We’re huge Dave Ramsey fans used most of his principles to become completely debt free (including our home) a few years ago. One of his baby steps (baby step 5) is to handle college funding for children. When our first child was born, we started her college fund in a 529. With small, but consistent contributions, that fund is up to roughly $5,000 (she’s 5 now). When our next was born, we started him a college fund, too. He’s 2 now, and he has almost $2,000 in his fund. Along comes baby #3 and what do we do? Well…you’d think we’d just keep the 529 thing rolling, but we haven’t. Why did we stop funding our kids’ college savings? Read on.
Retirement is Inevitable; College is Not.
We are a single income family. While this blog does generate some income, we are not like most families where mom and dad both work, kids go to daycare and we have retirement savings from two working family members. We have a 401k through my current employer, as well as our Roth IRAs. Per Dave Ramsey’s baby steps, we’ve got the 15% of income going into retirement baby step covered. We decided committing to consistently and intensely saving for retirement now was more important than saving for college (at least for now).
Our Kids May Not Choose College.
I used to think college was a requirement to get on in this world. After reading Cy Vanover’s book, Earn a Debt-Free College Degree, and then Steve and Teri Maxwell’s book, Buying a House Debt Free: Equipping Your Son, we started doing a lot of thinking, discussing and soul searching. Where did we land? College isn’t for everyone and for those who decide on college, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. While we want our kids to be well educated, intelligent and productive members of society, why does college have to be the answer to get them there? If they decide on college, there are plenty of options as far as student loans go. In fact, many institutions are quick to offer student loan refinancing. On the other hand, Stacy and I are both living examples it is possible without debt or huge infusions of cash from Mom and Dad. Plus, spending 529 savings is pretty restrictive, and so what happens if one of the kids wants to pursue something that a 529 doesn’t cover? (Yes, we know you can transfer the monies to other kids; withdraw with penalty, etc., etc.)
“Retirement” May Come Before Age 65
Stacy and I have talked for a few years now about the idea of me coming home. Monday-Friday, I’m up at 6:00 am and leave the house at 7:00. I get off at 5:00, get home about 6:00 and the kids are in bed around 8:00. Then we’re in bed around 10:00. Do that math: assuming I have no errands to run or other things that would keep me away, my kids see me for roughly 2 hours each weekday; Stacy and I have about 4 hours total. As the leader of our home, I want more time to be there. I’m not one of these dads/husbands who goes to work to escape. I go to work to provide for my family and I don’t want to be gone any longer than necessary to do an excellent job for my employer in return for my pay.
In mid-2014, Stacy and I committed to start a “pre-retirement” account to start saving in the hopes that I may be able to “retire” earlier than age 65. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to work when I “retire” – quite the opposite. We are just praying that one day I may be able to come home to work. That probably means doing our small business hustles full time instead of on the side. It probably means (at least at first) a pretty big cut in pay. It probably means we’ll be paying our own health insurance. It is a RISK. But even if I “retire” at 45, that will mean Annie (our oldest) will be 16. I will have SERIOUSLY missed out on a lot of things with her by that age, but I don’t want to do something rash that would jeopardize providing for my family in the name of being home. Anyway, I still bet she’d be tickled to have her Daddy home at 16 (or even later, although at that age she probably wouldn’t admit it).
I Didn’t Say We Weren’t Saving.
We are setting aside money for our family’s future – our entire family’s future. If you don’t know us, we’re natural savers. We currently have my 401k, our Roth IRAs, an emergency fund, a car savings fund, a pre-retirement fund and a general savings fund. Why? We aren’t big spenders and we want to save for tomorrow. We don’t do debt.
How SPECIFICALLY are we saving for our kids’ future? I don’t know. Right now, we have their Christmas money in cash envelopes with their names on them while we pray through and ponder the best course of action. We will possibly (probably) put that money in their 529s, along with at least some of all future gift money. We may put it in something else designated for them that isn’t education-bound. We’re still figuring that out (and we’re open to ideas, if you have any). But we have stopped putting money in their 529s from our income – all that extra is going toward retirement and “pre-retirement” savings. We have consciously stopped funding our kids’ college savings. I think it is the right decision for our family. What do you think?
We aren’t saving for our kids’ college, either. Each of our kids has a 529 my grandpa set up for them the week they got their Social Security #’s. My grandpa doesn’t buy our kids birthday or Christmas presents—he contributes to their 529. Whatever my grandpa has set aside (I don’t have any clue—my husband does our taxes so he might now) is all the kids have.
Unlike you we’re not debt free (YET!) We’re debt free, except for our house. On 2/27/15 we will close on a 15yr re-finance of our current 30 year mortgage (We’ve been wanting to do it for awhile, but due to the market bouncing back we FINALLY have 20% equity and CAN do it for the first time in YEARS!) Our oldest is 8 and in 2nd grade. We also have a 6 year old Kindergartener. High school graduations will happen in 2025 & 2027. Instead of contributing to their college savings we’re going to working aggressively to turn our new 15 year mortgage into a 10 year so we’ll be debt free by the time high school graduation rolls around, freeing up our mortgage money to pay tuition.
My husband is 10 years older than I am and we got married at 27 & 37. Our son was born 5 weeks before my husband turned 40 and our daughter was born 3 days before he turned 42. IF our daughter graduates college in 4 years she will graduate about 4 months before my husband turns 65. It’s not an exaggeration to say college & retirement are hitting simultaneously for us.
We’re saving aggressively in my husband’s 401(k) at work (already have nearly 5x his salary in there) and each have IRA accounts (mine includes my 401(k) from the 5 years I worked). Our house WILL be paid off by April 2030 at the latest (praying for some miracles that allow it to happen sooner).
Like you . . . we feel saving for our retirement takes precedence over saving for our kids’ education. We’d LIKE to help (or fully pay) their tuition, but if we can’t then we’re not going to kick ourselves knowing the long term goal of paying our house off has been accomplished. If we never contribute another penny towards retirement (which won’t be happening) we could live comfortably just on what we already have, once our mortgage is paid off.
Now that all that is in place we want to learn how to REALLY invest 🙂 Maybe one day 🙂
Thanks for sharing this story. It sounds like you’ve made good choices and CONGRATS on cutting your mortgage in half! 🙂
We currently have 529 plans for our 3 children ages 16, 13, and 10. I honestly love your perspective, though had not thought about things in this way. We also are a mostly one income family. I teach piano lessons for some additional income. I also have a husband who has been dealt a lot of income blows, including downsizing, and being a full time realator in the housing downturn. He currently is contractor , so no full time benefits. We keep looking. In the meantime do you recommend keeping the 529 accounts and just funding them with extra gift money that may come in, or what is your recommendation there?
I would definitely keep the 529s and we will continue to fund our kids’ 529s with gift monies and similar. When Eli has enough money to start a 529 we MIGHT do one for him or we might do something else. That’s the one I’m not sure on.
Love this perspective! The only think we’ve been putting in our 529 is bday & Christmas money from the grandparents. We are meeting with our advisor on Monday to discuss retirement a little more. And Erin and I have been talking about me coming home as well. Great article.
Will – it would be awesome if you could come home. The only caution I have is not to do it too quickly. I’ve been talking with lots of families lately who are so excited to have daddy come home and be with the families only to learn they can only just get by. No retirement savings, no cushion for the bad months, etc. They tell me my faith in God’s provision is weak. I tell them I’m a realist. I’m sure you land somewhere in the middle. I’ll pray for God’s direction and I’ll ask you do the same for me/us. 🙂
I received a lot of scholarships for my college education, but my parents paid the rest. It was the best gift graduating from college without a bunch of debt to be paid off. I started my adult life well educated and debt free. I hope to do the same for my children.
Excellent thought process and I love y’all’s teamwork! My husband and I have chosen to buy rental properties as our “retirement” as his parents have/still do. We also have retirement benefits from his previous/present careers (God-led change at 40 ??). I dream of the day we can work together again with the kids right beside us, we were married with two home businesses for about 5 years before God blessed us with children (going on #4). It’s a tough season of life with soon to be 4 under 5yo and long work days for him, we are really praying for there to be a way for more family time some how. We also do not fund our children’s future education, for essentially the same reasons. The money they receive for presents etc, is divided up into tithe, savings, spending, I think 10%, 80%, 10%. We definitely focus on training up our kids to be extremely hard workers with servants hearts, and entrepreneurial minds. Maybe the idea to bring my husband home will come from their brains. ? Take care, I really enjoy your blog!
I’ve never been comfortable with a 529. Each kid has a savings account (ages 5, 8, 9), and we are telling them to save for big things like a car, college, house. We encourage them to think long haul. I think it’s good for a kid to work for their schooling (at least partially). No one paid for any of my college. I worked hard to get scholarships, worked a little minimum wage part-time job, and never owed anything for college. In fact when I graduated that summer, I was able to help pay for our wedding ($2000 back in 1999~we had a nice wedding for that) and I had enough money that we were able to buy our 1994 Tercel outright ($5000) and we still have it today. I want my 9 year old to drive it!
🙂
Barry, you may want to look into https://medi-share.org for medical insurance. Its geared towards christians and looks like it may be beneficial for you and give you the leap you need to jump into your own business full time!
We’ve looked into it – and also into Samaritan Ministries. 🙂 Thanks!!
We have medishare too. There are pros and cons but mostly pros. We’ve been able to save more money in the last years. We started it 2/1/14, so we’ve had it for 1 year. Pro: more money in your pocket. Con: they don’t cover naturopathic care. Pro: they don’t cover medical issues due to sin like if you get drunk or have an abortion. Con: it’s hard to find those who will accept it. Overall glad to have it to get Obamacare off our backs. We used to pay $750/month for insurance (or nothing I should say). Now we pay $150/month (healthy incentive) for medishare, and we put $500 away a month for medical issues, since basically we are paying out of pocket with our “deductible” being $10,000. We use that $500/month for dental and eye exams (we go once a year) and to buy supplements, etc…
Thanks for this personal info, Sonja. The more I talk to people with medi-share or Samaritan’s, the more I like it, and the more I think it would be a good option. Right now through my employer, I pay a bit over $200 for our family’s coverage. It isn’t fantastic insurance, but it is good coverage. We would pay more through Samaritan’s (didn’t get a quote from medishare), so I’ve always kept those options as backups in case our insurance price goes up.
We have not had any problems getting doctors to take Samaritans. You tell them you are self pay…..usually there is a large discount for self pay. Then you pay what you can or have them bill you. After that you submit the need to Samaritans and the members send checks to cover your amount. Then you pay your bills. Works really well. I have friends who are on medi share and said they wished they had gone with samaritans. I also love being off the grind with Obamacare!
My parents did not pay for my college but they did offer me support in other ways like a car to drive and to be able to live at home. I found it interesting in college that a lot of the students whose parents were paying the way would find it no big deal to fail a class where as I found it a huge deal because I knew that money was coming from my pocket to retake the class.
AMEN! I had an Aunt who held up some $20 bills and some matches. She said that I could either take my money and treat it as an investment by studying, attending class, etc. or I might as well just light it up. VERY good visual I remember even now – well over a decade later.
I finished undergrad without much debt, and college costs are so unpredictable that retirement savings seem to make more sense. On the other hand, helping a child establish a sound career is more valuable than any inheritance most people are likely to leave and successful children can be a retirement investment . . .
Also, Samaritan Ministries has worked well for us. It is nice not to be dependant on an employer for insurance. My husband’s employer puts the money that would pay for insurance into his retirement account so it’s a great arrangement all the way around.
I would jump to Samaritan’s in a heartbeat with that arrangement! That’s awesome!!!
I don’t have a problem with kids trying to figure out how they want to go to college and pay for it themselves without going into much debt. We told our sons we wouldn’t pay for college but they could live at home for free and commute provided they were in a forward motion in their education. They would be required to pay their portion of the car insurance and cell phone bills. Both sons are now married and are quite frugal in how they live. My oldest is 28, a nurse, and has about 15 years left on a mortgage plus a very sizable amount in a retirement account the hospital matches. My youngest is 26, a PhD student, and setting aside money from his wife’s income for savings when his working wife is no longer able to work due to babies coming. Both sons are debt free except for mortgage and rent; school bills are all paid off. I went car shopping last month with my youngest son and wife. They had a $10K out-the-door budget which they prayed about and stuck to. God honored their desire and blessed them with a very nice used car for $1500 under budget. We were all praising God for His provision.
I think too many parents are willing to give their children money for things (college included) without letting their kids try to figure out how they should pay for it. We homeschooled and chose the route of community college. My oldest first graduated with a music degree but we said he needed to pursue a real career to support a family. Nursing was a good choice because he could provide for a family and pursue music as a ministry. Now he sings to his patients and has been recognized all over for this. My youngest graduated from UCLA two weeks after his 20th birthday with a degree in biochemistry. He worked five years in the field of bioinformatics and genomics writing curriculum and standards to train university professors how to teach DNA sequencing. He was accepted into four universities and wait listed at Yale. (We’re glad he chose UCSF over Yale because we live in So Cal and can still visit. A 5 1/2 hour drive beats a 5 1/2 hour flight to the other coast any day!)
All to say, I am glad we chose to make our sons work out how they were to pay for everything. It made them choose wisely and it made them be realistic about growing up and learning how to manage time and money. I couldn’t be more pleased! (And who says homeschooling doesn’t work!)
FANTASTIC STORY! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Barry,
Great to see you writing again. I always come away with something to consider after reading your articles. Barry, maybe I can speak out of the other side of this to you and Stacy. My husband reduced his working days to 2 days per week when we had our first child.
He loved his job and he still has it today but like you, he was more concerned about being present for his children. We lived happily on one income that fluctuated around $25 000 for about twenty years. Homes here in Australia generally are much more expensive then in the U.S. We were content to live in small homes, and bought and sold three times over that period. Each time we had a mortgage for 2 and 1/2 years.
My husband supplemented our income by fixing our cars and keeping them running. On average we have a car for 10 years and usually pay around $2000 for a tidy car in very good condition.
He also was able to earn some side income from photography and fixing other people’s cars.
I stayed home and educated our sons.
Our income is now $69 000 per year due to me being called into ministry for women 5 years ago. Both our sons are grown and are emotionally very connected to us. During the earlier period of our life we weren’t able to put aside money towards retirement, so that has been our goal now with extra income.
Our living standard is still simple, but our gratitude and contentment are high. We now own a home valued at $400 000, it’s still a small 2 bedroom home in a country village, and we have just on $300 000 in our retirement savings. My husband is now 68, I’m 49 and he is still working 2 days a week at the same job. He enjoys it and is valued in his position.
What I can say to you is that the decision you’re planning for is 11 years away. Keep working towards it with the understanding that when you arrive there you might have more choices. You may be working in an environment where you can work reduced days, perhaps 2 or 3 that will allow you to have the reverse week to what you have now. You may have accumulated so much in savings that you can go ahead and do what you plan to.
You may be able to start your own financial planning service or write books .
I know that you both will be laying your plans at the Lord’s feet and asking for his direction. All the best with it, Helen
Thanks for this encouragement. I hope to make the leap sooner, and I hope it is through options like you’ve mentioned where I could simply reduce my work schedule or do something a bit less traditional than my current schedule.
What about a job share position? Surely they have job share positions for men just like they do for the women. Or maybe you can tele-commute your job a couple days a weel?
When I worked for Citigroup, I was able to work from home 2-3 days per week and it was AWESOME. However, I was working for a credit card company – something that doesn’t line up at all with our values. When I left there I went to work for another employer and was able to periodically work from home. However, to that employer, it meant one was ALWAYS on call and there was no escape. So…this time around my current employer respects home/work balance and rarely requires me to work outside of normal working hours. BUT (and it is a big one), they are EXTREMELY traditional and I was laughed at when I mentioned a remote work possibility; job sharing isn’t an option either. I’ll keep plugging away at it, though…
Helen you’re singing my song gal! Things to pray about?
I do not believe in paying anything towards your children’s college! When I was in college, there were too many students (some of which were my roommates) who did not appreciate their education, skipped classes, stole my food, trashed the apartment, and were generally very spoiled because their parents were funding everything for them. I also have a friend who paid for her kids’ college education and then felt she had a right to dictate what classes they took and monitor their grades. These are adults, for Heaven’s sake! From the day our kids started high school, I told them to be sure to get good grades so they could qualify for academic scholarships for college. I also encouraged them to work summer jobs, especially the summer after they graduated, to save the money they would need for college. I have four children. Three have graduated from college without any help from me and without any college debt, even the one who got a Master’s Degree. My fourth is a sophomore in college now, and still hasn’t needed any help yet.
Bravo! My very first college roommate was there on a baseball scholarship and felt he was thus entitled to do nothing else. He skipped class, chapel (mandatory), and just about anything he didn’t feel was good enough for him. He would play video games and goof around at all hours of the night and it was HORRIBLE to watch, knowing he was making such a terrible choice. I’m not sure whatever happened to him, but I surely know he wasn’t on the right path to taking advantage of a paid-for college experience.
If you can you should, if you can’t you can’t and things will work out! I agree that college saving is not to be put ahead of wise financial stewardship (ie saving for the next car)
Re the early retirement, you would likely enjoy reading through http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/blog. The man retired at 30. There is a link to the right that will take you to the first post and you can read chronologically from that. Fascinating and very useful as far as how much do you really need to retire, how to find affordable health insurance and that sort of thing. Note: the ideologies and language contained within may be a bit of a challenge but the information is very enlightening.
Never heard of him. Thanks for referring me to a resource. Will read!
You’re welcome! Lots of reading but I’m sure you’ll learn something! I found it fascinating (and somewhat challenging to translate the terms and information into Canadian LOL)
Two of our sons put themselves through college with student loans and jobs. We helped them a lot also. They are now paying their loans off and doing very well. I think your plans are excellent. Retirement planning is so important. We have another son who was able to get an associate degree without a loan and he is also doing very well. I like Dave Ramsey but I don’t necessarily agree with him about student loans.
We will probably be able to pay our youngest child’s college education, but our older 3 have figured it out for themselves. The oldest is going to college on the GI Bill, pursuing a psych degree to work with Wounded Warriors. Middle son ended up with only 12K debt for his degree (which isn’t used, but at least he has that piece of paper that employers seem to think is necessary–his dad and I don’t use ours either). Daughter graduates from Berea College, a tuition-free college in KY. She has worked the entire time and gotten a great education. Berea is traditionally for lower-income families from the Appalachians, but now accepts students from all states, but only lower income. Youngest is only 15, but no college fun for her either, but circumstances change.
I worked as a school teacher for 31 years.I funded all my university expenses myself.My family was a one income family with my mom staying at home to take care of us.However when I had kids of my own(I have 2 girls) we decided we would start saving for their college education from the time they were born.My 2 girls have university degrees and graduated with no debt .They are happy to start after college life with no student debt.Also we have never had a mortgage on our house.We own it outright.We are debt-free and loving it..So tho I may not totally agree with your idea of not saving because they may not go to college I do understand you wanting to retire early.But the flip side of the coin is you can use that money for something else if they decide not to go!!
I fully expect we will help them with college, but we’ve decided doing so via a 529 just wasn’t a good choice for us. Plus, if our kids get to the point of deciding on schools and opt for something non-traditional, we won’t have to be concerned that it isn’t 529-qualified.
I heard that the govt is trying to pass a law to tax those type of accounts. I don’t know if its true, but if so,I don’t think it would be wise to put money into it anyway. The govt gets enough money from current taxes. And I say, if it works for your family then that’s great!! Anyone who still has debt and has to work to pay that debt probably shouldn’t be saying anything to someone who has figured out the debt free way anyhow. I’m trying to learn all I can!! Love reading the blog!!!
I think your plan makes the most sense. We have six children. Our oldest daughter is 20 and working a full time job and taking two classes each semester. We pay for her tuition and books and are keeping us all out of debt. We offered our daughter to go full time and work part time but she is working a good job with full benefits and earns a bonus each month. Our other five children have their education paid for by the State of Texas because they were adopted through CPS. Unfortunately, two of them won’t be going to college and be able to take advantage of the free education. Our son just turned 18 but with his learning disabilities and autism, it is just too overwhelming for him to continue his education. He is happy right now working his first job at Chick Fil-A and wants to work up the ranks. He takes longer to learn skills so we are fortunate that he is working for such a great company. My husband and I did not get degrees from college and it has hindered us in some parts of our life but for ten years. We have been running our own real estate company from our home and where we could fit work around our kids’ schedules. We homeschool our kids so we take every Monday off for family day. This has worked great for us.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m beginning to think less and less that college is the answer and instead realistic, real-world training makes more sense – especially if there is an entrepreneurial spirit in the child’s heart.
My youngest son was just telling me that Google has changed their hiring criteria to not requiring college credits or degrees. Instead they give all their potential employees a comprehensive test to determine how creative their thinking is. There are no right or wrong answers. They have found that they have far more productive employees than when they were requiring college degrees.
Very interesting. College has become such a watered down affair in many cases trying to make it accessible to all that employers may just be on to something by giving little credit to a degree (depending on the job function).
I think this is great insight! And I’d be really interested to hear your ideas about savings for our kids that aren’t locked into college.
Hey Rachel, I’ve talked with some trusted advisors on this and there are a few opinions. One option is to set up a trust, which basically allows you to funnel money to them and at age 21 it is all theirs. Another is to simply save (invest) as with any other account, but earmark it for their college. This is, of course, not going to have the tax benefits. Ultimately, I think it really is going to boil down to how much tax avoidance I’m seeking vs. how much realistic planning I’ll be doing.
I totally agree with you. We don’t have a college savings fund for our son either. My husband went to a junior college for about 1 year and didn’t finish. He has a good paying job and we are able to live off of that. I have a bachelor’s degree and I’m only working part-time while our son is in school.
I don’t know what our son will decide for his future, but I don’t want him to be restricted to college. He might want to go to a technical school, start his own business or do something that doesn’t require a lot of schooling.
EXACTLY!
I love the term “restricted to college” it really is a restriction. And with the president pushing for free junior college…it’s already inexpensive…the only thing ‘free’ will do it make it MORE expensive.
Barry, I’ve been a Ramsey fan for YEARS, but found that his steps were difficult to follow sometimes. I have recently been introduced to Dani Johnson (www.danijohnson.com) and we have paid off over $40,000 in debt in 2 months! She has a great ministry and what she teaches goes beyond just finances, but really incorporates business, relationships and so much more. Sometimes you just need a fresh voice and perspective to shed light on areas that you’re still questioning. I highly recommend looking her up and listening to some of her podcasts to get inspired with a new plan.
Hi Debbie!
Thank you for the reminder of Dani Johnson. I am also a Ramsey fan but due to recent changes I’m looking for a new prospective. What resources would you recommend as a starting point? $40,000 in two months is incredible, congratulations!
Tammy ♥
Hey Tammy,
I don’t necessarily want to toot my own horn, my book may be of some help. While I’m in lockstep with Dave on several things, I also disagree with him on certain points. So…if you’re interested, you can check out my book at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484050614/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1484050614&linkCode=as2&tag=stamakcen-20&linkId=HV4UOBN6SKCUWOTD
Tammy, go to http://www.danijohnson.com and get her book First Steps to Wealth or her War on Debt course. We paid off debt with a small retirement account, because we were paying much more interest than we were earning.
I love this. Thank you! We have been pondering this as well. We aren’t as far along on the baby steps, but for 2015 we are thinking paying off our home is more important than saving for college. We feel like we are investing in “college” by home schooling and one-on-one educating our kids. If we get the house paid for, we think we could cash flow college for the first years at community college. We planned to talk to our ELP financial adviser this quarter to see if we are on track in these regards. I DO love your idea of retiring early. The health insurance is what I would be wondering about, too. Great food for thought. Thanks!
If you come up with any genius insights on making the health insurance easier, let me know! Right now, if I had health insurance 100% covered I’d be much more likely to leap into our small business stuff sooner. With all the uncertainty in insurance costs and coverages, I’m just too chicken to do it yet.
Why not consider Samaritan’s Ministries? We took the leap last year and are so glad we did. We just had a baby and everything was 100% covered. It’s been wonderful for our family.
I studied Samaritan’s (and Medishare) and wrote about it. After reading, do you have anything helpful to add? It sounds like a great program that we will definitely pursue if traditional health insurance isn’t a good and affordable option for us. http://www.stacymakescents.com/faith-based-health-sharing-plans-a-viable-alternative-for-traditional-medical-insurance
We are self employed and have been for 20 years. We are members of Samaritans Ministries. What an amazing blessing it is to our family!
I am sure you have thought to try it! Self employment does require a huge leap of faith.
Yes, Jennifer – it is a big leap of faith to walk away from a steady paycheck (and yes, I’ve looked at Medishare and Samaritan’s in the event I jump). However, it is also a leap I’m excited to take…eventually. How’s that for a procrastinator’s answer? 😉
Hi there! What about Medishare? It’s a Christian based medical sharing plan. That might be an option for benefits.
Blessings to you and your family!
I did some research on Samaritan and MediShare a while back. They seem like decent options for us for when I do come home. If you have anything else to add on top of what I discovered, I’m sure others would like to see it (and I would too!): http://www.stacymakescents.com/faith-based-health-sharing-plans-a-viable-alternative-for-traditional-medical-insurance
Well we made the same choice, and our retirement fund has grown while our college funds have not – my eldest is literally taking her first SAT as we speak 🙂 I have always explained to the children that while we are paying for their excellent private school now [middle school and high school only] we will not be funding college and that they need to make reasonable choices – as well as teaching them how to do so. My husband seems to feel that we should pay – I keep asking him, ‘with what?’ If we had a quarter million apiece for fully fund the best private college they could get into I’d gladly do it – but we don’t.
Extra money, as it comes in, gets funneled to various wishes and paying off their college loans will be part of those wishes going forward, right now it’s going towards private SAT tutors and and guidance counselor fees, plus ap, sat, college app fees – but I don’t want them counting on any number since we’re never certain what there will be.
Further, I know that any money ‘promised’ becomes invisible and teens won’t try to make the best financial choice about their education if they don’t truly feel the weight of the eventual burden – we discuss probable salaries and loan repayment amounts to help make it more realistic.
My eldest is looking both at city [state supported] and state schools [excellent and reasonable] – as well as looking into private colleges that are likely to give her enough money to bring it down to that same level, and co op institutions that will do the same in different ways.
Sounds like you’ve made pretty wise choices. Stacy’s parents saved for her college raising cattle and always setting aside some money from each sale. My parents weren’t able to help me with college at all except for a a small life insurance payment from my mother’s death so I had to pay out of pocket by working (at one point I had 3 jobs during school). We both turned out okay. 😉
Take care of yourself first, and then the kids can figure it out for themselves. They have options to pay for their own college. They can pay their own way through community college, get academic scholarships or sports scholarships. Join the military. Last I checked, no one was going to help me fund my retirement.