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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One thing that I've recently asked myself: what if we had invested all the money we spent on travel sports into a UTMA for our kid?  The total amount would likely exceed $200k with market growth, and it would continue to grow.  That would be enough to fund a house down payment someday.  Was it worth it?

Fortunately, we didn't play travel sports at the expense of saving for college, but there were tradeoffs.  [/quote]

Did your kid have FUN? More fun than watching their college savings grow?[/quote]

So money's main purpose should be fun?  I mean, I like it in theory.  Maybe we should've spent the travel sports money on travel that was fun for the whole family, like longer, more fun ski vacations, learning to scuba dive and surf, and seeing more of the world together.

I don't know, but it was a lot of money on a sport that I don't think changed their character or life trajectory more than a less expensive sport might have.  I know some people don't like to look back and wonder, but I don't mind doing it out loud to help younger parents think a little harder.  [/quote]

For some of us, the sports are fun for our kids. Why would we be paying all of these thousands if they didn’t enjoy it?

I have a friend who doesn’t understand sports who constantly asks why we spend this money and how it’s not worth it because they won’t get scholarships. She doesn’t understand that’s not the point. We can afford it, college is funded and people spend their money on all sorts of things for enjoyment. It’s that’s simple. My kids don’t even want to play in college.  [/quote]

Fine. I get that. But as an older parent of multiple children, I think we would have optimized our time with our children at home if we had played fewer travel sports and instead skied 30 days every winter and traveled more in the summer. We would have enjoyed family adventure trips in the summer more than bad hotels in bad tournament cities.

Unlike your friend, I don't badger people IRL. But I regret how much we prioritized travel sports, and it's probably more about last time than money, though both are factors. [/quote]

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