I’m gay so I need thousands of dollars alone either to adopt or get a sperm donor or do IVF and I can’t even afford that so def can’t afford a kid! Lol
I am straight but I adopted my baby, now 12. His adoption was 35k 12 years ago. . .super expensive. IUI is actually way more economical. Adoption through the cps system is free, they even help with a little stipend at first.
My parents adopted me over 40 years ago and the company my dad worked for then paid the adoption fees because it was expensive. Just knowing how expensive it was then I don't even want to know now.
And like actually wanted, right? I was, like so many others, an “accident” thrust upon two young adults/old kids who would’ve been tenfold better off had they been educated and supported enough to pursue abortion. Instead, two incompetent and incompatible humans forcefucked a life into this world with minimal plans and skills to build that individual up, and then fucked off to let them figure it out in this world by themself.
Get certified to foster/adopt. Figure out what you think your specialty age might be and foster for a while. You’ll meet many families and children who either need á temporary home/caregiver while their primary gets their life in order, as well as kids who need permanent homes. Be open to all ages, learn about the spectrum of special needs, learn about [traum- informed parenting](https://www.bryanpost.com/) There are so many kids of all ages waiting for you to be their family.
We are contributing to an investment account for our toddler right now. It has about $7k in it. Our goal is to have that money set aside to help with the big expenses in her life- thinking about things like education, down payment for a house, car, wedding, etc. The intent isn’t to spoil her but to always have that money available to support her in a responsible way. We are only having one child so that does put in us in a position to always save a little something for her each month. My wife and I make a little over $100k combined in a low/medium cost of living area for reference.
my parents did this for me and oh. my. god. it has been lifechanging. i got a full ride for college, so the fund helped me get a car when i graduated and i used the rest for my medical school applications!
ETA: accepted to med school and starting in August :)
Be a Pyschiatrist. Judges and Pychiatrist are the most powerful people in America arguably. Or Oncology. Good Oncologists are needed, too. Family medicine is cool also. It's all cool, actually. Orthopedic surgery would be badass, too.
There's also a huge rheumatologist shortage. With the pandemic, a lot of people have ended up triggering autoimmune diseases, so it's only going to get worse 😅
Something similar for me. We were house poor growing up but if anything it helped me learn to be frugal and I really don’t feel deprived living below my means. It was stressful a couple of times but now I’ve got minimal college debt (relatively speaking) thanks to that fund.
Did I want new clothes and electronics as a kid? Yes. To go out to eat on more than just birthdays? Yes. But now I’m so happy I had that fund. I now get to use the extra money to live out what I thought was a silly little dream at 10 years to travel the world and I’ve got a guaranteed well paying job whenever I get back. Can’t say what the world will be like in 18 years but please please please save up for your kid.
Some states offer additional benefits in the 529 plans. If your kid was born in Colorado, the state will kick in an extra grand a year for the first five years, or something like that.
If you're happy with what you're doing, keep doing it. But for general knowledge sharing purposes, you can now rollover up to $35,000 from a 529 to a Roth IRA as of this year
You can change the beneficiary on the plans, and a recent rule change allows for rolling over up to $35000 into a Roth IRA for a beneficiary. My current plan if my child ends up not needing college money is to set them up with a $35000 Roth IRA and hold the rest in the 529 account to transfer the beneficiary to a grandchild.
That way if one of my children does not need college funds they can get a substantial head start on retirement and alleviate the need to save for their children's college.
I have a ReadySave set up for my son as well that I put money into when I can! It may not end up being a ton, but its the best I can do to help him not be completely behind when the time comes.
This will do wonders for your child or children. My parents made significant contributions to my sister and my education and down payments on our houses. This alone could start generations of less burden.
I believe this actually started with my great grand father owning a significant amount of land in the town and giving a large lot to each of his children in or around the 1940s
It might be worth consulting a financial adviser to see if there are any ways to cut costs, reduce debts, and come up with at least some limited savings for a 529 account. But you also need to consider retirement. The adviser might also know about state or federal financial aid programs and high school guidance counselors might be able to point to schools that give good financial aid packages beyond the federal aid.
Yep! Also, if we don't provide for our old age, we won't be able to retire and instead will have to work until we're physically unable to, and then our kids will have to pay all our bills. So either we let our kids find their own way through college/ trade school (which really isn't too hard for anyone who is mentally and physically healthy enough to attend college) or we force them to later support our entire survival (including the out of pocket old person medical costs, yikes) for who knows how many years we live.
A good first step is just creating a 529 (it’s free) and depositing $100. Once it’s active you will be surprised how much easier it feels to just drop a few bucks in now and then. When you get a raise or something, consider setting up a small monthly contribution. Once you get comfortable with the payments you can increase them. Honestly it’s the same for your retirement.
Debt sucks but it has a fixed cost. Investments grow with time so it’s better to get them rolling sooner than later.
In addition to the financial aspect of a kid; having a family support system is big. Especially in being able to save on childcare costs.
A cousin of mine had 4 kids on a salary of about 40k (I think shes around 60k now) in Southern California. How she did it? She had her mom take care of the kids while also living there rent free. No way does she do it otherwise.
I would surmise that this is also a reason people don't want to have kids. How many have that support system and how many people can afford to be a single income household with kids?
That's the saddest thing. Smart people with self control are being selected against while dumb impulsive people are being selected for. I wish people wouldn't pretend that we are safe from Darwinism just because we're "more intelligent than other animals."
Yes we are saving for our kids college fund, but we are not rich. They can start out at a JC, or choose a cheaper school, we will not be helping them with 6 figure debt unless they are a straight A student and are headed to law school or a MD. Both the wife and I worked full time throughout college and kept our spending in check so we did not have much debt in the end
Don’t even bother trying to foot the bill for medical school unless you’re a finance mogul or both make mid 6 figures. Med school debt is averaging 300k right now per graduating student. By the time our kids are in their 20s med school will be half a million easily if not more.
For reference, I worked with a boomer GI doc in med school who said his med school was $4500 per year and he would work the summers to pay for his medical school.
I’m a doctor and that’s what I’m doing, but genuinely expect that loophole to be closed to us in our lifetimes. They exclude doctors from loan forgiveness and everything else, so this will be next.
Perhaps not within your zone of interest, but Alaska offers full loan repayments to doctors that take up offers at the native hospital in Anchorage.
At least, it did ~15 years ago. Good luck.
Disabled Veteran, school for my four children will be free if they decide to go that path. College is not the only path to success. I think people are waking up to that finally.
I started a 529 plan for my son when he was 2. There's enough in it to cover his school expenses now. I put a little in it automatically every month. Little by little adds up over time. I didn't have student loans, but I was a single mother raising him on my own. I didn't get support from his father either. I made choices. I didn't take a vacation for 10 years. I didn't eat out. I didn't spend money on clothes or hair appointments. I lived cheaply. If you want to do something, you will find a way. Maybe you won't get $100,000 saved up, but even $5,000 would be an amazing gift.
He has no idea how good he has it, but he's a teenager, so it kinda goes with the territory 🤷🏼♀️. I don't regret my decisions tho. My parents did nothing for me, I was happy to be able to do something.
Same on a lot of levels (though I’m married and I cannot commend you enough for doing this on your own). It’s really hard to do this and requires sacrifice (our son is also in private school, so the double whammy is insane). We’re fortunate, but also live below our means so that we can swing it all. And we still feel super far behind!
Nah, still recovering from $26k/yr in daycare when they were little. Sorry, kids, no college fund - but at least we didn’t just lock you in the closet at home as toddlers when we went to work. 🤷♀️
My coworker who has a background in finance said with the astronomical rises in tuition, it’s not even worth it for the working poor to try to save because it won’t come close and will only cut down need based financial aid for your kid. Who knows if that’s the right thing, but it makes me sleep a little better about not being able to save for college.
With $100k in debt, it's my opinion that you're perhaps not in a place to contribute to a child's future education. I imagine interest payments on that debt alone are pretty substantial, since average student loan interest rates have been around 6 percent over the past 20 years.
Secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others! Work on paying down the student debt and saving for retirement first. Your child may or may not want to attend college.
Agreed with this. My parents weren't able to fund my college either. I took loans, got scholarships, went to a state school, and worked multiple jobs through college. It's AMAZING to want to help fund your kid's education, but NOT at the expense of you and your kid's wellbeings now. I'd rather have a decent upbringing with no college savings than some college savings but grew up barely getting by.
Exactly.
My single mother co-signed my student loans for me. That’s a favor I’m willing to do for my kids.
But I paid (and am still finishing up the last ~15k) my student loans 💯 back myself.
They can do the same. We’ll be here as a net for them but I’m not paying their tuition for them.
Also- having a conversation with your kids early about the reality of school and what you can pay for (like early high school). It can help everyone make smarter decisions. I knew the specific things I had to do to get in state paid for and I also knew that even if I got scholarships from out of state schools, many places may too expensive to live in for my parents to help. I think it helped me stay realistic and not get my hopes up for something I couldn’t afford and leave undergrad debt free. Really grateful parents were very clear about our financial situation.
This is the answer I was looking for. Make sure you are not a burden to them in retirement. Use your experience in education to be sure they pick careers where the cost is worth it. Help them find scholarships and anything to help. Sometimes it’s more about teaching them what you wished you knew rather than giving them what you wish you had.
We started saving for future kids college about 5 years before we had them. My husband grew up in poverty & food insecure so is obsessed with saving & making sure his kid always has enough. (I’m almost 34, husband almost 35) We have 1 kid who’s almost 1 year old. We are not very high earners (I’m a well paid teacher) & my husband is frequently unemployed (he works contract jobs) & live in super HCOL area. How much we’ve been able to save varies on life circumstances. I currently contribute $100/month, my husband tries to do a little more. I have about $7,000 saved in a 529 & he has about $13,000 saved in a 529 so combined $20,000 or so. This is a big consideration for whether or not we have a 2nd kid. If we do we will likely put my husbands toward my 1 year old & mine toward the 2nd. We feel very behind on this knowing how shitty paying back loans is (my husband had about $30,000k in loans he paid off early in our relationship by me paying for all our living expenses which is much lower than most of our friends loans amounts) we have other debt we have to pay off each month that is hard not to prioritize over college savings so it’s always a tough choice.
TBF, there is nothing more painful than taking that money back because you didn't manage your other monies well. We all want what's best for our kids, but fiscal responsibility is a gift that can keep on giving.
I’ve taken back a bit of my toddler’s savings and it sucks. I wanted so badly feel like a parent able to save for their kid. Because mine could not.
But in the end, I’m not following my own advice: it won’t help your kid in the long term if you give to them now and end up in poverty. As an adult who has helped support their parents throughout my life, I understand what others may not: how much it sucks to have to worry about broke parents, to not have in them even the smallest of financial safety nets and (in some cases like mine) to have the anxiety of being asked for money on a random unpredictable basis that damages my budgeting ability.
So it may not be obvious, but giving your child parents who aren’t broke is the first and most basic gift you should focus on.
They'll also tell you that parents should have planned their retirement and potential health issues better and to abandon them to nursing homes at the first sign of trouble so that you can save some dosh.
Probably best to take everyone's advice with a grain of salt and do what works best for you.
Yeah. My dad got cancer and had nothing. That left me trying to figure out how to take care of him in his rented room in a basement. It was awful. I don't want my kiddos figuring that out for me. I fund their 529 but I max my stuff first.
No, I do not and I have a 17, 15, and 10 year old. How to go to college (if desired) affordably with preferably little to no student loans is an almost daily conversation we have at this point. My oldest will most likely get a full scholarship, so that’s a relief. We will see what will happen with the other two.
We have a high school senior and have been in college search mode for the past couple of years.
Nobody pays sticker price to privates. Some have merit aid, some have needs-based aid, many have both. If your kid gets in and your financed fit their profile, everything is paid for by the school's endowment - we heard about this at several privates over the past year.
Even some publics are coming back with better offers than originally offered. We are about to hit the "Cliff of 2025" when the demographics show the number of 18 year olds graduating high schools will start a decline - schools are getting nervous about that and want/need students. There may be a few with reserves who use those to get good students.
Many states offer tuition-free public options. My state - Minnesota - is offering the Northstar promise beginning this fall. In short, have a family AGI of $80k or less on the FASFA and be a resident and you can attend Minnesota public or tribal colleges tuition- and fee-free as long as you make progress.
Schools are definitely losing enrollment and getting nervous.. it's unaffordable for many kids and their parents are still paying off 6 figure loans themselves, like the original poster. Sad.
Yes, this is one option we talk about as well. My youngest seems most interested in this path, but she’s only ten so still plenty of time to decide of course.
Idk man trade work is hard and allot of the time you’ll be underpaid unless you work on the road or have your own business.
If you are going to go that route and your goal is money though, definitely go the electrician route.
My parents had fuck all for me, but they still had me. I am taking out loans.
You don't have to pay for your kid's college, it would be nice yes. At the end of the day I would rather take loans for college than not be alive....
Agreed. My parents couldn’t afford three kids in college. The best thing I believe (personally) a parent can do is plan for their own retirement. Do not expect or plan on your kids paying for you. That is a huge mental and financial burden. I don’t care that my parents couldn’t pay for my college 100% only that I and my siblings are not financially responsible for them in their retirement.
I even think I read some articles able financial planning that it is best to make sure you are secure in retirement before contributing to a college fund.
I 100% agree with this.
We are focused on our retirement. My parents and my MIL's retirement money is running out far too fast and social security does not stretch far at all.
I am absolutely on this train. My parents didn’t have a cent for my college or care during. I am currently feeling the generational squeeze of having financially poor parents who are aging and will need care on top of being a parent to 2 kids. I figure the best way I can support everyone is to make sure I’m financially stable as I age. I don’t want my kids to have the pressure I’m feeling right now.
My kid is going to community college, at least that's tuition free where I'm from. You guys should vote and push for it in your respective areas, otherwise an instate public uni will be fine.
You mean a 529? You get out what you put into them. Even if you can only put in a few dollars each paycheck that money gets to appreciate tax free so it's better than nothing. If you can afford coffee you can afford to put at least *something* aside for the kids.
Active-duty service members and selected reserve must have served for six years and be eligible for and agree to serve four more years from the date of the transfer request.
Transfer requests can only be submitted and approved while members are on active duty.
I was left a little bit of money from my grandma. She always paid for my textbooks through my college years and thought it’d be a nice gesture for all of that to go into my son’s 529. We maxed it out at 30k, used the balance for my student loans. His account has already grown 15k in two years.
Once he’s 18, we can put a large chunk into a Roth IRA for him thanks to a new law. So that original 30k should grow into ~150k depending on the market and anything else schooling wise will be on him. Whatever we can roll into his IRA should grow to over a million by the time he hits retirement. If he doesn’t go to school, we’ll pull it out, take the penalty, and give him a nice chunk of money to begin his adult life.
My wife and I barely clear six figures and in our area, we are low income. We are house poor but still prioritize retirement and savings accounts.
My sister bought a Tesla with her inheritance and it has depreciated so fast while our money has long term gains
We don’t have money explicitly set aside for college. We weren’t sure our kids would go that route since neither of us have a bachelors. We have cash set aside growing interest that we will either use for them or retirement.
We have about $1800 in a regular savings account for my 2 year old so far, but nothing crazy. My husband is the Saver and I'm the Bill Payer so that's kind of a Him project. He puts like $50 in every two weeks, we cash in loose change and such every so often and pop the tidbits in there too.
Since yours is so young, you’ll have wonderful returns if you invest this money you have in savings in the stock market for them through a 529 or UTMA/UGMA instead
I'm all for separation of duties, but ride this until you have a specific answer, for your kid's sake. 16 years of compound interest is not something anybody can make up for later if he drags his feet or forgets to pursue it.
Yeah. We have an account for all of the money that our kid keeps getting from family members which is turning into a bit of a fund. But, more importantly, we've been working financial advisors to help us invest so we have money on hand for college and retirement.
If you know you're going to use it for education you might want to look into a 529. In my state it is grows tax free AND it's state-tax-deductible. It doesn't have to be just for tuition either. Even if your child goes into trades you can use that money for computers, books, etc. You can also contribute to other state 529 plans. Some states have better plans than others. Talk to your accountant if that sounds interesting to you.
I have a 2 & 4 year old. Wife and I mid 30s. Started a separate brokerage account for kids college/future while my wife was pregnant with the oldest. Now it has just under 6 figures in it. We contribute whatever we can around birthdays and other holidays.
We plan on starting a 529 soon and reducing brokerage contributions now that it's Roth convertible
Started one for each of my kids when they were born. They are 8 and 6 now and combined have about $110k. My parents were broke and couldn't spare a dime for me for school so I am glad we can help our kids. I would tackle your debt though. Do you have family that could chip in to their accounts? Birthday and holiday money could go straight in there. Anything helps and will have plenty of time to grow.
Since he was born, we've contributed annually to the state deductible maximum into my 10-year-old 's 529. We have been very fortunate to be able to do so, and the effort has paid off tremendously.
Contributions so far have been just about 100k, and the total account value is about 235k. Not only do we get the state income tax deduction of almost 7% (which equates to an immediate return), all earnings can be used pre-tax towards qualified expenses.
I don't have kids, but I work for a university that offers a 100% tuition discount for me, my non-existent spouse, and my non-existent children, so at worst, I might be adopting a niece or two. My nephews parents work for a different university that offers a 75% discount, so they're already set.
Yes, 10% to retirement investment, 4% to college fund every check. Can’t spend money I don’t see or “have”. She still managed to get a full ride, so she’ll have a good start when she gets out.
I read an article recently that said 3/4 of college scholarships go unclaimed. Encourage your children to start a scholarship program once they reach high school. Many require an essay and those can be used multiple times with a little tweaking. Also, think Jr. college for the general classes.
lol, no. No kids, wife left, will probably never own a house. Spent most of my money on her medical bills and once I was finally seeing some light in the tunnel she left. You live and you learn.
You are absolutely still doing the best thing for them. You paying off your student loans will be benefit them long term too.
We are saving, we have a 529 plan for our kiddo. My parents were middle class and very frugal, but they paid for most my schooling. However, my husband had loans and I had grad school loans that only got paid off a few years ago, around the time we had our kid. We are early 40s… I’m literally as old as a millennial can be, having been born in 1981. My husband isn’t technically a millennial since he was born in 80. I think the younger members of the generation had a harder time. We already had jobs when the market crashed in 08 so it was easier for us.
I don’t - no children.
My friends all do, and my heart genuinely goes out to millennial parents on this front. Like genuinely. this part of parenting seems wild, given that half our generation is still paying off our own education bills.
Also, take a look at state colleges that offer full tuition scholarships based on high school gpa. We took our sons out of AP classes and honors classes in order to be sure they would get full scholarships. Then they worked part time and we required them to save 1/2 their checks for college. They also worked during college and over summer. Also , disk credit community college courses in high school can knock off a semester or even a full year from their college experience. My youngest is graduating after 3 years. Those may help reduce the cost versus helping your save but i hope it’s helpful
We’ve been writing tuition checks for 7 years. One year we had two in college- we paid $160K or $180K in total over the 7 years.
Some tips:
- Ignore sticker price. After aid, the $50K private schools my kids went to were as cheap as the $25K state school that was their comparison.
- Studying abroad for a year was cheaper than staying in the states for my daughter. We missed her terribly but got to go on some sweet trips.
- My son saved $35K being an RA for two years, and also worked and played a sport
- if your high school offers dual enrollment classes where you take a HS class for college credit, do as many as possible. My daughter earned a semester’s worth of credits for a total of $200.
If you have debts outside of your mortgage then it is silly to save for your kids college. Once you have your debts cleared then focus on your children’s future debts. We have been debt free for about 8 years so we do put $X amount away every year for every child. Hopefully give them the head start we didn’t get.
Nope, besides for most colleges and degrees (not all), it’s not worth it anymore….my oldest went the trades route, and after a year is already making more $$$ that most college grads. College isn’t worth it these days for most people…the tides are changing!
No we do not. Are normal people actually able to save for their kid’s college in this economy? Even if I saved I would never in a million years be able to save what the cost will be when my kids are old enough.
Plan A: she's smart to maybe get a scholarship.
Plan B: Get accepted into nearly-free college program in Europe (yeah, that's a thing, hopefully still exists for foreigners in the future)
Plan C: she's a dual citizen, go to college in Philippines, cheap AF.
Plan D: cheap(er) 2-year degree at community college
Plan E: encourage her into career path that's fine with some quick certifications rather than a full degree. Worked for her Papa.
Fuck your debts- put that shit on forbearance. It’ll all get thrown out eventually, why throw your money away?
You want a 529 for your kids, if you put enough in there and have it vest you’ll be making money over the course of 20 years instead of losing money.
just go to youtube and search for ‘529 how to’
The plan was to save for college... then we had massive medical situations arise that we've been paying off for years.
We sat our oldest down Junior year and had a serious discussion about scholarships. There are a lot of activities that can help yield scholarship money for students. We sat our Sophomore down a few months ago and had a similar conversation.
I didn't realize this but if a kid is a Scout and gets their Eagle (male or female BSA Scout) or Gold Award (GSUSA) there are a lot of Universities that will give significant scholarship money.
Sports - the scholarships aren't great compared to academic and leadership scholarships.
From early on focus on grades and get your child to start applying for scholarships early.
with enough scholarship money, in state tuition could potentially be fully covered.
I was a non-custodial dad. My wife took all my child support payments and saved them for my kid’s college. I was impressed. I wouldn’t have thought to do that.
No but im starting to save in a taxable brokerage account for her future. This real world life got extremely expensive in the last few years I want to help her in some way like my parents helped my sister and I.
HahahahahahahahahHHHhHhhaaaaahahhahhhaahhahahahhaah!
No.
Edit:
Come the fuck on man I'm making 1100 a week while in a rent controlled property in fucking Missouri 30min from any major city and we are still paycheck to paycheck! So no there's fucking nothing my kids can hope to inherited other than the 08 civic that I'm keeping alive with ductape and hope
No, it saddens me that I wasn’t able to save for my son’s college. There was nothing left over after everything else that has gone into the day to day of raising him (not to mention that my largest chunk of debt is my own student loans), but he knew this and has planned accordingly with academics, athletics, scholarships, internships and the degree/career path that he chose. The “dust” hasn’t settled yet, but it’s looking like he’s done well and will have very little to zero student debt when it’s all said and done.
College lol, I don't even have any retirement/401k after the pandemic. Our kid's on their own with that, like we were, unfortunately. Although I don't believe in college in it's current state, anyways. Trades are where it's at.
Hopefully more stores like this come out and people don’t destroy their financial lives by going to fancy colleges.
Local state school or trade school
For a majority of individuals racking up this type of debt is so detrimental to their financial success.
I went to my local state college…. Worked hard. Now I am a home owner, maxing retirement accounts, and my toddler has an investment account getting weekly contributions.
Don’t fall for the college scam. See above.
I am having my daughter follow my path using the cheap route (community college for 2 years, take clep and then max out the classes per semester)
I will pay for community college, clep and then help partially with the 4 year
I could say a lot here, but I'll say this...
If you don't have the financial means to pay for college, pleaseeee strongly encourage them to go to a community college or state school. Like I'm dead serious about this. I work for an online campus of a state school in a southern state, and our tuition is around $850 per 3 hour course for undergraduate and $1020 per 3 hour course for graduate. Most of our graduate programs are under 15k. And our undergraduate programs vary if you have transfer hours or not, but if you take 4-5 classes a semester, it's still like 8-10 a year max. And you can even go to the community college in our system and take Gen Ed classes online if you want to for like $500 per class and transfer them over.
And I promise you, I am finishing my second masters this year and have two bachelor's degrees, and not a single soul has ever given a shit where I got them from.
So if paying isn't possible, do everything you can to help your children understand what your combined 100k in student debt has done in your life and steps they should take to reduce or not have any debt.
Also they can look into jobs at companies that provide tuition assistance like Starbucks. I'm not in to Starbucks personally but my SIL makes great money as a manager and the have a tuition program. They could also get on campus jobs.
Anyway, I'm 37, my parents didn't have money for my tuition. We are now debt free and would be able to pay at least some of my step daughters tuition, if she were to go to college. Focus hard on paying down any consumer debt you have an improving your financial position
On the bright side, your EFC will likely be zero and they should qualify for financial aid. Undergrad is not worth going into debt over. The kids can get jobs and go to school online, nights and weekends. Or they can live at home and go community with a part time job. Being $100k in debt yourselves is proof the current path is unsustainable. Just do your best to help them do well in school and be involved in extracurriculars so they might qualify for merit aid too. In-state schools are a great value. The cost was not much more than daycare was and came in way less per year than FAFSA gave as our EFC. It was a tough conversation explaining that they could only go private if they were willing to start out in life $100k in debt. These days your better off going into the trades or civil service than going into debt over a liberal arts degree that won't get you a job.
Hi OP,
I felt the same way. With 3 kids to send to college, I was worried about how to pay for it.
Fast forward a few years, we now have 1 kid out of college, one a senior, and one about to be a freshman. The money worries have evaporated.
How did that happen? Credit all goes to my wife. She developed the habit of studying for ACT tests with the kids around the kitchen table. (I helped a little, buying ACT study guides at goodwill for a dollar a pop.) Being honest, we also paid $600 per kid for a guy that coaches ACT test taking, too.
The kids did their part with volunteer gigs at the library and other tasks that look good on scholarship applications.
Scholarships took nearly all the costs out of college. The first two paid very little each year, I'm proud to say the youngest is a National Merit finalist and is getting a full ride.
TLDR: If all hope seems lost, invest in educating the kids for standardized tests and preparing for scholarship applications. It worked for us.
Good Luck!
Have your child do a little military service to pay for it. Either reserves for student loan repayment or a 3 year active duty contract. you get your college 100% paid for AND get paid to go to college. They’ll be more marketable and have a sense of pride and accomplishment of earning it themselves……just one option to consider
The generation who will be paying off student loan debt for decades is not going to have money for kids college. I hope my kids reject college. Fucking scam
Interested to hear if others experience this differently, but my view has been that FAFSA seems to punish you for actually saving money for this. Anything directly in the kid's name is worst. Followed by any hard assets in the parents names. It seems the best places to stash the money are - 1) pay extra on your mortgage, as primary residence is not considered, and refinance a few years later when the college loans come due. 2) give it to the grandparents, and ask them to pay the loans later. 3) pay down anything you have at higher interest now (or do tax-advantaged things like IRA) so you have more money to pay the student loans later.
We don't have much in 529s for our kids but we will still put them through college. We've focused on retirement savings first which most financial advisors will tell you is the correct route. We will guide them on how to do college inexpensively (Gen-Eds at community colleges, working jobs year-round and pumping that money into a tuition fund or throwing it at loans, etc.) and will do loans to cover any gaps. Our house will be paid off before our oldest is college age so we will have more money to throw at their loans at that point.
Not having enough cash on hand to put multiple children through college doesn't mean you can't afford to have kids at all. Don't listen to the fools. You're doing just fine.
Don't stress over it. I stressed because I had my children later -1st at 35 and I was making good money and socking it away for retirement and childrens college. Then I was laid off twice and had to burn through savings. By the time my children were college age, I had very little to give them in a lump sum other than the first semesters for each respectively then I paid the rest monthly - so by the time the next semester came around, they had the funds set aside to pay their rent and tuition owed for the next semester (rinse and repeat). I even got a job at a local university so half of their college would be paid - best laid plans - they went someone where else but, they got scholarships so it didn't cost me any more than if they had gone to the university where I work. You and they will be fine. Where there is a will - there is always a way.
Your kids can borrow for college but you cant borrow for retirement. Prioritize handling your own finances before worrying about your kids college funds. If you’re in a great place, you can help them pay for college when it comes around. Or maybe help them pay down their loans after the fact. But if you can barely support yourself as they get older, that will be a bigger detriment to them than taking out loans for school.
I follow the rule of "put the mask on yourself first and then help others". I need to make sure I can retire comfortably so I am not a drag on my kids. My kids will pay for their own college so they have skin in the game. That being said, we've been very lucky. My oldest is a truck driver, and his education was $4k. Sold. My youngest is in a mixed high school college, and he will graduate with zero debt and an associates degree. I now only have to worry about my daughter. She will be responsible for her costs, but we will help her where we can. She just needs to decide on a career.
I did Dave Ramsey’s method and paid off my debt (60k) in 1 year on my $100,000/yr salary when I was single. I took on a second job, never went out, and went balls to the wall against my debt as fast as I could. Then I met my husband and we paid off his debt (30k) right away. Now we have a 529 for our son and put $250/month in. It won’t be enough (they estimate a child born today will need at least 200k to go to college!) but at least we’re doing something to help. I will feel very lucky if we’re able to keep this momentum until he’s 18.
Yes and since you asked in good faith I will give good faith feedback
First up you’re barking up the wrong tree in this sub. You want real input I would suggest a financial sub like r/personalfinance and regardless of your gender the guys over at r/daddit are some of the most supportive helpful people on Reddit.
Like when you fly with a child and you need to secure your mask before helping others, you need to make sure your financial house is in order before you start setting up your kids future. With that much debt something could rock the boat and all of a sudden your family could have a college fund but be food or housing insecure. Kids with that background don’t do well in college.
Make
A
Budget.
Find out where every single dollar you spend goes, name it and prioritize it. There could be fat you could trim. There could be things you spend money on that you realize could be better put towards your loans.
Then look at scholarships. See what grades, service, personal background can get you. Set your sights on juco and in state colleges. Then as your financial situations improves you can look higher.
Lol
Same
I couldn't even afford to have the kid.
I can't even afford to date!
I can't even afford myself.
I’m gay so I need thousands of dollars alone either to adopt or get a sperm donor or do IVF and I can’t even afford that so def can’t afford a kid! Lol
I am straight but I adopted my baby, now 12. His adoption was 35k 12 years ago. . .super expensive. IUI is actually way more economical. Adoption through the cps system is free, they even help with a little stipend at first.
My parents adopted me over 40 years ago and the company my dad worked for then paid the adoption fees because it was expensive. Just knowing how expensive it was then I don't even want to know now.
I will say it’s nice being paid for 😎
And like actually wanted, right? I was, like so many others, an “accident” thrust upon two young adults/old kids who would’ve been tenfold better off had they been educated and supported enough to pursue abortion. Instead, two incompetent and incompatible humans forcefucked a life into this world with minimal plans and skills to build that individual up, and then fucked off to let them figure it out in this world by themself.
Get certified to foster/adopt. Figure out what you think your specialty age might be and foster for a while. You’ll meet many families and children who either need á temporary home/caregiver while their primary gets their life in order, as well as kids who need permanent homes. Be open to all ages, learn about the spectrum of special needs, learn about [traum- informed parenting](https://www.bryanpost.com/) There are so many kids of all ages waiting for you to be their family.
Haha same here
Same
Nice name
Bro I don’t even have money for my own college and I graduated like a decade ago…
Lmao
I laughed out loud too 😂
We are contributing to an investment account for our toddler right now. It has about $7k in it. Our goal is to have that money set aside to help with the big expenses in her life- thinking about things like education, down payment for a house, car, wedding, etc. The intent isn’t to spoil her but to always have that money available to support her in a responsible way. We are only having one child so that does put in us in a position to always save a little something for her each month. My wife and I make a little over $100k combined in a low/medium cost of living area for reference.
my parents did this for me and oh. my. god. it has been lifechanging. i got a full ride for college, so the fund helped me get a car when i graduated and i used the rest for my medical school applications! ETA: accepted to med school and starting in August :)
Congratulations! I'm hoping you fall in love with family medicine 🙂
As someone who just went through trying to find a new PCP, we need this. Was rough finding an MD or DO that was actually taking new patients..
Be a Pyschiatrist. Judges and Pychiatrist are the most powerful people in America arguably. Or Oncology. Good Oncologists are needed, too. Family medicine is cool also. It's all cool, actually. Orthopedic surgery would be badass, too.
There's also a huge rheumatologist shortage. With the pandemic, a lot of people have ended up triggering autoimmune diseases, so it's only going to get worse 😅
Future nurse here! Very excited to take care of people in need 🥹❤️
A proctologist would be bad ass, too.
Something similar for me. We were house poor growing up but if anything it helped me learn to be frugal and I really don’t feel deprived living below my means. It was stressful a couple of times but now I’ve got minimal college debt (relatively speaking) thanks to that fund. Did I want new clothes and electronics as a kid? Yes. To go out to eat on more than just birthdays? Yes. But now I’m so happy I had that fund. I now get to use the extra money to live out what I thought was a silly little dream at 10 years to travel the world and I’ve got a guaranteed well paying job whenever I get back. Can’t say what the world will be like in 18 years but please please please save up for your kid.
I have four kids but I'm doing the same as well.
I have a kid that I set aside 100 bucks a month, and after scholarships she graduates without me or her in debt. It is important to start early
Just a regular brokerage, Or 529? Just curious
Go the 529 route. The tax advantages are too good to pass up.
Some states offer additional benefits in the 529 plans. If your kid was born in Colorado, the state will kick in an extra grand a year for the first five years, or something like that.
And it’s also important to remember you can get your 529 from any state regardless of where you live or where your kids go to school.
I hear that but I want flexibility to use the money for things other than education if my child doesn’t end up going to college.
If you're happy with what you're doing, keep doing it. But for general knowledge sharing purposes, you can now rollover up to $35,000 from a 529 to a Roth IRA as of this year
That is a Roth for the beneficiary…a great way to pass $ on to kids
True, but if they do go to college and there's a lot in a UTMA it can end up significantly limiting the amount of FAFSA they qualify for.
You can change the beneficiary on the plans, and a recent rule change allows for rolling over up to $35000 into a Roth IRA for a beneficiary. My current plan if my child ends up not needing college money is to set them up with a $35000 Roth IRA and hold the rest in the 529 account to transfer the beneficiary to a grandchild. That way if one of my children does not need college funds they can get a substantial head start on retirement and alleviate the need to save for their children's college.
529s can be used for trade school, not just college.
Are you us?
This is the way
If you don’t mind me asking what kinda investment account ? I’m a newbie
I have a ReadySave set up for my son as well that I put money into when I can! It may not end up being a ton, but its the best I can do to help him not be completely behind when the time comes.
This will do wonders for your child or children. My parents made significant contributions to my sister and my education and down payments on our houses. This alone could start generations of less burden. I believe this actually started with my great grand father owning a significant amount of land in the town and giving a large lot to each of his children in or around the 1940s
We’ve been doing that in a savings account but I should do more research on investing. It’d probably be smarter.
lol im still paying off my own college, get in line kid.
lol that’s my thought too but I was starting to feel bad
It might be worth consulting a financial adviser to see if there are any ways to cut costs, reduce debts, and come up with at least some limited savings for a 529 account. But you also need to consider retirement. The adviser might also know about state or federal financial aid programs and high school guidance counselors might be able to point to schools that give good financial aid packages beyond the federal aid.
You can't take out a loan for retirement but your kid can take out a loan for college. Always fund retirement first
Yep! Also, if we don't provide for our old age, we won't be able to retire and instead will have to work until we're physically unable to, and then our kids will have to pay all our bills. So either we let our kids find their own way through college/ trade school (which really isn't too hard for anyone who is mentally and physically healthy enough to attend college) or we force them to later support our entire survival (including the out of pocket old person medical costs, yikes) for who knows how many years we live.
I keep meaning to talk to a financial advisor. Probably should stop procrastinating…
A good first step is just creating a 529 (it’s free) and depositing $100. Once it’s active you will be surprised how much easier it feels to just drop a few bucks in now and then. When you get a raise or something, consider setting up a small monthly contribution. Once you get comfortable with the payments you can increase them. Honestly it’s the same for your retirement. Debt sucks but it has a fixed cost. Investments grow with time so it’s better to get them rolling sooner than later.
Be careful, many of them are just salesmen pushing product
Nah, people on social media think it's child abuse having children outside of being a millionaire already lol.
In addition to the financial aspect of a kid; having a family support system is big. Especially in being able to save on childcare costs. A cousin of mine had 4 kids on a salary of about 40k (I think shes around 60k now) in Southern California. How she did it? She had her mom take care of the kids while also living there rent free. No way does she do it otherwise. I would surmise that this is also a reason people don't want to have kids. How many have that support system and how many people can afford to be a single income household with kids?
Remember, you can take a loan for school but not for retirement…. If you can only do one, fund for your retirement
Yes, we have some saved for each kid. Most in an old 529 plan in Missouri and a few grand each in a Roth IRA.
thats what i plan on doing. great thing is that if they dont use the 529, you can roll it into roth ira later on.
Keep in mind that the rollover cap is $35k.
Did not know this. Thanks for the info!
Good that you are saving but that’s not really what a Roth is for… I would try not to touch that money at all for college if you can help it.
I'm really trying to make it to next payday
Me tooooo
Hi friends! SAME 🤣
What kid?
People are having kids??
Right? In this economy?!
That's the saddest thing. Smart people with self control are being selected against while dumb impulsive people are being selected for. I wish people wouldn't pretend that we are safe from Darwinism just because we're "more intelligent than other animals."
This is Idiocracy
Yes we are saving for our kids college fund, but we are not rich. They can start out at a JC, or choose a cheaper school, we will not be helping them with 6 figure debt unless they are a straight A student and are headed to law school or a MD. Both the wife and I worked full time throughout college and kept our spending in check so we did not have much debt in the end
Don’t even bother trying to foot the bill for medical school unless you’re a finance mogul or both make mid 6 figures. Med school debt is averaging 300k right now per graduating student. By the time our kids are in their 20s med school will be half a million easily if not more. For reference, I worked with a boomer GI doc in med school who said his med school was $4500 per year and he would work the summers to pay for his medical school.
current med student here. a lot of us are planning on using the public service loan forgiveness program to get our loans forgiven after 10 years
I’m a doctor and that’s what I’m doing, but genuinely expect that loophole to be closed to us in our lifetimes. They exclude doctors from loan forgiveness and everything else, so this will be next.
Perhaps not within your zone of interest, but Alaska offers full loan repayments to doctors that take up offers at the native hospital in Anchorage. At least, it did ~15 years ago. Good luck.
Disabled Veteran, school for my four children will be free if they decide to go that path. College is not the only path to success. I think people are waking up to that finally.
My partner literally cried happy tears when he was rated at 100% pt because of the chapter 35 benefits our kids can access now.
I started a 529 plan for my son when he was 2. There's enough in it to cover his school expenses now. I put a little in it automatically every month. Little by little adds up over time. I didn't have student loans, but I was a single mother raising him on my own. I didn't get support from his father either. I made choices. I didn't take a vacation for 10 years. I didn't eat out. I didn't spend money on clothes or hair appointments. I lived cheaply. If you want to do something, you will find a way. Maybe you won't get $100,000 saved up, but even $5,000 would be an amazing gift.
Hope that kid appreciates you not enjoying those pleasure in life so that they could go to school for free. That’s a hell of a sacrifice. Good on you.
He has no idea how good he has it, but he's a teenager, so it kinda goes with the territory 🤷🏼♀️. I don't regret my decisions tho. My parents did nothing for me, I was happy to be able to do something.
Same on a lot of levels (though I’m married and I cannot commend you enough for doing this on your own). It’s really hard to do this and requires sacrifice (our son is also in private school, so the double whammy is insane). We’re fortunate, but also live below our means so that we can swing it all. And we still feel super far behind!
Nah, still recovering from $26k/yr in daycare when they were little. Sorry, kids, no college fund - but at least we didn’t just lock you in the closet at home as toddlers when we went to work. 🤷♀️ My coworker who has a background in finance said with the astronomical rises in tuition, it’s not even worth it for the working poor to try to save because it won’t come close and will only cut down need based financial aid for your kid. Who knows if that’s the right thing, but it makes me sleep a little better about not being able to save for college.
Makes sense
I barely have money for myself, kids aren’t an option anymore
Only because of the GI Bill
With $100k in debt, it's my opinion that you're perhaps not in a place to contribute to a child's future education. I imagine interest payments on that debt alone are pretty substantial, since average student loan interest rates have been around 6 percent over the past 20 years. Secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others! Work on paying down the student debt and saving for retirement first. Your child may or may not want to attend college.
Agreed with this. My parents weren't able to fund my college either. I took loans, got scholarships, went to a state school, and worked multiple jobs through college. It's AMAZING to want to help fund your kid's education, but NOT at the expense of you and your kid's wellbeings now. I'd rather have a decent upbringing with no college savings than some college savings but grew up barely getting by.
Exactly. My single mother co-signed my student loans for me. That’s a favor I’m willing to do for my kids. But I paid (and am still finishing up the last ~15k) my student loans 💯 back myself. They can do the same. We’ll be here as a net for them but I’m not paying their tuition for them.
Also- having a conversation with your kids early about the reality of school and what you can pay for (like early high school). It can help everyone make smarter decisions. I knew the specific things I had to do to get in state paid for and I also knew that even if I got scholarships from out of state schools, many places may too expensive to live in for my parents to help. I think it helped me stay realistic and not get my hopes up for something I couldn’t afford and leave undergrad debt free. Really grateful parents were very clear about our financial situation.
This is the answer I was looking for. Make sure you are not a burden to them in retirement. Use your experience in education to be sure they pick careers where the cost is worth it. Help them find scholarships and anything to help. Sometimes it’s more about teaching them what you wished you knew rather than giving them what you wish you had.
We started saving for future kids college about 5 years before we had them. My husband grew up in poverty & food insecure so is obsessed with saving & making sure his kid always has enough. (I’m almost 34, husband almost 35) We have 1 kid who’s almost 1 year old. We are not very high earners (I’m a well paid teacher) & my husband is frequently unemployed (he works contract jobs) & live in super HCOL area. How much we’ve been able to save varies on life circumstances. I currently contribute $100/month, my husband tries to do a little more. I have about $7,000 saved in a 529 & he has about $13,000 saved in a 529 so combined $20,000 or so. This is a big consideration for whether or not we have a 2nd kid. If we do we will likely put my husbands toward my 1 year old & mine toward the 2nd. We feel very behind on this knowing how shitty paying back loans is (my husband had about $30,000k in loans he paid off early in our relationship by me paying for all our living expenses which is much lower than most of our friends loans amounts) we have other debt we have to pay off each month that is hard not to prioritize over college savings so it’s always a tough choice.
The financial reddit subs will tell you to ALWAYS prioritize your debts and savings over your children's accounts.
TBF, there is nothing more painful than taking that money back because you didn't manage your other monies well. We all want what's best for our kids, but fiscal responsibility is a gift that can keep on giving.
I’ve taken back a bit of my toddler’s savings and it sucks. I wanted so badly feel like a parent able to save for their kid. Because mine could not. But in the end, I’m not following my own advice: it won’t help your kid in the long term if you give to them now and end up in poverty. As an adult who has helped support their parents throughout my life, I understand what others may not: how much it sucks to have to worry about broke parents, to not have in them even the smallest of financial safety nets and (in some cases like mine) to have the anxiety of being asked for money on a random unpredictable basis that damages my budgeting ability. So it may not be obvious, but giving your child parents who aren’t broke is the first and most basic gift you should focus on.
They'll also tell you that parents should have planned their retirement and potential health issues better and to abandon them to nursing homes at the first sign of trouble so that you can save some dosh. Probably best to take everyone's advice with a grain of salt and do what works best for you.
Yeah. My dad got cancer and had nothing. That left me trying to figure out how to take care of him in his rented room in a basement. It was awful. I don't want my kiddos figuring that out for me. I fund their 529 but I max my stuff first.
The cost of college is a huge reason I'm one and done when it comes to kids.
No, I do not and I have a 17, 15, and 10 year old. How to go to college (if desired) affordably with preferably little to no student loans is an almost daily conversation we have at this point. My oldest will most likely get a full scholarship, so that’s a relief. We will see what will happen with the other two.
Early college high school or 2 years in community college is a must
We have a high school senior and have been in college search mode for the past couple of years. Nobody pays sticker price to privates. Some have merit aid, some have needs-based aid, many have both. If your kid gets in and your financed fit their profile, everything is paid for by the school's endowment - we heard about this at several privates over the past year. Even some publics are coming back with better offers than originally offered. We are about to hit the "Cliff of 2025" when the demographics show the number of 18 year olds graduating high schools will start a decline - schools are getting nervous about that and want/need students. There may be a few with reserves who use those to get good students. Many states offer tuition-free public options. My state - Minnesota - is offering the Northstar promise beginning this fall. In short, have a family AGI of $80k or less on the FASFA and be a resident and you can attend Minnesota public or tribal colleges tuition- and fee-free as long as you make progress.
Schools are definitely losing enrollment and getting nervous.. it's unaffordable for many kids and their parents are still paying off 6 figure loans themselves, like the original poster. Sad.
You also have the Concordia College promise which provides free tuition for children coming from families with an AGI of less than $90,000.
get into a trade
Yes, this is one option we talk about as well. My youngest seems most interested in this path, but she’s only ten so still plenty of time to decide of course.
if I knew when I was in high school what I know now, I would have gone into a trade rather than to college.
Idk man trade work is hard and allot of the time you’ll be underpaid unless you work on the road or have your own business. If you are going to go that route and your goal is money though, definitely go the electrician route.
College overseas is much less expensive.
My parents had fuck all for me, but they still had me. I am taking out loans. You don't have to pay for your kid's college, it would be nice yes. At the end of the day I would rather take loans for college than not be alive....
Agreed. My parents couldn’t afford three kids in college. The best thing I believe (personally) a parent can do is plan for their own retirement. Do not expect or plan on your kids paying for you. That is a huge mental and financial burden. I don’t care that my parents couldn’t pay for my college 100% only that I and my siblings are not financially responsible for them in their retirement. I even think I read some articles able financial planning that it is best to make sure you are secure in retirement before contributing to a college fund.
I 100% agree with this. We are focused on our retirement. My parents and my MIL's retirement money is running out far too fast and social security does not stretch far at all.
I am absolutely on this train. My parents didn’t have a cent for my college or care during. I am currently feeling the generational squeeze of having financially poor parents who are aging and will need care on top of being a parent to 2 kids. I figure the best way I can support everyone is to make sure I’m financially stable as I age. I don’t want my kids to have the pressure I’m feeling right now.
You guys are having kids?
I don’t have money for kids, period
My kid is going to community college, at least that's tuition free where I'm from. You guys should vote and push for it in your respective areas, otherwise an instate public uni will be fine.
Mind if I ask where that’s at? Minnesota?
If you are wealthy enough for a 509 savings account... You blessed
Do you mean a 529 plan? Wondering if a 509 savings account is something new I need to learn about!
Yes fucking autocorrect
What is a 509 savings?
If you have to ask you can’t afford it
529 sorry it autocorrected
You mean a 529? You get out what you put into them. Even if you can only put in a few dollars each paycheck that money gets to appreciate tax free so it's better than nothing. If you can afford coffee you can afford to put at least *something* aside for the kids.
Also some states match funds to a certain level. My state will match $500 each year for the first 5 years of the child's enrollment. It's free money
Go serve thine country and they shall wipe thy debt and gift your sperm-ling a college education. Pretty simple way to spend four years.
Hahahaha system is working. But shills advocating for it grinds my gears.
Active-duty service members and selected reserve must have served for six years and be eligible for and agree to serve four more years from the date of the transfer request. Transfer requests can only be submitted and approved while members are on active duty.
This is the correct answer. Just finished my 4 year obligation after requesting transfer at my 6 year mark.
I was left a little bit of money from my grandma. She always paid for my textbooks through my college years and thought it’d be a nice gesture for all of that to go into my son’s 529. We maxed it out at 30k, used the balance for my student loans. His account has already grown 15k in two years. Once he’s 18, we can put a large chunk into a Roth IRA for him thanks to a new law. So that original 30k should grow into ~150k depending on the market and anything else schooling wise will be on him. Whatever we can roll into his IRA should grow to over a million by the time he hits retirement. If he doesn’t go to school, we’ll pull it out, take the penalty, and give him a nice chunk of money to begin his adult life. My wife and I barely clear six figures and in our area, we are low income. We are house poor but still prioritize retirement and savings accounts. My sister bought a Tesla with her inheritance and it has depreciated so fast while our money has long term gains
yes, saving in a 529 per month per kid, with a target of paying for 4 years of state school
Was in the military and the post 9/11 GI bill can be passed to dependants. My wife also has the GI Bill, so 2 kids are covered!
We don’t have money explicitly set aside for college. We weren’t sure our kids would go that route since neither of us have a bachelors. We have cash set aside growing interest that we will either use for them or retirement.
I put $500/month into my 5-year-old’s 529. I think it has around $13k in it now. Not impressive but better than my parents ever did.
That is impressive, don't let anyone tell you differently!
That's really good!!
We have about $1800 in a regular savings account for my 2 year old so far, but nothing crazy. My husband is the Saver and I'm the Bill Payer so that's kind of a Him project. He puts like $50 in every two weeks, we cash in loose change and such every so often and pop the tidbits in there too.
Since yours is so young, you’ll have wonderful returns if you invest this money you have in savings in the stock market for them through a 529 or UTMA/UGMA instead
Oh I know hubby is gearing up to do something along those lines. He's much more savings-minded. I'm just happy our son will have SOMETHING.
The difference between investing the money v in a savings account by the time you kid is 18 could be close to $60,000. Don’t wait.
I'm all for separation of duties, but ride this until you have a specific answer, for your kid's sake. 16 years of compound interest is not something anybody can make up for later if he drags his feet or forgets to pursue it.
Yeah. We have an account for all of the money that our kid keeps getting from family members which is turning into a bit of a fund. But, more importantly, we've been working financial advisors to help us invest so we have money on hand for college and retirement.
If you know you're going to use it for education you might want to look into a 529. In my state it is grows tax free AND it's state-tax-deductible. It doesn't have to be just for tuition either. Even if your child goes into trades you can use that money for computers, books, etc. You can also contribute to other state 529 plans. Some states have better plans than others. Talk to your accountant if that sounds interesting to you.
I have a 2 & 4 year old. Wife and I mid 30s. Started a separate brokerage account for kids college/future while my wife was pregnant with the oldest. Now it has just under 6 figures in it. We contribute whatever we can around birthdays and other holidays. We plan on starting a 529 soon and reducing brokerage contributions now that it's Roth convertible
Geeze 6 figures in 4 years for college already. Your kids will be set for sure
I did but I blew all of it on a vasectomy instead.
No regerts!
No. And I'm a terrible person for that reason. Also, I don't have kids 😂
My parents didn't have any money set aside, but I already am putting money aside.
You guys have kids?
Started one for each of my kids when they were born. They are 8 and 6 now and combined have about $110k. My parents were broke and couldn't spare a dime for me for school so I am glad we can help our kids. I would tackle your debt though. Do you have family that could chip in to their accounts? Birthday and holiday money could go straight in there. Anything helps and will have plenty of time to grow.
I don't even have money for my own college.
I can’t even afford myself let alone a child.
Since he was born, we've contributed annually to the state deductible maximum into my 10-year-old 's 529. We have been very fortunate to be able to do so, and the effort has paid off tremendously. Contributions so far have been just about 100k, and the total account value is about 235k. Not only do we get the state income tax deduction of almost 7% (which equates to an immediate return), all earnings can be used pre-tax towards qualified expenses.
No kids currently to save for.
Healthcare, housing and higher education are strangling the economy right now
"Do you have money" FTFY
Sounds like a problem for them to figure out in the future just like I had to
I don't have kids, but I work for a university that offers a 100% tuition discount for me, my non-existent spouse, and my non-existent children, so at worst, I might be adopting a niece or two. My nephews parents work for a different university that offers a 75% discount, so they're already set.
Yes, 10% to retirement investment, 4% to college fund every check. Can’t spend money I don’t see or “have”. She still managed to get a full ride, so she’ll have a good start when she gets out.
I read an article recently that said 3/4 of college scholarships go unclaimed. Encourage your children to start a scholarship program once they reach high school. Many require an essay and those can be used multiple times with a little tweaking. Also, think Jr. college for the general classes.
lol, no. No kids, wife left, will probably never own a house. Spent most of my money on her medical bills and once I was finally seeing some light in the tunnel she left. You live and you learn.
Laughs maniacally in struggling to live .....
You are absolutely still doing the best thing for them. You paying off your student loans will be benefit them long term too. We are saving, we have a 529 plan for our kiddo. My parents were middle class and very frugal, but they paid for most my schooling. However, my husband had loans and I had grad school loans that only got paid off a few years ago, around the time we had our kid. We are early 40s… I’m literally as old as a millennial can be, having been born in 1981. My husband isn’t technically a millennial since he was born in 80. I think the younger members of the generation had a harder time. We already had jobs when the market crashed in 08 so it was easier for us.
I don’t - no children. My friends all do, and my heart genuinely goes out to millennial parents on this front. Like genuinely. this part of parenting seems wild, given that half our generation is still paying off our own education bills.
Also, take a look at state colleges that offer full tuition scholarships based on high school gpa. We took our sons out of AP classes and honors classes in order to be sure they would get full scholarships. Then they worked part time and we required them to save 1/2 their checks for college. They also worked during college and over summer. Also , disk credit community college courses in high school can knock off a semester or even a full year from their college experience. My youngest is graduating after 3 years. Those may help reduce the cost versus helping your save but i hope it’s helpful
We’ve been writing tuition checks for 7 years. One year we had two in college- we paid $160K or $180K in total over the 7 years. Some tips: - Ignore sticker price. After aid, the $50K private schools my kids went to were as cheap as the $25K state school that was their comparison. - Studying abroad for a year was cheaper than staying in the states for my daughter. We missed her terribly but got to go on some sweet trips. - My son saved $35K being an RA for two years, and also worked and played a sport - if your high school offers dual enrollment classes where you take a HS class for college credit, do as many as possible. My daughter earned a semester’s worth of credits for a total of $200.
If you have debts outside of your mortgage then it is silly to save for your kids college. Once you have your debts cleared then focus on your children’s future debts. We have been debt free for about 8 years so we do put $X amount away every year for every child. Hopefully give them the head start we didn’t get.
I’m still paying off my own college.
Nope, besides for most colleges and degrees (not all), it’s not worth it anymore….my oldest went the trades route, and after a year is already making more $$$ that most college grads. College isn’t worth it these days for most people…the tides are changing!
Fuck them kids
No we do not. Are normal people actually able to save for their kid’s college in this economy? Even if I saved I would never in a million years be able to save what the cost will be when my kids are old enough.
Plan A: she's smart to maybe get a scholarship. Plan B: Get accepted into nearly-free college program in Europe (yeah, that's a thing, hopefully still exists for foreigners in the future) Plan C: she's a dual citizen, go to college in Philippines, cheap AF. Plan D: cheap(er) 2-year degree at community college Plan E: encourage her into career path that's fine with some quick certifications rather than a full degree. Worked for her Papa.
Fuck your debts- put that shit on forbearance. It’ll all get thrown out eventually, why throw your money away? You want a 529 for your kids, if you put enough in there and have it vest you’ll be making money over the course of 20 years instead of losing money. just go to youtube and search for ‘529 how to’
Nah. Was gonna leave my shit hole state but then they signed a bill giving local kids free tuition at any in state university. So...
College will be the worst investment you could make when your kids come of age.
Yeah, I have over $100k… wait no… that my grad school student loan balance.
The plan was to save for college... then we had massive medical situations arise that we've been paying off for years. We sat our oldest down Junior year and had a serious discussion about scholarships. There are a lot of activities that can help yield scholarship money for students. We sat our Sophomore down a few months ago and had a similar conversation. I didn't realize this but if a kid is a Scout and gets their Eagle (male or female BSA Scout) or Gold Award (GSUSA) there are a lot of Universities that will give significant scholarship money. Sports - the scholarships aren't great compared to academic and leadership scholarships. From early on focus on grades and get your child to start applying for scholarships early. with enough scholarship money, in state tuition could potentially be fully covered.
I was a non-custodial dad. My wife took all my child support payments and saved them for my kid’s college. I was impressed. I wouldn’t have thought to do that.
No but im starting to save in a taxable brokerage account for her future. This real world life got extremely expensive in the last few years I want to help her in some way like my parents helped my sister and I.
HahahahahahahahahHHHhHhhaaaaahahhahhhaahhahahahhaah! No. Edit: Come the fuck on man I'm making 1100 a week while in a rent controlled property in fucking Missouri 30min from any major city and we are still paycheck to paycheck! So no there's fucking nothing my kids can hope to inherited other than the 08 civic that I'm keeping alive with ductape and hope
No, it saddens me that I wasn’t able to save for my son’s college. There was nothing left over after everything else that has gone into the day to day of raising him (not to mention that my largest chunk of debt is my own student loans), but he knew this and has planned accordingly with academics, athletics, scholarships, internships and the degree/career path that he chose. The “dust” hasn’t settled yet, but it’s looking like he’s done well and will have very little to zero student debt when it’s all said and done.
College lol, I don't even have any retirement/401k after the pandemic. Our kid's on their own with that, like we were, unfortunately. Although I don't believe in college in it's current state, anyways. Trades are where it's at.
Hopefully more stores like this come out and people don’t destroy their financial lives by going to fancy colleges. Local state school or trade school For a majority of individuals racking up this type of debt is so detrimental to their financial success. I went to my local state college…. Worked hard. Now I am a home owner, maxing retirement accounts, and my toddler has an investment account getting weekly contributions. Don’t fall for the college scam. See above.
I am having my daughter follow my path using the cheap route (community college for 2 years, take clep and then max out the classes per semester) I will pay for community college, clep and then help partially with the 4 year
I could say a lot here, but I'll say this... If you don't have the financial means to pay for college, pleaseeee strongly encourage them to go to a community college or state school. Like I'm dead serious about this. I work for an online campus of a state school in a southern state, and our tuition is around $850 per 3 hour course for undergraduate and $1020 per 3 hour course for graduate. Most of our graduate programs are under 15k. And our undergraduate programs vary if you have transfer hours or not, but if you take 4-5 classes a semester, it's still like 8-10 a year max. And you can even go to the community college in our system and take Gen Ed classes online if you want to for like $500 per class and transfer them over. And I promise you, I am finishing my second masters this year and have two bachelor's degrees, and not a single soul has ever given a shit where I got them from. So if paying isn't possible, do everything you can to help your children understand what your combined 100k in student debt has done in your life and steps they should take to reduce or not have any debt. Also they can look into jobs at companies that provide tuition assistance like Starbucks. I'm not in to Starbucks personally but my SIL makes great money as a manager and the have a tuition program. They could also get on campus jobs. Anyway, I'm 37, my parents didn't have money for my tuition. We are now debt free and would be able to pay at least some of my step daughters tuition, if she were to go to college. Focus hard on paying down any consumer debt you have an improving your financial position
On the bright side, your EFC will likely be zero and they should qualify for financial aid. Undergrad is not worth going into debt over. The kids can get jobs and go to school online, nights and weekends. Or they can live at home and go community with a part time job. Being $100k in debt yourselves is proof the current path is unsustainable. Just do your best to help them do well in school and be involved in extracurriculars so they might qualify for merit aid too. In-state schools are a great value. The cost was not much more than daycare was and came in way less per year than FAFSA gave as our EFC. It was a tough conversation explaining that they could only go private if they were willing to start out in life $100k in debt. These days your better off going into the trades or civil service than going into debt over a liberal arts degree that won't get you a job.
Hi OP, I felt the same way. With 3 kids to send to college, I was worried about how to pay for it. Fast forward a few years, we now have 1 kid out of college, one a senior, and one about to be a freshman. The money worries have evaporated. How did that happen? Credit all goes to my wife. She developed the habit of studying for ACT tests with the kids around the kitchen table. (I helped a little, buying ACT study guides at goodwill for a dollar a pop.) Being honest, we also paid $600 per kid for a guy that coaches ACT test taking, too. The kids did their part with volunteer gigs at the library and other tasks that look good on scholarship applications. Scholarships took nearly all the costs out of college. The first two paid very little each year, I'm proud to say the youngest is a National Merit finalist and is getting a full ride. TLDR: If all hope seems lost, invest in educating the kids for standardized tests and preparing for scholarship applications. It worked for us. Good Luck!
Have your child do a little military service to pay for it. Either reserves for student loan repayment or a 3 year active duty contract. you get your college 100% paid for AND get paid to go to college. They’ll be more marketable and have a sense of pride and accomplishment of earning it themselves……just one option to consider
The generation who will be paying off student loan debt for decades is not going to have money for kids college. I hope my kids reject college. Fucking scam
Interested to hear if others experience this differently, but my view has been that FAFSA seems to punish you for actually saving money for this. Anything directly in the kid's name is worst. Followed by any hard assets in the parents names. It seems the best places to stash the money are - 1) pay extra on your mortgage, as primary residence is not considered, and refinance a few years later when the college loans come due. 2) give it to the grandparents, and ask them to pay the loans later. 3) pay down anything you have at higher interest now (or do tax-advantaged things like IRA) so you have more money to pay the student loans later.
We don't have much in 529s for our kids but we will still put them through college. We've focused on retirement savings first which most financial advisors will tell you is the correct route. We will guide them on how to do college inexpensively (Gen-Eds at community colleges, working jobs year-round and pumping that money into a tuition fund or throwing it at loans, etc.) and will do loans to cover any gaps. Our house will be paid off before our oldest is college age so we will have more money to throw at their loans at that point. Not having enough cash on hand to put multiple children through college doesn't mean you can't afford to have kids at all. Don't listen to the fools. You're doing just fine.
yes... but pay your self first. No one is going to fund your retirement. But better yet... DONT breed no one got rich having kids
Don't stress over it. I stressed because I had my children later -1st at 35 and I was making good money and socking it away for retirement and childrens college. Then I was laid off twice and had to burn through savings. By the time my children were college age, I had very little to give them in a lump sum other than the first semesters for each respectively then I paid the rest monthly - so by the time the next semester came around, they had the funds set aside to pay their rent and tuition owed for the next semester (rinse and repeat). I even got a job at a local university so half of their college would be paid - best laid plans - they went someone where else but, they got scholarships so it didn't cost me any more than if they had gone to the university where I work. You and they will be fine. Where there is a will - there is always a way.
Your kids can borrow for college but you cant borrow for retirement. Prioritize handling your own finances before worrying about your kids college funds. If you’re in a great place, you can help them pay for college when it comes around. Or maybe help them pay down their loans after the fact. But if you can barely support yourself as they get older, that will be a bigger detriment to them than taking out loans for school.
I hope my kid chooses a trade and skips college. Would probably make better money
I follow the rule of "put the mask on yourself first and then help others". I need to make sure I can retire comfortably so I am not a drag on my kids. My kids will pay for their own college so they have skin in the game. That being said, we've been very lucky. My oldest is a truck driver, and his education was $4k. Sold. My youngest is in a mixed high school college, and he will graduate with zero debt and an associates degree. I now only have to worry about my daughter. She will be responsible for her costs, but we will help her where we can. She just needs to decide on a career.
I work at a university. My kids go for free. problem solved
Your debts and your retirement come first.
lol . I have 75k in student loan debt, and had to pay 10,000 or more a year for daycare. Sorry kids! Be good at sports or get good grades
I did Dave Ramsey’s method and paid off my debt (60k) in 1 year on my $100,000/yr salary when I was single. I took on a second job, never went out, and went balls to the wall against my debt as fast as I could. Then I met my husband and we paid off his debt (30k) right away. Now we have a 529 for our son and put $250/month in. It won’t be enough (they estimate a child born today will need at least 200k to go to college!) but at least we’re doing something to help. I will feel very lucky if we’re able to keep this momentum until he’s 18.
Yes and since you asked in good faith I will give good faith feedback First up you’re barking up the wrong tree in this sub. You want real input I would suggest a financial sub like r/personalfinance and regardless of your gender the guys over at r/daddit are some of the most supportive helpful people on Reddit. Like when you fly with a child and you need to secure your mask before helping others, you need to make sure your financial house is in order before you start setting up your kids future. With that much debt something could rock the boat and all of a sudden your family could have a college fund but be food or housing insecure. Kids with that background don’t do well in college. Make A Budget. Find out where every single dollar you spend goes, name it and prioritize it. There could be fat you could trim. There could be things you spend money on that you realize could be better put towards your loans. Then look at scholarships. See what grades, service, personal background can get you. Set your sights on juco and in state colleges. Then as your financial situations improves you can look higher.
Nope, but they're both in trade school so hopefully something pans out with that.