REALITY: @ccprofandmomof2 -you don’t know me and you are basically calling me out:
Whether or not you think we are misleading readers or believe it, we ** put our three kids through college with those savings and carefully planned budgets**.
Every extra dollar, saved on our own car, plumbing, house repairs, lunches from home went into those 529s. We didn’t live outside of our means. We paid for everything in cash except our mortgage-used cars, dinged washers/dryers. We refinanced our mortgage and were able to pay it off 10 years earlier than anticipated. We didn’t live in the best neighborhood and I shopped the secondhand store for our business attire. Dry cleaning, nope. I drove a 17 year-old Camry until it died, and have a $32 Timex watch. Apple phones-nope, embarrassing flip phones for the kids. No cable tv channels, but library books, puzzles, and game boards.
One huge difference is that my husband and I have had good paying jobs, so every extra dollar went into the kids accounts. (I could have finished my dissertation but being a professor wasn’t the right high-paying choice for me).
Plus, our kids did exceptionally well with grades and merit and earned scholarships. They worked every summer in high school and college to earn their spending cash.
It can be done if you don’t care about having the latest and greatest. FWIW, we are paying for our daughter’s in state professional/med school program now-cash upfront. She wont owe a dime when she’s done.