I hope you're joking. Yes of course a family making $300k per year can save for college. They have to choose to not spend their entire $300k on the house and vacations and other expenses, of course. |
We all know about anecdotes. Most people of lesser means do not live beyond their means. This is one of the biggest myth or propaganda that people who "made it" believe. These people you are talking about take public transportation, buy used clothes, skip meals, live in 1 bedroom apartment etc |
From 1999 to 2019, median household income grew by only 15.7% (inflation-adjusted), far trailing college cost increases (84% for public four-year tuition inflation-adjusted). There’s no way to keep up with the increases.
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I am the person you are having this exchange with, and I don't think retirement accounts should be excluded as long as the 10% penalty for withdrawing from them before 59.5 is waived. (Not the taxes, but the penalty.) But, abuse of the current system is curtailed by the limits on tax-deferred/free retirement account contributions each year. There is no such limit on home equity - a parent could theoretically dump all savings into paying off a large mortgage and then apply for, and receive, financial aid. Still waiting for a compelling reason not to include home equity . . . |
I can share some information about the medical school program in Senegal a country in West Africa because I was admitted into the public medical school after obtaining my HS diploma in biology. So in Senegal it's a 7 years program. You are admitted after having excelled in one of the scientific HS programs. The freshman year is brutal. Less than 20% continue into the second year. And every what after that the cutting continues. By the 7th year you have less than 5% of the original class left. Once you have completed the 7 years, you need to do a 3 years residency program. Next, you often go abroad to do your fellowship for another few years because by then there are so many scholarships available foe the few students left. |
Some days I wonder why Africa is so poor. There were a few students from Africa in AE program at Georgia Tech and they were so good. One mu teammate was from Mali and I was shocked honestly that most of the math and physics we did in the first year he had already studied in HS and he told me he was in a regular program back in his country. It makes you wonder about our education system before college. |
Regurgitating the heavily-investigated (and often debunked) Bennet hypothesis does not establish you as an expert. Here is a summary of the findings for and against it, for those interested: https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/history-of-student-loans-the-bennett-hypothesis And nobody said anything about growth in teaching staff--I said health care costs, which are attached to all staff who receive benefits. A large--and growing--proportion of teaching staff do not. At any rate, we're about to engage in a whole-of-nation test of Bennett's proposition, and I guess we'll see what happens. I don't expect good things. |
It’s funny then that financial experts use the term to describe people who can't pay despite having planned, yet don't qualify for FA. Huh. |
Med schools are going to copy what the rest of the world is doing: Make it any 5-6.5 year program straight out of high school. One year of orened + 4-5 years of med school. |
^ 1 year of premed + 4- 5 years of med school |
He does live at home and attends CC and it still isn’t affordable. Not at all. The only way to make it affordable would have him graduating in appr. 10-12 yrs. |
I'm at 150K with a rising junior but I made less than 50K when she was born. It's great that you have enough savings on hand, but lumping 150K in with 600K is positive foolish. |
Someone making $200k could have adequately saved for $40-50k per year. That's 95% of colleges. If you want the 90k ones you can choose to adjust your lifestyle and save more (hint it's likely not worth that and it's not needed but that is a choice) |
Our CC are about $6k per year. My kid earns $10-12 k working just summers and Xmas break. Not sure how that is not affordable. More could be earned working or during the school year quite easily. Then the 4 year is $25-30k for the final 2 years. It's doable for most kids and it's minimal loans |
A lot Americans still look down on community colleges. |