Do you calculate how many kids you can afford by....?

Question

Do you calculate how many kids you can afford by how many kids you can send to college? Do you save for your children's college education?

My parents saved for both my sister and I to go to college (we are only a year apart) at the same time. I have never spent a dime on it. That's a gift I want to give my children. I don't want them to start their adult lives off in debt.

If one of my kids doesn't go to college I'll enjoy a brand new car!

Answer 1

All of my kids have savings accounts. We contribute about 20% of our monthly income to their college funds and we also ask family and friends to either deposit into the savings accounts or buy them bonds for holidays and birthdays.
The grandparents always buy bonds for good report cards, which don't yield a lot but they could help with books or something.
I also have a Upromise account for each one of my kids. I designate so much from what I spend to each account. Again, its not a lot but every bit helps.

Answer 2

To be honest if all parents sat down and really figured the cost of raising a child to 18 and then sending them to college chances are it would scare the daylights out of them and they would never have kids. I decided I wanted 4 kids, not because that was what could afford but that is what I felt comfortable with. The house was big enough and we made a decent income they had what they needed and a lot of what wanted and we started a savings account for each child when they were born although no set amount was put in it at anytime just what we could afford as we went along. When my son got killed then his was divided among his brother and sisters. I put a little in the account each month after bills and half of our income tax return is divided and placed in the account. Now that I am divorced from their father I place some of the child support in it each month as well. My oldest is 14 and has almost $30k saved for college. The key is once you get $5k put it in an interest bearing cd for a set number of years and it earns money faster. In short though I calculated the number of kids by what my nerves could handle and that I could be involved in their lives not finances.

Answer 3

no we are trying to calculate how many kids we can have by the lifestyle we want to live. My parents and family are 2,000 miles away and i don't want to be like some other family members who either go home with out their family because they can't afford all the plane tickets or they don't go home that often. Also i want to take family vacations every year or every other year as well as expose my children to museums and fine restaurants. In college i hated when something formal came up, organizations i was in, and people would lean in and be so serious and ask me which fork do they use. In my family we went to dinner every Friday, and a different family member would pick the location. So we got to see a lot of the finer things even though we were only middle class.
So that is how we are trying to decided how many kids we can afford. We will help with college but i don't plan on paying for it

Answer 4

I think that's a very smart move.
On the other hand, the cost of college nowadays is ridiculous! I don't think parents should not have kids because they might not be able to afford Harvard 20 years from now. I think of my grandparents who had five kids. They didn't have much money, but 3 out of their 5 kids studied really hard, got excellent grades, and went to school on full scholarships.
Also, thre are so many school loan programs out there - kids can pay for their own college education if need be. That's what I'm doing.

Answer 5

Summer: it depends how many children that yourself can have
because some parents usally raises 3 kids only which is plenty
enought! We reccomend check with income first then go to a
private bank open an trust fund account very important regaurding specail interests saved during college funds or loans

Answer 6

I'm not going to try to do some serious math like that and I'm an accountant LOL... but of course we thought about how much our baby would cost us in additional housing since we'd have to get a bigger appartment, food, clothing, health care, daycare, etc...
We've already started a savings account in our daughter's name and she's not even a yr yet, and instead of presents we say to our relatives they could donate a monetary gift to her account. We already have everything this girl could possibly need in the way of toys and clothes, the typical gifts. When she is 18 we'd like her to use that money for further education, but that is as far as we've gone.
My parents werent able to give me any money for my college education, as they had 3 children entering college within 2 yrs. I took out student loans for anything my scholarships and part-time job didnt cover, worked full-time every summer - and was able to pay off my student loan in just over 2 yrs after graduation (although I didnt have to ask for too much due to working and scholarships). I didnt fault my parents for being unable to pay for college, although I was jealous of my friends who didnt have to work or take out loans because mom and dad were footing the bill. Those friends were also very likely to party, to fail classes, etc because they didnt have as much invested into it. If they failed a class, they'd just take it over, no big deal. For me I realised that I'd have to pay for it twice, and that was a big deal! Of course I have one of those 'perfectionist' personalities so it probably wouldnt have mattered anyways. I just dont think you should have less children than you really want because you realise you cant afford to pay for their college education. Not being able to pay for diapers, food, clothing, health care, that is all completely different of course! Every day costs have to be considered.

Answer 7

you should start before they are born, and yes I have a savings account at my credit union for my son and daughter, He puts the money in his piggy bank and when it's full we go to the bank, plus instead of presents for birthdays why don't you ask your family and friends to put money in their accounts for their college fund. It's not rude to ask, and if they just want to buy a gift as for the receipt so you can return it and get the money back for the kids

Answer 8

No. We calculate how many kids we can afford based on how many we can send to private school and still pay for food and eventually buy a house.

Answer 9

It is a good idea but my parents never saved for us although they did help us pay, but we still went and sometimes parents save and the kids decide to not go.

Answer 10

well yes see i dont wanna have more then i can afford- i dont want to have 3 kids and only be able to afford for 2- so as far as me i will give all my kids the same chances so they dont feel like i did more for one then the other-i think that is smart parenting