BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Saving for your own retirement NOT college tuition

And bear them! ...Of course, that'd make them a sibling instead of your kid, but hey.

Welcome Dognut,

I couldn't agree with you more! I'm glad your mom us so understanding and accepting of yor CF status. My mom is actually very supportive too.

Welcome again from another dognut (I have 2 spoiled Bulldogs, one Olde English & one French--who is begging me for jelly beans right now)

Kim

When I fill out the FAFSA they don't care about money you have in retirement, what they care about is current income for the household. So if you save for your own retirement, in qualified retirement accounts, that money is not touchable as to college money and cannot be considered.

However, the income threshold is rather low in order to get grants for school. My children do not qualify for grants, only loans, so they're going to community college if they don't get a scholarship. I will discourage them from getting loans and help where I can,but I won't be short changing my retirement fund while doing it either.

They can live at home, free room, free rent, go to local community college, which is not expensive at all and they have monthly payment plans . If they want more than that they better get great grades and a scholarship. My oldest daughter did get a few scholarships, knowing that mom and dad will help with community college. I believe we should pay 2/3 and the student should pay 1/3 of their college tuition and books. This teaches responsibility, appreciation and that money doesn't grow on trees.

My 21 year old daughter is a Nurse Technician and is putting herself through school now because she had dropped out previously after getting herself in a bit of trouble with credit cards. She went away to college due to the scholarships, but apparently they bombarded her with credit offers, and being a starving student she finally caved. Dad and I sent her exactly the amount of money we would have, had she gone to community college because that is all we should do (in our opinion). But, she has grown up a lot and is doing well.

Younger daughters learned from watching oldest daughter, they are frugal with money, and hate credit cards, and WANT to go to community college and live at home for free. haha

Community colleges are fabulous. Have your daughters look int the TAP programs (transfer programs) that help you choose the best classes/combos of classes for transferring. I knew I wouldn't make it all the way through before I had to go back to working full time, so I got my AA first. I always recommend that to young people. Also, you can usually take a few extra clases at the JC before you transfer to the uni. There were 4 upper level classes I was able to take--saving me two semesters (part time) of charges at the uni. A substancial savings.

That's great that your younger daughters were able to learn from big sis's mistakes. And I think you're doing exactly right paying her what she would have gotten if she'd went to the JC. If she has to work harder, she'll appreciate it much more.

Making use of the transfer programs is a fabulous idea. Why waste money taking the same exact gen. ed. classes at some super expensive university, when they'll accept the credits from a much less expensive (and closer to home) community college?

We don't mind for our retirement and though we have excess of money during school/college going days, we never think of start saving it. It's something you just have to do if you want to control your future. Start saving effectively.

Retirement Plans, Retirement Calculator...tirement Funds