<p>My husband’s cousins do struggle financially, and going to a private college is not an option for their kids without substantial aid. But each of those kid have a car in high school. The cost of a car can really put a dent in your budget. But, ahh, the kids pay for most of the cost of the car with parents just pitching in since the kids are helping the family/parents by doing part of the driving.</p>
<p>That’s why there is no money in the college fund. A car will not only eat up that money, but will usually need the kid to have a job to feed it. And the parents usually have to contribute to the insurance, if not outright pay for it and help out if an unexpected repair bill occurs. And we are not even going to go into the cost of mishaps that inevitably occur with inexperienced drivers.</p>
<p>When I talked about giving my kids cars I meant one when she graduated from COLLEGE and needed it to get to work and one for S who is a COLLEGE junior and needed it for reasons I can’t discuss here.</p>
<p>But I did NOT give them cars in HS. One car was an old clunker I already owned and one was very inexpensive and paid for by some cash that was in an old insurance policy.</p>
<p>I agree that for me, education is the highest priority.</p>
<p>Wasn’t targeting you at all, Mythmom, or anyone who happens to be able to afford the car AND the education, or needs the car. The woman who cuts my hair has two kids at college. One at the community college and the other at a local SUNY. No practical way for them to get to their schools without a car. They tried it with one car. Just didn’t work. Plus, they got job opportunities, one that was directly field related, that again required cars. Made sense to get the cars even though it was an expense.</p>
<p>We let my high schooler use one of our cars pretty much exclusively as he was a swimmer. 4:45AM on deck was the reason. Plus he then could drive home, shower and drive to school which was really the only way to make the whole thing work. Another workout in the afternoon also made the car necessary. I could not drive him with 4 younger kids with needs at those times too, and the early morning would have killed me.<br>
There is some discussion about my current college kid getting a car, and it really does make sense for him to have one, but we are still weighing the cost implications. Can do it for the coming school year, but the year after that with two in college is when we are going to need to squeeze every dime, and a car can be an expensive wild card in terms of expense, not to even mention being a high line item in the regular budget.<br>
The cousins’ kids got their cars because they so wanted one and the parents could understand this desire and wanted to make them happy. Education did not have that priority. They really could not even afford the danged cars even without college in the picture, and the problems that arose from them put them even further in financial trouble. Pure idiocy, in my book. </p>
<p>No, I was not even thinking about your situation with this post. Just mulling my thoughts over a call son got that his cousin just got a car. And they were saying how unaffordable college is going to be for them just a few months ago.</p>
<p>When D was young, we had no idea what we were doing, but we knew she had to go to college and we looked around at ways to save and we started with a state sponsored 529 college fund. We scraped to put in there, but we managed and because of that, we told her that if she went to flagship State U, she would have no debt, but she opted for her DREAM school. She has to take out her stafford loans and we supplement the rest. She is our only child, so that is what we are doing. There are no grandparents or relatives who can throw her a coin or two. She has no car, we take no extravagant vacations and she does modest things for entertainment and she is working right now this summer. Its a sacrifice for everyone. Anything after 4 years of undergrad is fully her responsibility. I would like to retire with something in the bank, even if it means eating hot dogs for the rest of my life.</p>