Do you plan to pay for your kids' college? All of it? Part of it? Have you started a savings account for them?
My dad worked at a university with tuition discounts if I went to his school and that they would pay for the rest, otherwise I am on my own. I think it was my mom's secret ploy to make me stay close to home. It kinda worked.
We put $100/month into a college fund right now. We hope to up that when he's out of preschool and starts kindergarten next year. We'll pay for as much as we can afford.
We started a savings account when she was a few months old. If she decided to go to the university where I work (if I'm still here) she will get 1/2 tuition. She'll need to pay a portion.
We don't have kids but if we do some day I would really like to try and pay for college/technical school for them. My parents paid for what I wasn't able to cover with scholarships and I am very grateful not to be saddled with the student loan debt some of my friends have.
Tuition is pretty low here, and there are four universities in the city. We will definitely pay for it all if they stay here. If they go OOT, it would depend where I guess, but most likely we would pay for the whole thing.
We don't have kids now but if/when we do I'd like to only limit the amount of loans they need to take out. We both paid our own way and I actually like that I had the responsibility of paying the loan off in hindsight. We'll likely be able to pay 100% but I don't think I want to. Mean parent FTW!
We have 529s for both children, begun when they were born. We hope they'll cover at least the lion's share of their education. We contribute around $100 a month and my mother usually puts in several thousand a year.
Us too. And my ILs and most of H's siblings contribute for birthdays, Christmas, etc. MIL put a giant hunk in for each of them that is equal to what the other grandchildren got for communion/confirmation. And each grandkid got/gets money for HS graduation and wedding, but she put that in their accounts now since she's pretty sure she isn't going to be alive for those
Post by hungrycaterpillar on Mar 6, 2014 11:22:47 GMT -5
I don't have kids but we already have a future kid college fund. My parents didn't help me in any way and it's super important to me to be able to pay for my future children's college education. Probably silly to have already started but tuition is expensive man.
We don't have kids yet, but we'll start accounts for them whenever we do. They'll have access to that money for college, but if they want to go to an expensive school or out of state we'll have to revisit how much extra help they would get if we could afford it.
I have a 529 I put $100 a month into. Should cover books at least. If somehow in the next five years I am able to get ahead I would like to at least pay for the first four years... That is really optimistic though.
I hope to pay for most of it. Not saving much right now (birthday money,etc goes in there but that's it). When we are done paying for daycare, I plan to start using that money to save.
I went to my college for free because my mom worked there. I think she did it to keep me close to home too. Lol.
We put away a significant amount each month into 529s for each of them. Our financial advisor has given us a target amount for a certain date that she expects will be enough for it to grow enough for college. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get there, but we're trying as best we can. Ideally, I'd like to pay the equivalent of what our in-state tuition would be at the state schools. I'd love for them to actually go to school in-state, but if not, they can go wherever they wish and we would pay whatever state tuition would be and they would be on their own for the rest.
Once we decide to have kids, we'll probably start saving. We'll give them as much as we can afford for college.
This is where I am. My dad contributed $100/mo starting the day I was born, and my grandfather contributed a large amount when I graduated high school. I ended up with about $23,000 in student loans which was pretty much just my senior year. I did one semester of course-work in high school and one year community college (sophomore year because of my injury I had to be close to my surgeon) and I would probably suggest that my kids do at least their first year at the community college and get gen-eds out of the way unless they are going into a specialized field that requires degree specific work the first semester.
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.
We have 529s started for both girls and put in about 5K/year. Our mortgage is 15 years will be paid off before the eldest starts. That should free up $ if we choose to contribute more.
Right now we are paying or SS's college in full. We haven't discussed what we will do when he moves from the community college to the university in a year. We will do the same for G.
We don't have kids yet but we will definitely contribute what we can. I am so grateful my parents helped me pay for college and I'd like to do the same for my kids.
Post by sawyerthedestroyer on Mar 6, 2014 11:54:10 GMT -5
We'll probably do something similar to what H's parents did for him. They paid for his room and meal plan, he worked his tail off in the summers/winter breaks and took out a loan to pay for tuition and books.
My parents paid for mine so I'm hopeful we can at least help out.
We haven't been saving but I plan to start once we knock out our credit card debt this year. Additionally if we stay in our house we will have that paid off by the time DD1 graduates from high school so we will have that extra cash flow.
I wan't to pay for all of it like my parents did (except for any type of fun money that should be on them), DH disagrees. His parents paid for part of it, he worked his butt off and ended with about 10K in loans. Then med school is another issue. I want my kids to have little to no debt if they want to pursue advanced degrees (law school/medschool/gradschool). I think we can afford this in 18/20yrs. I don't want them to have as much debt as DH has, it always factors in life stuff (TTC, wedding costs, etc).
ETA: I want to help out as much but we do agree that they need to be realistic and go to an in state school, keep grades up, etc.
My grandfather died 3 years ago and his money is being used solely to pay for education for his grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, as far as it will last. I think it's a wonderful thing that our children will have their college education paid for. We still are saving for our daughter just in case anything should happen, but not in a 529.
My H and I had our college educations paid for, due in large part to our in state scholarship program, but it was amazing not to have any student loans when we were starting out after graduation. I'd love my children to have the same opportunities.
We have RESP's for the girls. We hope to fully fund their education and living while in school but they will need a part-time job for entertainment, etc. Thankfully we have a 5 year age gap so we won't be paying two tuitions at the same time!
This is actually a big factor (for us) in choosing a gap, I do not want to wait too long if I decide to have another, so I may go with 4 so costs will only overlap by a year. If we decide we are one and done then even better!
Post by hokiegirl82 on Mar 6, 2014 12:11:18 GMT -5
I need to have a serious talk with H about this, but I'd like to pay for most if not all of our kids tuition (for an in-state school). H and I grew up in 2 very different households - my dad is a university professor, and my parents paid for the entire bill of both mine and my brother's undergrad tuition (plus living expenses) because with my dad's salary and their savings they could afford it. (We both went to state schools but neither went to the university where my dad teaches because there is no discout for professors kids to go to school there so it didn't affect our decision on where to go). My H grew up in a house where he was the first (and only) to go to college, and his parents did not help at all except for a few hundred dollars a month for living expenses - they couldn't afford to unfortunately, so H was in school completely on loans. My brother and I both had school loans for any schooling we had after undergrad.
Because of the way my schooling was paid for, I would love to do that for our kid, but I'm not sure H feels the same.
We are saving $200/mo for DS1, started that when he was 2. We will do the same for DS2, he will turn 2 the same time DS1 is done with daycare, so that will free up some money. By calculations, that amount will be approximately half the cost of in-state tuition. I am comfortable with us contributing that amount.
Some of our friends plan to fund a gap year for their kids only. I'm curious what others think about that. I'm not opposed to gap years, but I admit I was surprised that they were only wanting to fund that.
We will not be paying for all of his schooling but started contributing $100 per month to a 529. When he went from full time daycare $1200 per month to part time $550, we took the remaining amount and put 1/2 in his 529 and 1/2 into our retirement accounts.
Once we are no longer paying for childcare, we will increase the amounts contributed to both our retirement and his college fund.
My mother has an account set up for him that has approx 30k that will also go toward his schooling.
I work at a private university so E can attend for free. There has been buzz over the years that the remission program will be reduced but from my understanding, anyone that works here now will be grandfathered in. I've also factored this into my life insurance policy so that if I die my husband won't have to worry about paying for his education.
We probably need another back up plan but E is still pretty young so I haven't thought too much about it.