Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I was reading the other topic and I was wondering when saving for education became so paramount?

I have student loans, my husband has student loans, furthermore, I am pretty sure they are considered "good debt" (if you are paying them of course)...

Of course if I can, i'd love to be able to pay for it, or help him with it, but at the same time, what is wrong with the old fashioned student loans??

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I feel the same way. Saving for college isn't high on our priority list. I'd rather save for our retirement. They can take out student loans.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I am saving what I can for my child, but since I am in school with now too....not so easy. LOL...We are trying though

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

this is the "argument" I have with my husband.

we both save for our retirement, have some money in our savings account and fund an entirely separate "house" account for updates on our house.

we have been going back and forth about how much money to put in to Luce's 529.

I am with you...I WANT Luce to get a part time job, take out a loan or two and take responsibility for his secondary education. YES, I want to help him and have no problem putting money away for that...but my dh wants to be able to pay for it all, or at least try to.

in the 10 weeks he was alive in 2009, we put $1k in there. I think that is a lot. basically $100 per week.

he told me there are people who put the MAX in every year....I said "yeah, those people are probably RICH!"

my priority is our retirement looking ahead and having the $$ to enjoy our life and our family now.

to me, it makes NO SENSE to pay for Luce's college only to have to rely on him to take care of us in our "old age" b/c we saved that money for him and not for us.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I agree, where there is a will there is a way. I always worked and paid for school. I worked full time and went to school at night for my masters. I have loans and my children will have loans - no matter how rich or poor I am. I want them to be "invested" in their education.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

i agree! I don't have kids yet... but i think you can find a balance. you have to take care of yourself and your retirement first- thats why you worked all those years!! kids are important, but you have to be selfish sometimes, too! BUT i also have a few friends who are so bogged down with student loan debt that i don't think they'll ever be able to get ahead, even though they both have decent jobs. i wouldn't want to do that to my kids either...
we plan on saving as much as we can ( maybe enough for half or a little more) and having the kid get loans or scholarships for the rest. i think it also helps them appreciate it more, too when they know they are paying for it with their own money. for me, my parents paid for 3 years ( even thought they could have paid for all 4... but they wanted me to be responsible for some of it, too

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Well, I read a lot on here about parents helping married children w/ a downpayment for a first home. I would rather help (or pay in entirety) pay for a college education to hopefully enable DS to make enough to be self-reliant. My parents paid for the majority of my undergrad education (and my brother's), and I paid for my master's and doctorate. If I had undergrad loans, I couldn't have afforded my 2 grad degrees.

I don't want to support him after college. I think my job is to make him self-reliant, and I think college will help him do that.

That said, I always worked during and before college even though my parents paid the bulk of it. I needed spending money and to buy books, etc.

Message edited 1/6/2010 12:14:26 PM.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

It's not a big deal to me but it is VERY important to DH. DH is pretty obsessed with saving in general. We're only 30/31 and he talks about saving for retirement all the time.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I would just rather my child not have any debt at all if I can help it.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Education is tops on my priority list. Paying for it is not.

We intend to help DC as much as we can, but at that point, i also think they need to have a certain level of accountability themselves. Also, if they want to screw around in college- they can be the ones to pay for it... not us!

I also think- i'm not sure how many kids were going to have, and i think its nearly impossible to assume that we'd be able to do that for all of our children if we have a few.

DD has a savings account that already has a couple of thousand $'s in it. Everytime we get a monetary gift for her, any "here's some money, buy something for the baby" (especially from older family members)- it goes right into her savings account. I also match any gift cards she gets. Say we get $100 gc to BRU- i put $100 in her account... then we also will put some in for every occasion- birthdays, holidays, etc. Our goal is to not let her know about it until she's arond 18ish. I want her to work like she doesnt have the money- i think the easiest way to accomplish that is to let her think that she really doesnt have it.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I also want to say that there are different choices that one can make.

I started off at a private school. I had a scholarship and loans (that I am still paying)

I ended up switching to a CUNY (which was great for me and my field) and was able to pay for school each semester b/c I also worked full time.

I want him to be cognizant of what the choices he makes entails...ie. private vs. public, living at home vs. dorming/away.

I don't feel like paying for drunken frat parties 500 miles away either, just for him to have that "experience"

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Posted by neenie

. Our goal is to not let her know about it until she's arond 18ish. I want her to work like she doesnt have the money- i think the easiest way to accomplish that is to let her think that she really doesnt have it.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I had student loans (just paid them off last week ) and so does my husband. I never had a problem with it and neither does he. We have both discussed, that of course in a perfect world, we would love for our children to be able to attend college/trade school without loans. However, we also feel that saving in an emergency fund, having no to little debt and providing all of the extras he nees NOW are more important. After that, I'll put away whatever I can for my kids to help ease the burden of school debt.

Student loans are good debt and hopefully will be the only debt they start their adult lives with. I'd rather them have that, then send them to school and have to have them charge everything because I have no money to help them w/ living costs and get stuck with those bills.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I plan to do what my parents did for me (pay for 4 years of college)

so I DO put $$ into my kids education savings...I also put into my 401(k) so I am not sacrificing one for another...for me, this is a priority

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I am all for having our children pay their way through school. I got scholarships and loans, and did well in school to get those scholarships. I also worked very hard to pay off my school loans, and did so within 7 years (yay!).

If I can do it, my children can do it.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

It is very important that we contribute as much as possible to DS's education. I'm not saying that he won't have to take out student loans but I am not starting off thinking this way.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

furthest thing from my mind.

I am more then willing to send this kid to HVAC school, plumbing, hair...whatever vocational school he is dreaming of.

that's what pays the bills.

a 4 year degree in psych...yeah no. drinking, sex, parties on my dime. no. go be an AC repairman and pay for your own college and own parties.

out of 7 kids in my fam, 7 of us on scholarships..why? because it was scholarship or military.

DH would love to save for school...we go back and forth...but he also is more then willing to go get a job in a private college cafeteria and have josh go to school that way(his grandfather was a
Smith college janitor, and granddaughters went for free)

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I think it's the AMOUNT of student loans that's the problem these days. Between DH and me, we have almost $1000 in student loans a month to pay. That's for 2 BAs (one for each of us) and an MA for me.

And that's WITH a lot of help from my parents and a TON of financial aid on my bachelor's. DH also did his AA at Nassau and then finished his BA at a private college, which made it less expensive.

We're VERY lucky that we both have well paying jobs but that's a lot of money to pay out per month.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I agree. I have student loans and am paying for my education myself. I am also putting money into a 529 account, which I hope will help them out, but I do not expect to pay fully for their college education.
This was also part of our discussion when deciding to have another. In my eyes, whether or not I will be able to pay for my childrens' college education is not a deciding factor in the number of kids I will have. Being able to put a roof over their heads, food on their plates, and clothes on their backs is my concern. Some kids do not even go to college. Why I am I going to worry now about what might happen in 18 years?
I do not resent my parents in any way for not paying for me to go to college and I would hope my kids feel the same way. I do not feel it is a parent's responsibility to do this.

Re: Spin off of struggling-paying for secondary education?

I believe AFTER you pay for your expenses, have an emergency account, stash some savings and contribute fully to your retirement, THEN you save for you children's education.

I also believe in taking every cent they get as a gift and putting into this account. My sister doesn't buy any of her neices and nephews gifts, she contributes that amount to accounts for them. I think this is the smartest thing to do. They get so much junk already- I would rather it be used for their future.