I’m a parent and I’m a financial analyst, so naturally when my kids hit proximity to college, I made sense of all of it through a giant, morphing spreadsheet. And probably like all of you, I hit the internet.
There did not seem to be a clear roadmap to figuring out a cost/benefit scheme for and the advice seemed to be directed toward kids with such strong credentials they seemed like they would have done well in life without any college at all.
For any parent who dared to admit they had not sacrificed every vacation and last latte run to save the entire cost of college for each kid, they often got hit with the helpful advice that they should just send their hardworking kid to community college and have them live at home.
The first thing you quickly learn is that 18 year old “children” cannot borrow for college beyond a minimal amount without a cosigner. The range for most kids is about $27,000 for an education that’s likely to cost at least $100,000.
So I set off to figure it out on my own, to find the most reliable sources of data, and the best way to optimize what you’re giving over what you get. Over a number of years, I hacked the whole thing and developed the “4 Lever Process”.
If you have saved nothing, I can tell you that your hard-working kid deserves a future and you don’t deserve to feel guilty for wanting that.
Now that I have one in college and another about to start, I can tell you that the outcomes are part pragmatic and part emotional. Of course you want your kids to end up with a degree that has some sort of a chance of providing them a future, but you also want them to have fun and enjoy learning, to practice living on their own, to be safe, to endure small failures, to build the kind of self-esteem that comes from doing things worthy of esteem.
If you found your way here, congratulations. You are way ahead of other families who are not even asking the questions.
If you have saved anything for post-high school, congratulations, 53% of families have saved nothing at all.
And if you haven’t?....It’s still reasonable to want the world for your kids.
So consider it a journey and not a destination. Let’s go. Let’s hack this whole thing.