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

[Anonymous]

two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

None of the feds want to hear this, though it's true. They complain about having to sell a house. Well, yeah, sometimes that's part of getting a new job. They complain about not having great in-state college options in MD. Well, you knew that.
MAGA doesn't want you to have low stress, secure, well paying jobs. It's too easy. MAGA wants to make it equally hard for everyone.

Yup--if you wanted "great instate options" you would have moved to VA by HS. The reality is most people have jobs that are not guaranteed. There is always a chance of being RIF'd. So you live your life and plan for the "what ifs" that includes a 12 month Emergency Fund and being able to still live your "basic needs" with just one salary perhaps and use the 2nd for all the extras. Basically, in the normal world, people assume that a job change might mean relocation. Sometimes it means you sell your house at a not perfect time.

Yeah, but the issue that feds face is that there are laws that give (gave?) them better job protections than in the private sector. Just because some lunatic is running roughshod over the law and no one is stopping him (yet) is not a reason that people should have bet on redundancy. The job security was part of the package.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These comments are just mean. We are a one fed and we are asking our child to pick in state or equivalent with merit and close by. Definitely should live on campus first year. After that year by year decision. It sucks because kid got into some good schools with merit that involve significant travel but that where we are.

agree. We're not feds, but things feel very shaky right now. A few years ago, both my husband's and my employers separately announced pending layoffs in the same week. It was terribly stressful. Let's have compassion for folks who are facing possible job loss.

The private sector is always shaky. We live this way every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

None of the feds want to hear this, though it's true. They complain about having to sell a house. Well, yeah, sometimes that's part of getting a new job. They complain about not having great in-state college options in MD. Well, you knew that.
MAGA doesn't want you to have low stress, secure, well paying jobs. It's too easy. MAGA wants to make it equally hard for everyone.

Yup--if you wanted "great instate options" you would have moved to VA by HS. The reality is most people have jobs that are not guaranteed. There is always a chance of being RIF'd. So you live your life and plan for the "what ifs" that includes a 12 month Emergency Fund and being able to still live your "basic needs" with just one salary perhaps and use the 2nd for all the extras. Basically, in the normal world, people assume that a job change might mean relocation. Sometimes it means you sell your house at a not perfect time.

Yeah, but the issue that feds face is that there are laws that give (gave?) them better job protections than in the private sector. Just because some lunatic is running roughshod over the law and no one is stopping him (yet) is not a reason that people should have bet on redundancy. The job security was part of the package.

I get that---I don't agree with the ClusterF$ck that is going on at all and certainly never voted for any of it. But it doesn't mean you still don't plan and save for Emergencies and College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We selected a "what if" school. We have saved for colley, but what if something happens and we need the money for something else.

DC is accepted to an honors program with merit at an in state school that DC liked enough. If things get tight we can afford it and it's really bad they can live at home the last two years (I think living on campus the first two years is important).

How does that work? Where I went to school, you had to be at the main campus to get a diploma stating you went to the flagship campus. Otherwise, your diploma was for the much lower ranked satellite school.

[Anonymous]

Could your kid take a gap year while the dust settles?

[Anonymous]

Is this the reason why some people insist you should file the FAFSA/CSS and select Yes to "applying for institutional aid" even if you were full pay family when you applying to schools?

[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.

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.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send them in-state public. Decision day hasn’t passed yet. Most kids I know apply to one or more. My kids applied to 3 even when they wanted private. We insisted on having a financial safety school. And it was smart because while they were offered generous financial aid in several schools, in-state was still cheaper and that’s where they ended up. If you’re a 2 fed household, it’s likely you have a 529 that should cover in-state. My sibling and their spouse have 1 in college and 1 HS senior and they saved in the 529 and chose public’s.

I think you might be really out of touch with modern applications. For Maryland, applications really need to be in by 11/1 at the latest. Most state schools have very early applications — rolling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.)

+1 another non- fed. I would also remind non-feds in the dmv what a large part of our local economy the federal govt, contractors and ngos are. Everyone will be impacted in some way by other policies as well- tariffs, deregulation etc. Right now the stories I am hearing in my community are terrible. Don't judge, offer some sympathy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

None of the feds want to hear this, though it's true. They complain about having to sell a house. Well, yeah, sometimes that's part of getting a new job. They complain about not having great in-state college options in MD. Well, you knew that.
MAGA doesn't want you to have low stress, secure, well paying jobs. It's too easy. MAGA wants to make it equally hard for everyone.

Yup--if you wanted "great instate options" you would have moved to VA by HS. The reality is most people have jobs that are not guaranteed. There is always a chance of being RIF'd. So you live your life and plan for the "what ifs" that includes a 12 month Emergency Fund and being able to still live your "basic needs" with just one salary perhaps and use the 2nd for all the extras. Basically, in the normal world, people assume that a job change might mean relocation. Sometimes it means you sell your house at a not perfect time.

Yeah, but the issue that feds face is that there are laws that give (gave?) them better job protections than in the private sector. Just because some lunatic is running roughshod over the law and no one is stopping him (yet) is not a reason that people should have bet on redundancy. The job security was part of the package.

I get that---I don't agree with the ClusterF$ck that is going on at all and certainly never voted for any of it. But it doesn't mean you still don't plan and save for Emergencies and College.

Take your sanctimony somewhere else. Also, stop capitalizing nouns that aren’t proper nouns; we don’t do that in America unless you are an addled orange felon rage tweeting on a toilet.

[Anonymous]

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.

Same- been through this multiple times and now fearing the fed layoffs will have a ripple effect. Just because we saved doesn't mean it won't suck.

[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.

Because everyone is being screwed by the ultra wealthy in this country and we are all angry and fighting over the scraps. The wealth divide and the hollowing out of the middle class is a real problem in this country, and now we see it culminating as literally a handful of the richest men in the works are plundering out nation’s resources. While we fight about trans girls on the JV volleyball team they are privatizing our national weather service so we have to pay for that, they are throwing out osha and environmental protections so they can manufacture things snd extract things from our land and exploit our bodies to do so. They are intent on stealing our treasure public lands to drill for oil and mine it for copper, so our kids will never know the pure beauty of our American wilderness. They do this and we sense it but we turn our anger on each other because it feels so much easier than fighting against these huge forces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

What is disgusting? Not a MAGA not that it matters. This is advice that most people go through this. Most people
do not have entitled jobs. Every time my family has lost a job something good came out of it. It is hard and that is facts but you do get to the other side. I hope other people chime in that after a job loss most people say later that they wound up happier in a job they would not have gone for if they didn’t have to. When you have a secure job you can sometime accept what does not make you happy. Again 8 months is a long time to find next job. I listened to a lot of Tony Robbins to get through troubled times. You have to have faith that it will all work out.

Not PP, but oh, gag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:two fed families have had 18yesrs to save for college. This is what a 529 is for. I’m sorry for people who are well paid white collar workers too financially irresponsible to have planned for their kids education.

Just.stop.