Reply to It’s extremely hard to raise kids in a nice neighborhood without generational wealth

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is the generational wealth canard passé yet? What will be the next excuse of the envious and lazy?[/quote]

I used to not even think about it and assumed everyone rich got that way from working. But then I met several actual trust fund babies around here and my perspective changed. [/quote]

People living on trust funds are very much a minority.  You could also point to lottery winners with as much relevance.  [/quote]

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing. [/quote]

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house. [/quote]

Lucky you! I didn’t know that parents helped with down payments until I was in my late 20s and saw it happening for friends.

My spouse and I are high earners and this is definitely one of our financial goals. Giving our kids no school debt + a down payment is such a head start in life. [/quote]

Children without parents able or willing to pay for school or to help with a home purchase can still do fine if they make sensible decisions and choices.  Obtaining an affordable education rather than incurring debt is one path often not taken by those who complain about their financial position.  Obtaining a relatively useless education which predictably won't result in highly compensated employment is another.  Seeking out jobs in fields which pay poorly is obviously self-defeating in terms of financial well-being.  Taking on rent or mortgage payments which exceed a reasonable percentage of income leads to reduced savings and investments, no matter how much you don't want to live in less expensive housing.    [/quote]

Affordable education is the key.  There is absolutely no reason to take more than the federal student loan amount of ~$27K total for the 4 years.  Your kid can earn $10-12K/year to contribute, take the ~$5-6K of loans yearly and that leaves the parents with $10-15K for state U.  If they cannot manage that (don't have any saved) then you search for merit.  My 1220/3.5UW/No AP kid could have attended our "2nd State U" for $20K with the merit they got.  And they attended a T100 school (had 3 with similar offers) that only cost us $40K/year (5 years ago--merit awards would make it similar costs still).  But they could have attended 2-3 instate schools for under $20K, that my kid could have almost paid for themselves with student loans and working (summer/breaks/10 hours PT during the year).  Had we needed the $$, they could have done it even cheaper, they simply didn't search for merit as it wasn't needed.

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