Boglehead parents have always been all over the map on paying for college.
On one end is the parent who says "The kid can pay his own way through college. I saved that new refrigerator box so there's his dorm for the next 4 years".
I was on the other end, attending college financing seminars when my oldest son was 8. I saved $1M for my 2 to go to whatever college they could qualify for. Son #1 is a structural engineer having graduated from the same excellent engineering private college I went to (at 8 times the cost I paid) and son #2 was not college material and tried a year of community and that didn't work. Went a year to welding school and then took some HVAC courses. Currently working for a contractor who maintains all equipment for Amazon making $72k a year.
The OP asks why people don't apply for "subsidized government loans". Well, those are Stafford loans and if you make or have too much, you won't get the subsidized part which can have lower interest rates and government coverage of interest while in school. But they're very limited. Where can anyone attend college for $5500 a year? Even welding school was $16,000 a year and community college was $10k a year in my state. My older son did take out Stafford loans and the rates were like loan shark rates at the time with 1.04% front end loads and between 5 and 6% interest (8 years ago) when I could get a car loan from anyone for 0.9%.
Please realize that college doesn't cost what it did when you went. When I went and paid my own way, it was $8k a year. My first year salary nearly paid off the entire 4 years cost. My son's was $65k a year on average. A graduating engineer would have to put 4 full years of salary to pay that off. So if you're saying a kid can work part time and pay for college because that's what you did, well where's someone going to work part time and get $65k a year? Actually now, the same college is $81,751. Our state college is $32k. If you think that $5500 Stafford would pay it all, you're wrong.
Having seen how my younger son has made out in blue collar, I would strongly encourage parents to frugal to pay for their kids' college to look into welding, HVAC, and other trade training options. Some unions have training programs.
On one end is the parent who says "The kid can pay his own way through college. I saved that new refrigerator box so there's his dorm for the next 4 years".
I was on the other end, attending college financing seminars when my oldest son was 8. I saved $1M for my 2 to go to whatever college they could qualify for. Son #1 is a structural engineer having graduated from the same excellent engineering private college I went to (at 8 times the cost I paid) and son #2 was not college material and tried a year of community and that didn't work. Went a year to welding school and then took some HVAC courses. Currently working for a contractor who maintains all equipment for Amazon making $72k a year.
The OP asks why people don't apply for "subsidized government loans". Well, those are Stafford loans and if you make or have too much, you won't get the subsidized part which can have lower interest rates and government coverage of interest while in school. But they're very limited. Where can anyone attend college for $5500 a year? Even welding school was $16,000 a year and community college was $10k a year in my state. My older son did take out Stafford loans and the rates were like loan shark rates at the time with 1.04% front end loads and between 5 and 6% interest (8 years ago) when I could get a car loan from anyone for 0.9%.
Please realize that college doesn't cost what it did when you went. When I went and paid my own way, it was $8k a year. My first year salary nearly paid off the entire 4 years cost. My son's was $65k a year on average. A graduating engineer would have to put 4 full years of salary to pay that off. So if you're saying a kid can work part time and pay for college because that's what you did, well where's someone going to work part time and get $65k a year? Actually now, the same college is $81,751. Our state college is $32k. If you think that $5500 Stafford would pay it all, you're wrong.
Having seen how my younger son has made out in blue collar, I would strongly encourage parents to frugal to pay for their kids' college to look into welding, HVAC, and other trade training options. Some unions have training programs.
Statistics: Posted by Jack FFR1846 — Sun Aug 04, 2024 10:59 am — Replies 12 — Views 1116
