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Some of the articles of interest to working mothers that we’ve seen around the web recently…
- Refinery29 tested whether or not their staff could tell the difference between $20 and $200 jeans (video).
- The New York Times looks at a plan for saving for your kid’s college tuition — it comes from a financial adviser in Wisconsin.
- Also from The New York Times: A new kind of drug prevention program is finding success where efforts like D.A.R.E. and Just Say No failed.
- Author Michael Chabon writes about his son Abe, “the prince of fashion,” in GQ.
- In the Washington Post’s On Parenting, a working mom explains how she got her daughter to tell her about her day at school.
- A recent article in The Atlantic reads, ”Whether consciously or subconsciously … educators, psychologists, and parents themselves are noticing that parents are increasingly swapping out the term [daycare] for the more in-vogue ‘school.'”
- Did anyone out there actually like middle school? NPR reports on a new study that seems to suggest we just get rid of it. The study showed that 6th graders do better in K-8 schools vs. 6-8 or 6-12 schools, where they’re the youngest kids.
- The blogger behind Laughing without Limits wrote about a decision that Target has now, thankfully, reversed — the chain started offering kid-sized shopping carts. (Nooooooooo!)
- For your Laugh of the Week, from The Ugly Volvo: realistic Meetup groups for moms.
Do be sure to check out the news update over at Corporette!
On Corporette Recently…
- We talked about boycotting companies because of your personal beliefs.
- Kat explained how to buy a blazer to keep at the office and shared a busy woman’s guide to last-minute cleaning.
- We discussed coloring books for adults.
- Tales from the Wallet tackled building wealth in your 20s and 30s.
Did we miss anything? Add ‘e m here, or send them to [email protected]. Thank you!
College Schmollege says
Is anyone else just like, not saving for college? We are saving money for my kid, but I refuse to put it in a 529 or any other vehicle geared towards college savings.
Tuition just seems to be out of control. I know we won’t qualify for financial aid, and have no idea of scholarships or other items will be feasible. And I don’t see college as being worth the $500K plus that it would cost if things keep in the current direction (possibly $1 million at current price increase trends). Even state school tuition is skyrocketing in many states. I’d rather spend that $500K moving to a country with a cheaper education system and sending her to college there, buying my child a franchise so that she can learn business on the ground, or funding any other educational endeavor she could come up with, including a community college to see if college is what she wants without spending $100k a year to test out that decision.
And just to put this in perspective, my family is HUGE on education. Practically ever relative on my side is a teacher. My husband and I have multiple college and graduate degrees between us. We love to read books, go to museums, attend lecture series, etc. But I just don’t see the point of spending half a million dollars or more on a 4-year degree. My own university, which I loved, now has a yearly cost of attendance exceeding $70K a year. My degree was worth a lot to me, but not that much.
PhilanthropyGirl says
I’ll hesitantly raise my hand and say -us too. Like you, I come from a family big on education. I believe strongly in education. We honestly cannot afford to save for our kids’ tuition. I can barely pay my own IBR payments, let alone trying to put something back for my kids. Right now, I’m looking at making a career move into higher ed, simply to provide the potential for option of free tuition for my kids, because like many lower middle class families, the chance of saving up is nil – without even questioning the sanity of saving $500,000 – per kid – for college. Even if I wanted to, it’s not possible. And quite frankly, some of the most successful people I know or have heard of didn’t finish college.
I’ll be surprised if college isn’t “free” (with the obvious caveat of TANSTAAFL) by the time my little ones head that direction. Whether so or no, for many families in American, 529s or similar options just aren’t reality.
mascot says
Yeah, we aren’t really focused on college tuition. A relative set up a 529 in our kid’s name and adds money to it. Balance is still very low. We haven’t contributed to it. Our focus instead has been on saving for retirement and home equity. I hope that the tuition prices level off at some point. This trajectory isn’t sustainable.
Meg Murry says
We’re the same. My kids have 529s because a family member set them up, but we haven’t contributed ourselves. My husband didn’t get any assistance from his family for college and feels that he was better off for it – and I have to say, he had far more of a clue about money and budgeting than I did when I graduated.
I have put some money in a Roth IRA (in my name) knowing that it could be withdrawn in the future for “qualified educational expenses” without a penalty, and I prefer that to a 529 in the kids names, tied down for only educational use. When we finish paying for daycare (1 more year, woohoo!), my plan is to more aggressively pay down our mortgage, and once the house is paid off *then* consider more college savings. I understand I’d be losing out on compound interest by not investing, but I’d rather be ahead by not paying mortgage interest than gamble that maybe I’ll earn money or maybe I’ll lose it by trying to invest.
But yes, I am also on the “there is no way I’m helping my kids pay $200k+ to go to college (let alone $500K+)- we’ll find another plan or they won’t go” bandwagon.
Anonymous says
Same here. One relative makes 529 contributions, but we don’t (yet). My family is big on education, but also has a fair amount of military service including both me and my husband. I don’t think anyone except one cousin went to an expensive school without significant scholarships (and her parents’ decision to let her turn down a full ride to an excellent state school gets a fair amount of sideye from the rest of the family). There are lots of ways to pay for college, and there are lots of good careers that don’t require it. I kind of figure that if my kids’ grades don’t qualify them for scholarships, tuition at a 4 year university will not be a good investment on my part. We’ll reroute some daycare money when these years are behind us, but securing our retirement is our first priority. And frankly that will do as much good for our kids as gifting them a college education would.
Lyssa says
How crazy is it to assume that there will be at least some scholarship assistance? I got a full ride to our state’s school quite easily, and it seems reasonably likely that my kids would be able to do something similar, I would think. Even if they can’t get something similar to what I got, there’s a lottery-based scholarship now that is supposed to cover full tuition for anyone with a C-average or better. (My assumption is that if you can’t get C-average in high school, you’re probably not cut out for college.)
We still plan to start a savings account after my loans are paid (soon! I hope!), but my thinking is that it will more go towards living expenses than tuition (or grad school, since we seem to be heading towards a place where a BS will be no better than a high school degree soon), so I’m not as worried about it.
If my kids want to go somewhere other than our perfectly serviceable state school, I figure that’s up to them, but I don’t really see a need to pay for it.
NewMomAnon says
It’s baked into my divorce documents that my ex has to put a certain amount of money each year into a 529 plan. We worked with a financial planner on the financial parts of the divorce, and he gave us three “goal” tiers; state school, private college, Ivy. We set the contribution amount at the “state school” level.
We may not be able to cover kiddo’s entire tuition, but I’d like to provide something.
Also, I think some of the Ivies have started offering full tuition waivers for incoming students who have family income of less than $125K. I suspect even with inflation, most of the commenters here wouldn’t qualify, but….change is coming.
EB0220 says
We are saving now – $400/mo per kid – but that will likely decline sometime in the next year. My husband will be going from a $150k+ corporate job to a small business making much less. My parents are also going to start contributing to a 529 for my girls, so we’ll just continue doing what we can.
Anonymous says
I am not, because DH and I are still paying off our own loans. I have to think that the higher Ed bubble will burst or at least deflate a bit by the time my kid gets to college, too. We have good in-state schools and I think we will be able to swing tuition.
Anon for this says
Not saving anything either. The only thing we’re doing at the moment, which I realize many people will think is foolish, is aggressively paying off our house. Should have it paid off by the time our kid is about 8. This will allow us to save aggressively for a couple of years and then cash flow $25k per year private middle and high school and be able to contribute that amount to college after that.
When I went to college it was this whole “it’ll open all the doors for you! go to the best school you can get into! major in whatever you want! follow your dreams! who cares about debt!”, which turned out to be complete nonsense. I think that happened to my entire generation and we’re all pretty cynical now. I followed that advice and then had to spend the better part of my 20s living in near poverty while going back to school to get training in something more useful than European history and classical languages.
I would strongly encourage my kid go to state school and major in something practical. If she wants, she can minor in basket-weaving or whatever liberal arts subject she enjoys.
Running Numbers says
We save in a 529 defined benefit plan we opened within a month of my son’s birth. We aim to save the cost of a semester each year at the state institution rate. I work in higher education and this hits close to home. So many families think that scholarships or aid will cover their students and it simply does not. Families that have 529 or similar plans fare much better. If son does not choose to go to college, that is just fine but it is important to us to be able to provide him with an option that does not saddle him with debt when he’s just starting out as an adult.