<p>Please forgive my rant - and feel free to skip over it if you are the anti-rant type.</p>
<p>Middle-class parents who have not saved a dime for their children’s education then declare that college is unaffordable are irresponsible. Parents make the decision to raise a child and have the obligation to prepare that child for functioning successfully in the world. Of course, there are exceptions such as prolonged unemployment or extreme medical expenses. However, I believe most parents in this category are generally either selfish or willfully ignorant.</p>
<p>Colleges expect parents to pay for college with past income (savings), present income and future income (loans). If parents have not established the habit of saving, they will struggle to allocate money from present income during the college years and cannot be relied on to help repay loans. It is challenging to find $500 in any family’s monthly budget and yet this will only generate $6,000 annually - not even enough to cover tuition at many commuter public colleges.</p>
<p>However, if a family simply puts aside $50 per month when a child is born, they will have in the neighborhood of $15-20k saved by the time college starts. By continuing to pay only $50/month during the four years of college, they will have accumulated an amount almost equal to the $500/month previously mentioned. Going this route however, will have established financial discipline and will allow for a manageable plan for repaying loans.</p>
<p>I have known too many parents who act like Congress and simply push the expense into the future by assuming unmanageable loans. If they were not able to find money to save in the past and they were not able to find money from current income to pay the bills, why do they believe they will have the resources to pay the loans in the future? </p>
<p>The answer should be far less about earning more money to pay the bills and far more about establishing good financial management and discipline.</p>