<p>For us, “afford” meant making sure kids graduated without loans. We were willing to go into a small amount of debt ourselves (arranged to have the house paid off by the time D2 would be going off to college, just in case we needed the money for college). But we were able to come up with enough money so that neither parent nor kids have loans. We feel very, very blessed…</p>
<p>We also have saved a fair amount for retirement…of course, it won’t be the really nice retirement that the extra money we spent on college could finance. Haven’t regretted anything (yet…).</p>
<p>My husband had a slow start to this career and thus our savings, and due to situations with our kids (disabilities etc.) I’ve been at home. So even though we paid for S’s college with savings and minimal student loans, and are half-way done with the second child’s college and have not incurred debt ourselves, what feels like we aren’t affording it is the state of our retirement account. Not much went in there during the early years, and now when there’s more we could contribute, it’s all going to pay for college.</p>
<p>To me the relevant question is how the expense will push out either my semi-retirement or my final retirement … and to me, my kid’s college experience, is worth pushing these out some.</p>
<p>For us afford means pay for out of savings and current income without touching or reducing the amount going into retirement income. Making sure we have enough $$ to pay for emergency repairs on our 100 year old home and used cars. Leaving home equity alone- as if there is any at this time. Still taking a yearly family vacation. But no debt.</p>
<p>H had a late start to his career, and I had a hiatus when the children were young. We are just now hitting our stride when it comes to earning. Unfortunately it means that our savings isn’t where it should be for our current income level. However- no whining here. We will be able to give our children a debt free gift of state school tuition.</p>
<p>No debt, my son plans on eventually continuing to medical school, a path that I heavily support, so I will cover all of his tuition and living costs. Plus in the community where I am from, American-Indian (I am from India), it is actually uncommon for the kids to pay for education themselves. I paid for my children’s school early through a state program, thus I paid for their college education at rates of 2007, cheaper than now. Well, good thing times are going well for my family so we are able to afford college, good luck to all of those trying to figure out what to do!</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone’s mentioned this yet: what I can afford means what can I pay without shortchanging my other child. </p>
<p>What I can afford is also reevaluated if Kid 1 doesn’t perform. It’s not worth $60k/year to get Cs and Ds. She can do that at a much lower cost elsewhere. </p>
<p>What I can afford is also a complicated combination of the factors CuriousJane mentions – would this kid do better emotionally and academically at a small private vs a large public?</p>
<p>Afford would mean no debt for any of us, which meant saving quite a bit (hello ramen noodles and staycations) and attending where it made both vocational and financial sense. Of course, S1’s protracted stay has blown a hole in that tire, but we’re not too far off track.</p>
I love this, eastcoascrazy. We’ve done the same thing, though the “smile on our faces” part came rather belatedly to my dh. He was beaming at last Sunday’s graduation, though. We agreed that it’s been worth the sacrifices we’ve made in travel, housing, material stuff. It is so satisfying to see our kids well-educated without debt, theirs or ours. We feel so lucky that we were able to accomplish this. I wish I could have known 11 years ago that it would work out this way.</p>
<p>Afford means no debt in our family. By no debt, I mean long term. We can take equity loan to be paid off quickly. When we buya a car, we make sure that we can pay it off within approximately 10 months. When we bought our current house, we did not listen to realtor, we bought the house that we could pay off before a kid is in HS.<br>
However, I would not give up my fancy vacations, no way!! We spend a lot every year on our vacations and planning to continue…one of my highest priority.<br>
D. had substantial Merit award in her private prep. HS and was on full tuition Merit award in UG. We are proud and happy to be able to pay for her Med. School. Affordable or not, we do not think this way at this point. I am not sure if anybody out there will call Med. School affordable, unless they have millions. Our situation might change if any of us will loose a job, praying every day. We are at the age that we will NOT find another job, there is no question about it.</p>
<p>for me, minus a home mortgage, anything I can afford means must cash flow it. D’s college is full pay for me and I cannot personally stroke that check, but she’s the only kid in the family and got into an acceptable school to the family tree, so the team effort lets her graduate with no debt.</p>
<p>Grad school may be a different story so will cross that bridge when it comes.</p>
<p>I look at it differently. ‘Afford’ means value in terms of what you get for what you pay. Loans are OK in moderation, meaning Staffords for the student & PLUS for the parents. The Staffords are capped so over 4 years it’s, what, $25K? That should be manageable for the student. For the parent, anything that causes financial anxiety would not be good. For some, the limit is $10K, for another, $100K. Different strokes.</p>
<p>Looking at how college costs have evolved / devolved over the last few years, at this point in time I would say that the COA of $20,000 - $35,000 per year for a high-quality undergraduate education is where most folks on CC tend to reside, and what constitutes value in my eyes. Anything over that is maybe too much to pay, and under that, bravo!</p>
<p>I’m impressed with the number of families here whose children are fortunate enough to graduate debt free. What a gift for them starting out in their lives.</p>
<p>Our family made what we feel are good choices for our son. He’s got about 20K in Staffords to repay (for an undergrad and masters), a FT job he’s loving and the ability to repay those loans easily.
We paid the remainder of his college expenses from 527 we funded from a young age, current income and a small parent loan we will retire in a year or two.</p>
<p>Our other child has special needs and we will fund her care for the rest of our time here.</p>
<p>What I can afford for college - The amount I can comfortably pay from college savings accounts and current income without changing my lifestyle, which is by no means flashy. </p>
<p>I’ll throw in a little twist and say the amount has to be somewhat equitable between the two kids.</p>
<p>Afford for us means that we can still continue to save the maximum for our retirement, have enough for our monthly bills and not touch the emergency cushion. Like many of you, our college savings aren’t what FAFSA thinks they should be based on current earnings because of career trajectories, career changes and my being a SAHM for many years. I think we can “afford” about 1/2-2/3 of what FAFSA says is our EFC, which makes sense considering the savings issue and our aversion to debt.</p>
<p>Regarding debt: I think it’s easier to be OK with debt when the student has a STEM major vs. humanities major. DH had a tiny loan when we were married (I think about $5000) but that $95/month payment when we were first married & making less than $30000 combined felt like a crushing weight. I don’t want my kids to have that; the economy is precarious enough without starting adult life carrying 5 figures of debt. </p>
<p>I also think eligibility for merit comes into play. If the student is able to qualify for substantial merit due to test scores & gpa, and the schools satisfy the academic need and meet other family criteria then stretching things at the high end of “afford” and beyond, at least in my house, is questionable. I’m not saying it’s a definite no, but if there’s a full ride or full tuition offer from a school that was deemed acceptable to apply to vs. a higher ranked school that’s going to hit the ceiling of what we can afford, there’s going to be serious discussion about why school x is worth $100,000 more than school y.</p>
<p>For us “afford” means no loans except for what the kid can take in Stafford loans. If we think the school is really worth it, we may consider borrowing from 401K. In terms of money, I would say we will be comfortable with COA under 25K, and extremely uncomfortable with anything over 40K, so about the same range that jnm123 mentions. Everything in between is a grey area, where we will really be considering cost vs value.</p>
<p>We have always put education above all else, and opted to pay for private education from K-12 for our kids. We were more willing to take risk with our own savings (stocks, funds), but with the girls’ college money, we have let it sit in cash for a while. When it came to choosing a college, we didn’t want to let finance to be a consideration. As our kids got older, they began to appreciate what a great gift it’s to them. There education will be their inheritance.</p>
<p>I’ll second the idea that some of the concept of “afford” relates to the specific kid and school. I’d pay a lot more for my S’s dream top 5 school (had he gotten in) that was out of our easy financial reach even if it meant going into debt or borrowing from other assets. He is very motivated and had great stats, so in my mind he had earned it. On the other hand, D1 is just as bright but a slacker, I doubt we would be as willing to pay full dollar for her at a much lower tiered LAC that is (at her current rate, she is only a HS freshman) all she is going to get into. So, to us “afford” is somewhat of a cost-benefit analysis. D2 is still in preschool, I have no idea what afford will evolve to mean when she reaches college age!</p>