is severely limit your career options as well as mobility to move for a better job.

Most people here have done extremely well for themselves despite loans. That's the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

My husband did the military as his parents couldn't afford college and it wasn't an option. Given he didn't get his degree till his early 40's and then the second career too another 10-15 years to earn anything, I don't get why you'd do that to your kids if you can afford to pay. People make it sound easy and its not.

You missed the point entirely in your rush to judge. If you have twelve kids you cannot send them all to college at now $93K a year for private

With 12 kids, you probably can send them to a private as you'd get tons of financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

My husband did the military as his parents couldn't afford college and it wasn't an option. Given he didn't get his degree till his early 40's and then the second career too another 10-15 years to earn anything, I don't get why you'd do that to your kids if you can afford to pay. People make it sound easy and its not.

You missed the point entirely in your rush to judge. If you have twelve kids you cannot send them all to college at now $93K a year for private

With 12 kids, you probably can send them to a private as you'd get tons of financial aid.

utter bs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

My husband did the military as his parents couldn't afford college and it wasn't an option. Given he didn't get his degree till his early 40's and then the second career too another 10-15 years to earn anything, I don't get why you'd do that to your kids if you can afford to pay. People make it sound easy and its not.

You missed the point entirely in your rush to judge. If you have twelve kids you cannot send them all to college at now $93K a year for private

With 12 kids, you probably can send them to a private as you'd get tons of financial aid.

utter bs

No it’s not. They will get lots of aid except if parants are crazy high income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

I come from a similarly large family with similar attitude and 1/2 my siblings have struggled mightily and still do. The others were lucky enough to get decent FA and graduate with some loans, but manageable. It was almost a subsistence upbringing.

Needless to say, none of us have more than two kids ourselves because we don’t want our own kids to have crap lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get this new expectation that the average middle class person is supposed to save to pay for 100 percent of their kid's college. Growing up, everyone had loans, I knew of almost no one who didn't have loans to pay off. Some incurred additional debt from grad school. They've all done just fine.

I do get that college tuition is substantially more than it used to be, has risen much faster than the cost of inflation. But still, that doesn't mean you have to cut corners so tightly as to possibly cut back on retirement, or constantly live on a very tight budget. And it doesn't mean that you must work even harder to cover 100 percent of your kids' tuition.

I expect to cover at least two years of state school tuition, maybe 3 for my kids. They can make their own choices from there.

Discuss.

You can do whatever you want.

But college debt changes the nature of your life if not trivial. Delays a lot. No parent should want that. But you do you. True middle class kids go for free at all top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always loan your kid some portion of college tuition if you want them to have skin in the game but not subject to the public markets.

Make it official and have them sign a loan agreement…and then decide if you want to forgive it if the kid has turned out OK.

It's not skin in the game as most have no concept of debt or what it means till after they graduate. Skin in the game would be working through college.

plus most educational loans are forgiven, especially if you work in public service.

Some are some aren't. I was told they only paid off specific loans in the field I was in and my parents decided against it.

the PP is wrong. Very few have been "forgiven". It was a campaign stunt to get votes by Biden. a few were forgiven but there were highly prescribed. My kids received NO forgiveness on any student loans.

Public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) is currently straightforward and easy - work for 10 years for an eligible employer while paying off direct federal loans. Forgiven after 120 payments. My loans were forgiven working for an eligible hospital for 10 years. That said, the future is not certain when it comes to any government program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been asked and answered but this is not a middle class expectation, it’s an upper middle class expectation.

Congratulations!! You apparently moved up a class grade at some point and didn’t realize it. Welcome.

Now that you’re in the club, better stack in that 529.

My parents had their tuition paid 100%, my sister and I had ours paid 100% although my sister's cost $65K more, and I will pay for my 2 kids.

My mom was from a borderline UMC family with 2 college-educated parents and my father was from a MC family with 2 college-educated parents. At the great-grandparent level, there was a JHU medical professor, a chemist (college degree status unknown), a female science grad from Western Reserve, a minister with divinity degree, two wives from comfortable backgrounds, and a married immigrant couple who were LC and not known if they had secondary education in their country of origin (manufacturing workers).

College was proportionately less expensive then but it's a cultural norm for us to pay it forward. The economy is so complex now it seems valuable to spend time "learning how to learn" as a quasi-independent adult and considering occupational possibilities. Yes, it's a luxury. But also a tradition. Intellectual interests are a key part of what my family values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

My husband did the military as his parents couldn't afford college and it wasn't an option. Given he didn't get his degree till his early 40's and then the second career too another 10-15 years to earn anything, I don't get why you'd do that to your kids if you can afford to pay. People make it sound easy and its not.

You missed the point entirely in your rush to judge. If you have twelve kids you cannot send them all to college at now $93K a year for private

With 12 kids, you probably can send them to a private as you'd get tons of financial aid.

utter bs

Put it in the calculator. My guess is that by kid 6 your income could be 300k and it will be free.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Ohio, FWIW. My parents paid for my 4 year undergrad degree. I remember my mom explaining to me that her parents paid for hers so they were paying for mine. She said that I should do what I could to then pay for my own child's schooling. That's what we did and our DS is now in grad school.

[Anonymous]

My parents paid for four years of college for me, which has been an enormous financial help to me ever since, because I never had to pay off any loans. So why would I not also try to do the same for my kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always loan your kid some portion of college tuition if you want them to have skin in the game but not subject to the public markets.

Make it official and have them sign a loan agreement…and then decide if you want to forgive it if the kid has turned out OK.

It's not skin in the game as most have no concept of debt or what it means till after they graduate. Skin in the game would be working through college.

plus most educational loans are forgiven, especially if you work in public service.

ub no. It's difficult and the rules are complicated. I have educational loans and of course they have not been forgiven. The only ones that biden have forgiven (a very stupid campaign promise IMHE) has not impacted ANYONE I know. Can you say differently?

My SO got his forgiven via the public service loan forgiveness program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I would say that you just don't get it. Many people here are working to give their children a nice life with advantages we didn't have growing up. My kids won't have student loans when they graduate. You learn absolutely nothing from having student loan debt weighing you down just as you are working your first real job and trying to save money. What that debt does is severely limit your career options as well as mobility to move for a better job.

+1

It delays retirement savings, home ownership, starting a family. It's not 1980 anymore. I will help my kids get ahead as much as I can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

My husband did the military as his parents couldn't afford college and it wasn't an option. Given he didn't get his degree till his early 40's and then the second career too another 10-15 years to earn anything, I don't get why you'd do that to your kids if you can afford to pay. People make it sound easy and its not.

You missed the point entirely in your rush to judge. If you have twelve kids you cannot send them all to college at now $93K a year for private

With 12 kids, you probably can send them to a private as you'd get tons of financial aid.

utter bs

Put it in the calculator. My guess is that by kid 6 your income could be 300k and it will be free.

FAFSA no longer takes siblings into account.