How much does your college student or recent grad have?

[Anonymous]

Between checkings, savings, investments etc.

Feel like my DS is behind. Senior in college with not a lot saved.

[Anonymous]

Must be a massive troll. Most people have 0 or less.

[Anonymous]

My college student has a couple thousand bucks he has saved over the years. We pay for his education, food, housing, and necessities. His money is our money, essentially.

I am sure he’ll be living paycheck to paycheck, living in a group home, and eating rice and beans when he graduates. That is normal. Most college students and recent grads don’t have assets. Who are you comparing your child to?

[Anonymous]

If you don’t have zero or negative assets at 20 you are doing it wrong

[Anonymous]

What we give him. He only works minimum-wage type jobs in the summers while he goes to undergrad. At his age, I had never worked in my life.

[Anonymous]

College freshman has a savings account with approximately $2k and checking with $800 (was higher but he is using for miscellaneous personal expenses in college). Stocks/bonds worth about $3k and a Roth work about $5k. Majority of the funds came from a high school job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Between checkings, savings, investments etc.

Feel like my DS is behind. Senior in college with not a lot saved.

I'm confused. Unless he was working a full time job, why would you expect him to have a lot saved?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College freshman has a savings account with approximately $2k and checking with $800 (was higher but he is using for miscellaneous personal expenses in college). Stocks/bonds worth about $3k and a Roth work about $5k. Majority of the funds came from a high school job.

Forgot to add we pay tuition (minus merit)/ room and board, and most personal expenses like clothes, travel, books, cell phone, etc.

[Anonymous]

My two college kids had well-paid summer internships where they earned about $10k over the summer. I know some of that has been spent on personal expenses but I believe they still have most of the money saved. They both opened investment accounts as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My two college kids had well-paid summer internships where they earned about $10k over the summer. I know some of that has been spent on personal expenses but I believe they still have most of the money saved. They both opened investment accounts as well.

I'd like to add that we pay all tuition and living expenses during the school year although we did tell them that we would only cover in-state public universities. They would be on their own if they wanted to do something more expensive. For that reason, they will graduate without debt which is a luxury, even for many in-state public students.

[Anonymous]

My sophomore has $15k saved, mostly from what he's earned the last 5 years working PT. He also saves any money he gets for birthday/holiday gifts. We pay for college, basic food, transportation but he pays for his extras (meals out with friends, event tickets, video games, etc). He's generally pretty frugal and price conscious.

[Anonymous]

College freshman has just shy of $18,000 in his account. A little over half is what he earned over the last four summers as a lifeguard. The rest comes from graduation gifts plus birthday and holiday gifts over the years. We are paying for tuition, dorm, and food from the 529 as well as airfare home. He has to pay for everything else.

[Anonymous]

My 22 year old recent grad has 30k in Roth 401k and investments. I think it’s a decent start. We will help boost it a little further over the next 2-3 years. This generation is behind the eight ball when it comes to down payments etc we know that so we will help

[Anonymous]

My oldest son who is a Naval Officer has close to $600,000. Inheritance, invested aggressively from age 18, lives well below his means (currently deployed on a ship). Still drives our old Toyota Camry we sold to him upon high school graduation.

[Anonymous]

Mine has around a few thousand from summer jobs. He’s frugal which is great. He just opened a Roth IRA and is excited to start putting some earnings into it.