Are you going to pay for college?

dulcemariamar1

Are you planning on paying for college for your children? Some of it? Or are you going to wait to see what you can give when they graduate from high school?

 

I am only asking because the question of the week in my weekly thread is how many kids are we planning on having. I said I might be one and done, and part of the reason is the idea of having to pay for college for more than on kid. I dont plan on paying everything but I would like to help out. Just thinking about paying for two or three kids, scares me.

(Of course, you never know if you kid decides to go to college or not, so I dont think you should base the number of kids you have on this factor alone)

 

Willow0101

We have a 529 plan set up for our LO, but there is no way she will find out about it! She needs to work her butt off to get scholarships first. I had to pay for my own college and was able to do it and still be debt free so I know it is possible. 

Kie310

Nothing has been decided yet. We need to decide if we are 2 and done or not. If we have 2 I can see us picking up MOST of the tab for them. If we have 3? It will likely be something small, like paying for meal plans and books every semester (this is what my parents did for me and my sister & while it wasn't much, it goes a long way for a poor college student!)

So, we have about 2 years before we will make a final decision on how we are handling this.

ungraceful13

I think our plan is to start a savings account for our child when he/she is born and contributing what we can when we can. Closer to time for college we will evaluate where we are in terms of savings. There is too many what ifs to really plan for that. A child may not want to go to college, may get a full ride, or may chose a college out of our price range. We will give what we can but they will be on their own from there. And if they chose to not go to college that money in their savings can go towards something else like a down payment on a house or something.

Marisajean01

Ideal situation is that we would like to be able to pay for children's college or the majority of it anyways. But only time will tell.

Allison546

I have no idea what our financial abilities will be in 18 years (hopefully we'll be able to help a lot with college). We are going to start a 529 early next year and go from there.

That being said I don't see us having more than 3 kids just because of this fear we wouldn't be able to help all of them. 

mrsodonnell12

We havent decided yet. We will help our kids as much as can, but that will be determined by how fast H's busines grows and what we can afford.

StarlitRN

Our goal is to pay for all undergrad schooling/living expenses. I was lucky and had a great-grandmother who did this for me and starting out life not tens of thousands in debt was amazing. My life would be very different if I had to pay back massive student loans right now. So far we are on track with DD and have worked the savings for this baby into our budget. Originally we kinda wanted four kids but will probably stop at three so we can fully fund the college accounts. 

bearkatjen

We're prepared to pay for two years of tuition and fees at a community college and three years of tuition, fees and room and board at a state university. If our children get scholarships and grants to go straight to a public or private university, then we are happy to take what we have saved up and budgeted out and put that towards the school of their choice. If they were to get a full ride, then we would put that money towards grad school or a year abroad, or something that would help them out. So we will help pay for college, but within means. 

bennikki

Both of us grew up in families capable of paying for college, but both of our parents refused to, and I couldn't thank them enough.  It made me work my butt off harder, get through in three and a half years instead of four, and come out with very little debt.  Plus, I still traveled abroad, went on one spring break trip, and had great employment references coming out.  They did, however, help with living expenses.  They paid about 90% of our rent, but we had to pay for food, books, and entertainment.

I had way too many friends whose parents wrote the check each semester and one was on academic probation after the first semester, one took six and a half years to graduate with a bachelors degree, single major, from a private school that had a 99% rate of four years or less.  None of them came out of college independent or motivated, and several still live entirely off their parents.

JennV514

We'll help out, but I doubt we'll pay for it 100%.

JumpAroundBucky

We plan on saving for it, but us giving him or her the money will be based on grades, hard work, and the like.

DH's mom paid for his college, and it has been such a huge relief not to have to pay off any student loans for him. We are both so appreciative, and even though i know it's not something everyone is able to do, we would like to try and provide that for our kids.  

Smwainscott

With a step daughter and now the baby in my belly, I want to set them up for success.  I have a college plan set up in my name currently, but I am going to switch it to one of them.  Most likely whatever is in it we will split between the two and the rest will be on them.  My step daughters mother refuses to help with any of this and I want to be fair to both children.  Again they will not know about this money so that they will work hard for scholarships.  I had to join the military to pay for my college while my dad and step mom payed for my sisters whole college expenses.  I don't want to do that to my step daughter and make her feel left out like my dad and step mom did.

thesarahg

We will probably help out as much as we are able, but I doubt it will be 100%.  We also plan on looking into savings plans when the kid gets here.  My parents helped me out a lot, so my loans are minimal, whereas my husband paid for his entirely on his own and his loans are almost as much as our mortgage.  We'd be struggling if I hadn't had financial help from my parents.

jenn248

In theory, I would like to.  Neither DH nor I have/had any student loans, which has made life so much easier overall.  However, I don't know that we'll be in the same financial position as our parents or grandparents (my grandparents paid tuition for my sister, cousins, and I) when the time comes, and I think it's more important to cover our own retirement first.  So we'll see how it goes.  

Wild_flower25

Probably not, won't be able to afford it.

College isn't for everyone and going to college these days isn't all its cracked up to be, so I won't push it on my kids.  Of course I'd like them to do it or do some kind of tech school but as long as they are motivated to some career path, I'll be happy.

BLPL101

We haven't really thought about it yet. My parents paid for mine and DH's parents paid for his, but we went to really inexpensive schools that were cheaper than our high school (we went to private high school). I'd like to pay for our kids, but who knows. It definitely wouldn't affect how many children we decide to have.

Allycat11

It is highly likely that we will not be able to afford it.  If we can contribute at all, I would like to. 

With that being said, I don't think it is a parent's responsibility to pay for post-high school education.  My parents were well off and saved since I was born.  They paid for 5 years of undergrad for me, and I am still 3 classes shy of having my degree.  Unfortunately, I was too busy working to take school seriously and I think not paying my own way was a contributing factor.  DH's parents did not contribute a dime and he took his classes more seriously.  I understand that doesn't happen in every situation, but it is not uncommon either.  

My parents and grandparents will probably contribute to a college fund for LO  as birthday/ holiday gifts over the years.

brianabrad

I was an only child from a single mother so paying for college was not an option for my mom. Personally, I think I worked hard and appreciated it more because I did it myself. I worked hard and got scholarships and graduated debit free. Dh's family has the ability and payed for his college. I don't mean to say he didn't appreciate it but I don't think he understands hard work to the same level that I do sometimes. I also worked a part time job from the age of 15 and see nothing wrong with a teenager working to pay for their own wants. Dh's parents didn't see it that way, because they could afford to give him everything basically, and he never had to work. I feel like BIL who is 15 feels so entitled and a little hard work wouldn't hurt him. My biggest fear is raising entitled, bratty kids!

jenn248

I should have also added, the number of kids we have is more likely to be determined by what we can afford now, not 18+ years from now.  We're in a HCOL area and even paying daycare expenses for one kid is a lot right now.  I don't think we could afford to pay for more than two.  

this decaf life

I grew up in Florida and my parents did Florida Prepaid for both my sister & I and it's definitely one of the things that kept me from dropping out. I think if I'd gone into debt I wouldn't have graduated so I will at least help my child [kids] when the time comes.

ReeceFamily

DH and I were just discussing this.  One of the difficulties of having kids at an advanced age is that we have lots of competing financial interests, one of which is saving up as much as we can for retirement (which I'm hoping is in 20-25 years).  At this stage, I'm not sure that we can both send a child to college AND have a viable retirement fund (so that our child isn't forced to care for us in our old age ).  We have to discuss a plan with our financial advisor, but my guess is that we won't be funding college.  

I only hope our elected leaders continue realize how important financial aid is for the middle class.  I do worry about it getting slashed, but who knows what the country will look like in 18-20 years.

zonagirlie

One of my gfs was telling me about the Gerber Life and NYLife insurance plans that you buy your baby when they're born and then they can use the monetary gains for college. If they don't touch it at 18, it will double. It sounded like something to look into.

This will most likely be our only unless we can figure out how to afford adoption in a few years. We'd like to help but I worked through college and got financial aid and scholarships to pay for all of my college. My mom let me live rent free after 17 as long as I stayed in school and she helped pay for whatever I needed as long as I kept up my scholarships and worked hard. It made me appreciate my mom and my education much more. My husband was handed his first year at a major university and ended up flunking out because he just partied and had fun since he didn't have to work and mommy and daddy gave it all to him. He has regretted that ever since.

Hopefully we can do more of what my mom did and instill that working ethic that a lot of kids now don't have because of that sense of entitlement that seems very pervasive in America's teens. I preface that with the fact that I've taught HS and I've seen it first hand. There are several studies out there showing how so many of our kids go to college, expect things to be paid and paved for them, then get out and have no jobs and can't do much to keep themselves afloat. Not to mention not every child is college material, no matter how much we tell them to go to college. If my child wants to learn a trade or go into the military, I'll be just as proud. They just have to do something. No 25 year old on my couch failing to launch! 

silversparks

We will definitely be planning to help pay for college and saving accordingly. Both DH and I were helped through college - our parents paid most of our undergraduate tuition. Still, we were expected to study our butts off to earn and maintain scholarships based on our grades, and we worked part time during the year and full time during the summer to contribute towards our living expenses. We were completely responsible for funding our graduate degrees ourselves. I think it was a good system. We grew up with the expectation that we would go to college and that our parents would do what they could to help us get our first degrees, but that it wasn't a free ride. We were able to graduate debt free, and I think that was a huge gift from our parents.

I don't think our plan to help pay for college will directly affect the number of kids we decide to have - that is more likely to depend on what we think we can afford between now and college.

laurapacheco

Marisajean01:

Ideal situation is that we would like to be able to pay for children's college or the majority of it anyways. But only time will tell.

Same here! I plan to start 529 savings plans for all our children, but how much I contribute will depend on our financial situation over the next several years.

nycitygirl1

Yes, our plan is to pay for college. My parents worked really hard to save and pay for my undergrad (as did DH's parents) and education is very important in our family. I don't think we'd ever have more than 2 kids because we couldn't afford to send them all to college and this is important to us.

MrsRiceARoni

We would love to be able to pay for our children's college if we are able to, but it's hard to know at this point if that will be an option or not. Both DH and my parents paid for our college and it really did allow us to focus on our schooling and set us up to be able to get out on our own right away. We both went to a community college followed by a state college which made it much more affordable, we also both picked colleges close to home so we were able to live at home while in school. I think we will probably encourage our chilren to start with community college as well since it doesn't matter where you do your general ed classes, and I think it's a smoother transition after highschool.

lulamagoo

Yes, no question. 

Our parents gave us the great gift of education and graduating debt free. We will do the same for our children. 

martha919

Not paying. If we can reasonably do it for however many children we end up with, then we'll help up to a point, but we definitely wouldn't just pay for our kids to go to college. It's partly about wanting them to learn the "life lesson" of working their butts off to reach their goals (something we hope to teach them their whole lives), and partly about the fact that after court-mandated payment of one third of each of my two step-kids' college educations (or continued child-support until 23 if they continue to live with their mom), there's no way we'd have the money. Unless hubby gets a ridiculously high-paying job. My 2 cents.

ellaNu630

Eh, we'll see. DH and I both agree that saving for our retirement so we're not a burden to our children is more important than saving to pay of their college tuition. 

katiebird1127

My parents didn't pay for our (3 girls who went to private 4-year colleges) schooling, but they did co-sign on our loans if needed and sent us a little bit of fun money each month and helped out in dire straits.   We never had the thought in our head that our parents were going to pay for our college.  We earned scolarships and accepted the fact of student loans and had jobs.   I will be doing the 529, but am not going to say to future kid: "here's your college fund, we're not paying for anything else."  We'll have to see what the future brings.  I found that having student loans, though they suck and last forever, really teach you about budgeting and the importance of paying bills on time, etc. 

JuddandJessica

My DH started 4 college savings accounts before we were married. We pay into them every month. In 20ish years there will be enough to pay for undergraduate degrees.

sekura

We will probably pay a certain amount if they are studying STEM, and far less (if anything at all) if they go liberal arts.  Mainly because of my own personal experience (I got a liberal arts degree from an expensive private college, and it was a giant waste--then went on my own and paid for a public school engineering degree, and it was the best move I ever made).  I know a kid that age can't really understand what a huge difference it makes to choose one over the other, so we'll provide some motivation to make that choice easier.

ETA:  also, I agree with the other posters who talked about making sure they value the education by having them contribute to the cost.

st.augbride

Yes, I plan on covering college for our kids, but I have my own rules too. Unless it's a top school like Harvard or Stanford, etc.., I see no reason to not go to a good state school, which both dh and I did. We would never live in a state without a great state school, so this will always be a great and more affordable option.

brittandjp

I think ideally, we'd help out as much as we can if not pay for all of their undergrad studies. That being said, 18 years is a long time and I have no idea what our situation will be at that time. My parents paid for my education, which I was so, so thankful for and I hope we're able to do the same for our children.