Why does everyone say that you HAVE to save for your childs education?

Question

Everyone says on this site and alot of others that you need to save for your childrens college education. Well my parents didnt save for mine and i dont plan on saving for my daughters. I will help her out if i can but i think if a child pays for thier education it will mean more to them and they will take it more seriously. I am just wondering what your opinion on this topic is?

Answer 1

My parent's are not in a financial position to help pay for my education... this might be why I'm 31 and a year away from graduating into my career.

I have started to save for my daughter's education because I don't' want her to be 31 years old and have a $40,000 student loan.  If I had some money to get me started, I could have started when I was younger.

Answer 2

It's a rather selfish notion to not want to save for your child's education. Just because your mother was able to pay for college 25 years ago (or whatever number it is) doesn't necessarily mean that your child will be able to do the same in 18 years.

College tuition is only going up, up, up...like other people have said.  

My tuition more than doubled from the time I started to the time I graduated, (from $500/qtr to $1200/qtr)! That's every 11 weeks on the quarter system not including supplies and living expenses!

I barely was able to pay my tuition then and had to live off of credit cards.

Don't you want her to have a bright future with an education? Don't subject her to the school of "hard-knocks" when it's wholly within your control.

Answer 3

i cannot afford to save right now for my childrens college. i will help as much as possible when the time comes. it isn't realistic for my family right now to put away much needed money for college. my oldest 2 have plans to go, and they will regardless if i help or not. there are plenty of programs now to help college students. my parents didn't save fore me. they helped as much as possible, i was just grateful they could help at all. times have changed. everything from gas & heat to rent, and food is so much more expensive. child care itself kills someones paycheck. there isn't any way i could put my kids through college. i don't put down those who do, that is great they are able too. but it isn't something that my hubby or i can safely do without taking away the quality of life they have now.

Answer 4

I honestly think that if you are able to pay (at least in part) their college tuition that you should. College tuition rates are skyrocketing out of control. I am going to college mainly on scholarship, and the university that I plan to go to charges $25,000 a year for tuition alone--room and board is another $15,000 and books and other fees are estimated at about $5,000. That's about $45,000 each year! We simply can't afford this much in tuition, and that's why I'm glad I'm getting a scholarship ($20,000 a year just for my grades/standardized tests, and about $20,000 more in financial aid, so it's $5000 a year).

I firmly believe that if you can pay for all of your child's college tuition, or even just part of it, you should. If they fail a class they should pay you back for it if you paid for it.

If I had to take out student loans for the college that I am going to, I would be nearly $200,000 in debt by the time I graduated, before I even made a dime at my job. Add interest to that and I'd be out almost a quarter of a million dollars!

Answer 5

I disagree with you 100%. I think that a child has enough to worry about just dealing with school, then to have to worry about PAYING for school.

I started a college fund before my son was even born. College prices are only going up.

_edit_

I'm 19 and in college too. My son is 3 now... All the extra money I have goes to his fund.

Answer 6

Because the world has changed in the last 20-30 years.

When my parents were my age, it was possible for a man to get a job in a warehouse, work there for 25 years with full benefits, and a retirement plan, and make $20 an hour. My father did it. But after 27 years, they suddenly laid him off, and he looked and looked for jobs, couldn't find one because he had no education, and finally had to settle for $9 an hour.

Nowdays a person HAS to have an education to survive in the world. You can't get a job somewhere, work there for a few years and become a manager and make a living wage, enough to support a family and pay bills. It just is not possible.

It is irresponsible to raise a child and let them go out into the world unprepared to earn a living.

I agree that a parent should not just fork over the $50,000+ that it takes to go to college. A kid should have to work through college, and should have to work to pay loans and all that, but it's simply not possible to pay for college without working full time, and it's not possible to go to college while working full time. So it should be the parent's responsibility to help their child to be successful in life.  

Answer 7

I don't hear anyone saying that.  Actually, financial advisers say that saving for retirement is a lot more important.  When college comes around, there are student loans for that reason.    When you retire, there aren't any loans for that!  College is a privilege, not a birth right.

Answer 8

I'm sure people say u SHOULD save for their education so they don't have to struggle to get the money to pay it all themselves. There's nothing wrong with them having to work to pay for SOME things.  I didn't have an account for myself, but I will definitely have one for my child.  I will be about 30 when I finish school; better later than never.

Answer 9

I completely agree, I think that sometimes you can do too much for your kids, making them dependent on you.  Isn't the goal of raising kids to make them self sufficient?  I would maybe save for a semesters worth of tuition but then teach my kids about the importance of getting good grades and helping them apply for scholarships.  There are billions of dollars of scholarships and grants that go unused every year in the US.  I might also consider matching what my kids could put away if they got jobs and started saving for college themselves.

Answer 10

Education is so important, and as crappy as the economy is now, and how college prices are raising...it's only going to get worse.  I am definately saving for both my son's education because I want them to concentrate on their educations, not working full time at Burger King or any other place, trying to pay for an education, when they could be going to school full time, and working part time for spending money.