College for your Kids
By ljcapps
@ljcapps (1925)
United States
January 9, 2007 8:44pm CST
When would you start setting money back for your kids for college? What kind of plans do you use for interest? Okay, and what if, just what if, down the road your child decides s/he doesn't want to go to college. Would you give them the money to start on a new life anyway..or...what would you do?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@brokentia (10389)
• United States
10 Jan 07
Sadly, I must say, that I do not have any savings for my children to go to college. Nor did my mom or dad for me. But it is not because my parents lacked putting aside any money for me as to why I do not have any set aside for my kids. But it is becaue I have seven children. Maybe if I were still able to work, I would be able to set some aside. But for the past year not, I have not been able to work since moving here because of school scheduling. (I am considering reading on how to start a petition for the school to change school hours to better assist working parents.)
Anyways, having seven children is very costly. And since we have already used all the savings we had, I do not forsee having anything set aside in the near future. They will have to get scholarships.
But they do know it is expected that they go to college!
And if I had any money set aside for college and they did not go, no, they would not get the money!!! Touch love baby! I love my kids but I will be tough to show them how much I love them if I have to.
1 person likes this
@ljcapps (1925)
• United States
10 Jan 07
I can't imagine the guts and heart it takes to take care of seven children, and if you had to save college funds for all of them..well, who needs a house? Scholarships are good good things. I think if we save the money for our son to go to college, and he doesn't, we'll save that money and set it back, and maybe when he get's settled and a little bit older, we might help him with a down payment on a house. Something like that, but not just handing over the hard earned money and saying go have fun. I'm all over that tough love!
@brokentia (10389)
• United States
10 Jan 07
I think that is a great idea to hold it until later to help him with a downpayment on a house if he decides to not go to college. But I am sure that he will. If you raise him with your ideas of college...ha ha ..and an only child, I am sure that he will go. :) But again...great idea for the use if he doesn't!!!
1 person likes this
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
14 Feb 07
We haven't put any aside, nor do we plan to. We don't have that kind of money. We don't even make enough to put aside anything in a savings account for day to day expenses that might pop up. We live paycheck to paycheck. But we don't play to pay for their college. If we have the money we might help them out here and there but we won't pay for it.
My dad tried to pay for me and my brother and it bankrupted him. He now owes $15,000 more on his house then when he bought it almost 20 years ago. He is retiring but doesn't have any extra money to do stuff because he has the house that he mortgaged over and over for college. He also didn't have the money to set aside for special college funds.
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@ljcapps (1925)
• United States
17 Feb 07
That's really tough. I myself, never went to college. My wife went on scholarships and what she made in working 40 hours on top of part time college and high school, so i know it's tough. But luckily, we're finally in a position to be able to set back little by little. Even if we can't pay for all of it, we'll be glad to help with part. But i still expect him to get good enough grades to try for scholarships!
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
14 Feb 07
I don't have kids yet - but here are some of my plans for when I do have children.
1. I will enroll in the UPromise program that puts money towards your kids college when you swipe the card at the grocery store. It's not a whole lot, but hey, every little bit helps.
2. My mom and I are both in real estate. What we plan to do is buy a rental property every time I have a child. If we keep it rented, we will make a little money from the rent. But that's not where the college money comes from. When it's time for the kid to go to college you sell the property, and use the equity in the house to pay for the college.
3. I plan to put $5 a week into a bank account for each child that I have. I will do like my mom did for me and open a joint account with my name and the child's name. Unless I have a ton of kids, the $5 a week won't make or break me.
4. Every year my mom buys all of her grandchildren a savings bond. I plan to buy bonds on birthdays and Christmas for my children as well. Most of these will be mature by the time the kid is in college.
5. When the child is a minor - (my mom did this for my brother's and I too) - they will get allowence, and they will be allowed to have a job when they are old enough - but they have to put half of whatever they make into their bank account and can spend the rest on whatever they want. I would have blown all my money on stupid stuff if my mom hadn't made me save. Maybe when they are 16 and start having more needs, I may allow them put less in the bank... like 1/3 or 1/4 of each check.
They will probably hate it when they are younger - but they will definately thank me when they are older. My mom didn't do all of the above - just the part with my checks and allowence, and but when I was ready to move out, I had enough money to put a down payment on a car, a condo, and attend two years of college.
I would still give my child the money if they don't decide to go to college - but I would want them to use it for something responsible like a car, a house, or a wedding... or to start a business or whatever... or even if they want to travel the world. But I'm not giving them the money so they can party. Of course the bank account with their half of the money is theirs to do what they want with.
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@ljcapps (1925)
• United States
15 Feb 07
I think that's a wonderful response and very similiar to what i had in mind, although i hadn't thought about using the equity in rental property as a push for helping with college. That's a very, very good idea and one i will definitely keep in mind when we start buying more property. My dad made me do the same thing with my first paychecks, half in the bank and half for me. I'm not quite sure i remember where it all went, but i do remember heaving deep sighs over it at the time, and appreciating it later. Thank you for responding!
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@sweetgirl_k1 (3972)
• United States
10 Jan 07
I went right after christmas and opened up my son a savings account. He will soon be 8 months old. I know it's a little early to set one up but we can add lots of money to it and everytime he gets money for birthday and holidays we will add it to his account. I figured by starting it now that by the time he is old enough to drive and go to college that he could buy a car with that money and the rest could go towards college expenses. If he doesn't want to go to college then that money is his and he can do whatever he wants with it. I plan to put a certain amount in there every month and if we have extra then I'll put that in there too. That way he'll have lots of money in there by the time he is old enough to drive and go to college.
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@ljcapps (1925)
• United States
10 Jan 07
We're basically doing the same thing, but we started out a little different. When he first started crawling and getting into EVERYTHING we were afraid if he found loose change, he'd put it in his mouth. Everything else went into his mouth why not that? So we bought a big plush piggy bank that made noises when you dropped change into it, and made a game out of it. All the change that he found would go into his piggy bank and it would be his. We've done that for so long now we had to go and open up a savings account with pennies! With the change that he's found, and had help "finding" he's got more money in his bank account than we do sometimes!
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
14 Feb 07
I think if you were really smart, I'd start saving money for their college education by the time they're born or just a bit before and I'd add to it as often as I could. If they didn't want to go to school however, I don't think I'd give them the money. That money was set aside for a purpose, and that purpose was them heading to school. And if they aren't going to go, I don't think they should have it. I may give them a bit of the savings, but they definitely aren't getting all of it.
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