Quote:
Originally Posted by Logan
I know very little about it either, and I know people who live in different parts of the country have different perspectives on salaries and affordability. But I feel like you can be very solidly upper middle class and still have a whole hell of a lot of difficulty in cutting a $30K check (or more) over a 4 year stretch.
I've been putting away in a 529 plan what I think is a good amount of money since my daughter was born (about 20% of my after tax annual bonus, plus a monthly contribution which I hope to increase at least 5% a year) but who the hell knows if that will be enough way down the road? And that's just for one kid! It's highly unlikely I'll be able to double up on all that for baby #2.
I guess I'd end up taking out a parent loan like you mentioned if my kids can't qualify for their own because of our income, as that is better than nothing. But I'd like my kids to have some skin in the game so they are incentivized to make good choices. Maybe I'll just lie to them and tell them the loans we're taking out are actually in their name.
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Those are good points. If a child is motivated and picked a good, marketable major, then I have no problems in saying one of the best gifts you can give the child is not for the child to be burdened by large college debt when they graduate. My son will, at this rate, have about $25k total (assuming no additional scholarships) but he is already well on his way in his career and I think he will be able to handle that.
Addendum: I, on the other hand, is taking on a large debt just when I retire. Not sure how I feel about that but I had worked on eliminating most other debts and thinking that a HELOC can absorb that. I'm more flexible in managing debt than my son will be, I believe.