Have any of you set up an educational fund for your kid(s)?
 

Perhaps a more effective way of saving money is just deciding you will only pay for a state school, BYU, or no school at all.

Yep.

I did.... its easy and I get tax credits in Michigan dollar for dollar.

In 2005, Harvard was 41k for one year.

In 2020, using Tom's inflation calculator, that will be about 60k.

Of course, college tuition tends to increase faster than inflation.

60k x 4 years = 240k
3 kids 240 x 3 = 720k

That's a bundle to save. I ain't doing it.

We did and we are glad we did.

We have already latched on to one of the girls as our college candidate. The other two will be funneled toward a career in the food service industry.

I think one of the big minuses of this approach is that it can lead to entitlement and ultimately disappointment.

My personal opinion, you don't want to have to share responsibilities with a medical resident for whom residency is his/her first job in life.

No struggle.

as you learn to love your children as much as we love ours, your opinion will change.

is this because of your upbringing, not only going to BYU, but having to go BYU law school as well (ugh)?

This could possibly be the cheapest route to being a lawyer in the country. But maybe you were better off for it.

How about this approach?

Meet half their educational loan payment 10 years from the time of the last degree? Help on the backend?

Were you guys planning to pay for any professional degrees as well?

you actually would love my story. I footed my own bills.

I wasnt planning on going to BYU law. but I started dating this lovely gal at the end of my undergrad and had to make a choice...I chose love.

It worked out fine for me.

You didnt really go to an amazing med school, so what are you yapping about?

There are also big pluses. Like having your kids not be saddled with a huge debt when they graduate. Giving them opportunities that I never had. Honestly, for how many mormons is the time they go their mission the only time they live outside of Utah? By having a college fund for your kids they are more apt to do a study abroad, work in DC for a congressman or woman. Go to an out of state college. Be more apt to study something that is not just a way to make money but gives them pleasure.

Are you sure you want your son working for a DC Congressman as a means of getting pleasure?

No not amazing. But top 15 in the country. I don't think BYU law can claim that.

Kids that grow up "rich", how well do they do if they end up "poor"?

anyone here have fabulously wealthy extravagant parents, but are now 35+ and poor with little prospects for a "wealthy lifestyle"?

Good point... maybe he can be a boy toy for some sara palin lookalike in 20 years.

We saved as much as we could, divindg equally between offspring. They get that and they get nada more. Unless one of them chooses cheaply for undergrad work, it will almost certianly not include graduate school.

Define Rich...and "wealthy lifestyle"

My wife and I paid our own way through as well. I am glad I can help my kids out. I wish I didn't have ot pay off as much debt as I had to when I graduated and I am glad my kids won't have as much.

I'm the same way.... Plus if my kid got a chance to go Ivy league I would be able to help him out. The kind of opportunities that arise for grads of the top 10-15 schools is outstanding.

I have a friend who married into a wealthy family. For their wedding gift, they received a 90k condo in Provo and a new vehicle of their choice (Ford Explorer, don't ask me why).

Is there a danger in wealth being inherited? What if I told my kids that any wealth I accumulated would not go to them, but go to charity to help others less fortunate?

Our approach seems to be mirroring yours, and given you are the sage and I am the apprentice when it comes to parenting experience, I am happy to hear that my wife and I are doing it right.

Leaving BYU, I didnt really have a ton of student loans. I had some pell grants and scholarship dough, but also used student loans. BYU law school doesnt cost all that much. I think all told, I entered the work force with maybe $20K in student loans max?

It wasnt enough to be a huge burden, but as you say, if you can help your kids, why not do it? If people have real student debt, like say....100K....that could be beastly.

So, in essence, I left school with less debt and a higher starting salary than you.

Maybe you should have taken a few finance classes.

My debt is not much more than yours. And I didn't have to be a lawyer.

you conveniently left out the third variable in that equation.

no worries. I already know that answer.

Bottom line....BYU is a great bang for the buck.

most first year lawyers make more than the average medical resident. true.

Yes I have. I believe an education is important enough that I am willing to pay for them to get it.

But it's contingent on them choosing not to go to Iona or one of those snotty Ivy League schools.

Ivy League schools because they are snotty bastards and Iona because it's for degenerates.

There are three of us in my family. The two boys for whom nothing was paid for are college graduates. The one who has had many, many semesters paid for is not.

Maybe if your kids don't think a college education is important enough to work and pay for, you've lost already.

You will someday realize that throwing your kid into the deep end of the pool is not the only way to teach him to swim.

Fair point, but my kids are still young, though all do well in school because we've always stressed education.

I can always change my mind. If that's the case, I'll go buy a really cool car when I'm retired.

College for our kids is like high school for us--it's an automatic expectation and I plan on paying for tuition. However, there will be conditions, just like any other scholarship--max number of semesters, minimum GPA, etc. Grad school's up to them.

Flash and I both funded our own college careers 100% independently from our parents, and managed to do so without incurring any debt. But in order to pull it off, we went to a cut-rate school. As our paths have diverged from those of our friends who went to better schools, we've wondered if we shouldn't have just taken out the bazillion dollars in loans to go Ivy.

Anyhow, point is, we want to give our kid more options than we had, so we started a college fund for Jeff when he was six months old. It has done quite nicely. For Charlie, well, he won't have use for a college fund but we've established a fund more appropriate for his long-term needs.

Mike, you have absolutely nothing to lose by establishing an education fund. I assume you're trolling again.

Umm, maybe because I don't think being among the privileged rich elite is the main thing in life.

Good luck creating your own private Obama.

That would take an awful lot of melanin.

It doesn't matter whether he uses it to go to an elite school. A fund is just as useful at BYU or OU or Appalachian State or Idaho. And if it's not exhausted in undergrad the kid can use it toward grad school. And dad gets the benefit of the tax breaks. Honestly, I've yet to hear you offer a single argument against a college fund.

Or perhaps you just want to keep the extra money to expand your apiary?

We started establishing a college fund for our daughter at 6 months old as well. We put away a pretty good sized portion of every pay check in her account. My goal is for her to have at least 100k in their by the time she is 18. That shoudl get her through school, and if she chooses to go to state school or BYU, then she can have some money left to maybe jump start her family as well.

I do not want my kids to struggle like I did, I dont think they will take education for granted either, I have enough faith in my parenting skills for that not to happen.

It sounds like someone does not think they are a good enough parent to instill values and hard work in their children without bribing them.

i live in a lottery state, so all the people who don't understand math are contributing to my kid's college fund.
Pretty sweet deal, and not a dime from my pocket.
Where else can $0.00 turn into 4 years of college?

Beat that Warren.

Given that SU has sent his daughter to Washington State, I want to hear his opinion on this.

I recently attended a conference where we had the top VISA economist give a presentation on the short and long term expectations for the US economy and one thing he touched on that I thought was VERY interesting was in the area of education. He said that there's a very large generation in the college age group right now (17-25 IIRC and due to baby boomer generation?) that is working it's way through the educational system and that college enrollment levels in this country on going to take a large hit in coming years and that many smaller colleges, etc will have difficult times staying afloat and that education prices will more than likely come down or stagnate.

Not sure if that will actually happen or not but interesting......

they could come down if prices are responding to market forces and trying to attract students. Or they could go up to make for the lost numbers. Experience tells me they will go up.