<p>I have been working OT over the last 3 years to put away money for D college among other things. It has really bumped up my salary so my EFC for FAFSA reflects the increase, but this is not guaranted OT. It can change at anytime that overtime would not be available to me. It is a situation that had I not done it, my EFC would be lower. My H also bartends to make extra money. We would much rather be home or doing something else but you do what you have to do to "give their kids a leg up."
D is going to private college, the only way we could have afforded that was to be able to save money for many years (blood,sweat and tears). She is still taking out the fed loans. With that said, we have very little retirement, we go on one vacation a year within a 4hr drive. We keep our cars till they drop. That is just the way it is in our family and we aren't really worried about anything else.</p>
<p>NSM, that is the point I am making. Private colleges are truly luxuries and $100K is not luxurious enough for a family to easily afford sending kids to such colleges. </p>
<p>Danhmom, there is absolutely no question that the 6 figure income range is a comfortable salary, an upper income salary even in the northeast, even in the expensive areas. With such incomes there are the responsibilities of saving for pensions, making sure you have all the recommended insurance coverage, saving for college, as it is an income where it is possible to pay for these thing if one puts prioritizes appropriately. It is not a salary luxurious enough to easily pay for private colleges, is what I am saying, and if you make money in that range, you are expected to pay for most of your kids' college costs so you had better plan for it. But making $100k a year or so before college looms into the picture, especially if it involves moving to a high rent area from a low one, is not going to be a windfall. I know families who have barely made $60-70K a year, if that for years, and then gotten offers from a high COL area for close to or over 6 figures. Believe me it takes time to make the adjustment.</p>
<p>I say this out of experience. We moved from the midwest, as did my brother recently for a great work opportunity in a high COL area. I assure you that the housing differential alone can knock you for a loop. Also when you don't know an area and have no friends or family there, you have to be conservative in picking neighborhoods and such as you really do not know the nuances of an area. Many folks can live in a neighborhood with issues, drawbacks and problems without much hardship if they have lived there and have already gotten the infrastructure to deal with these things. Moving in fresh out of town is a whole new deal. It took us several years and year end bonuses to make up from the costs that our move incurred despite the much higher salary. The first two years ended in losses to us financially, and that was when our first child went off to college. I remember thinking how we were no better off than when we lived before despite the much higher pay. </p>
<p>It is almost always better to make more money as you get more choices and more flexibility. I would never deny that. However, what I am trying to say in my posts that $100K is not luxurious when you are talking about private colleges which is what the bulk of CC talk entails. Also though there are many families who do not understand the cost impact of colleges, most learn very quickly when the cost figures sink in. Families who may think that they are doing so very well making $100k get a reality check when FAFSA/PROFILE and college FA packages come up with the payments a family at that pay level are expected to make, get a nasty shock. Unless the family has saved and is living in such a way that they are not stuck in too many fixed cost, long term expenses, they are not going to be able to afford a private college despite this handsome salary.</p>
<p>I certainly do! I'm only applying to state schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think it would take more than $100 k a year in income to easily afford to send 2-3 kids to private college.</p>
<p>Can you, please, be more detailed. Private college cost with other living expenses, books, transportation, clothes,....is routhly $50,000 per student per year (assuming, no merit scholarships, not eligible for need based). After paying taxes on $100k a year, family will be left with roughly $70k a year. Where I am wrong in my math, if $50K x 2 = $100k which is way below $70k? Assuming that parents do not consume any food and have any living expenses, it still not clear how you would cover college cost.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>on its own, $100,000 in gross income wont result in a very high efc. $100,000 in gross income combined with significant assets will.</p>
<p>it is EXPECTED that families with these significant assets (home equity and savings) should be willing to dip into them to help pay for their childrens educations. many families are unwilling, a perfectly rational decision. but thats not the colleges fault. and it doesnt make the family in question any less wealthy... on paper. 'affluent' probably isnt the right word.</p>
<p>Many people assume that getting into that elite college will make financial consideration irrelevant because they'll be making enough money to pay off their college loans once they get out. That's often not the case.</p>
<p>Another thing people don't take into account as often as they should is that you might have to spend your first 5-10 years after graduation paying off your student loans, which might have serious effects on your savings and retirement plans down the road.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, those who are making money in the $100K and up range are expected to have saved some money for their kids' colleges. They are also expected to be in a situation where they can borrow for college in additition to cutting some fat out of their budgets to pay for college. FAFSA really does not guarantee anything other than unsubsidized Stafford loans, and there is certainly not enough federal money out there to pay for even many in state unis if the kid is not commuting even at a zero EFC. The rest has to come from the colleges and/or the parents/students. Parents who make this kind of money should be having their kids working summers and paying some board or their expenses so that parents can put some money away for college for the kids. This is during high school years. The problem we have (and I include myself in that we, but not necessarily you) is that in making six figures we get into thinking that we are making enough money for the luxuries of paying for summer opportunities and other goodies that take away from the college fund rather than pushing work and savings to add to it. $100K is enough money to provide for college IF the family understands that there has to savings, work and focus towards that goal. It is not luxurious or rich enough to pay for college despite what the calculators say and what the definitions of wealth and % of folks making that salary are.</p>
<p>We saved for our son's college so that we can pay about $10K each year for him out of earmarked savings. He got a $10K merit award. He got a $5K outside scholarship. He has saved about $6K from 3 summers of work and some light work during school year that he can put towards college. We figure $1500 is fine with a $3500 Stafford loan. His school has a COA of close to but not quite $50K which I will just round up to that since we live far enough away that I'm sure we are going to exceed COA this year. So we have to come up with $20K. We are paying $10K out of pocket, and $10K through a plus loan. Since January of this year, we have been accumulating enough funds that we will be able to make the first payment of $2500 comfortably this week, and will need to make the second payment in another two months for this term. That is how we are doing this. Son will continue to work summers and is looking for employment opportunities at college. If he can net $50 a week working 10 hours, that would be a nice addition to what he is budgeted for an allowance, and summer work will pay off the stafford interest accumulation. For us to do much more would start cutting into things like our fixed expenses and reserve for likely issues that may be far more important than college and even urgent. We had to come to the conclusion that even at our pay range $50K+ a year was not affordable to us without taking some grave financial risks for some serious situations that occur in the future.</p>
<p>"We saved for our son's college so that we can pay about $10K each year for him out of earmarked savings. He got a $10K merit award. He got a $5K outside scholarship. He has saved about $6K from 3 summers of work and some light work during school year that he can put towards college. We figure $1500 is fine with a $3500 Stafford loan. His school has a COA of close to but not quite $50K which I will just round up to that since we live far enough away that I'm sure we are going to exceed COA this year. So we have to come up with $20K. We are paying $10K out of pocket, and $10K through a plus loan."</p>
<p>Given this situation, we would opt to tell D to pick another school. We live in a high COL area, we make well under $100K a year and yet we have managed to save enough to be able to pay roughly $15K per year out of pocket and savings, although we obviously would prefer to pay less. </p>
<p>We did this by living in a house that's nice but not nearly as nice as most of the homes in our area. We chose to live outside the school district with high property values and attend school there on a waiver. That meant I had to be available for all the driving, which affected my earning potential. We don't replace our cars every couple of years (one of our cars is 13 years old). We don't take yearly vacations, in fact our last vacation was 6 years ago. We don't pay to have our home cleaned, as do many/most of our neighbors (we manage to find the time despite the claims of our favorite junk mail flyer that "Life's too short to clean your own home!") and do our own yard work. I mention these particular things only to point out that we're willing to live a lifestyle well below the majority of other people in our area (not to imply that anyone who's posted here pays for those services). We're fortunate in that I work from home, even though the pay is a fraction of what I could earn at a "real" job and H is a blue collar worker, so clothing related expenses are minimal.</p>
<p>We started with D very early, telling her that we could afford to send her to our local state university and if she wanted to go anywhere else, she had to figure out how to pay for it herself, and no loans were allowed. This kept her from getting her hopes up/having unrealistic expectations of where she could attend. So she worked hard in school so that she could qualify for scholarships and she's willing to go to just about any part of the country if she qualifies for a good scholarship. </p>
<p>So I guess my point is, we don't feel like we "owe" her a $50K/year education, and neither does she. I think you can get a great education at a lower ranked school or a crappy education at a top 10 school. We expect and she expects that she'll be able to get an excellent education just about anywhere she goes, because she's willing to put her heart and soul into doing so.</p>
<p>^ The problem with that that we could not have saved bcause before we started raising our D., we have raised our S. including putting him thru college without any scholarships. We are planning to help her thru Grad. school, if she gets to Med. school only because,<br>
1. D. has huge Merit Scholarship at in-state college. She got even more at private school, which we certainly would be able to afford for that reason.
2. we are older and able to draw from our 401K.<br>
3. Our S. has been on his own for over 10 years</p>
<p>We are exception not the rule, most people in our income bracket are not in the same situation. If kids are planning to go to Graduate school, their loans would be in hundreds K. We told our D. (not that she needed to be reminded) to maintain high GPA for Merit $$ thru undergrad., and we will definately help thru Grad. school. I do not see how to afford more than one kid.</p>
<p>Current D is our third. D1 attended community college and the local state university and lived at home. We - and her dad - paid as she went so there were no loans. She also worked (sometimes 2 or 3 jobs). D2 opted not to go to college; she got married and has provided me with 2 (almost 3) very lovely grandchildren. D3 is 13 and 9 years younger than Ds 1 and 2, so almost like an only child. I feel for people who have more than one in college at a time.</p>
<p>It seems many CC parents do understand the financial impact of college. I was one who did not when we started all of this, and paid dearly with S1 as a result. </p>
<p>In our financial situation, we can pay what is planned for our son's first year of college this year, and still have discretionary money which we would not have had if we were not in our income bracket. We are going to move in our son this weekend which means both of us are flying cross country, renting a car and staying at a hotel for 4 days. H has not yet even seen the college and we want to look around a bit. Parents orientation starts Saturday and runs through half of Monday anyways so we are not really going that early since move in starts early Saturday. If we were tighter, financially, the trip would be out of the question. S would have to go it alone. Also, he would not have been able to take time off this summer to vacation or to cut his job short and leave for an opportunity last week. He also would have had to work two full jobs instead of a job and a half along with community service and hanging with friends. He would have had to get a job first semester and work 15 hours a week. There would be no breathing room in our budget. I agree thoroughly that we are fortunate to have the money to be able to make the choices we can.<br>
After S1's college experience, and other things that occurred in the last 8 years, we are at a point where we do understand the impact and implications of having kids in college. Even though we are upper income, it is not enough to be able to pay for whatever college our kids want, and to do all of the things involved with college/young adult, etc without planning carefully and choosing carefully. The cost these days is such that even upper income families feel the pinch of college. Only those who are truly wealthy can do college without a thought of the costs. $100K is not that category.</p>
<p>Someone above asked if we had considered our children's earning power before choosing colleges. The answer for me is yes. I felt more comfortable encouraging her on the path she is on because of the projected earnings she will have.
Secondly, there are private schools and then there are private schools. Many CCers sneer at "third tier" or "regional" privates, but there are private schools (here in the Midwest, examples include places like Creighton, DePaul, Butler, Drake, Bradley) that provide excellent educations at tuition prices that do not top 30,000 -- some still below 25,000. Combine that with merit money and you might be only paying 1,000 to 5,000 over your state flagship, if that. And kids thrive at these schools -- again, it's about fit.</p>
<p>Many kids have no idea what they want to do or be when they finish college. Even those who are directed in a profession have a high likelihood of changing their minds.</p>
<p>cp -- this is of course true. Someone asked the question above, and I answered it. If my own D had been undecided (and I am not denying that she may change her mind -- she knows that is all right with me) BUT if she had been undecided, I would have pushed harder for the state school both because of finances and because she could have explored almost any major there.</p>
<p>All of our kids applied to state schools, low sticker priced school, possible merit award schools along with high priced schools. This time around the cost was an issue as we had learned the impact of the cost of a private college. We were hit very hard with our older kids. However, with this kid, we also realized that a smaller school with more attention would serve him best. We looked at a number of alternatives and came up with where he is now going which was not the lowest cost, but not the highest either. What he will ultimately will do did not play in the decision at all. The current fit and where he wants to go in terms of academics and developement were the big issues. We tried to find a place that could make him what he wants to be and where he wants go in more general rather than specific terms.</p>
<p>My next one is considering teaching, but he loves the catholic school atmosphere. Though it is early, it seems that he would want to go to a catholic college and that means high sticker price unless he can get merit money, an issue since he does not test well. This is something we will have to discuss as teaching or working in a private catholic school environment is not a high income position. But I can see why he would like to do this, and why the environment would suit him. We'll look at all kinds of schools and alternatives including commuting when his time comes.</p>
<p>"The problem we have (and I include myself in that we, but not necessarily you) is that in making six figures we get into thinking that we are making enough money for the luxuries of paying for summer opportunities and other goodies that take away from the college fund rather than pushing work and savings to add to it. "</p>
<p>I got my kids involved in summer activities, too, though by the end of h.s., both were working. However, I told my kids early -- middle school -- that H and I were giving them summer opps, nice vacations, lessons in the arts and sports that interested them -- so they could find out about and strengthen their own interests and talents. If they decided to go to a school that cost more than H and I were willing to give, we expected our sons to use their talents to get merit aid.</p>
<p>Older S's strong background in journalism, his passion, helped him get excellent merit aid to the OOS public that he loved. S got such excellent scholarships that if he hadn't dropped out after deciding he was too smart to bother to go to college, by junior year, with his guaranteed summer internship earnings, he would have had enough money to have been buying a condo while still being in school with no loans.</p>
<p>Younger S's strong community service and leadership helped him get merit aid to the LAC he loved. He also is taking out loans and working during the summer and school year to help pay for it. </p>
<p>I started thinking about my kids' college ed literally before they were conceived. I wanted them at least 3-4 years apart so as to be able to help one through college before the other started. They are 4 years apart. I wish I had been as good planning my own life as I was planning at least this aspect of my kids'.</p>
<p>You've done well, NSM, in planning for your kids and moving with the curveball when they came about. We were so naive thinking the way we did. I could have used CC about 8 years ago.</p>
<p>From a financial aid perspective, it can be beneficial not have children spaced apart.</p>
<p>threads like this are very depressing. When you see someone describing their "way below their mean" living is much better than your much improved condition. </p>
<p>That is life, I guess.</p>
<p>DadII: I agree with your assessment of this thread. It depresses me nearly as much as the "high brow" political threads on CC that I've been looking at.</p>