Paying for college $75K

[Anonymous]

Please help with strategies to help pay for college ~$75k/year x 3 years (DC is planning to finish in 3y).

My savings are $75k with HHI of $270k and no 529 or other accounts.

I'm willing to overhaul our lifestyle and save aggressively to help pay for that. Currently not budgeting.

Would the following make sense or any other thoughts? Thanks a lot.

- Borrow from 401k - 50K and pay to self
- Cut down on 401k deferrals beyond employer matching
- Save $X from now on
- Use HELOC funds
- Explore Federal student loans

[Anonymous]

None of that; private with merit or state school. See the thread on student loans, but TLDR: your child can only take out $27k total (not yearly) in their name.

You can’t count on your kid finishing in three years, especially if they’re majoring in something useful. If they’re majoring in something “useless” like English, they better have multiple good internships before graduating undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please help with strategies to help pay for college ~$75k/year x 3 years (DC is planning to finish in 3y).

My savings are $75k with HHI of $270k and no 529 or other accounts.

I'm willing to overhaul our lifestyle and save aggressively to help pay for that. Currently not budgeting.

Would the following make sense or any other thoughts? Thanks a lot.

- Borrow from 401k - 50K and pay to self
- Cut down on 401k deferrals beyond employer matching
- Save $X from now on
- Use HELOC funds
- Explore Federal student loans

None.

With your income and savings rate why are you allowing such a stupid financial decision.

Public school or private with enough merit to drive the price down to public levels.

How are you going to guarantee your kid will finish in 3 years?

Don’t squander your retirement when there are very good options out there.

[Anonymous]

College is such a ripoff. Forget loan forgiveness, how about everyone put pressure on these universities to come back to reality. They are solely responsible for the crippling debt kids find themselves in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is such a ripoff. Forget loan forgiveness, how about everyone put pressure on these universities to come back to reality. They are solely responsible for the crippling debt kids find themselves in.

Students can only take out $27,000 TOTAL in federal student loans. Anything more comes from indulgent parents co-signing private loans or taking out parent plus loans.

[Anonymous]

Why did you not save more? State school.

[Anonymous]

A $75 k a year college does not make sense in your situation. I am sorry.

You can’t count on them finishing in 3 years.

Even if they did, the cost is 3 timee the entire amount you have saved in your life. Think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did you not save more? State school.

It sounds like OP is a single parent

[Anonymous]

We’re in a similar position in VA. We have about $75K saved per child and make around $250K. We’ve said W&M is the maximum amount we can cover (about $40K/year). We are planning to cash flow some and will also get some family help.

This will be a stretch for us at this income. We do not intend to borrow against our home or retirement to send our kids to college.

[Anonymous]

Is your child starting college this fall or do you have more time to save?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is such a ripoff. Forget loan forgiveness, how about everyone put pressure on these universities to come back to reality. They are solely responsible for the crippling debt kids find themselves in.

College is crazy expensive, but people like OP constantly make their own beds and then down the line will cry about it. She is barely upper income for this area, she is NOT middle class and has a lot of opportunity however she is planning on squandering it on a school her kid has no business at. If parents didn’t behave like the OP and refused these obscenely expensive schools they can’t even afford, then these prices would not exist.

Americans need to take responsibility for their financial stupidity.

[Anonymous]

OP, depending on your fixed expenses, you can cash flow that our of your income if you live very cheaply for the 3 years your kid is in college. If you can get a year jump on that, even better. 6 month jump would of course help too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, depending on your fixed expenses, you can cash flow that our of your income if you live very cheaply for the 3 years your kid is in college. If you can get a year jump on that, even better. 6 month jump would of course help too.

Agree with this - but you need to make big adjustments to your life, if you are not saving a lot right now. It's probably a good idea to do this anyway, because it doesn't sound like you are saving a large enough portion of your income for retirement. Start now, take the first three years to cashflow your kids college, and then when that's over, you should be saving for retirement. Yes, you can lower your 401K contributions, but look at your housing. Maybe you don't need to live in NW DC or Bethesda anymore (not sure where you live). Nobody can tell you where to do this in your budget without an accounting of where it goes now. What is your net income? How much is spent on car, housing, tuition (which certainly can be moved over to college tuition, if that's what you're doing now), groceries, debt, vacations, etc. I live on $100,000 net per year with my husband, and we take vacations, eat well, etc. We downsized and own our house in a lower income area (which I love) with no mortgage. We could have done a HELOC too. But we also had significant 529 savings, so we were needing to cash flow a much smaller amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did you not save more? State school.

It sounds like OP is a single parent

As a single parent she makes more than many of us in a two parent household so how is that relevant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is such a ripoff. Forget loan forgiveness, how about everyone put pressure on these universities to come back to reality. They are solely responsible for the crippling debt kids find themselves in.

College is crazy expensive, but people like OP constantly make their own beds and then down the line will cry about it. She is barely upper income for this area, she is NOT middle class and has a lot of opportunity however she is planning on squandering it on a school her kid has no business at. If parents didn’t behave like the OP and refused these obscenely expensive schools they can’t even afford, then these prices would not exist.

Americans need to take responsibility for their financial stupidity.

She is upper income. Be real. Many of us managed to save for state college on 1/2 that income.