Anonymous wrote:I do feel an obligation to pay it forward. And hope my children will do the same for their children.

+1

My parents weren't able to pay for my college, so I worked full time to pay for my college. I took advantage of some financial aid, lots of tuition reimbursements from employer, some out of pocket and only 10k in loans. Although, it was difficult I think it made me work harder. I would like to help my child with at least half of it but would also like him to work part time to learn responsibility and be more invested in his education vs if it was handed to him.

I feel an obligation to pay it forward as well. But like my parents there will be limits - 4 years at a VA state school or equal amount towards another school and the rest will have to be covered by loans. My kids do not have a choice about whether they will go to college, so I will fund it to the extent possible.

Anonymous wrote:...do you feel financially obligated to "pay it forward" and do so for your children?

This is one of the reasons my husband and I are both working and both saving for college. I'm curious to know if others feel this way.

Yes, and one of the reasons we started saving before our children were born. Same for retirement. Our HHI is on the higher end of the DCUM poverty zone, yet we have been able to save appropriately for college and retirement. No trust fund, no $$$ inheritance. The key for us was to start with our first jobs and build from there and not spend frivolously and have children in your 30's after careers have been established.


We are now in the the first of their "college" years and it looks like we have enough. Definitely, if both out to out of state schools. If younger goes to a high end private, then we will have to adjust some of our spending, but it will still be doable.

I would absolutely pay for my kids college education if it were financially feasible for us. My parents paid for my college (state university and had a number of scholarships so it was really just room and board charges and some living expenses as I paid for books and supplies with money from my summer jobs) and it was a huge blessing not to come out of undergrad with massive amounts of student loans. I do think that if the choice for parents is between saving for retirement and saving for kids college the retirement should come first though.