Anonymous wrote:I don't get this new expectation that the average middle class person is supposed to save to pay for 100 percent of their kid's college. Growing up, everyone had loans, I knew of almost no one who didn't have loans to pay off. Some incurred additional debt from grad school. They've all done just fine.

I do get that college tuition is substantially more than it used to be, has risen much faster than the cost of inflation. But still, that doesn't mean you have to cut corners so tightly as to possibly cut back on retirement, or constantly live on a very tight budget. And it doesn't mean that you must work even harder to cover 100 percent of your kids' tuition.

I expect to cover at least two years of state school tuition, maybe 3 for my kids. They can make their own choices from there.

Discuss.

I get your point but the world has become far more competitive than it was 20 years ago. Things have become far more expensive, students debt amounts are far bigger than they used to be, while the gap between the rich and poor getting wider too. There are more students going in for college education than they used to in the past. Parents want to do and help their kids as much as they possibly can so their kids can live as normal lives as possible. Getting jobs has become harder, so minimizing students debts is a wise thing to do.

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Anonymous wrote:All I know is by the time my kids are old enough to buy a house, the average price is north of $1 million around here. If they are saddled with loans, they will never own a home.

Why can't they just move to a low cost of living area? It's how my MD brother in law paid his full med loans off. Why do you expect your kids to buy in a million dollar house area?

Why should they? Imagine the shame when for the parents when their friends learn that their kids fled the area because they were too poor to afford living there.

? People are leaving CA because the col is too high (us included). I have zero shame about it, and neither do my kids.

FWIW, we are umc, and we have enough to pay for in state, all in.

I grew up LMC (immigrant parents), and worked my way through college. I was miserable and didn't do that well in college (at no name state u). I don't want that for my kids.

I have one at our state flagship doing really really well. Thankfully, they got some merit aid, too.

The other DC will not get merit aid, and they will be lucky to get into our state flagship. If not, then they will more than likely have to go to the second tier in state because their field of interest is not lucrative at all, and so paying oos prices for a non lucrative career is a bad investment. We can also pay for most of grad school if they choose in state for undergrad.

My sibling's DC has student loans. They have a job (low paying), and they didn't get any loan forgiveness. They are still living at home.

Anonymous wrote:We plan pay between 80-100% of an in state public undergraduate degree. The way that loan companies go after young adults who have zero experience is shameful and can impact them for the rest of their lives.

For grad school, we’ll work with them on choices and financial pros/cons but it will be their money at that point.

Usually parents do 50/50 split on grad school. Your money is more their money. You will be dead soon anyhow

We plan pay between 80-100% of an in state public undergraduate degree. The way that loan companies go after young adults who have zero experience is shameful and can impact them for the rest of their lives.

For grad school, we’ll work with them on choices and financial pros/cons but it will be their money at that point.

Anonymous wrote:Most of the people I know didn't have loans.

Same, and please counsel your kids about their school choices if you are not going to pay. They need to know WELL in advance what you will and will not pay for.

Anonymous wrote:Why saddle them with debt if you can afford not to?

Because me me me me me!

I think this depends if you can afford it. If you are driving a $50k+ car and have a remodeling kitchen but your kid is taking loans, it’s not a good look. If you truly can’t make ends meet if you save for college, that’s different.

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Anonymous wrote:Every family is different and that is OK. We have catholic friends with 12 children - to them the gift is life and they have told the kids that they are on their own at age 18, meaning no college or community college or whatever they can hardscrabble together. And they will do fine. In my family, getting a four-year degree for women was paramount (everyone had been depression era children and women unfavored). It is what it is.

My husband did the military as his parents couldn't afford college and it wasn't an option. Given he didn't get his degree till his early 40's and then the second career too another 10-15 years to earn anything, I don't get why you'd do that to your kids if you can afford to pay. People make it sound easy and its not.

You missed the point entirely in your rush to judge. If you have twelve kids you cannot send them all to college at now $93K a year for private

With 12 kids, you probably can send them to a private as you'd get tons of financial aid.

utter bs

No it’s not. They will get lots of aid except if parants are crazy high income.

The new FAFA no longer considers number of kids in college at the same time.

Can’t say what was done last year but that’s what is happening now.

Anonymous wrote:Most of the people I know didn't have loans.

Same here. The ones that did had family tragedy (a parent in prison, multiple divorces, parents not working claiming disability in their 40s, etc.).

Federal loans are capped at 5.5k, so are you talking about private loans?

Private loans are very predatory. They have sky high interest rates, no forgiveness or deferment, and above a certain limit based on the family’s finances, are actually the parents’ debt, not the student’s.

Personally, we are paying for our kids’ college in full because we want to teach our children personal responsibility. Part of being responsible includes paying your own way and we don’t qualify for government grants of any kind. We want to teach our kids to be contributors to society, not liabilities to society.

No matter how you bend the facts, those 5.5k federal loans are taxpayer subsidies. We don’t want our kids to learn to expect government subsidies.

Most cities have rising housing prices and often people have to go where the jobs are. We are limited in where we live due to one person.

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Anonymous wrote:All I know is by the time my kids are old enough to buy a house, the average price is north of $1 million around here. If they are saddled with loans, they will never own a home.

Why can't they just move to a low cost of living area?It's how my MD brother in law paid his full med loans off. Why do you expect your kids to buy in a million dollar house area?

Because the marriage prospects are dismal. My sister did this to pay off her loans and she’ll probably never get married. We’re going to really try to pay for our kids’ schooling.

Huh? Low cost of living could mean Charlotte NC or Buffalo NY. They could meet their spouse in college and move together (smart move by my siblings who shared a combined debt of loans from medical and veterinary school). It doesn't have to mean east bumble f*ck. Or it could if it is what the kid wants, so be it. Worrying about or trying to control where they live for marriage prospects sounds meddlesome.

What is this, 2009? My sister’s house in a middling Charlotte suburb cost over 900k and she got a crappy interest rate.

Anonymous wrote:All I know is by the time my kids are old enough to buy a house, the average price is north of $1 million around here. If they are saddled with loans, they will never own a home.

You could help them with a down payment. Many families do that if they’re financially able.

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Anonymous wrote:All I know is by the time my kids are old enough to buy a house, the average price is north of $1 million around here. If they are saddled with loans, they will never own a home.

Why can't they just move to a low cost of living area?It's how my MD brother in law paid his full med loans off. Why do you expect your kids to buy in a million dollar house area?

Because the marriage prospects are dismal. My sister did this to pay off her loans and she’ll probably never get married. We’re going to really try to pay for our kids’ schooling.

Huh? Low cost of living could mean Charlotte NC or Buffalo NY. They could meet their spouse in college and move together (smart move by my siblings who shared a combined debt of loans from medical and veterinary school). It doesn't have to mean east bumble f*ck. Or it could if it is what the kid wants, so be it. Worrying about or trying to control where they live for marriage prospects sounds meddlesome.

Anonymous wrote:You sound mean and uncaring.

You sound like one of those a-hokes who want blue collar people to pay off your kids loans. Screw colleges and the privileged brats who go there.