**This is a Guest Post by Genworth Financial in partnership with SheHeard. All writings and opinions are my own. Please see my Disclosure statement for more information.**
I am torn about a subject that a friend and I got into a debate about the other day. She has a point. I had a – better – point. But the conversation got me thinking. Should parents help with college?
I am a single mom to three daughter’s. They are close in age and, God Willing, they will be in college at about the same times. Child support will have long run out so this will be on my responsibility list. I had always planned to pay for college, or at least whatever is left after my geniuses get scholarships (what?), but my friend says that is just leading my kids down the path for destruction. They should pay for their own college.
In fact, I have been looking at Annuities and saving in one of those and then using them later to help too. Did you know you can take funds out of your annuity? Yea, well – be sure to click to learn more before you go this option though.
For the most part, I paid for my college by working throughout and taking out student loans. My loans may never be paid off but they are a mark that I stuck it through and got my Finance degree. My parents did pay for my last semester and they paid one of my loans off when I graduated. I never told them about the others. Shhhhhhh….
As a 40 year old mom, I now know that I should have told them everything and let them help when I could. Life without loans would have been a lot easier. So, I have decided that I will do everything I can to help my kids. They have 529 plans – though I have not contributed this year due to my divorce – and I plan on picking it up again soon.
My friend argues that the kids should do what I did. Learn the value of their education by having to work and pay for it. Instead of having it “handed to them”. I kind of agree. But not really.
However, looking at what the 529 I have says I have to put away each month to provide a college education to 3 daughters is a little – err – mindblowing. So maybe she has a point? I do have to save for retirement while running my own business. And if I pay for college, are cars and weddings mine too?
I don’t know. I see both sides. I want my kids to enter their adult lives debt free but I also want them to learn the value of a dollar.
What do you think? Are you set to pay for your child’s college? Why or why not?
We have a savings account and 529 account set up- shared between all three of our children. My parents paid for my college in full and i’m so blessed because of it! I left school with no loans and no debt! It’s a huge gift. My husband does work at a university, so our girls will have a few choices. First, will be that they will attend where he works, or they will have scholarships to attend elsewhere. We will utilize the accounts we’ve set up to pay and anything beyond that will be a loan that they will have to pay back, but that is our last resort. My husband had student loans, and we worked hard to pay them off, and within 6 years of graduating college, they are 100% paid. I really want to be able to pay for my children’s college as my parents paid for mine.