Paying for and saving for college - how do UMC people do it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way we do it is we have at least one person in the family who runs the numbers and makes sure that a high income translates into covering all your bases. DH will spend every dollar in his checking account, and have it refill on the next payday, and feel great about the fact that he didn't touch savings. He never carried debt but also didn't really save when we met. He grew up comfortable but not rich, got a government job that made him comfortable but not rich, and all was right in the world.

I have an apocalyptic worldview w/r/t finances, stemming from falling from comfortably middle class to what Warren calls "the ragged edge of the middle class" when I was growing up. I run FireCalc projections at least twice a month on our savings. I track everything. I expect downturns. I plan as if we're going to be laid off, permanently incapacitated, bankrupted, and robbed.

So before we had a kid we saved ~45% of our income. No car, then one car, bought less than half the house we were approved for, all SLs paid off, no other debt, stay friends with people who earn much less than we do instead of trying to maneuver into country clubs or whatever people on these boards are always on about. When we had a kid it dropped to ~30%. Now we have enough in savings to never put another dollar in retirement and retire with better than 100% income replacement, DD is funded for a 4 year instate but we will likely add to get to 4 year OOS public levels (and cashflow private if appropriate). And DH has rubbed off enough on me that I'm thinking about spending some of our money now (second house?), but I've rubbed off enough on him that he's wondering why we would need to do so since our life is fine as is.

What you did is called planning. As is obvious, many people do not do that.
We did the same. Lived like grad students, drove our grad school cars, didn't eat out much, spent less than $1k/year on vacations, etc. for 2-3 years. Threw 2nd salary at our $85K+ in student loans from undergrad. Once those were paid off, we saved 20% for first house (first house with mortgage, insurance was $300/month less than rent) and didn't overbuy our first home---nice 4 bedroom 2.5 bath in adequate area should we still be there for ES in a decade (could have spent $150K more but refused to overspend). Only then did we start allowing ourselves to spend a bit more. But basically saved, saved saved, so that first new car 10 years after graduation was paid for in cash. Haven't taken a car loan since we were in grad school. So yes we had decent salaries (both engineers), we worked hard to save one salary for almost 5 years and then continued saving half of it, all while our salaries more than doubled during that 5 years. Put us on firm footing for the future. We made choice not to have kids until we had a house, new cars and decent savings. Back in those days we didn't visit Starbucks more than 1xmonth and ate out 2-3x/month, packed our lunches all but 1 day a week (while our co-workers often spent $10-12/day for lunch and another $5 on snacks, we packed lunches and snacks for $2-3/day for both of us---that's $20/day savings and $80/week---$250/month just saved on lunches/snacks. Small stuff but it added up for us.

Once kids arrived, we started saving in 529 and knew if we front loaded it, we would be done saving by time they are 12-14. Had we needed to we would have continued added to ensure they can attend college debt free.
But we were 35 before we started taking "fancy vacations" 2-3x/year. Before that it was driving or flying and staying in a condo and cooking meals.

[Anonymous]

We sent our child to a non-flagship state school with really low tuition (<$10k/year) because they were majoring in a subject such as Accounting or Nursing in which ability to find a decent job was not in question. We trusted that child was really well prepared for college coming from a “bad” public hs but took hardest courses. Graduated on time, debt-free and worked out great in our family’s eyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way we do it is we have at least one person in the family who runs the numbers and makes sure that a high income translates into covering all your bases. DH will spend every dollar in his checking account, and have it refill on the next payday, and feel great about the fact that he didn't touch savings. He never carried debt but also didn't really save when we met. He grew up comfortable but not rich, got a government job that made him comfortable but not rich, and all was right in the world.

I have an apocalyptic worldview w/r/t finances, stemming from falling from comfortably middle class to what Warren calls "the ragged edge of the middle class" when I was growing up. I run FireCalc projections at least twice a month on our savings. I track everything. I expect downturns. I plan as if we're going to be laid off, permanently incapacitated, bankrupted, and robbed.

So before we had a kid we saved ~45% of our income. No car, then one car, bought less than half the house we were approved for, all SLs paid off, no other debt, stay friends with people who earn much less than we do instead of trying to maneuver into country clubs or whatever people on these boards are always on about. When we had a kid it dropped to ~30%. Now we have enough in savings to never put another dollar in retirement and retire with better than 100% income replacement, DD is funded for a 4 year instate but we will likely add to get to 4 year OOS public levels (and cashflow private if appropriate). And DH has rubbed off enough on me that I'm thinking about spending some of our money now (second house?), but I've rubbed off enough on him that he's wondering why we would need to do so since our life is fine as is.

I applaud your planning, but the bolded is a little out of control. As Frankie says, "Relax."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We sent our child to a non-flagship state school with really low tuition (<$10k/year) because they were majoring in a subject such as Accounting or Nursing in which ability to find a decent job was not in question. We trusted that child was really well prepared for college coming from a “bad” public hs but took hardest courses. Graduated on time, debt-free and worked out great in our family’s eyes.

+1
I posted earlier to say our DS is attending an OOS state school that ended up being no more expensive and in some cases perhaps even cheaper than in state. I don’t know why some people automatically reject any consideration of an OOS school. Ours received discounts for his SAT and athletic money that he never would have received in state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sent our child to a non-flagship state school with really low tuition (<$10k/year) because they were majoring in a subject such as Accounting or Nursing in which ability to find a decent job was not in question. We trusted that child was really well prepared for college coming from a “bad” public hs but took hardest courses. Graduated on time, debt-free and worked out great in our family’s eyes.

+1
I posted earlier to say our DS is attending an OOS state school that ended up being no more expensive and in some cases perhaps even cheaper than in state. I don’t know why some people automatically reject any consideration of an OOS school. Ours received discounts for his SAT and athletic money that he never would have received in state.

OOS schools and many privates can end up being affordable. Many privates give decent merit awards, even to kids at the 50% of scores. So don't rule out the $50-60K schools because they might end up being only 30-40K

[Anonymous]

How are we doing it? Our kid will have the GI bill from my reserve career. I’m not surprised that the DCUM elite never consider the military as an option, but your kids can look into service academies, ROTC or the reserves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are we doing it? Our kid will have the GI bill from my reserve career. I’m not surprised that the DCUM elite never consider the military as an option, but your kids can look into service academies, ROTC or the reserves.

This is what one of my kids did, got admitted to two military academies along with UPenn and MIT, went to West Point, no debt, great experience.

[Anonymous]

The good news is the 73% attend public colleges.

Of the other 27%, 20% of those are private for profit and in most cases should be avoided.

That leaves only about 22% at private non profit. Of those a large majority discount.

Not sure what’s left but there is likely a subset of 50-100 colleges (out of 4,000) that you likely won’t be able to afford without significant loans. Most of those will be very competitive schools for top students. If your student is one of those, then flagship state school is your best option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sent our child to a non-flagship state school with really low tuition (<$10k/year) because they were majoring in a subject such as Accounting or Nursing in which ability to find a decent job was not in question. We trusted that child was really well prepared for college coming from a “bad” public hs but took hardest courses. Graduated on time, debt-free and worked out great in our family’s eyes.

+1
I posted earlier to say our DS is attending an OOS state school that ended up being no more expensive and in some cases perhaps even cheaper than in state. I don’t know why some people automatically reject any consideration of an OOS school. Ours received discounts for his SAT and athletic money that he never would have received in state.

OOS schools and many privates can end up being affordable. Many privates give decent merit awards, even to kids at the 50% of scores. So don't rule out the $50-60K schools because they might end up being only 30-40K

My DS’s university is about 26k a year for non-resident and that’s before the reductions. It was about $22k when he started 4 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Another thread talked about this:https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1075993.page

[Anonymous]

A close friend works at a top uni and says almost nobody pays full sticker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A close friend works at a top uni and says almost nobody pays full sticker.

I know several UVA out of state students who pay full price out of state sticker.

[Anonymous]

Community college is your friend. We have some really bright kids but we've already told them they will start with NVCC and then transfer and wrap it up at a state school. Start saving now though, it is expensive no matter what and at that income level you will likely get nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sent our child to a non-flagship state school with really low tuition (<$10k/year) because they were majoring in a subject such as Accounting or Nursing in which ability to find a decent job was not in question. We trusted that child was really well prepared for college coming from a “bad” public hs but took hardest courses. Graduated on time, debt-free and worked out great in our family’s eyes.

+1
I posted earlier to say our DS is attending an OOS state school that ended up being no more expensive and in some cases perhaps even cheaper than in state. I don’t know why some people automatically reject any consideration of an OOS school. Ours received discounts for his SAT and athletic money that he never would have received in state.

OOS schools and many privates can end up being affordable. Many privates give decent merit awards, even to kids at the 50% of scores. So don't rule out the $50-60K schools because they might end up being only 30-40K

Because not all of us are UMC in terms of the incomes postered here and best is we saved $120-150 per child which for us is really good and we want to pay for graduate school so only $40K is a big deal, especially when you are including graduate school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Community college is your friend. We have some really bright kids but we've already told them they will start with NVCC and then transfer and wrap it up at a state school. Start saving now though, it is expensive no matter what and at that income level you will likely get nothing.

If you are UMC which really isn't real UMC in DCUM land, it's bizarre you wouldn't pay for a state school and push for community college instead.