How To Pay For College
February 17, 2009 – 8:33 pm
A survey from AllianceBernstein shows that overspending is harming your chances to pay for college from your children. No kidding. It gets interesting when you hear what we’re spending on:
- 58% of parents surveyed spent more on eating out than they saved for college
- 49% more on vacation than they did for college.
This troubles me deeply. These aren’t even fixed expenses like too much house or something more likely such as too much debt. These two expenses are completely within our control!!!!
Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that these parents will be unprepared to fund college for the kiddos, but it is highly suspect. The fact is that many of us struggle with reaching long-term goals like saving for college or retirement. Our results from investing are determined to some degree by the markets, but we need to focus on what we can control. And we can control how much we save more than we can control market returns. We’ll all be better off if we focus on what we can influence, and perhaps scale back on fancy vacations and restaurant dining.
Image Credit: oimax
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3 Responses to “How To Pay For College”
That doesn’t come as a surprise to me. In fact we are among those who’ve spent more on eating out & vacations than we’ve specifically set aside for our kids’ college. We plan on helping them financially, but I don’t intend to pay for it all. That’s what student loans are for. It’s what I did. Student loans help teach young adults about credit and responsibility, I think. Everyone has a different outlook on it, though.
At any rate, it’s always a good idea to save.
By Nissa on Feb 20, 2009
I have no college savings for my kids. They are currently 3 and 2 years old. I looked into it when I was pregnant with the first, but when you have to start budgeting just to buy diapers, it gets difficult to think about budgeting for a college education.
Personally, I don’t plan to fund their college 100%. I expect them to bust their butts educationally and earn scholarships and get whatever grant money they can get their hands on. I did this, and my parents didn’t pay my college tuition for the last year of my college education.
By Jennifer @ Money Saver 101 on Feb 21, 2009
I do believe in being thrifty, particularly in today’s economy. However, kids need to learn the value of money. We all work hard for our money and we should have the luxury of spending it on vacations and eating every once in a while without feeling guilty about Jr’s college education. In fact the kids benefit from our hard work in the present just as much. I do agree that it’s a good idea to begin a savings plan in the kids names as soon as they have a social security card. Depositing what we can for each child each pay day has saved enough money for our oldest (18) to apply for college, go on auditions, travel and pay for everything he has to fund on his own just to get to college, the rest will come from scholarships which he has worked really hard to get. End result, he works a lot harder because he has to earn every penny, even those pennies that come from us. One kid on the way to college, three more to
By SpinDiva on Feb 26, 2009