My brother-in-law is now on very thin ice financially, is 57 and is some $30,000 in debt for his son’s education with no way to compel the little $#(*#@ to pay for it. The only bright side is that since it isn’t an “educational loan,” he can get out from under it with bankruptcy if necessary.

I see other readers have pointed this out, but it was confusing and made me reread the paragraph and wonder if I misunderstood your philosophy. I think it’s worth fixing if that’s not actually what you meant.

http://truthisliberty.blogspot.com/2010/02/ticking-college-time-bomb.html

We are actively paying down our 15 year mortgage- we expect to be done with it at around mid year 8.

Money that would be going to mortage can then be put into retirement AND our kids schooling.

I am doubtful that all our 4 will be going to college. My 7 yr old is not oriented to school and seems more into the arts, shows and crafting. Obviously a lot can change in the next 10 years, but I am thinking he is more likely to be a cake chef, an acrobat in Cirque du Soliel or something arty than he is to sit thru classes at college. A 529 is not in our equation for school saving- as others have said- you can’t get at it if its not for schooling without major penalty.

The other paradigm shift that needs to happen is concerning college education. We have a belief in our society that you can not be financially successful without obtaining a college degree. Society needs to stop thinking that every person needs to go to college, or is even capable of attending college. I understand that many people think you need to attend some sort of college program, whether technical or junior college, to prepare you for the job market, but I see that more as a failure of our public school systems. We should raise the standards of public schools and help kids identify their true strengths and weaknesses, so then they can make an educated decision regarding their future. There are many careers that have decent pay and require little if any formal training; contractor, bookkeeper, receptionist, entrepreneur, a/c repair, and many more. These careers provide the opportunity for success while the training needed does not straddle the person with loads of debt.

By the time small children of today grow up, our government would have grown as much as Europe’s. College will likely be free. If not, let them find their own way – if they want college they can join the military or find their own scholarships or tuition assistance.

I have a daughter that dropped out of college and has been out of work for months. My son dropped out of high school, got his GED, and is raking in $50K in this bad economy.

All the planning in the world isn’t gonna change one thing: individuals – including your children – have free will. And they will likely use it.

Hindsight is 20/20. I love my children but if I had to do it over again, I’d get a puppy and a cat instead of children. Animals fight less.

We do not expect furlough this year (thank god) but there has not been an inflation/cost of living increase for any employee in over 3 years…and we expect tuition for Fall 2010 to go up again by about 20% – and this does not count our newly instituted “economic recovery surcharge” of $36/credit hour FOR EVERY SINGLE STUDENT. They couldn’t call it tuition because then it would be covered by financial aid, you see…

This logic makes no sense and is also untrue on average. The average appreciation is somewhere around a million dollars (that includes opportunity costs of not working f/t during school), the cost of 4 years is only 200K full tuition at the most expensive fancy private school and much less at less fancy schools. There are assumptions you can make about rate of return on investments, but assuming credit constraints (e.g. you don’t have that 200K lump sum at age 18) and subsidized loans etc. you come out ahead on average with the college degree and a pretty large amount of loans.

I also seriously doubt there’s a tuition bubble that is going to burst. Education costs are genuinely increasing and states are choosing to subsidize education less. It’s not like there’s rampant speculation going on. I’ll believe that health care costs will decrease before higher education costs (which is to say, not likely).