Are you paying for your children's education?

[BTLowry]

Yes as long as our rules are followed

Fail a class, they owe me tuition

Lose a book and they owe me what it costs (text book rental is great)

Live at home and attend local JC first 2 years

Both attend(ed) college classes in high school

[StrayDog]

I will if they do it my way;

2 yrs community college

2 yrs any public school in the state to pursue a non useless major!

Very good point - I was older when I finished college. I did a little report for one class and the conclusion was that less than 25% of the majors offered at my school inreased ones earning potential. I honestly don't remember all my assumptions/criteria but I think the general conclusion of my paper is still valid.

There are a lot of trade / certificate / 2 year degrees that really outweigh the 4 year colleges from cost /reward perspective.

[glen]

I have money put away for both of my kids. If they were smart they would go into the military and Ill hand them the money when they get out and go to school with the GI bill.

[lovemylegacy]

We often have discussions here regarding retirement, purchasing land, Dave Ramsey, living within your means, yada yada yada.

Although it's not really any of my business, I'm curious if the average TBH'r is saving for his/her child's college?

Feel free to elaborate.

My sons paid for their own college. Certain they wouldn't waste their money

[easeup]

My sons paid for their own college. Certain they wouldn't waste their money

yes sir.....there in is a jewel. If your kids want to bad enough, they will find a way to get it done. And if they cant find a way to pay or say it is just too hard...that shows they didn't really want to.

you say I am too hard on them....maybe.......somehow I worked a job during the day and went to school at night as a married student while the mrs worked two jobs to get me out. Yes it was tough and there were no good times at all during those years. Then after that I put her through school to get her masters. All that was done without a single loan or gimme handout.

do we think our children are not made of the right stuff to stay the course during hard times?

[Starman]

I tell my kids the best gift I can give is an education with no debt to start out.

This was our philosophy. We made sacrifices, bought the Texas Tomorrow Fund for both of them back when it was a heck of a deal. We paid for most living expenses while they had part-time jobs for the extras.

Our children are now 27 and 25 and are on their way into their careers without the burden of debt that many of their peers are saddled with.

It is gratifying that they recognize and appreciate what we did for them. They know that many of their friends will be paying off their education for quite some time.

[DUKFVR]

Paid for both our kids. Son graduated A&M 5 years ago & Daughter graduates from A&M after this semester. We told both of them as long as they worked hard & didn't waste our money we would do our best to do that. Son came out with a job already lined up & makes more than me & daughter is gonna be a special ed teacher. We were happy to get them started in life without debt.

[sendit]

Daughter is a pretty smart kid, not going to lie.
We had set up with a 529 but in 2008 it took a hit with the stock market crash.

She did manage to get some scholarships. Due to our income level FAFSA was no help and is a joke. My wife and I wound up paying $100K for a 4 year private university but we feel it was well worth it as she received an excellent education. She is now in her 3rd year in a private med school and I am not even going to say what that is costing. She takes 30hrs a semester so her life is nothing but studying, sleeping and school. Mom and me pretty much take care of her needs. We are very proud of her achievements so far in her young life.

[epp838]

We'll save some, but that's largely on the kid. My wife and I both earned scholarships and worked part time during school and full time in the summers. People coddling their children through college arent doing them any favors. I see it every day with folks my age.

I paid my rent, gas, food, beer, hunting, and fraternity dues working no more than 20 hours a week during the semester and doing the occasional odd job.

Totally agree with you. How many people here have been working with the millennials. I'm not even that old (mid 30's) but the work ethic and expectations of the workplace and their needs is comical. Too many kids coming out of college with little to no work experience is killing them during job interviews. They come out of college wanting a 60k or more job because they were told their college education is what they needed to succeed.

I think kids and parents need to do a better job of discussing career paths and their return on investment for school. Spending 100k for school to get a 40k job with a 50k top out is poor planing, but happens all the time.

[mikemorvan]

We paid for private school through high school, and the balance after scholarships, etc. for undergraduate work. One completely done, still paying on second undergraduate degree.

Lot's of work and sacrifice.

[wilsonjc]

I don't have any kids but thought I'd mention this....look into CLEP tests. I graduated college with 18 hours of CLEP credit. It's basically credit by exam and is available for many of the basic core classes and some that can be used as electives. All you pay is the test fee and you can purchase study guides for each test if you'd like. I graduated in 2006 and at that time the test fee was $70-much less than tuition and book. If you fail the test you don't get credit for the course but it doesn't show as "fail" on your transcripts. You don't see it advertised much, and would never have known about it if I didn't stumble across it in the testing center one day. Google CLEP college board for more info.

[Gherkin05]

Paying for private school now and saving for college. So I guess we're paying twice.

Same here. Hoping private helps get him scholarships.....

[Skinny]

529 for both my girls for the last several years. Probably didn't start soon enough, but we started as soon as we could afford to.

[ByronB]

"I tell my kids the best gift I can give is an education with no debt to start out."

Going to use this quote above from trophyhunter01 as well. My Parents paid for their own College Degrees along with both of their Master's Degrees. My Parents did well enough that myself and two sisters had most of our college paid for. None of us took this for granted. I had Scholarships that paid my first two years completely in JUCO. I like to think I saved my Parents two years worth of schooling. LOL. My wife and I in turn will do the same for our two kids. Our son is transferring to Texas A&M.....moving up in a few days. Our Daughter has several schools to choose from for next Fall. We have saved in 529 accounts and will pay additional once those are used up. We still save monthly in the accounts regardless. Our son spent a year and a half in Junior College. That helped a great deal. Much lower cost. Both of our kids understand the importance to them of not having huge debt over their heads after graduation. They work hard, are extremely thankful, and do not take this gift for granted. If I did not have the means then student loans would be one route to achieve the goal. Get that degree if you can.

[Daniel32]

My wife and I set up 529 plans for both our children shortly after they were born