Best strategy to pay college for 3 kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ROTC scholarships! We have four kids and three are on full ride scholarships with monthly stipends. All are engineering majors and will be doing some tech or flying related job when they commission. They are getting wonderful College educations and serving their country. If your children are fit and smart, maybe consider the service route?

Just keep in mind that when they are serving, the military will decide where they serve. I remember a guy I went to college with found out his first duty station would be in South Korea, which he was not happy about.

If your kid gets a duty station far away, they won't be able to come "home" for everything (holidays, birthdays, etc.)

Thank you for the info.

[Anonymous]

Option 1 or sell the rental. And ignore the shoulda coulda woulda posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ROTC scholarships! We have four kids and three are on full ride scholarships with monthly stipends. All are engineering majors and will be doing some tech or flying related job when they commission. They are getting wonderful College educations and serving their country. If your children are fit and smart, maybe consider the service route?

Just keep in mind that when they are serving, the military will decide where they serve. I remember a guy I went to college with found out his first duty station would be in South Korea, which he was not happy about.

If your kid gets a duty station far away, they won't be able to come "home" for everything (holidays, birthdays, etc.)

Why would anyone NOT happy about that assignment? I'd love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t afford it.

True we can't afford but we can take a loan similar to buying a car or a house.

Then take a home equity loan or sell the rental or sell other large ticket items you can live without. Or get second jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:#1. Do not borrow from retirement. One important consideration is that if your husband borrowed from retirement and then got laid off (not an insignificant consideration in your 60s), you would have to pay back that loan immediately. That happened to my DH (before we married) but fortunately he was almost done with the repayment.

The kids should be taking out the maximum federal student loans. It's a modest amount each year and should not be a burden to repay. And important to consider that if you don't take out the loan one year it does not increase the amount you have available the next year. That is, 1st year can take out $5500, 2nd year $6500, 3rd yr and beyond $7500. If you don't take the $5500 in freshman year, you can still only take the $6500 the next year.

Sounds like they are doing this, which is good. The posters who have suggested the kids take loans need to understand that this is the maximum, anything above has to be taken by the parents, not the kids. Agree that it makes sense to take money from the rental rather than retirement (or sell it).

So far taking out money from rental is better option than retirement, in hindsight we should have taken money out when we refinanced 2 or 3 years ago but we don't want to add any additional monthly expense from the rental but now we might end up with higher rate and may be additional monthly cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t afford it.

True we can't afford but we can take a loan similar to buying a car or a house.

Then take a home equity loan or sell the rental or sell other large ticket items you can live without. Or get second jobs.

Your post come across as snarky you don't have to read or comment if you're not interested in the topic.

[Anonymous]

1. I can't work out the timeline. You should have sold the rental and paid down the mortgage on primary for best aid. You could do that this spring for FA forms next year, but not sure that's helpful.

3. All three kids should be taking the guaranteed student loan. They can take 5-7k (ish) per year which x3 is not nothing and is totally reseanable for kids to graduate with 25k ish of debt. All of this times 3 matters.

[Anonymous]

Another option which is a longer shot - scholarships. Especially the National Merit Scholarships.

If your kids are decent test takers and do pretty well at standardized tests, I think it’s worth it to do extra prep before taking the PSAT in junior year. Take a look at what they’d need. Of course you have to be okay with the schools that give full rides to National Merit Semifinalists and Finalists. It’s not the T50. But it’s also no debt.

Start looking at schools and prices and set a budget and expectations. They don’t have to go to an expensive school or out of state or live in a dorm. Have your kids part of the process and apply for scholarships as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. I can't work out the timeline. You should have sold the rental and paid down the mortgage on primary for best aid. You could do that this spring for FA forms next year, but not sure that's helpful.

3. All three kids should be taking the guaranteed student loan. They can take 5-7k (ish) per year which x3 is not nothing and is totally reseanable for kids to graduate with 25k ish of debt. All of this times 3 matters.

Selling is not an option at least this time as the we have lease agreement that is why considering loan/refinance. They are taking max loan allowed and that help reduce the tuition a little bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. I can't work out the timeline. You should have sold the rental and paid down the mortgage on primary for best aid. You could do that this spring for FA forms next year, but not sure that's helpful.

3. All three kids should be taking the guaranteed student loan. They can take 5-7k (ish) per year which x3 is not nothing and is totally reseanable for kids to graduate with 25k ish of debt. All of this times 3 matters.

Selling is not an option at least this time as the we have lease agreement that is why considering loan/refinance. They are taking max loan allowed and that help reduce the tuition a little bit.

if you're willing and if the numbers work, would you be willing to trade some/all of the rental for college? if so, take HELOC on house and rental. then when lease is over, sell house and pay off those two loans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another option which is a longer shot - scholarships. Especially the National Merit Scholarships.

If your kids are decent test takers and do pretty well at standardized tests, I think it’s worth it to do extra prep before taking the PSAT in junior year. Take a look at what they’d need. Of course you have to be okay with the schools that give full rides to National Merit Semifinalists and Finalists. It’s not the T50. But it’s also no debt.

Start looking at schools and prices and set a budget and expectations. They don’t have to go to an expensive school or out of state or live in a dorm. Have your kids part of the process and apply for scholarships as well.

The 2 kids are already in college, the 3rd one has a good score and looking to some with full ride but not the top for her major. At the end of the day we're considering the best car in state will be 40-50. We still waiting to hear from VA tech EA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quite simply you could much more easily afford college if it was public in state for all. We have a slightly lower income with 3 kids. Also 2 in college and 1 in HS. We told our kids we could only afford to cover in-state because we have prepaid tuition. We then use savings to cover room and board. We weren’t comfortable going into debt and didn’t want to help one only to say no to the others. We were very upfront when our kids were applying that they’d otherwise need generous merit aid and loans (they’d be responsible for). You’ve already commited so I’m not sure what you can do now. I would not consider borrowing against retirement. Are your kids working to contribute? Did the one in private take loans? Can you sell something?

We also told them we can only afford in state and they can go oos private if they get scholarship. DC1 is only paying half tuition, DC2 instate full tuition. They both willing to work but they don’t have work study to get a job on campus.
DC3 is high stat and applied so far she got scholarship from a couple of schools.

They can apply to be resident advisors to get housing discount. There’s also lots of on campus jobs that are not work study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quite simply you could much more easily afford college if it was public in state for all. We have a slightly lower income with 3 kids. Also 2 in college and 1 in HS. We told our kids we could only afford to cover in-state because we have prepaid tuition. We then use savings to cover room and board. We weren’t comfortable going into debt and didn’t want to help one only to say no to the others. We were very upfront when our kids were applying that they’d otherwise need generous merit aid and loans (they’d be responsible for). You’ve already commited so I’m not sure what you can do now. I would not consider borrowing against retirement. Are your kids working to contribute? Did the one in private take loans? Can you sell something?

We also told them we can only afford in state and they can go oos private if they get scholarship. DC1 is only paying half tuition, DC2 instate full tuition. They both willing to work but they don’t have work study to get a job on campus.
DC3 is high stat and applied so far she got scholarship from a couple of schools.

They can apply to be resident advisors to get housing discount. There’s also lots of on campus jobs that are not work study.

They are trying to get a job and RA for DC2, DC1 has to go off campus next year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option #1, don’t borrow against retirement.

Thank you for responding. My point was even we pay interest it is to ourselves but he is 63 and too close to retirement age to borrow from 401k.

OMG, so glad you shared this info about his age. We are in a similar situation and have done both over the years. When mortgage rates were very low, we refinanced the rental and our home and took out $$$$$$. Then we had major unexpected rental home repairs and took the money from TSP and 401k. Since your husband is over 59, he can withdraw from IRA without penalty. Just be sure to get your taxes done correctly. Some institutions withhold 10% for taxes but that will not cover state and federal. You should keep contributing to 529.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another option which is a longer shot - scholarships. Especially the National Merit Scholarships.

If your kids are decent test takers and do pretty well at standardized tests, I think it’s worth it to do extra prep before taking the PSAT in junior year. Take a look at what they’d need. Of course you have to be okay with the schools that give full rides to National Merit Semifinalists and Finalists. It’s not the T50. But it’s also no debt.

Start looking at schools and prices and set a budget and expectations. They don’t have to go to an expensive school or out of state or live in a dorm. Have your kids part of the process and apply for scholarships as well.

I thought NMS scholarships were like only $2,500 tops. Not even a dent in a $40-85K tuition.

They are as follows: National Merit Scholarships: $2,500 toward freshman year only. Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards: These are four-year renewable awards that range from $500 to $2,000 per year.