Not Saving for College
>> Friday, April 04, 2008
I’m gonna admit something that may get me in trouble. Doug & I are not saving for our daughters’ college education. Not a cent. We are saving for retirement, we are paying off debt. But we are not saving for college.
Both Doug & I found ways to pay for college ourselves. Doug joined the Army and used a GI bill as well as working to pay for additional expenses. My family was dirt poor so I was able to qualify for Pell grants and I worked, too.
There are just so many grants, scholarships, internships and student loans out there that saving for college is probably the last thing we will worry about. Scholarships.com has a free search engine to find the assistance your child could qualify for as well as free access to extensive –and constantly updated- lists of grants and scholarships.
So don't feel guilty if you haven't started saving for college- just learn about all the other ways to help pay for it.
2 comments:
Doug and I feel the same. We both made and paid our way through college and our kids can do the same. Makes them work harder and appreciate their education more. Especially since hubby will be 60+ when Adam starts college, we are concentrating on retirement savings.
I don't agree, but that's ok. Blog friends can disagree, right?
My parents paid for my college. They had to get loans since they made too much money to qualify for much of anything, yet didn't have money saved up to pay for it. I applied for scholarship after scholarship after scholarship, to end up with only $250. That barely paid for my gas to GET to college!
My kids are well aware that our family does not use debt. I don't want them to suddenly be thrown into a loan situation if they get ready to go to college and they can't because of one thing or another. And if they were forced to get a loan, I don't want them to delay their own financial success because they spend their first 15 years out of college just to pay off their student loans.
After the past few weeks of my life, I've realized that you absolutely never know what is going to happen so you always need to be prepared.
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