How important are college costs to you, even if you can afford any college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

We drive two used cars. Paid $22k for one and $12k for another. We'd never buy a new car. Such a waste of money.

Yeah but what kind are they?

Not relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I made more than enough money (just under 7 figures at my peak) to pay for any college whatsoever for each of my kids, but there was no way in hell I was going to pay for private school unless I was paying top tier. It's just not worth it.

You'll find a lot of posters on this board with money who will say that they'll happily pay for second tier schools that nobody's ever heard of -- including those silly "CTCL" schools. I think they're all nuts.

There’s probably some in between no name schools and top notch. I think one of my kids would flourish in SLAC but there’s no way we can afford a 80k/year school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For us, we have the money, so I don’t care what it costs. (Since that what you asked). I want my child to go where they are comfortable. That’s it.

I would argue that if you have to sell assets then you can’t “afford” any college. That’s having to choose between your assets and college. I don’t think it’s worth 50,000 more a year, but I will pay it because I have it. You’re in a different situation.

You're not very smart if you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash just sitting there earning nothing. "Assets" include stocks, etc.

lol ... why do you even care, it's not your money.

Because I wouldn't trust financial advice from anybody so stupid.

Not the PP but our HHI is north of 3M a year. We set of 529s when the kids were babies and dumped a chunk of money into them that has grown. We will probably use that to pay for college. But, we could also just pay for college out of cash flow every year. It’s not really any different than paying for private school now. We sometimes have hundreds of thousands of dollars in our bank account because one of us got a huge distribution that day. Before we move that money to investments, we can write a 70K check for college on a random Tuesday. Not everyone is so worried about money that they stress about their investments the way you do.

Liar.

I am definitely not a liar. Our kids are all under 10 and I never think about how we will pay for college. I totally understand that most people do. I was simply responding to the poster who thought it was ridiculous to ever have hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in a bank account. If you have enough money, it just happens sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

Well, I think it’s a waste of money and can’t fathom why you’d spend money on that. But clearly we value different things! See how that works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made more than enough money (just under 7 figures at my peak) to pay for any college whatsoever for each of my kids, but there was no way in hell I was going to pay for private school unless I was paying top tier. It's just not worth it.

You'll find a lot of posters on this board with money who will say that they'll happily pay for second tier schools that nobody's ever heard of -- including those silly "CTCL" schools. I think they're all nuts.

There’s probably some in between no name schools and top notch. I think one of my kids would flourish in SLAC but there’s no way we can afford a 80k/year school.

Maybe. But we are Virginia residents. Once our kids got into either UVA or William & Mary (three of them did), we didn't have to insist that they have a very good reason for needing to go elsewhere, because they were all smart enough to know why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

Well, I think it’s a waste of money and can’t fathom why you’d spend money on that. But clearly we value different things! See how that works?

Yes, I see how it works. One of us is logical and one of us isn't. One of us is happy to throw money away for no reason other than to over-indulge our children and the other isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

Well, I think it’s a waste of money and can’t fathom why you’d spend money on that. But clearly we value different things! See how that works?

Yes, I see how it works. One of us is logical and one of us isn't. One of us is happy to throw money away for no reason other than to over-indulge our children and the other isn't.

Whew, OK. Best of luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made more than enough money (just under 7 figures at my peak) to pay for any college whatsoever for each of my kids, but there was no way in hell I was going to pay for private school unless I was paying top tier. It's just not worth it.

You'll find a lot of posters on this board with money who will say that they'll happily pay for second tier schools that nobody's ever heard of -- including those silly "CTCL" schools. I think they're all nuts.

There’s probably some in between no name schools and top notch. I think one of my kids would flourish in SLAC but there’s no way we can afford a 80k/year school.

Maybe. But we are Virginia residents. Once our kids got into either UVA or William & Mary (three of them did), we didn't have to insist that they have a very good reason for needing to go elsewhere, because they were all smart enough to know why.

Well not everyone is as rich or smart as you and your family PP. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I made more than enough money (just under 7 figures at my peak) to pay for any college whatsoever for each of my kids, but there was no way in hell I was going to pay for private school unless I was paying top tier. It's just not worth it.

You'll find a lot of posters on this board with money who will say that they'll happily pay for second tier schools that nobody's ever heard of -- including those silly "CTCL" schools. I think they're all nuts.

Ugh. What a disparaging, judgy post. A lot of ctcl schools are fantastic and offer significant aid.
OP, most schools will offer merit aid if your kid is a good student. Have you checked that out? Also, nothing wrong with state schools!! Have you kid visit. Mine was down on umd until we did an official tour. A great tour guide can help your kid see the positives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

Is this OP? Wow, that's rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

Is this OP? Wow, that's rude.

Not OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made more than enough money (just under 7 figures at my peak) to pay for any college whatsoever for each of my kids, but there was no way in hell I was going to pay for private school unless I was paying top tier. It's just not worth it.

You'll find a lot of posters on this board with money who will say that they'll happily pay for second tier schools that nobody's ever heard of -- including those silly "CTCL" schools. I think they're all nuts.

+1 Luckily DC had the grades for top schools and significant merit at others so we never had to cross the bridge to having such a conversation.

But that is the question. Is even a top tier school worth $80k a year if your child gets significant merit at another school? My kid has high stats and that is the decision I am grappling with. I am in a similar situation to the OP. As a single parent, have a reasonable income (but not one where I can pay full tuition) but have some money in an account from my parents (who passed away) that means I will not quality for aid. The question for me is whether to put all of that money to college tuition or not. (I do own my house and have a good amount of retirement savings.)

No one can answer this question but you, because each kid is different, each family is different and priorities might be different even for siblings from the same family. We were in this situation, choosing between a nearly full pay at top 10 school and a full rude at a top 50 school (Stamps scholarship). We ended up going with the more expensive option. I know, many people say that they would not make that choice, but it was right for my kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won’t pay a lot for clothes or cars or alcohol or beauty treatments or jewelry or fine dining any of that stuff but yeah, I will pay tuition at whatever college my kid wants to go to. My kid goes to an $80k school, my pants are from Old Navy. Makes me happy. YMMV.

+1000

DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice?

And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools)

Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money.

We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no.

So what kind of cars do you drive?

And how much is your house worth?

Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k.

Why do you need that second home? What a waste.

LOL nice try. We're not throwing money away on it. We didn't pay more for it than it was worth, and it's an appreciating asset. Unlike some BS no-name second tier overpriced private college.

I think you need a better home office manager. Doesn't sound like your current system is very efficient.