re: Spinoff to the kids most expensive thread....Parents, do you plan to cover

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My parents covered my living expenses throughout college. I turned out fine. I'm very conscious about my money, consider myself to be pretty responsible, etc. So many kids go off to school and get a job to pay for everything and they end up worrying about the job and the money they are making more than school. Your degree is worth more than waiting tables. I knew several people who became restaurant managers or bar tenders instead of using their degrees. I don't want that to happen. I think it's all about how you raise your kid, not if you pay for everything or not. There's problems on both sides.

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I wouldn't trade my work history for anything because it built me a strong resume (a VERY awesome year-long internship, customer service experience, real world experience, etc.), but I agree that it can get in the way.

Personally, I like that I was never 100% student. I always liked that I didn't live on campus and didn't get caught up in useless shite like campus organizations and I kept my connection with non-college people. But yeah, stressing over getting rent paid definitely got the best of me a few times.

Luckily, my Dad feels bad for me quite easily and threatening not doing well in school due to work was a trigger for him.

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They must major in engineering, finance, acct, or some biological sciences.

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Stupid.

I'd make awful grades if I did that. If my Dad refused to help me get an education because I didn't want to go to school for something I knew I'd flunk out of, he'd be an idiot.

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Luckily, my Dad feels bad for me quite easily and threatening not doing well in school due to work was a trigger for him

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Just another reason I don't ever want a girl.

I should hope if your son was at risk of doing poorly in school due to needing to work extra shifts, you'd help him too

follow up question: Do you plan to save to leave your kids anything?

I am covering most of the expenses and my oldest is working part time for spending money.

I also have a shitload saved for retirement.

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Your retirement is more important.

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meh

Retiring isn't really that important to me.....not working at all isn't in my plans at all

Yeah but if you have enough money saved up for it, you have a safety net if something happens that forces you into retirement. Stuff happens. Look at fishfighter....forced into retirement at a much younger age. You just never know.


And you aren't placing that financial burden on your children to help care for you.

We have 3 kids, and are just about finished with college as I write this. We've paid for all expenses related to school and living/food. Here was our plan:

save/invest (529 plan, eventually) as aggressively as possible from the moment they arrived. We put together a nice nest egg and just as the first one was half-way through, the economy collapsed. So "the economy" became like a 4th child. We coped, and fortunately the investment recovered in time for the other 2. The investment got us through their junior year at LSU and we've put together the rest.

The goal: graduate from college debt free. ALL of us, not just the kids. We will have achieved this next spring when we are done.

But here's part of what made it work: you can go anywhere you get enough scholarship $ to go, or you can excel and get TOPS and get a perfectly good education at LSU, leaving a little $ for extras like study abroad. We did not even entertain the possibility that they or we would end up with a mountain of debt. Sorry, but there isn't $100,000 worth of difference in an undergraduate degree from LSU vs. most any place else. (Trust me...I'm in the business.) I will never understand - in most cases - the decision to go deeply into debt for an undergraduate degree. A little debt, ok, but not deeply.

Graduate/professional school...yes, go into debt not more than your first year expected salary in your profession of choice. And that debt is on you, the student.

We also weaned them off our discretionary $ pretty quickly: first year, you're paying for your optional "stuff;" second year, you're also buying your gas, etc.; third year, we are now not giving you any spending money and when you graduate...you are off the payroll so plan accordingly. All 3 worked throughout college as well.

Not trying to sell the Gospel, but this level of family discipline has worked for us. We've also saved for retirement. We have a modest home, older cars, no fancy lifestyle but comfortable. And we are blessed beyond measure. But we also agreed from the start on our financial goals - independence, security, little debt and/or aggressive debt reduction. College was managed like everything else, with clear-eyed realism.

Thanks for listening...

Sounds pretty reasonable.

My parents bought our first degree and paid most of our expenses. We paid our own way for professional school.

I'll probably do something like that, although I'd help out w/ professional school if it was a wise move (and my parents did help me out too).