If Your Parents Paid for College...
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Anonymous
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...do you feel financially obligated to "pay it forward" and do so for your children?
This is one of the reasons my husband and I are both working and both saving for college. I'm curious to know if others feel this way. |
Anonymous
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Not an obligation, but I see what a massive advantage it was for me in starting out my life and want the same for my kids. My parents paid for bare, bare bones and I worked part time to supplement, and I think that was perfect. (Research shows kids that work part-time in college actually perform better.)
I don't feel a moral obligation, just a desire. |
Anonymous
| I would say I was raised to take care of my child's education. |
Anonymous
| Yes I do. |
Anonymous
| I don't know about paying it forward, but I think I've had a lot more choices in my life after college because I had no debt coming out of it. I think it would be really crappy to saddle my kids with a mountain of debt when I'm able to help them and didn't have to deal with that myself. Unless I thought for some reason they needed to take it on themselves. Like if they insisted on going to some tiny college that no one has ever heard of but costs like $80K a year so there's no way they'd be getting good value out of it. I'm not paying for that. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Completely agree. That's another reason I like the idea of funding their college... get to continue to have some influence over pretty major life decisions and a major life transition. Have to wield that power/influence wisely so it doesn't backfire, but you definitely get more of a say when you are paying the bills. |
Anonymous
| Not an obligation but it was a HUGE help that I started my life with no debt and I would like to pass on the same advantage to my kids. Also, concentrating on my studies was much easier as I didn't have to worry about work (For this reason, I have a tremendous amount of respect for people who work and study together). |
Anonymous
| My parents didn't pay for my college and I consider it my obligation to pay for my kids' undergraduate degrees. |
Anonymous
| Obligation, no. It's a privilege that will be subject to certain minimum performance standards. It will also only be public, not private school. |
Anonymous
| They said they'd only pay if I lived at home and went to UMD and that's what I did. I received an amazing education there and have enjoyed a successful career in my field. When my kids go to college, that will also be the deal. And if they don't get in, they can go to CC for two years and then they have to be accepted. |
Anonymous
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I had loans because I chose to go to a private school instead of public, which my parents would have fully covered. My loans were about 22k in the end (got some financial aid from the school so the loans weren't crazy).
I would try to do the same for my kids, though im not planning on having any. Not decided, though. |
Anonymous
| I do feel an obligation to pay it forward. And hope my children will do the same for their children. |
Anonymous
| My parents paid for mine. My husband paid for his via military. Yes, we will do our best to pay for our children. We started with the prepaid for 4 years and now just started the 529. My life was far easier getting it paid for than my husband. |
Anonymous
| I see what an amazing gift it was to come out of college with no loans - the opportunities it afforded me- so yes- I plan to give my kids this same gift. |