Do most people pay for college out of pocket?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will feel markedly like a chump when I write the first check for $84k and change in the summer. Ugh. Full pay over here.

You pay one semester at a time. Generally, August and late December.

Do most colleges offer a monthly payment plan?

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are upper middle class, so not insanely wealthy like doctors, investment bankers, and executives. But the price of tuition is baffling to me. I don’t know how anyone can pay for out-of-state or private schools. It’s pocket change for the wealthy, and if you are low-income enough you get aid. Middle class parents have it the worst.

I wish we lived in Florida or Georgia. Those schools are cheap and provide solid education!

Middle class do just fine with financial aid at most private schools. You are likely upper class.

To qualify for financial aid, HHI has to be below $100k, $150k, somewhere in that ballpark. $200k-$300k HHI disqualifies you from any type of finaid. I wouldn’t consider 300k to be upper class.

Wrong on all counts. 300k is upper class. 200-250k will get some aid a many private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the "chump" poster. Kid got mountains of merit aid plus has a great in-state option, but wants the very selective private. We can afford it, it's fine. But it makes me feel like a chump that we are paying more because we have been saving since birth. I'm cool with it--don't count it in our net worth--have plenty of retirement savings. I've never paid before so didn't realize we can go semester by semester. That will help.

I understand- we gave the kids the option also. I am glad my kids didn’t choose full-pay top20- and took good scholarships.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There are millions of parents earning in the Top 3% and above. Millions. Executives, lawyers, SWE’s in the tech field, doctors, investment bankers.

or someone who may have been driving a beat up car just to save for ivy education for their kids

Like the rest of us are rolling around in 90k cars. Sticker price on my vehicle is less than one semester at ivy league.

But do you drive that $45K vehicle for 10-12 years? Or do you replace it every 5-6 years? For "donut hole families" that can make the difference in. what you can afford for your kid (that and other similar cost saving choices you make along the way)

Most people who claim donut hole are making $200-500K and its a joke as they could save and choose not to and then want to complain about the cost of college and expect others to pay.

$200K family of 4 living in a hcol hard pressed to spend $80K x 4 yrs x 2 kids = $640K without impacting retirement.

We could easily do it if we wanted to. It's all about lifestyle choices. When you upgraded your house, we stayed in ours. When you traveled, we didn't. When you buy fancy things, we don't. What does impacting retirement even mean? You want to save a ton for retirement that is ok but then don't scream poverty when it comes to paying for college.

I am so sorry, but who is upgrading their home on a 200k HHi? 🤣

Travel is budget and nothing is fancy. Most people who live in HCOL areas learn to stretch every dollar when their income is in the 200k zone. Housing, health care, child care, food, insurance and retirement savings tend to absorb everything.

Most people I know have, especially buying houses $800K+. We aren't stretched think at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will feel markedly like a chump when I write the first check for $84k and change in the summer. Ugh. Full pay over here.

Why not have kid apply to schools where generous merit aid is an option?

They could not give up the status.

Suckers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean people are paying 40/50k cash for new cars, so you'd think they could dig deeper for college when they had 18 years to save?

We're UMC and will pay for instate. I hope it's not 90k by the time it's our turn.

Last year I paid almost $110K to educate two kids and more than that on a car. No idea how people who are not making seven figure salaries and/or have trust funds manage it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are millions of parents earning in the Top 3% and above. Millions. Executives, lawyers, SWE’s in the tech field, doctors, investment bankers.

or someone who may have been driving a beat up car just to save for ivy education for their kids

Like the rest of us are rolling around in 90k cars. Sticker price on my vehicle is less than one semester at ivy league.

But do you drive that $45K vehicle for 10-12 years? Or do you replace it every 5-6 years? For "donut hole families" that can make the difference in. what you can afford for your kid (that and other similar cost saving choices you make along the way)

I have one 14 year old car and one newer 30k car (because our ancient car died) car and that's a drop in the ocean of college costs for two kids if we were to pay full pay for a private college. It's really not comparable at all in terms of cost.

It's comparable in terms of mindset for saving for college (and retirement and other aspects of life). Many buy new cars every 4-5 years and that mindset carries over to most other aspects of life---they spend money they dont' need to spend and then wonder why they haven't been able to save.

Us personally, our last car loan was when we were 26 (Honda Civic). Drove that car for 8 years, once it was paid off (in 3 years) kept saving the monthly payment so that we had over $26 K in the "auto savings". Then sold the car for $5K and had $31K to put towards a new vehicle. We added in 6K and paid cash for a luxury vehicle. And never looked back. Kept that car for 11 years before we gave it to a family member.

I have to laugh when you act like a car is 8 years old. We keep our cars 12-20 years (that one was totaled or we'd still have it). Norm for us is 16 years. We drive them till they are not safe or not worth fixing. And, then we buy new. However my last car was $50K as we could afford it in cash so I don't get how people scream poverty on more money. Our next car will be that much too but cash. I cannot even imagine keeping a car 8-11 years.

I cannot imagine driving around a pos 11 year old car.

Choices, my dear. My car is old but looks and works great, so your loss.

We buy cars using cash and run them into the ground and then get another one. I dread getting a new car because I always seem to scrape curbs trying to turn or scrape buildings when I get too close. A lot of dings. I love my car by the time it gets old, it’s comfortable and I’m used to everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will feel markedly like a chump when I write the first check for $84k and change in the summer. Ugh. Full pay over here.

You pay one semester at a time. Generally, August and late December.

Do most colleges offer a monthly payment plan?

No

My DD’s medium Catholic school does. Divide costs by 10 months per academic year. And very easy to adjust with a phone call after prices changed when she switched dorms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will feel markedly like a chump when I write the first check for $84k and change in the summer. Ugh. Full pay over here.

It’s nice you can write a check for $84k. Most can’t do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are millions of parents earning in the Top 3% and above. Millions. Executives, lawyers, SWE’s in the tech field, doctors, investment bankers.

or someone who may have been driving a beat up car just to save for ivy education for their kids

Like the rest of us are rolling around in 90k cars. Sticker price on my vehicle is less than one semester at ivy league.

But do you drive that $45K vehicle for 10-12 years? Or do you replace it every 5-6 years? For "donut hole families" that can make the difference in. what you can afford for your kid (that and other similar cost saving choices you make along the way)

I have one 14 year old car and one newer 30k car (because our ancient car died) car and that's a drop in the ocean of college costs for two kids if we were to pay full pay for a private college. It's really not comparable at all in terms of cost.

It's comparable in terms of mindset for saving for college (and retirement and other aspects of life). Many buy new cars every 4-5 years and that mindset carries over to most other aspects of life---they spend money they dont' need to spend and then wonder why they haven't been able to save.

Us personally, our last car loan was when we were 26 (Honda Civic). Drove that car for 8 years, once it was paid off (in 3 years) kept saving the monthly payment so that we had over $26 K in the "auto savings". Then sold the car for $5K and had $31K to put towards a new vehicle. We added in 6K and paid cash for a luxury vehicle. And never looked back. Kept that car for 11 years before we gave it to a family member.

I have to laugh when you act like a car is 8 years old. We keep our cars 12-20 years (that one was totaled or we'd still have it). Norm for us is 16 years. We drive them till they are not safe or not worth fixing. And, then we buy new. However my last car was $50K as we could afford it in cash so I don't get how people scream poverty on more money. Our next car will be that much too but cash. I cannot even imagine keeping a car 8-11 years.

I cannot imagine driving around a pos 11 year old car.

Choices, my dear. My car is old but looks and works great, so your loss.

I also can’t imagine driving an 11-year-old car. One of mine is 19 and getting ready for historic tags. 😂🤣

I guess we have saved the equivalent of in-state college tuition by driving an old car so long. Most other people would have spent $100,000 or more on cars over that time period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will feel markedly like a chump when I write the first check for $84k and change in the summer. Ugh. Full pay over here.

You pay one semester at a time. Generally, August and late December.

Do most colleges offer a monthly payment plan?

No

My DD’s medium Catholic school does. Divide costs by 10 months per academic year. And very easy to adjust with a phone call after prices changed when she switched dorms.

UMD has a payment plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are millions of parents earning in the Top 3% and above. Millions. Executives, lawyers, SWE’s in the tech field, doctors, investment bankers.

or someone who may have been driving a beat up car just to save for ivy education for their kids

Like the rest of us are rolling around in 90k cars. Sticker price on my vehicle is less than one semester at ivy league.

But do you drive that $45K vehicle for 10-12 years? Or do you replace it every 5-6 years? For "donut hole families" that can make the difference in. what you can afford for your kid (that and other similar cost saving choices you make along the way)

Most people who claim donut hole are making $200-500K and its a joke as they could save and choose not to and then want to complain about the cost of college and expect others to pay.

$200K family of 4 living in a hcol hard pressed to spend $80K x 4 yrs x 2 kids = $640K without impacting retirement.

They won't spend that because 80k schools (privates) will give them FA, especially with 4 kids. Most css schools still consider siblings enrolled.

Even with FA, you are still looking at closer to $500K. And also, it's 2 kids, not 4.

You also assume that most schools give out generous FA. I don't think that's true.

My DC wants to major in something very specific, something that most private schools don't offer. So, they'd have to go to a large public, possibly oos, that doesn't offer much financial aid for people making $200K (in hcol area).

[Anonymous]

We don’t qualify for need based aid. Our son’s school will cost 23k after merit aid. We could afford 90k if he was admitted to one of those schools but socially I’ve been open about being unwilling to enable our son to take out debt or risk our other financial goals.

We could pay his COA out of income, cash savings, or 529. We plan to use the 529.

[Anonymous]

The people congratulating themselves for sacrificing while judging others without knowing anything about their circumstances is cracking me up. OK you love your kids more than we do because you drove the same car for 10 years.

Here's what the sanctimonious self-sacrificing crowd doesn't get. There are those of us who think that YOU'RE foolish to pay 85K per year for college. It doesn't make financial sense in most cases. You're obsessed with the "best" schools when most research shows that kids going to good publics do just as well. So there are those of us who think, unless you're wealthy, it's foolish to save for 85K a year when you can get the same quality for 40K per year. We're not as into prestige and we're certainly not paying for it. So just know as you're judging us, we're also looking at your values with some critical questions....

Sorry for my tone, but the judgment assuming those who haven't saved for 85K per year are just selfishly splurging.... it's so far from how many of us approach this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are millions of parents earning in the Top 3% and above. Millions. Executives, lawyers, SWE’s in the tech field, doctors, investment bankers.

or someone who may have been driving a beat up car just to save for ivy education for their kids

Like the rest of us are rolling around in 90k cars. Sticker price on my vehicle is less than one semester at ivy league.

But do you drive that $45K vehicle for 10-12 years? Or do you replace it every 5-6 years? For "donut hole families" that can make the difference in. what you can afford for your kid (that and other similar cost saving choices you make along the way)

Most people who claim donut hole are making $200-500K and its a joke as they could save and choose not to and then want to complain about the cost of college and expect others to pay.

$200K family of 4 living in a hcol hard pressed to spend $80K x 4 yrs x 2 kids = $640K without impacting retirement.

We could easily do it if we wanted to. It's all about lifestyle choices. When you upgraded your house, we stayed in ours. When you traveled, we didn't. When you buy fancy things, we don't. What does impacting retirement even mean? You want to save a ton for retirement that is ok but then don't scream poverty when it comes to paying for college.

I am so sorry, but who is upgrading their home on a 200k HHi? 🤣

Travel is budget and nothing is fancy. Most people who live in HCOL areas learn to stretch every dollar when their income is in the 200k zone. Housing, health care, child care, food, insurance and retirement savings tend to absorb everything.

Those that bought a home when they made $100K might decide to upgrade their home once they hit $200K