We are not saving for college
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Anonymous
Wtf is wap |
Anonymous
| If they want it, they'll earn it. |
Anonymous
' Um, her kid is 15 months old, so probably too young to get a work permit. And any mother of a young child is not working a second job. Get a grip - your post comes off as overly hysterical. |
Anonymous
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It's really not a big deal. I'm another who had zero saved for college, working class parents. I got into the school of I wanted but the FA package meant loans of $17K a year. Instead, I took advantage of DC residency and chose an out of state public university. I worked through college and graduated with about 12K in loans. My work experience (and degree) landed me a nice job at a Top 10 Most Wanted Employer.
Nobody I knew expected their parents to pay for school yet all of my friends from similar backgrounds are doing very well for themselves. I didn't realize that parents who werent wealthy paid for college until I'd graduated! Your kids don't have to work through school like I did, but I just didn't like loans. 6k of my loan balance was from my first year when I didnt work and I was turned off. My good friend opted to go community college and then UMCP. For MD and VA residents, you're very fortunate to have community colleges that feed into good public universities. Nobody cares where you started and its a lot cheaper. I'm seriously considering this option for my kid. Does anyone else think its insane that parents are expected to save for almost 20years in order to afford college? |
Anonymous
| College tuition is a bubble. Tulip bulbs. There is no reason why a poorly paid TA teaching american history to a class of 30-100 freshmen should cost $50K/year. There is also no reason why is should have gone up tenfold over the last 20 years. Therefore, I would not kill yourself trying to save to feed a bubble. Nor beat yourself up if you are unable to do so. |
Anonymous
| I agree PP. And if few were left willing to pay it, we'd see a change. It's so not worth stressing over. 2 years of community college and living at home first is a great option. |
Anonymous
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OP - your child is only 15 months old. While there are high HHI families in DC who probably have thousands saved by that time, there are tons of middle America families who don't start thinking about it until the child hits middle school. Tuck away $50 here and there as you can for now; also while DC is young, why not cut back a little on Christmas/birthdays/birthday parties etc and throw that money in as well - or ask relatives/grandparents for that.
Then hopefully by the time your DC gets a bit older and gets to school, the amount that you're probably spending in childcare now can be saved for college - at least some/most of it. I am also of the mindset that college savings is important enough to where you can cut corners on camps, expensive extracurriculars etc esp in grade school where those extracurriculars don't "count" -- i.e. they're for fun but aren't make or break for college apps. It won't make you popular with your child if everyone is talking horseback riding lessons and they can't in 5th grade, but believe me if that results in a few thousand dollars extra that you can hand them to cover their books or rent in soph year in college, it will mean more to them to have the breathing room financially. |
Anonymous
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We have an almost 4 year old. No college fund, we don't own a home, no substantial emergency fund.
We'll get there. But we'll be more fraught over it if we keep reading about all the people around here with 100K in college accounts for 6 month olds. |
Anonymous
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People might pule at this suggestion... but we can't afford to put money into a 529 either right now. What we did - realizing the value of compounded tax free interest - was to take 30,000 from our retirement (not 401k, just brokerage) and put that into the 529 when kids were 1 yo. We figure even if we don't touch contribute another penny for 5 or 6 years it should be enough to be a decent nest egg by the time they are 18. Granted, this assumes you even have the retirement funds to do this, but it was a way for us to feel good about what we did... and since we took the money from a non tax advantaged account and put it into one, it seemed to make sense. Plus well enjoy the deduction for years to come.
Also in that daycare boat.... Hoping things improve when kids are in school |
Anonymous
| Realize that people are all over the spectrum with college. There are some families esp in this area where the parents can hand their kids 250k to allow their kids to go any place they want at 60k+ per year. There are others who can contribute 0. My view has always been that if you can contribute 1-2 yrs at 60k, you'll be in good shape; the kid can finance half with jobs/loans and you can finance half (possibly more if they end up being national merit, go some place in-state, get some minor athletic or academic scholarship etc.). So don't drive yourself nuts thinking you have 18 yrs to save every dime needed for a top flight college. Just do what you can. I second the suggestion on cutting back a bit on toys/Christmas things when the DC is young; that may only add up to a few hundred dollars but it'll mean more to DC down the road than another extra toy or 2 mean to a 1-2 yr old. Also consider investing the money as well; you still have a very long horizon and should benefit the same way you benefit from investing a 401k rather than keeping it all liquid in a savings account. |
Anonymous
| I worked and paid my own way through college, and so did my husband. We're both happy, healthy, financially responsible people who didn't suffer because our parents aren't wealthy. A lot of people here have so much money and just don't get it. Do what you can and don't stress. |
Anonymous
| do max ira, tsp, 401k contributions before you even think about dedicated college savings programs like the 529 plans. Why? Because you can choose to w/draw from those programs to pay a kid's college expenses but you can't w/draw from a 529 to keep yourself in cat food when you retire. |
Anonymous
| Anybody know of anyone who got their degree in europe? |
Anonymous
Sure. Why? Note: they had citizenship abroad and didn't mind working abroad |
Anonymous
+1. If my kids want to go to college, we'll figure out a way to make it happen. My parents refinanced their house to pay for my college, and we're in a position to do the same. However, if I'm going to invest that kind of money into something, I'm going to make sure my kid is serious about the educational part of it all. I'm not sure I got as much out of the educational side of college as I could have had I waited until a few years after high school to go. So far my high school junior is not really inspiring me to throw much money towards college. Actually, I would need DC to prove to me that they were serious in community college before I'd commit funds to a 4 year, more expensive school. But that's just my one child. I could easily imagine one of my other kids being more gung ho on school. In any case, we are not in a position to put much aside. Yes, we could get rid of cable & cell phones, but really, saving $3000/year in entertainment that the whole family enjoys when the cost of a "moderate" public school is $22,000 seems so freaking pointless. |