When you can’t do it all, how to save for college?

[Anonymous]

How obnoxious would you have to be to think you know more about a poster’s status than they do!!! I said I have worked for the Federal government for more than 20 years. Do you think I am confused and have really been a contractor all this time! Ask some younger Feds if they have a pension, not middle aged people. And learn some humility. You can actually learn from others, not just smugly lecture them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How obnoxious would you have to be to think you know more about a poster’s status than they do!!! I said I have worked for the Federal government for more than 20 years. Do you think I am confused and have really been a contractor all this time! Ask some younger Feds if they have a pension, not middle aged people. And learn some humility. You can actually learn from others, not just smugly lecture them.

NP. I’ve worked for the federal government for over 20 years. I plan to stay my full 30 years, and yes, I will have a pension. It’s small, but it’s there. You contribute to it each paycheck. It’s 1% if you’re a long time employee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How obnoxious would you have to be to think you know more about a poster’s status than they do!!! I said I have worked for the Federal government for more than 20 years. Do you think I am confused and have really been a contractor all this time! Ask some younger Feds if they have a pension, not middle aged people. And learn some humility. You can actually learn from others, not just smugly lecture them.

. Educate me, please provide a link that shows Federal employees have a 40k plan and not a pension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How obnoxious would you have to be to think you know more about a poster’s status than they do!!! I said I have worked for the Federal government for more than 20 years. Do you think I am confused and have really been a contractor all this time! Ask some younger Feds if they have a pension, not middle aged people. And learn some humility. You can actually learn from others, not just smugly lecture them.

. Educate me, please provide a link that shows Federal employees have a 40k plan and not a pension.

NP. The pension available to newer fess is far less generous than for someone with 20 years of service. There are also serious pushes to end or revoke the pension component for newly hired feds.

The FERS system is one-part TSP (defines contribution), part-pension, and part-Social Security. https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/

[Anonymous]

Okay, since you chose to derail this whole thread by insisting you know more about my benefits than I do:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p8xY41J_kfWHfxYZKl088FXttb-x8F7Z/view

Notice that these FEDERAL employees can only elect a pension plan IF they were enrolled in it prior to accepting this FEDERAL job.

Sometimes, people with different experiences than you know different things.

[Anonymous]

To the poster who wrote that 20 years ago college cost $50K, where did you go to college? I graduated in 1997 from a private college and it was MAYBE $25K with room and board. I remember my mom writing a check for maybe $8-9K per semester plus I had my couple thousand dollars per semester of student loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, OP - this board is harsh when it comes to people with a $130-170K income (despite the rest of DCUM insisting that anyone making under $200K is poor in this area). We're in a similar situation but with 2 kids in elementary, a slightly lower income, and a lower mortgage because we bought in 2010. But it's still tight and we don't have enough in either retirement or college savings (although we will have a federal pension). We're looking at a less expensive house but the reality is that there is not much available at a lower price point that is in decent shape, with a decent commute, and in a decent school district. I don't have any answers, just sympathy.

Then something is off. We bough in 09, had incomes from $110-160K with a payment of $2K a month and we are comfortable. We a decent amount in the college fund, save for retirement and pay extra into the mortgage each month so I'm not sure how those of you are living but I'm missing something if its a struggle.

Amazing! Where did you find a home in the DMV for $400k? Congratulations!

Silver Spring. My kid goes to a diverse school, performing in the top 5%. She's fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t relate to people who say they could not save for college because their kids went to private school.

Since our country offers free school thru high school but not free college, why would you finance the former before ensuring you could cover the latter?

Some of us choose to send our children to private school for religious reasons. We have a right to raise our children in our faith. In many other countries, these religious schools would be partially subsidized by the government. Other parents may have children who would flounder in public school (due to learning disabilities, introversion, etc.). The early years of education are the most foundational.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t relate to people who say they could not save for college because their kids went to private school.

Since our country offers free school thru high school but not free college, why would you finance the former before ensuring you could cover the latter?

Some of us choose to send our children to private school for religious reasons. We have a right to raise our children in our faith. In many other countries, these religious schools would be partially subsidized by the government. Other parents may have children who would flounder in public school (due to learning disabilities, introversion, etc.). The early years of education are the most foundational.

Why are your faith and public education mutually exclusive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t relate to people who say they could not save for college because their kids went to private school.

Since our country offers free school thru high school but not free college, why would you finance the former before ensuring you could cover the latter?

Some of us choose to send our children to private school for religious reasons. We have a right to raise our children in our faith. In many other countries, these religious schools would be partially subsidized by the government. Other parents may have children who would flounder in public school (due to learning disabilities, introversion, etc.). The early years of education are the most foundational.

Where did you see someone say you didn't have a right to raise your kids in your faith? But (i) it's entirely possible to raise a religious child in public school, and (ii) if you choose not to, fine, but it comes at a cost. And no, the government shouldn't subsidize your faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who wrote that 20 years ago college cost $50K, where did you go to college? I graduated in 1997 from a private college and it was MAYBE $25K with room and board. I remember my mom writing a check for maybe $8-9K per semester plus I had my couple thousand dollars per semester of student loans.

We graduated mid-90's.. I went to a private in NE and then to a state school then back to an expensive private for graduate school. My sibling went to Ivy's and top graduate school in their field. They were $40's-50's except the state that was about $25K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t relate to people who say they could not save for college because their kids went to private school.

Since our country offers free school thru high school but not free college, why would you finance the former before ensuring you could cover the latter?

Some of us choose to send our children to private school for religious reasons. We have a right to raise our children in our faith. In many other countries, these religious schools would be partially subsidized by the government. Other parents may have children who would flounder in public school (due to learning disabilities, introversion, etc.). The early years of education are the most foundational.

You do have the right, but others should not pay for your right. Its your value and your choice. You can comfortably raise kids in your faith without the specific religious school you choose. If you can afford it, great, but if not, its not fair to expect others to subsidize it or put your kids in huge debt for college. We have a child who had severe SN and needed a lot of therapies and private for the first few years. We were not high income, I had to quit my job to make it work BUT we still managed to save for college early on as we lived modestly in the house and cars and other lifestyle choices. It can be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Be very honest with your kids about college when the time comes. We have a lot of mortgage for our income - we decided we wanted short commutes to have more time with our kids and we're trying to pay it down faster. We're on track to pay about half of each of our two kids' undergrad. As we finish off paying our second mortgage and get them both into school, we'll increase. We also get some money from grandparents, which we save for college. However, I am banking on them investing in their own educations and planning to help pay as they go. If they want to go to a private school, they'll understand that they will have to pay more of the costs.

How sad for your kids you don't teach them to live within their means and your location is more important than their future.

NP. Location isn't just about the parents' commute. It is also a way to make more time for your family in the day. That's as important as $$.

I'd rather have an extra 30 minute commute and pay for my child's college. My spouse has a very long commute and you do it for the money so you give your children a better life.

This is ridiculous! You buy a house based on budget, commute, schools, neighborhood, and also what the actual house looks like. The house has to work for everyone in the family. It’s not selfish to have considered your commute as one of the factors when you bought your house.

A top, private college is already $70K a year. That’s nuts.

What’s also nuts is to spend your life commuting because your kid might get in. What’s even nuttier, is spending your life commuting so that your kid can pay full-freight at a lower-tier SLAC studying American Studies.

At a certain point, live your life, save what you can, and hope it works out.

We don't buy based off commute as my spouse changes jobs every few years and the locations flip. We plan to fully pay for a state school for college and graduate school and if we can afford more, great. If not, state school. If you want to overspend for a house and justify it and not pay for college, go for it. It speaks volumes of you as a parent. And a good parent preps their kids for college so they don't go study American Studies. College was $50K at privates 20 years ago so why is it a surprise its $70K now?

I’m saving $20K/yr. for college. I’m not suggesting people don’t have to save. I’m suggesting it’s nuts to call people bad parents for somehow not saving half a million dollars, but you know, they could have if they’d just commuted in farther. The problem with college is that it takes 18 years of SIGNIFICANT savings to fund it. It used to be “working over the summer” was a way to fund it. This is caused by structural problems in our society, not by bad parents making bad choices.

When I went, you could not fund college with just summer savings. My parents and grandparents saved when we were born, like we do. My parents generation could work summers and pay for it but it hasn't been that way for our generation or our kids. Saving $500K is way too high but I'd like to have $200K saved but we are on our way with that. However, I will push a state school so we can pay for graduate school too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t relate to people who say they could not save for college because their kids went to private school.

Since our country offers free school thru high school but not free college, why would you finance the former before ensuring you could cover the latter?

Some of us choose to send our children to private school for religious reasons. We have a right to raise our children in our faith. In many other countries, these religious schools would be partially subsidized by the government. Other parents may have children who would flounder in public school (due to learning disabilities, introversion, etc.). The early years of education are the most foundational.

Where did you see someone say you didn't have a right to raise your kids in your faith? But (i) it's entirely possible to raise a religious child in public school, and (ii) if you choose not to, fine, but it comes at a cost. And no, the government shouldn't subsidize your faith.

The government does subsidize faith - that the charitable contribution deduction you get on the 1040.

Duh.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who wrote that 20 years ago college cost $50K, where did you go to college? I graduated in 1997 from a private college and it was MAYBE $25K with room and board. I remember my mom writing a check for maybe $8-9K per semester plus I had my couple thousand dollars per semester of student loans.

We graduated mid-90's.. I went to a private in NE and then to a state school then back to an expensive private for graduate school. My sibling went to Ivy's and top graduate school in their field. They were $40's-50's except the state that was about $25K.

20 years ago was 1999. I graduated from an Ivy in 2002. The tuition and room and board in 2002 was around 33k. Not 40-50k.

Tuition in the mid 1990s would have been around 25ish, going up a thousand a year on average.

You should be able to google this information easily. I don't think the Ivies crossed the 40k threshold till 2005ish. Its amazing, startling really, how rapidly they have gone up in such a short time.

This is undergraduate. Professional programs would have been more expensive and perhaps this is what you're remembering.