Monkey Soup
Angry Wanker
Full dislosure: I'm not just a bike guy, I am also a finance guy. I see way too many people paying for kids college, but not adequately funding retirement. In the grand scheme, college funding occurs only after retirement funding. The parents tell me they will fund retirement after paying for school, basically saving their entire paychecks from age 55 to 65. But somehow before age 65 they get downsized out of a job and out of a secure retirement.
65.9% of high school students go on to college. 55% of those college students (or 36.25% of high school grads) graduate from college within six years of starting. That means you should figure on average five years of tuition for four years of school. This would not be so bad if our economy valued college education, but it doesn't. A person with three years of college does not earn 75% of what a college grad earns. Our economy values the diploma, not the education. Unless the student will graduate and then use that degree in a closely related field, college may be a bad choice. Financially, it sets back the student, and also gives them a later start towards earning and saving. It can also deplete parents assets.
This is just a bad investment decision if parents have enough other funds. But if you are paying for college and starving your retirement you need to reassess. While 36.25% of high school graduates will finish a four-year degree in six years, and some of them will even get a job related to their degree, we parents have a much higher than 36.25% probability of being old and not getting a paycheck. I would rather saddle my kids with the finite cost of student loans (not co-signed) and working while at school than to saddle them with them the open-ended cost of supporting elderly parents who forgot to cover their elder years.
After being in the corporate grind for over 20yrs, including my share of working with HR in interviewing/hiring candidates, I can tell you that its totally the fact that you have a degree on your resume vs. what you learned in school. Your experience is what counts, however you need that degree to even be considered. I spent the first part of my career actually working in my field of study, and even most of what I learned there was through experience. What I do now is not something that you can learn in school (Project Management). Yea, I know that you can get a PMP (have one), but that doesn’t teach you how to do the job, just gives you some tools. The advantage that college can give, in addition to your sheep skin, is work-study. Go to a school with a strong work-study/career placement department. It’s hard to come out of school and get a job cold, having some experience through work-study, or an internship, is huge.
And most of our savings goes to retirement, some to college. I’d like to fund my kids education to give them greatest advantage possible, but the thought of not being able to retire has me paranoid, so we’ve maxed out our 401k’s and manage our IRA’s and spending carefully.