My parents and my wives parents saved zero for college. My wife and I took zero loans.

Secret went to less expensive commuter colleges and got jobs. My wife worked 40 hours a week as a checker at the supermarket. She was a full time employee.

I worked at MasterCard part time sort of. 20 hours during school year and 35 in sumner and winter. MasterCard as employee paid 3 credits a year of my college!!

Cant do it today? Bull shit. Post office pays 40k a year and university of Maryland is 10k and post office will pay up to $5,200 of tuition!

There are so many posts along the lines of-- "College is so expensive! And if you SAVE you just have to PAY EVEN MORE! So I'm not going to. Don't you agree, guys?? I mean it's CRAZY to even TRY. AmIRight?"

Sorry not everyone agrees. And not everyone who pays for college can do so easily. There is an element of really hard work and extreme sacrifice for most full-payers. You don't have to do it. But don't sh*t on others to justify your own choices, which are completely up to you.

Absolutely. No point in saving for kids. If they are brilliant kids they will get scholarships. If they are duds then why waste your hard earned money on them?

If everyone's children go to college, who will be mowing my children's lawn and cleaning their houses? In any society, you should always have poor people.

(Related PSA - "No point in wearing masks because COVID is like flu. When everyone gets it it will be herd immunity." - Donald Trump)

Everyone looks at money differently and spends it on different things. No right or wrong here. What you are doing is perfect for your family. For a different perspective, I have been saving for my kids' college since they were born. When my daughter asked where she could apply (many of her friends were limited by financial aid concerns), I could say you can go anywhere. She got into a fabulous school early (didn't have to wait for financial aid decisions), and we are all thrilled. Often my friends say, well, if you hadn't saved, you would have gotten financial aid. True but for my family the peace of mind have been worth it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a somewhat unique spot on this, since my husband's employer will pay for college expenses at any university in the world for dependents. They'll cover up to 80% of the cost of his employer's tuition -- currently 60K a year). Even with this, we *still* save for college because anything could happen and I'm risk averse. Worst case? We have a bunch of money to spend on other things. Why not be cautious?

World Bank?

It can’t be World Bank bc they don’t cover the cost unless the school is outside the US

Anonymous wrote:I think it is ironic, that the people on this forum who are most able to save for college in a 529 (this is what DCUM means by "saving for college") could likely afford to cashflow college if they needed to, so probably don't need to amass a small fortune in 529 accounts. 529 accounts are tax friendly and people make so much money, so why not.

That actually is not true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a somewhat unique spot on this, since my husband's employer will pay for college expenses at any university in the world for dependents. They'll cover up to 80% of the cost of his employer's tuition -- currently 60K a year). Even with this, we *still* save for college because anything could happen and I'm risk averse. Worst case? We have a bunch of money to spend on other things. Why not be cautious?

World Bank?

Idk...I know a World Bank kid going to CC and transferring to UMCP. Doesn’t make sense if tuition is covered.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this is very disturbing to read, OP. We both had biglaw jobs and saved one paycheck for many years so that each of our kids had a fully-funded, no loan, no FA college education (with money left over). You seem callous and ignorant at best.

+!--I feel so sorry for your kids.

I don't see college situation staying where it is at the moment. Costs and the whole setup are not sustainable and disruption of some sort is inevitable. Pandemic might just be a catalyst that we needed.

Wow, this is very disturbing to read, OP. We both had biglaw jobs and saved one paycheck for many years so that each of our kids had a fully-funded, no loan, no FA college education (with money left over). You seem callous and ignorant at best.

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a somewhat unique spot on this, since my husband's employer will pay for college expenses at any university in the world for dependents. They'll cover up to 80% of the cost of his employer's tuition -- currently 60K a year). Even with this, we *still* save for college because anything could happen and I'm risk averse. Worst case? We have a bunch of money to spend on other things. Why not be cautious?

World Bank?