The girls have so many choices ahead of them as to what they want to do in their future. I am unsure if college will be part of that future, but it may be.
I didn’t go to college. My parents didn’t go to college. My grandparents didn’t go to college. Beyond that? I don’t know anyone on my parental line who went to college, but my uncle did so there’s that.
I am not of the mindset that in order to succeed in life you must receive a higher education. I firmly believe hard work, guts, intelligence and determination trump a diploma any day. However, higher education is vital if you want to learn how to do certain things.
Right now Chloe wants to be an artist of some kind and Ella wants to be a zoo keeper. Chloe would benefit from further arts education and Ella would need a degree of some kind in zoology.
Steve and I have discussed what would happen if the girls wanted to go to college. How would it be funded? Of course there is always the possibility of financial aide, but we had decided if they wanted to attend college then they would need to work out financing it. Ideologically that works out, but I really wanted to go to a private boarding school and my parents didn’t make me pay for that. Well… I paid for some of it. I covered the last two weeks before I graduated on a student loan basis. Why should I make my children wholly responsible to take on a huge financial commitment at the beginning of their adult lives? It’s a bit of a trap.
Last week I was invited to a dinner hosted by Scholar Share, a college savings program managed by TIAA-CREF. They are a non-profit investment firm which works with the California Treasurer’s office to set up 529 investment funds. This basically is a program where you can put money into a special investment account and pay no taxes on the earnings provided they are used at a qualified higher education program. If you withdraw the money for other purposes you will be fined 12.5% on the earnings on top of needing to pay capitol gains taxes, but you will never be penalized or taxed on the principal regardless of how you use the money.
What got me excited about this program was hearing you can open an account starting with $25 dollars. Other family members can gift monies to the fund and the benefactor of the account can be changed at any point provided they are in your family. If Chloe decides to join the circus the account can be transferred to Ella. If Ella doesn’t need it, Phoebe, and if Phoebe doesn’t want it… heck, maybe I will take some community college ceramic classes after all the girls have flown the coop.
I was really impressed with how good natured the people from ScholarShare were. They really have the purpose to help families and kids make smart choices to plan ahead so they are not hit with huge payments or debts down the road. Somehow it seems a lot easier to stomach saving beforehand rather than paying afterwards, especially if the amounts you need to pay into the account to make it work is not too much. Most of us could come up with a regular payment of $25 dollars or so right?
I haven’t opened accounts for my girls yet, I am still doing my research and ensuring we find the right type of savings plan, but I have decided I want to start some sort of savings for their higher education or even simply money to help them get started in their next chapter after they leave home.
What are your thoughts on paying for you kid’s college? Did your parents pay for your higher education? Did you work your way through college? Are college loans totally bumming you out right now? I would love to hear your experience with this area because I have none. I am sure some of you amazing readers have words of wisdom on this area.
This post was sponsored by ScholarShare in collaboration with the One2One network. My opinions are, as always, my own.
I worked my way through college. I worked full time for one year after high school to save enough money for tuition and to pay room and board in the foster home where I lived. I went to community college at night and took classes that would apply toward my degree. Then I moved to San Francisco, moved in with my aunt, paid her room and board and worked twenty hours a week at various office jobs while attending college, majoring in Pre Med. My last part time job was working for a young doctor of chiropractic. I was pretty excited about getting hired because I was pre-med, and I liked chiropractic’s natural healing approach. I was even more excited when the doctor and I started dating. Then we fell in love. Then he asked me to marry him. Then we got married. I loved working with him in his natural healing arts practice, and I loved raising a family with him.
I would not trade the value of working my way through college for anything…because I learned the value of investing in myself and my future and knowing I had earned my education through my own hard work. The fact that it lead to meeting the love of my life and a fifty year marriage was also wonderful, an unexpected bonus!
My husband also worked his way through college and chiropractic school and felt the same way I did about the value of this experience.
We helped our four kids pay for college but also required them to get summer jobs and part time jobs to pay for their books and expenses above tuition and housing. We paid for part of their grad school, and they paid the rest with student loans. They have all thanked us for the value of their experience of investing in themselves and their future careers.
I feel it is important for kids to pay part of their education costs to learn the value of investing in themselves and their future.
Connie! I love everything you said here! I really love the idea of investing in yourself and learning how to do that. It’s certainly a skill!
xoxo
I agree collage is not always necessary if you don’t have a specific career in mind that requires it. I did go but didn’t end up using my degree for lack of finding a good job in that field. I lucked out and got scholarships enough to pay tuition and books. Not enough for living and am still paying student loans which sucks.
As for 529, I’ve looked into it too and am not sure about it myself. I’ve seen some with the viewpoint that you could contribute the same planned amount to a Roth IRA. Some reasons being one, if you have a 529 when they apply for financial aid, that money will be taken into account and they may qualify for less, however parents retirement money is not taken into account as assets. Also you can still use the IRA money earlier without penalty (the contribution amount) so it could still be used for collage and if they decide not to go, now you have extra for retirement. Anyway, I don’t have all the info of course but it’s something I’m researching too and something to look into.
In all though, I do like having something set aside in case they want school. Starting out life in debt is not the way to go.
Oh man, I bet it’s a bummer to still be paying off college loans!
I think you are right about the impact it can have on scholarships. It’s nice to hear from someone who is dealing with debt from college so has some perspective as regards saving for their kids.
I am so not of the mindset that they must work their way through to learn some sort of life lesson.
John’s mom wants to open one of those 529 plans for the kids. I will direct her to the website. Lord knows what they will want to do. Crispin is interested in being a video game designer and Elinorright now would say she wants to be Batman. And if they don’t go to college, I will join you in the ceramics class.
Sounds like a perfect plan!