This gives me another 4 or 5 years to save and earn interest, promotes incentive to do well on their part (since they are paying for it), and rewards them for completion of a goal on their own. And the best part is, if they drop out, then I’ll have a nice little pile of money for myself!

I’m in my final year as an undergraduate, and the last year I’ve had to pay for by myself because of rising tuition. Before that, I was lucky enough for my great grand parents to have given me 40,000 dollars worth of savings bonds, which was able to take care of tuition & living for three years. In the third year, when it was clear the money wasn’t going to make it, I got a job at the same time as moving into an apartment.

These last two years have been really tough. It’s taught me a lot of things. First, I should make it very clear, that the government will not take care of enough to pay for outside expenses. To be able to afford my apartment & living, I had to work at least 30 hrs a week. Then there was my 15 (more or less) hours of school work. In the end, my grades didn’t suffer, but I had no life. The last six months, I only got 225 dollars from the govt after tuition was paid. It barely covered my books. Then, I had a car accident, that was my fault (don’t drive tired). It completely wiped out my savings – insurance covers repairs, but it doesn’t cover tickets. I had to pay for it on credit, because I just didn’t have the money.

Anyway, it all worked out, as I am sitting in England on study abroad right now. I decided that the 10,000 debt I’ll have to pay off later is worth it. (plus 5000, for my last year of school). And really, that’s not near as bad as most of my peers.

I’m not really sure how I did it, sometimes I almost wanted to break down. I’ve pretty much decided not to go to grad school, it just doesn’t seem worth it. I have so much respect for people who were worse off than I am and manage to pull it off.

In the end, it did teach me the value of money. Sort of. I didn’t learn about saving, because I wanted every dollar going to living expenses. I think I could have learned the lesson a bit easier. It was much more important to learn about managing the apartment and dealing with companies and the like. It also helped me learn how to balance time. The same thing could have been done with an extracurricular activity.

Anyway, when I have kids, I’m definitely going to try to pay for their education. I don’t think debt builds character. However, I won’t give them loads of extra money or presents. This really aggravates me. Partially because I’m raw with envy, but some peoples parents are training their children to be constantly living from hand to mouth. Or just living from parent. Like, if someone pays for their whole kids college, their apartment, their food, and THEN also bails them out when they run out of money and buys them things randomly, this is irresponsible. (yes, I know someone like this).

I would insist my kids live in the dorm, or if they don’t want to, then they would have to understand that they would have to pay for the summer months away from home. Basically, if they don’t want to go the cheapest way of living, they can pay for it. I wouldn’t give them any kind of spending allowance either. You don’t really need that in college. Eat ramen. Get a job.

A lot of people my age seem to be incredibly lazy and lacking any kind of direction or drive. They just want to play video games all day. And really, when you see how some of their parents indulge this, why not? Anyway, that’s the end of my bitter rant. Back to relaxing in England!

I chose a fairly intense program (Architecture) worked during my entire education. I lived on my own(with roomates). I received grants and loans. And I came out in serious debt! (And I went to a State School as a resident)

I feel like I’m at a serious disadvantage. I’m just now starting to pay of my loans with not much hope for the future. I would really like to go to Grad School but can’t help thinking it a waste of my already non existant funds. It has also made me think twice about my choice of career even though I very much enjoy what I do I can’t help but think why didn’t I go for something that made more money. At least then I’d have a hope to pay off those loans. Or the other many things on the horizon.

Wedding, Home (every architects dream is design their own place), my beat up car is going to give out on me soon, the cost of keeping up with the industry(computer software etc), I wouldn’t even think about having kids, I’m just now beginning to be able to save for the future retirement. And my mother keeps dropping hints how she could really live with me… ‘you know in the back in a “mother in-law”

Aaah are you kidding mom? I don’t even own a house.

You can see my frustration no. I think a little help goes a long way.

If a kid gets in to Harvard and the parent makes $100K then Harvard will assume that the parent can contribute say $20K a year and will give an aid package accordingly.

Say the cost of Harvard is $50K, and the parents refuse to pay.

If the student gets extra outside scholarships, then they are going to have to add up to more than $30K to affect whether or not they have to take out loans of $20K a year.

And parents keep in mind that the more money you make, the more of a hole you are digging for your kids. According to the government you do not have the option not to pay for their education. Until they turn 24 your income is considered and they will face an uphill battle getting aid to cover monies that the government believes you are able to pay (notice I say “are able” and not “are willing”).

My 3 strategies/plans for doing it better for my kids…

1. we do the direct deposit “pay yourself first” of $50 week for each kid into a 529.

2. we do the Little Grad (www.littlegrad.com) program so we get rebates for practically all our online shopping (over $300 in 9 mos, so much better than upomise…)

3. kids will be strongly encouraged to do the scholorship search/apply, take the year off before college and work real world, and find programs for debt forgiveness… peace corp, etc.

#3 is all stuff thats out of my control… mostly, but I want it noted for the record!

CLW