There is SOME money in her 529 but not enough to pay for all of college. We will help where we can but she will be expected to apply for as much financial aid as possible and seek out scholarships. She plans on going out of state but we have family there who have already offered her a place to live. DH told her that if she gets a full ride through either an educational OR cheer scholarship he will buy her whatever car she wants. Total dumb move on his part.
We do not have anything set aside for my SDs. I proposed a plan to DH and he agreed. Their child support ends at age 18. We plan to take that amount, split it in half and put it towards student loans for the four years they are in school. They are close in age so they will be starting college 2 years apart if they both go to college. Once they are out, they pay the rest. We already have that money taken out so we won't miss it. I'm not sure if BM plans to contribute at all.
DS has a college fund. My parents put a big chunk in there. I hope to contribute more once he is out of daycare and I have more than two nickels to rub together.
All of this is contingent on grades.
You're on the VA side right? We had a discussion about this on MM the other day. VA has one of the best 529 plans out there and I want to say it'I'llax deductible. May be worth looking into? Seems like there is a big tax benefit to contributing
Thats what we have for DS. Its pretty good, it grew 13% this year and we got a decent tax break too. I wish I had known I could set it up for SDs. I reminded DH about it when they were little, he never did it and I didnt realize until I set up DSs that i could have done it. I want it to be fair so this was the plan i came up with. If our situation improves Ill definitely open one for them.
Our goal is to pay for 75% of in-state tuition. If they go to a private school, they will have to take out loans. We have one account for both kids, and we contribute $5k annually. I'm not sure if that amount will go up when we are done paying daycare. If we stay in this house, we will pay off the mortgage around the time DS graduates high school, so that will free some money. We do not intend to foot the entire bill, and retirement savings will come first. The money is not in a 529 plan, so it can be used in case of emergencies.
If we can, we will pay for all of it and that desire is one reason we are one and done. My parents and DH's parents paid for our degrees, so I'm sure that impacts our view on this.
I save what I can, when I can. I will help them out as much as I can when the time comes. However, I do not feel obligated to foot the bill in full. I am a huge believer in the theory that if you work for something and contribute to it yourself, you have a lot more respect for it.
But then, maybe I just see too many college students who just don't care. Sleep in every day and then come to drop the class the last day you can without a grade, not caring that it's too late for a refund, because "dad's paying for it." Park where they want, rack up thousands in parking tickets, and then just call mom and dad to foot that bill. Those students just rub me the wrong way.
I'll still be paying off my student loans when they're in college so we'll have to just play it by ear. I didn't get any help paying for school (nor did I expect it) and I honestly think I'm better off for it. I knew the actual $$ value of my education and definitely wasn't just there to screw around.
No. We are very against paying for our kids' tuition. We will probably allow them to live at home as long as they are in school (no chance of us ever not living in a university town) but I think students take school more seriously when mom and dad aren't footing the bill.
No kids yet but I am on this page.
I had to pay my own way and not only did I think it helped me focus and study harder, it also made me much more responsible with handling finances.
Contrast with my H whose parents paid for EVERYTHING - out of state pricey school, books, living expenses, you name it - he blew off classes/assignments from time to time and early on in our marriage, he was not the best with money, credit, etc., as he was used to his parents taking care of all of that.
Ditto for his sisters and while my ILs are "ok" money-wise, they are not having the retirement they could have had (and no, not expecting constant expensive trips/a condo in Boca etc - more like being able to take a trip every now and then and not have to sit and ponder if it's feasible money-wise). You can take out loans to pay for college. You can't take out loans for your retirement.
I was able to live at home for most of my college years and that helped tremendously and I had very little student loan debt when I graduated from undergrad. Until I had the bright idea to go to lawschool that is...LOL.
No. I paid my own way, and I'm disgusted by the entitled attitude of my stepkids and their 'you owe me' mentality. I've helped my daughters a bit, but I have spent $65,000 on daycare and simply don't have the savings to give them a free ride in college. I also firmly believe a person should have an investment in their own future and not suck off the parents/grandparents until they're 30.
lol, well, I think there's a happy medium between helping with the major expense of college and sucking off the parents until they're 30 (god that sounds gross, lol).
You're on the VA side right? We had a discussion about this on MM the other day. VA has one of the best 529 plans out there and I want to say it'I'llax deductible. May be worth looking into? Seems like there is a big tax benefit to contributing
Thats what we have for DS. Its pretty good, it grew 13% this year and we got a decent tax break too. I wish I had known I could set it up for SDs. I reminded DH about it when they were little, he never did it and I didnt realize until I set up DSs that i could have done it. I want it to be fair so this was the plan i came up with. If our situation improves Ill definitely open one for them.
We have this for our kids, too. We actually still have a 529 account for DD in another state, which we started when we lived in Chicago, but VA 529s are great, so now we contribute all the 529 money there. We put in a bunch of money per month per kid, so hopefully there'll be enough there to cover most of their college expenses.
Post by Overthemoon on Mar 6, 2014 14:40:11 GMT -5
We hope to pay for all of it. DH's parents funded his undergrad and we have been so appreciative of the fact that we have only had my loans to pay down.. And I worked so hard to keep the loan amount down, and still ended up with like $15k in loans. We have many friends who are financially hindered still even 7 years later, both from really stupid decisions and from advanced degrees...if we can afford it I want to be able to help our girls graduate with a clean financial slate.
We'll contribute what we can and will most likely support him in ways that aren't directly tied to tuition, but I don't expect that we'll pay everything. Retirement is our primary focus.
Always focus on your retirement savings first. Once you are comfortable with that you can start saving for kids college educations. (suze orman)
We would like to be able to put more towards our retirement than what we are now so it's just not in the budget yet to save for college.
We did college on our own dime and my H thinks it is important that the child takes it seriously and if they weren't really paying their own way they might not respect that.
But with the cost of higher ed spinning out of control in the future I think I would be more comfortable having some $$ set aside to help them.
My kids get free tuition (I think state colleges) so we are covered for tuition. We will definitely be helping with books. We have about 5 years before we hit that stage and DH and I have not yet discussed how we plan to go about it yet. I believe my oldest plans to live on campus so there's a pretty big expense we would have to worry about. We have not put any $ away for it.
We plan to pay in full. As of now we have no separate college savings. We may consider a 529 for the tax break. Currently we expect to cash flow the cost or tap into investments.
I'm suggesting we have DS pay out of pocket for specifics like books so he feels some financial responsibility. We'll see if DH is onboard with that when the time comes, but I'm willing to fight it. I think I learned valuable lessons about money by paying for my education, so I want DS to have come involvement.
We plan to pay as much as we can, but will also encourage our kids to seek out scholarships & grants.
We already started a 529 plan for DD, in addition to a separate savings account. We'll also probably cash flow some of the tuition when the time arrives. We'll do the same for DD2.
My parents paid for all of my undergrad. H paid his own way, working & studying at the same time, as well as taking time off for FT work in order to save up tuition. Neither of us had student loans for undergrad, and we'd like to do what we can to ensure the same for our kids.
Yes, we'll pay for their college. We have 529s set up, so we'll use those, but are also willing to pay for grad school, if they decide to go that route.
Yes, we will pay in full. We have 529's. Luckily my dad contributes a lot per year for their bdays and made a large lump sum when they were born and the accounts were created so they will be well taken care of.
We are also using a different savings vehicle just in case they decide not to go to college, we don't want an overabundance of $ in the 529's.