Best strategy to pay college for 3 kids

[Anonymous]

We have DC1 2nd year private, DC2 1st year in-state, DC3 raising senior.
Our HHI is 265k, about 150k 529 all together, we also have retirement. Last year we didn't qualify for any aid and it might be the same situation this year as the rule for multiple children has changed. We own a house and pay mortgage and not that much cash left over after paying all expenses. Own a rental also that covers only the mortgage. We need to plan for the next 2 years

1. Take out Equity from the rental
2. take out loan from retirement

I am leaning to option 2 but DH disagrees and he think option 1 is better, which option is better?

[Anonymous]

Option 3- let your frown adult child figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Option 3- let your frown adult child figure it out.

That would have been nice but supported myself to go to school working and paying for college at least wanted to support them at least paying part of the tuition they are taking the loan and will continue to take the loan.

[Anonymous]

Option #1, don’t borrow against retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Option #1, don’t borrow against retirement.

Thank you for responding. My point was even we pay interest it is to ourselves but he is 63 and too close to retirement age to borrow from 401k.

[Anonymous]

IMO you can't afford private...at all.

can your kids do co-ops? they work for a semester and make good money. also a great way to get a foot in the door for a job after graduation.

[Anonymous]

Option 1.

[Anonymous]

You need to stop spending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO you can't afford private...at all.

can your kids do co-ops? they work for a semester and make good money. also a great way to get a foot in the door for a job after graduation.

I'm not sure if the schools they are attending have co-ops but will look into it.

[Anonymous]

Brown no longer looks at property values. Maybe you could investigate if any other colleges do the same.

[Anonymous]

Quite simply you could much more easily afford college if it was public in state for all. We have a slightly lower income with 3 kids. Also 2 in college and 1 in HS. We told our kids we could only afford to cover in-state because we have prepaid tuition. We then use savings to cover room and board. We weren’t comfortable going into debt and didn’t want to help one only to say no to the others. We were very upfront when our kids were applying that they’d otherwise need generous merit aid and loans (they’d be responsible for). You’ve already commited so I’m not sure what you can do now. I would not consider borrowing against retirement. Are your kids working to contribute? Did the one in private take loans? Can you sell something?

[Anonymous]

They need merit aids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brown no longer looks at property values. Maybe you could investigate if any other colleges do the same.

Thank you but I think we missed the boat on this one dc3 didn’t apply to Brown.

[Anonymous]

Do not borrow from retirement! Only allow your senior to go to school where he gets generous merit aid or he goes to in state school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quite simply you could much more easily afford college if it was public in state for all. We have a slightly lower income with 3 kids. Also 2 in college and 1 in HS. We told our kids we could only afford to cover in-state because we have prepaid tuition. We then use savings to cover room and board. We weren’t comfortable going into debt and didn’t want to help one only to say no to the others. We were very upfront when our kids were applying that they’d otherwise need generous merit aid and loans (they’d be responsible for). You’ve already commited so I’m not sure what you can do now. I would not consider borrowing against retirement. Are your kids working to contribute? Did the one in private take loans? Can you sell something?

We also told them we can only afford in state and they can go oos private if they get scholarship. DC1 is only paying half tuition, DC2 instate full tuition. They both willing to work but they don’t have work study to get a job on campus.
DC3 is high stat and applied so far she got scholarship from a couple of schools.