Personal Finance (Not Investing) • How are we doing? Family of 4, closing in on being 40

Great feedback, thank you. Our goal is for our kids to obtain an associates/2 years of college before we help. This will help us see they have some “skin in the game.” My wife and I both paid our own tuition and went to state schools.

There are endless threads and opinions about how much you should pay for your kids college and there is no one right answer.

That said consider that you are already literally a millionaire and with your bonuses you earn nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year. You may have needed to pay for your college because your parents could not afford to pay for it not because they choose to not pay for it.

Carefully consider just how them paying for their own college will work. We were able pay for our son's college at state university but his freshman year he had a roommate who was working at Taco Bell and doing things like working until 2:00 AM to close the restaurant during finals week. That greatly impacted his studies and he had bad grades and I do not think that he graduated.

Working at a minimum wage job may not be cost effective either. At that university once you were paying for 15 or 16 hours you could take more hours without paying more except for things like books. If you could afford it taking another 3 hour class for free was worth more than working 20 hours a week at minimum wage.

Our son was working on a Computer Science degree and really struggled with the required higher level math classes. He was extremely discouraged and if he had financial pressure too I am sure that he would not have graduated and there is no telling what he would be doing now. He did get his Computer Science degree after barely getting through the required higher level math classes and is doing great in his career now and is an IT manager at a Fortune 500 company.

The problem with a dogmatic "sink or swim" plan is that you need to be prepared to let your kids sink. If you Google "Graduation rate (your state university)" you may be surprised at how many kids who start there do not graduate. It might not be fair but when you can financially support your kid that can really tilt the odds in your kids favor.

.....I think we are on track to have 3 million by our late 50s.....

Given your means you might consider if planning to pay for four years tuition(book, lab fees, etc) and to help with room and board at a state university might be a reasonable goal as long as your kids are working acceptable amount and meeting other stipulation you might require.

Our goal is for our kids to obtain an associates/2 years of college before we help.

Be sure to research this carefully. It may not be as straightforward as it sounds.

A big problem is that depending on the colleges involved not all of their credits may transfer to a four year college or it can be very difficult to get admitted to a desirable degree program. I have seen requirements for GPAs of 3.5 to even be allowed to apply to transfer into a degree program and acceptance was far from guaranteed. Some states may have transfer problems where students from a community college may have a clearer path to being accepted at a four year university but they may need to start out in a preplanned transfer program.

Your kids will also likely be in situation where they cannot qualify for financial aid because of your income and savings.

Statistics: Posted by Watty — Sat Sep 28, 2024 8:00 pm — Replies 7 — Views 955

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