<p>If things go according to plan, in a little over a year I will have 2 kids in college at a potential cost of $80k per year... (80? could be $90k). Seems I have to earn nearly $150k in order to have $90 left over after federal, state, social security taxes and other costs of working. Continue to work and make $200 - 250k with no fin aid or stop working and throw ourselves at the mercy of the finaid gods? (Maybe if I called it "retirement" it would ease the moral outrage.) Perhaps a more effective approach would be to disown my kids and let them apply for financial aid on their own. I have heard it can be difficult for kids to be declared financially independent. My final idea - We have all heard of "marriages of convenience" for the purpose of obtaining citizenship. What if my hs son married a college-bound classmate? Would both students then be declared financially independent of their parents? Maybe both families could benefit. I am going to have to do some heavy duty financial analysis on this one. I will probably just continue at my job well into my golden years and sign my paychecks over to the Universities. College in America is the Great Equalizer. It takes middle income and poor families and turns them all into poor families!</p>
<p>Why not just look at in state public and also schools that give merit based aid? That's what a lot of people in our income bracket have to do.</p>
<p>I am honestly puzzled at the attitude of some upper income parents who seem hacked off at the idea that they should have to <em>pay</em> out of pocket for what is a personal preference--a bachelor's degree from a private school as opposed to a public school. To me it's like buying a car--I can afford a Honda, but I can't afford a Mercedes. Both will get the job done--e.g. transport me reliably where I want to go. Nobody expects the car manufacturers or the government to pay the difference between the Honda price and the Mercedes price. Why should anybody expect that their family should not pay the difference between public and private college educations? </p>
<p>Private schools are doing an amazing job of marketing, and now we are all worried that our kids won't do as well if they don't go to a "name brand" school--to the extent that we are willing to jeopardize our own and really the whole family's long term financial security. </p>
<p>I think if you can afford to pay $40K per year and you want to do it then that's fantastic and I'm all for it, but to beat yourself up, or complain or to go into so much debt that you jeopardize your retirement seems to me to be a very poor strategy, when in reality your kids will do just fine with a degree from the state U. It's the degree that matters--not so much the name on the degree--for all but a small fraction of the population. </p>
<p>I've said this on other threads, but to borrow assuming you can defer retirement is risky--you have no control over future events: economic, or personal. I know many people who had disabling illnesses in their '50s that ended their careers, or if they were able to work, resulted in very high medical expenses. I also know too many high earners who were restructured out of jobs in their early '50s and were unable to find anything that paid as well as their previous jobs.</p>
<p>If you want the expensive private school, then you should pay for it - not someone else. There are other options available if you don't want to pay $40-45K per year.</p>
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Perhaps a more effective approach would be to disown my kids and let them apply for financial aid on their own.
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<p>Oh njres, if it were only that easy. Now if you can get them to become emancipated adults...... ;)</p>
<p>I do think NJres is just joking.... </p>
<p>You should probably marry them off before they begin the college process and then just give 'em a tent in the back yard :D</p>
<p>Hmmm. I want a Jaguar. Should I disown my kids and buy one?</p>
<p>wait is the OP joking?</p>
<p>"My final idea - We have all heard of "marriages of convenience" for the purpose of obtaining citizenship. What if my hs son married a college-bound classmate? "</p>
<p>i have a feeling this is a joke. good one.</p>
<p>except that jokes are actually <em>funny</em>.</p>
<p>NJDad What a riot! I really enjoyed your post (I'm pretty sure it was satire, right?). It is an accurate description of the things that go through ones mind after filling out that cruelest of documents, the FAFSA application. I think Im a year ahead of you on this ordeal, and the answer for my kid was a merit scholarship at a small LAC. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Mombot wrote..."Private schools are doing an amazing job of marketing, and now we are all worried that our kids won't do as well if they don't go to a "name brand" school--to the extent that we are willing to jeopardize our own and really the whole family's long term financial security."</p>
<p>I agree, so I have offered my kid a deal. If he goes to a certain public school in-state, I will give him $9,000 a year, a used car, and will pay for his insurance.</p>
<p>So far, no deal. He says no.</p>
<p>I'm voting for NJDad was kidding....</p>
<p>Even the satire of the OP lives in reality tho :(</p>
<p>nj actually did a good job of planning- unlike our family who had our daughters 8 years apart- making sure that the liklihood of being college at the same time very low, resulting in higher overall college expenses and FAFSA EFC for each, njres will have two in college at the same time, and usually that results in FAFSA EFC being halved, with colleges acknowledging two students in school.</p>
<p>I wouldn't want to disown any of my kids. I'm proud of what they are doing, and I have committed myself to paying the full EFC asked for by any good college they can get into. Of course I will encourage them to apply to State U, but there is a good chance that they (and thus our whole family, indirectly) can get better VALUE by accepting what's on offer from some more selective school of more august reputation. </p>
<p>Caring for my paralyzed dad reminds me that families stay together for a LONG time, long after formal emancipation, and I want to lay a good foundation for my children to be successful in their adult lives, the better to ensure that they can take care of my wife, perhaps, after I am gone.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure it was a joke, too, but isn't it a strange state of affairs when a parent <em>could</em> voluntarily take a low paying job while kids were in college just to get the best 'value'? Of course, that would only apply to colleges that guarantee to meet full demonstrated need, or ones that found the o.p.'s kids to be desirable and was willing to lure them in with aid. </p>
<p>Somewhat related (to the idea of two students marrying to maximize their aid), it occurred to me that one solution to the health insurance crisis in this country is for every single employed (and covered) person to marry someone who needs benefits. Lines are drawn in ways that make sense to the person holding the pencil. We can always look at the lines and see how they're just crazy - and there's a way around it. The U.S. is a wealthy country - or so I've been told - why is it so hard to get a college education and health insurance?</p>
<p>I think it would actually be pretty difficult to find a low paying job that would hire someone who was obviously overqualified.
There was just an article in the paper the other day about a farmworker who was displaced when the factory that canned the produce moved overseas, he had few options on his side of the mountains, and walmart wouldn't hire him because he could drive a forklift- according to the article he is still looking for a job.
My husband worked for a large shipyard about 22 years ago, however they all but closed, after contracts went elsewhere. He was laid off, and went through 1 1/2 yrs of being unemployed except for renting out himself and his truck for odd jobs and hauling and mowing lawns, because no one would hire him and blamed it on the fact that as soon as the shipyard started up again, he would be back there. ( he actually never went back but found a factory job)</p>
<p>So while itis often tossed out that all you have to do to get financial aid is work a low paying job ( while implying that the low paying job is also easy and low stress)- it may not be as simple as being willing to do that, because why would a company hire someone for minimum wage, when they could easily find a job for 10x that?</p>
<p>lefthand:</p>
<p>Why would you say "it's so hard to get a college education" in the US? A college education is exceedingly easy to get in the US and is accessible to anyone who chooses to obtain one. It may end up not being at the $46K/year colleges for everyone but with the combo of CCs, state Universities, private colleges, private 'trade' type schools, scholarships, grants, loans, etc., it's actually very easy for anyone to attend college.</p>
<p>I also disagree with you on the health insurance point but I won't go there in order to keep this in the context of colleges. And yes, the USA is a wealthy country. (Proud American here)</p>
<p>I actually chuckled when I read NJ's post. We'll be in the same boat (by choice) next year, and we are NOT complaining nor are we expecting someone else to pay. But it is astounding to us that the costs of higher education are so high. But as someone said (hope they don't mind being quoted here)...."no one ever saw a Brinks truck following a hearse". For us, this is an investment in our kids. We had a "go with the money" offer for DD....but we all agreed it was not the right choice for her.</p>
<p>Thanks for your refreshing post, Thumper. For the past few years I have had to listen to many of my relatives and friends complain about having to give up some of their income to pay for their OWN child's tuition (since they don't qualify for FA) when they earn in the neighborhood of 3-4 times what my husband and I do...and then they COMPLAIN that others are paying much less than they are. Hubby and I fully expect to pay at least our EFC. Our income is a little more than half of what it used to be...but we've planned for this our whole child's life!</p>
<p>so let me get this straight... you just woke up one day and realized that your HS aged kids would be going to college some day soon? Where's your income been going up until now that you'd need to pay the entire bill for two kids out of pocket?</p>
<p>Many of us who pay full freight started saving in utero.... and don't complain that we've made financial trade-offs for the last 20 years or so to be able to pay tuition out of savings, current income, borrowed from a life insurance policy or home equity, etc. Seems to me that if you've got the money to pay two tuitions at the same time, you might be a tad grateful rather than resentful that your paycheck is going to Uhum.... educate your own kids.</p>
<p>Doesn't anyone here have a sense of humor? When I read NJ's OP, I found it amusing. I didn't get the idea that NJ expected that someone else would pay the bill or that NJ was resentful of the fact that the college bills were going to be high. NJ was stating the facts, but was also putting them in a tongue in cheek post. I don't believe the criticisms I'm reading are justified, unless I'm wrong in my interpretation.</p>