I'm 55, my parents are early/mid 80s and still going strong. Most people could be 60+ before they "get their inheritance". Smart parents (if they have the money) will help kids with grad school and avoid the major interest collection |
But then you'd have been tied to that job for 5-10 years--most jobs like that are lower pay/for the better of the community, hence why they're eligible for it. Much better to not have loans and be able to select whatever job you want. |
If you don't have the money, you do college for 25-30K/year, not 90K+. Nobody needs $1M for college and grad school if they cannot easily save it |
We wanted to pay for our kids' college (public school budget) because our parents did that for us. For me, it was going to a good CA state U, living on campus but had to turn down more expensive private schools. for DS it was living at home to go to the local university, the only place he applied to as a working class kid who'd never been expected to go to college.
Starting off with no loan payments is a huge gift. We took the same approach my parents did - we set a budget of in-state public cost and let them apply where they wanted. Both picked schools in our budget (one in-state and one OOS) and grandparents ended up paying for one year for each of them. |
No it wasn't. I attended a T10 uni, graduated in 93 (that university is now 90K+). My last year the total cost/all-in with all fees/travel/etc was estimated at 27K. My first year (took 5 years for 2 degrees) was ~$20 or 21K. |
My parent gave my sister an interest-free loan for grad school, which I think is a good way to handle it. I would do the same for our kids but also, as a late-50s with one surviving mid-80s parent in poor health, we might consider paying for grad school with the stipulation that it will come out of the kid's share of the inheritance from grandma (since my dad died recently and we helped mom with financial stuff, I have a pretty good sense of what to expect). |
But the differential between private/public was still huge. My public U cost <$2k in tuition/fees (can't recall the room & board cost) so my parents insisted I do that vs. private college that they felt was too expensive. |
I went to one of those 100k private colleges 20 years ago, and my freshman year it was 20k COA, so try again. |
Are you member of a country club? You are probably not otherwise you would understand what PP was saying. |
It's a combination issue - tuition costs rising far faster than cost of inflation. HHI income rising slower than the cost of inflation. Which is where it's harder for MC and UMC parents to fully fund tuition, certainly harder than it was for their parents who may have been more lower middle class to MC, given stagnant salaries relative to accelerating tuition costs. 30 years ago, MC could sometimes fund kids to go to private colleges. Now those kids are going to struggle to fund their kids to attend public in state universities. And no, not everybody needs to go to a private college or should when they can't afford it. |
Ew, no, I'd never join a country club. Nor would I afford one. What's your point? That country club people have to live up to the Jones? How embarassing for them. And sad. |
My parents paid for college and I paid for grad school. We have paid for our kids colleges and one to medical school. It was a lot of money but we didn’t cheat ourselves to make it happen. Now we are funding 529 plans for our grandchildren as are their parents so they can graduate debt free….hopefully. It is a real privilege to graduate debt free and our kids have made excellent use of their educations. |
I have been MC all my life. I wanted to be married, have kids, and have at least a MC life. Beginning of marital life, we were quite poor and made very little money. Later on, our earnings increased.
Because of that - we only had 2 kids, only lived in house in a inexpensive neighborhood, only sent my kids to our local public K-12 schools, did not have a pet, lived a modest life, saved for our retirement, emergency fun, and started saving for as much college as we could. My kids went in-state and chose majors that can get them employed. We first saved for 2 years of community college tuition, then we added 2 years of in-state public university tuition, then we added two more years of Masters in-state public college. Once we had that in place, we started to save for living expenses for 2,4, 6 years. Once we had hit that target, we started to save for MBA, medical school, law school etc. Paying for kids college gives them a SES leg-up that can help them and future generations. So, I don't have to sing the praises of college education for the kids or why making kids graduate debt-free is a blessing to them. Suffice to say, you need to live with a degree of frugality to save for your kids. If you are very poor, then at least make your kids high achievers by prioritizing education and enriching them at home. I think people are critical when parents live a lavish life - vacations, booze, socializing, expensive hobbies and do not save for the kids education. |
Speaking of escalating college costs, I graduated from college in 2002 and the tuition + room and board was just about $31k. My father celebrated the last year of paying college tuitions by buying a new BMW 3-series, which cost him $31k.
He had that car for 10 years and replaced it with another BMW 3 series in 2021, which cost, I believe, 39k. My alma mater that same year cost 52k all inclusive. |
The problem is graduate school really is a complete option, and often times a bad move. I would not blindly agree to pay for my kid to go law school or get an MBA or do any kind of academic graduate program where tuition plus a stipend is not offered (because that means, it is a lifestyle program...not one in demand). Medical school is different. I am with some PPs that would likely give a low to zero-interest loan to a kid for graduate school...but only if they have a clear plan and it is a top program. Anything other than Medical school (or again, a PhD program that is essentially "free"...so may help with some living expenses)...no way I would pay to go straight to grad school without working in the real world for 3-5 years. |