So how does a two-Fed family that gets fired send a kid to college?

[Anonymous]

Go to the cheapest place for the first year and then apply to transfer?

Do you have any merit options? What are the grades, test scores, major and where did kid apply?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a fed, but:

We have always lived a frugal lifestyle. My husband was laid off multiple times in a volatile tech sector. There were times when we were living very near the bone. It was impossible to save for college during those years. We're lucky our circumstances changed in time. Our oldest is a college sophomore now.

Don't start on "you should have saved" or "you were living it up". Most families are actually responsible and do their best. Most feds don't earn a whole lot.

+1. These people who need a pat on the back from the internet for their lifestyle are just sad.

It doesn't matter what the internet thinks. It's your kids who are affected. Community college and the military are always a good option though (seriously- no sarcasm intended!). Some people who have the means don't save because they don't think college is important. Where you put your money is where your values are.

And far more people save what they can, but tuition has outpaced inflation for 40 years and job losses make it that much harder to afford something that is much more expensive in real terms than it used to be.

People who are genuine recognize this. People who go on and on about living relative to means and values without any knowledge that any of those things are the issue…well, there’s a lot of terms for those types of people, none of them positive.

Well said.

This. One of us is a Fed. We prioritized savings but set our levels to what we expected the tuition to be. However the growth has far outstripped what we planned to put aside (even after choosing aggressive options in our 529 plan). We were fortunate that we could add more over the years but I can clearly see why other families may not be able to.

Same. There were years when the only vacations we took were driving trips to see relatives or camping by a lake in the mountains, but we always managed to save in 529 plans and 401ks. We have money for college now because we started their funds as soon as they had a social security number, and there were tradeoffs. I feel sorry for folks who couldn't put anything away. Hopefully, federal funding and private institutions with large endowments will continue to meet the needs of the truly poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well you should have been saving their whole life. If you can't afford it for whatever reason, then the kid can pay their way through community college. Not everyone is guaranteed college.

Get a life. It’s not so easy for everyone to save up hundreds of thousands of dollars. You don’t know what other expenses they’ve had, how long they’ve been feds, or anything else about them. Save your unhelpful moralizing.

Most dual feds make 200-400k, more than many others. Some of it is lifestyle choices.

NP. The people here wagging their fingers at feds need to grow up. Do you not have any concept that there can be expenses like medical issues, chronic conditions, caregiving or care facilities for older relatives, and myriad other expenses YOU don't know about from your perch on your high horse? Just citing what you think "most" dual fed couples make is not helpful. You don't know where they have to live for their jobs and how expensive that area might be, either, even if they're frugal . Just stop the empathy-free blather about what feds "should have been saving" etc. People have lives and expenses beyond just stuffing 529s with an ideal amount of cash. Damn, the total lack of thinking or empathy here is sickening. (And no, I'm not a fed or married to one, I just get sick of parent-bashing whenever someone comes on this forum worried about paying for college.)

Get a grip. Two fed households are in the top 10% of earners. I'm not buying that people can't put away 3-5K a year on those salaries. Why not go the other way and ask what kind of cars they are driving, how many vacations they take, how many travel sports they participate in, etc.? The truth is, most people do not prioritize college expenses. That's perfectly OK, but not one I would choose for my children (and we make much less than two feds).

Exactly! And most people do not prioritize living within a budget---a budget that includes saving for emergency fund, retirement and college as part of the full budget.

[Anonymous]

Stop with the preaching. Let’s offer concrete advice for the now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well you should have been saving their whole life. If you can't afford it for whatever reason, then the kid can pay their way through community college. Not everyone is guaranteed college.

Why have Americans become so cold? This is a person who is in a household with two adults in what felt like stable jobs, and they planned like most of us do - that they will have jobs. They're facing loss of BOTH jobs in a household. It's incredibly stressful. Where is the kindness? You could have said the same advice with empathy. And you chose not to.

So a two income household who has been making in the top 10%+ of USA families, likely for years. So during that time, they could(and should ) have planned and saved. Thinking "we make $300K/year we will just fund college as we go" is not a smart financial plan. Instead you should be saving for at least state U along the way. And building a 12Month emergency fund, so that way if you are unemployed, it is not an instant "how will we function".

I grew up LMC with a parent who typically got laid off every 18-24 months (FIFO queue in the manufacturing community in the 70s/80s). We somehow survived, because my parents planned and lived below their means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the cheapest place for the first year and then apply to transfer?

Do you have any merit options? What are the grades, test scores, major and where did kid apply?

Yes more info please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Did you intend to pay from your current salaries for tuition or do you have money saved? colleges aren’t going to give you $$$ if you have plenty of cash a 529.

That’s not true, most give generous aid regardless of 529 money when incomes are suddenly changed or low to begin with. The 529 is an asset of the parent, not the child.

Personal experience I’ve seen colleges give full or 75% merit rides to kids with 529….the 529 covers things the scholarships don’t

And it's an asset universities expect you to utilize for college. That's literally the entire purpose of a 529. If you have $200K in a 529, they will rightly expect you to spend it on college.

Merit is Not "aid". It's merit. for most universities, that has nothing to do with your financial status. My kids both got extensive merit aid and we never filled out FAFSA (because we wouldn't get anything). The PP were discussing getting financial aid, and that is largely dependent upon your finances, so having enough in a 529 for school would mean you don't qualify, rightly so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So imagine hypothetically you are two feds. You did fafsa. The merit aid is all allocated. The kid has been pigeonholed academically and financially and suddenly secure positions disappear.

What do you do? How can you fix things to get your kid into college? Or is child just stuck?

You have 8 months to get another job? I am confused by this. If You do not have a job next year you update your info for next year no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So imagine hypothetically you are two feds. You did fafsa. The merit aid is all allocated. The kid has been pigeonholed academically and financially and suddenly secure positions disappear.

What do you do? How can you fix things to get your kid into college? Or is child just stuck?

You have 8 months to get another job? I am confused by this. If You do not have a job next year you update your info for next year no?

I think the reality is that a lot of Fed/newly unemployed people are going to have to relocate in order to get a job that pays in the same range.

Relocation will require selling a house. The housing market will be saturated.

It is not so easy. If they are able to find this a job in the same general location, it will likely pay less.

[Anonymous]

I get the stress, OP. I think we are more concerned about whether we need to relocate and move our younger kids with us to find meaningful work.

These are stressful times.

[Anonymous]

I do not want to sound uncaring because it is hard. I think the disconnect is people in the corporate world we have to this sometimes every few years. It is hard. It is really hard but everyone doesn’t get an 8 month head start. I would use that head start and search for the dream job and have faith something happens. I also have a feeling that some people will be hired back but some people also know that they have had a job for years that was not essential. For school I am pretty sure you can update if your circumstance doesn’t change for the better and are unemployed. Good luck and hope it all works out.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully everyone in MD have the Prepaid college Trust for 4-5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not want to sound uncaring because it is hard. I think the disconnect is people in the corporate world we have to this sometimes every few years. It is hard. It is really hard but everyone doesn’t get an 8 month head start. I would use that head start and search for the dream job and have faith something happens. I also have a feeling that some people will be hired back but some people also know that they have had a job for years that was not essential. For school I am pretty sure you can update if your circumstance doesn’t change for the better and are unemployed. Good luck and hope it all works out.

Wow this is so disgusting. How can you tear yourself away from Fox News long enough to write this tripe. Shame on you, what an ignoramus. COunry is doomed if populated with unthinking, sycophantic, MAGA chwerleaders

[Anonymous]

I think there is a silver lining here. With all the deportations, a bunch of landscaping jobs just came open. Something for the kids to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a silver lining here. With all the deportations, a bunch of landscaping jobs just came open. Something for the kids to consider.

Let us know how your family members like that!