MoNey MaTTers!!~
I thought this would be a good topic. With today's economy being the way it is there are families I know talking about the cost of college. What are Your thoughts? Are You saving now?, Did you PaY or did they have to get student LoAns? Do YoU think you Have or will teach your child good values of saving money?
Labels: open forum topics
posted by Debbiedoos @ 9:33 AM
12 Comments:
Soapbox alert! And I may ramble ... and this is a condensed version.
Our oldest is going to college next year and our youngest, the year after. Our plan has always been to pay for a set amount each year for each child and they would be responsible for the rest of the costs. We do not believe in incurring any debt, except for a mortgage, so student loans are out of the question and it is BAD idea to co-sign for a loan for anything & will not do it.
We have taught our girls about money from the time they were little... the 3 main principles are when you get money, you give, save & spend all under the umbrella of you NEVER spend more than you earn. My oldest is taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in school and we took it several years ago.
Back to college savings...
We already pay for a private (Christian) school tuition, so we already have $$ allotted for education in our budget. The tuition we currently pay for them would be almost as much as in-state tuition for North Carolina. We also had some $ in a fund for them, as well.
In this day & age, I think that just about everyone should have a college degree, but I think that paying $30,000 a year for tuition only because your kid wants to go to school in another state or to a private college is a waste of money for many degrees. If your child gets a sizable scholarship to a university with high tuition, that is a different story. But, I hear of so many going to college for a basic business degree or a degree in social work and incurring $80,000 in student loan debt, when they could have gone to a local state university for $20,000.
Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now!
My oldest who is very creative and wants to be a graphic designer will be going to community college due to her poor math grades. This will help tremendously since my 2009 income was as much as I made in a week during previous years. We are also planning to downsize a few years early so that we don't have a mortgage.
My thoughts on college are; My son went to college but went into the Marines after he worked awhile. Did his time in the service and came out found a wonderful job. After 15 years he got laid off. He is 37 years old and has started college at West Virginia U. He has gotten Grants and the VA is also helping him. I'm so very proud that he has the chance to go back to college. He wishes he would have done this 15 years ago when he got out of the Marines. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. The comments mean so much to me. Blessings, Deanie
Regarding teaching my girls to save their money:
The are only allowed to take out $25 our of their paycheck each week for spending money. They pay for their cell phone with this $. The rest goes in the bank. My oldest who drives is allowed to take out an additional amount for gas money & also pays for her insurance.
I give them a set amount for clothing each month, but that is all. They pay for everything else. (gifts, movies, etc.) I do let them spend up to their entire income in December for Christmas gifts if they would like.
My girls have always paid for their own cell phones & cell phone bills even before they had a job. They would have to do "paid" chores around the house. I had a list of chores with what each chore paid & they chose what they wanted to do. If they didn't earn enough, the rest would come out of their clothing budget.
I agree with you Pam. We also paid tuition for Catholic grade school which was a lot of money. I feel the same to keep kids in-state for college. Some of my friends are totally in debt with college tuition which is so unnecessary. Student loans are totally out of the question. We are saving for college but I panic sometimes because the cost of college keeps going up & up. We only have four more years and that's not a long time. I feel that it should be mandatory to take a economics class in high school because most kids are clueless about money and how to save.
We are big savers, I learned this from my parents and my daughter is the same. She's actually more of a tightwad than I am. Our 3 older daughters from my husbands prior marriage, not so much. They didn't live with us for us to have any influence on them about money. We hate credit cards and rarely use them.
I love my 401k and I dump as much as I can in it. I want to retire earlier than the normal age 65-70 and saving early hopefully will make that happen.
I can go on & on about this but I guess I'm done for now.
Luvdsun, you would like Dave Ramsey. He has a daily radio program & you can also find him on the web. He has a Financial Peace class for kids & for teens.
It is unbelievable how much college tuition has gone up. My sister found a paper that my mom had saved from Loyola Marymount University where I attended that listed my tuition as $3,500 a year.(around 1980). Loyola's tuition is now $33,000 a year. I know there has been inflation, but a man who was making $60,000 back then, would not be making $600,000 today!
This is wonderful information! Thanks for sharing. My girlfriend and I had this conversation last night, so I thought what a good topic. Both my boys college, dorm and books are paid for in full for 4 years....after that they are on their own. Hopefully scholarships will help along the way. While residing in the state of Florida we signed them up for the 529 plan. After the sale of our home, we where blessed to make enough money to pay off the plans in full. They can use the plan out of state and just pay a marginal difference if there is one...which of course there will be. Or if they choose to go to a Florida University it is 100% paid. It is much relief for my husband to know his sons College education is paid for. As we know the cost incurred, we paid off his student loans around 5 years ago.
Pam, Thanks for the info on Dave Ramsey. I'm going to look him up...Lora
Hi Debbie, we're done with kids but we boughtt Florida Prepaid college Porgram for all of them which paid for 4 years of their college and I believe it is a good investment.....Christine
My kids were only a year apart in school which really makes it tough on college cost. When my kids were growing up we did not make enough money to save for college. We were living from paycheck to paycheck. Both of my kids were smart and kept their grades up and both received the Hope scholarship for college. That was a big relief. To keep the scholarship you have to maintain a B or above average each semester. My son did keep his up, but after going to a two year college here he decided to follow his fellow christian band members to Nashville to go to Belmont University. So he gave up the Hope scholarship and had to rely on student loans. My daughter, the party animal, partied her hope scholarship away the second semester so she had to get student loans, too. They are both paying them back and will be for quite some time.
HI Deb, my "kids" are 41 and 39 and you would think I am done with college, BUT, my daughter is currently in college! At 39! BUT, she has gotten loans and a small scholarship, and plans to pay off her loans herself. We will help her (SHHHH) she doesn't know, cause we paid for my son when he was in college. You really seem to have hit a nerve with this topic! XO, Pinky
Hi Pinky, I think any money topic these days strikes a cord!!~~ It is a good topic though, and I love to hear different views.....:) Thanks for participation.
Oh Debbie, this is a topic that comes up in our house often. I know she is only four, but we haven't started her fund yet. I feel horrible. We know we need to do it, but we always find ways to spend money for other things. We are going to Europe for two weeks next Sunday!!! Woohooo!!! It is our neighbor's 50th birthday and we are going to celebrate with her and her family that we got very close to when we lived in Germany. We lived about 5 hours from Paris so we are taking Jemma to see the Eiffel Tower! Talk about spending...
Anyhoo, when we return, we are meeting with a financial advisor to talk through what we need to do to get a college fund started for her. We have followed Dave Ramsey before and do really well when we are diligent. With a new home, it just seems that you are paying for this, that and the other. We have a few more things that we want to do on the house immediately and the rest will be a planned event. Then the crackdown on budget begins!
We actually moved to Charleston from Michigan because the economy is sooooooo bad in Michigan. I had a class of 27 students last year and 4 families that I know of lost their jobs and two went into foreclosure in just my classroom. Tom was in no way going to lose his job (he works for the automotive industry), but it was terrifying watching neighbors and friends lose their jobs. He wanted us to get out of there before it hits rock bottom. Michigan is a sad, sad, place right now.
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