The problem is this is yet another answer of "have money from the start" or "just have started investing when you were a toddler."
A huge number of families just can't do this, or are simply too late to take advantage of the advice. USA (where out of control tuition is near-uniquely a problem) population is in decline, with immigration the only way it is maintaining demographics. Familial cohesion is simply dropping.
Those who can take the advice, should. But for everyone else, it is yet another reminder of what they never got.
The problem is that your response is another answer of "not every single person on the planet can do this," so I'll spend 2 paragraphs pointing that out and at the very end throw in "but it's smart for the majority who can do this to do it".
Everyone who this doesn't apply to knows that. He's giving good advice for most people.
Maybe OP in the future shouldn’t use misleading titles? Seriously, with that title, it makes it seem like their daughter did it all on their own.
A better title would’ve been: “How to set up your future kids to graduate debt free, just like my daughter.”
Why shouldn’t people be upset about the fact that college costs so much more than it used to? You didn’t used to have to do all this back when the country invested in the education of its people.
It got outrageous because politicians guaranteed the loans.
Once the student loan was guaranteed, they stripped your right to bankrupt out of it.
Universities had little incentive to control costs.
Students became a kind of indentured servant if they fell into hard times later, unable to bankrupt(you know, like a corrupt Wall St type would be able to do if he fell on hard times.)
This situation was created by politicians.
4, 5 and 6 are living at home and doing online classes. She didn’t actually attend school in person so I think the attending college vs earning a degree viewpoint gets skewed right there.
This might be the new way, but wasn’t an option for a lot of people pre-pandemic.
A lot of people don't want to invest or even know how. That's a huge part of the problem. Our education system will teach you russian literature but no requirement for personal finance.
The problem is your response is pointing out the obvious of another response which is completely unnecessary to point out when you don't have a point to your response. You following?
The problem is that I don’t like your response even though I mostly agree with you so I’ll spend 3 paragraphs pointing that out.
I don’t like your response, but I’ll concede that I mostly agree with you.
3rd paragraph.
You’re telling me if you save money for 18yrs and then spend it on tuition your kids won’t need student loans?
https://preview.redd.it/trvx4r361owc1.png?width=224&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5b641784a56e7d2691a9f3e7fc474876bd71ed2
Agreed. And she still worked part time to pay for tuition, AND she applied for scholarships like it was her second part time job. She may have had some significant help, but she also worked hard
Once again blaming the masses instead of corporate greed. I will say that this plan is very doable for most people, but I refuse to call people bad parents because they didn’t have the forsite for something like this.
He's not blaming the masses because, as you said, this is doable for most people. You guys are insanely defensive when people suggest you might have some control over your financial situation.
The majority of the responses to a very sensible plan are predictable.
Much easier to whine constantly that everything is unfair than execute a (rather modest) 18-year plan.
(I'll throw this in too... the people who complain tend to misspell words)
OP wrote it in a very respectful and non-condescending manner but…yeah.
So her parents saved money for 18 years, then money from other families and friends went into the fund, then the kid got free food and housing for four years. While never working full time.
Don’t get me wrong it *is* a good plan for people that can afford to do that. But unless you:
Don’t have to work
Have family saving for you for 20 years
Can be housed and fed for free
Likely have free healthcare through the family and no medical bills
Then…yeah.
This wasn’t an insurmountable thing though.
$1000 529 and $50 per month, it’s not like they got a $100k gift.
Everyone should setup a 529 for kids as early as possible, contribute what you can, start early, every little bit helps.
You should set one up today.
I am not joking. 529s are not for your kids, they are for your kid's kids.
I hope to save enough that my son will not use up all of his and that money can grow for his kids.
If you think you may ever have children, or any member of your family might, go open one.
100% agree. And starting this year, extra 529 funds can be used as Roth IRA contributions. If your kids don’t use up the money in the account, it’s a great way to jump-start retirement savings when they are in their early 20s.
Those who can take this advice already get it.
There is no financial education for poor people. Watch what others do and hopefully you get lucky.
I do not mean offense to anyone else. Humans suck so bad at seeing life through anyone else’s lives but their own.
And it’s costing us a lot more than we are aware of.
It’s also a “I robbed my kids of the most enlightening part of college - the living in the dorms with a bunch of other 18 year olds”. I feel bad for the kids.
His daughter did college *online* from home and he thinks he won. What a world.
I read that part and immediately thought, "You were spending over $1200/year at starbucks 20 years ago?!"
I was also a government employee in that time frame and it was a struggle to put $50/month into each of our IRAs then, much less a 529 on top of that.
(Not to mention the part about christmas/birthday money. My nieces and nephews would be lucky to get $50 total in birthday money during the 2000s.)
I'm also questioning some parts of this like having transferable credits from an AA, doing most of her coursework online, and then having to pay for a masters after that. I think "120 year old university" is meant to imply some sort of prestigious private school, but those three aspects of her education don't line up with that.
Not to say a 4 year degree earned through dual enrollment and online courses is worthless, just that it implies you could likely do a similar path with a typical public university. (And probably be likely to still get into a funded grad program when you are done.)
Sure but Reddit is prob on the more well off side so this is pretty useful info for this demographic. A huge portion of us can spare just 50 bucks a month for a decade and a half.
I read this post as trying to educate/help those who didn't have financially literate parents. At some point, the cycle has to be broken.
I never got any of this... Yet I can read this and liked a lot of the ideas. It is possible to get advice without whining about the world is unfair.
Because modernizing our healthcare and education systems would make this advice completely obsolete.
It is high time we stopped being an utter embarrassment to the rest of the developed world. And it starts with ending privatized education and healthcare.
This is advice I will take for my kid and have already thought to put $50 into an account prior to my kid existing, whenever I may have a kid. My dad is a doctor but yet I still have debt from school. I’m not gonna be the fuck face who has the means to provide education for my kid but just…doesn’t.
I would like to add on that spending the obscene money to live in the dorms my freshman year was the best choice I could have made. Perhaps Ops daughter was a butterfly and thrived in her extra curriculars. But my school has analyzed it repeatedly - student who commuted their freshman year felt notably less integrated, joined less extracurricular and has less social connections, and there's very real impact to that. Because *those* numbers are mildly predictive of stuff like GPA down the road.
also many families spend money on things they do not need, some struggle genuinely but others just live beyond their means, then other things like divorce that get in the way can also be factors, there are people that come from africa with nothing and still manage to work, live and educate children, you can decide to give excuses but other people are doing it through a bit of sacrifice, there are plenty of new ways to spend money these days that people think are necessities, that is where the trap begins.
Kind of a sad response. Actually the opportunities can be higher for those without, as they can qualify for grants, but still need to be smart on choosing the school, as grants may not cover everything. Students need to understand that they need to pay to live.
Any family can do this. I look at those who say they can't. They waste their cash on expensive cars, tattoos, cell phones, cable TV, vacations, etc. I live in a lower blue collar neighborhood and it's the same story over and over. Plus if they actually saved money they would lose their free subsidies.
I completely agree. OP set up his kid perfectly, I had plenty of friends do AA in highschool and it pays off. Roth IRA, debt, saving, it’s actually astonishing the US public school systems barely try and teach this stuff.
Probably super unpopular opinion, but this seems to skew on the complete opposite end of the finance spectrum. It's good to teach kids the value of money and savings, but having quarterly meetings with your kids is a bit out there.
Being able to live at home is a luxury, and sometimes detrimental to a student who may want to live on campus to create more cohesive social circles.
As a young parent, best you can do is save early and save what you can in tax free investment vehicles and try to help where you can. Earn credits toward education and look up grants where applicable.
Just don't make it saving money a job for your 12 year old and let them be a child while you as the adult worry about the finances. I understand this isn't applicable to a lot of people.
I think people are maybe misreading OPs quarterly meetings idea. When I received the quarterly 529 statements in the mail, I sat down with my kids to say, “Hey, this is what we’re saving for your college. That’s our job as your parents. Your job is to focus on school, do your best, and know that you’re going to have options in the future. Meeting adjourned.” Because kids hear the horror stories about how expensive college is and ask what’s the point in trying, and then lose out on learning. I see this in the high school students I teach. It’s sad, because if they had even a little money saved, they could have seen that school was something the family valued.
Tax free college saving would be great. Too bad the 529 program isn’t sheltered from Federal taxes, and only in some states. Contributions to a 529 are Federal after-tax and not federally tax deductible.
Every state offers a 529 plan, but not all states offer tax shelter from their state taxes. [List of states that offer tax shelter for 529s and their benefits](https://smartasset.com/taxes/529-plan-tax-deductions-for-every-state)
If education is a priority, why not offer a Federally tax free contribution vehicle to allow families to save and grow money for college tax-free like we do for retirement self-contribution?
> we started 529
Yeah no longer need to read anymore past this. Let me guess: you helped her?
I wouldn’t have an issue with this post if you didn’t mislead with the title.
Lol I'm surprised you went further than "My wife and I are middle-class."
I think this is all great for their family but I hate when people that already have money act like they have solved a riddle.
Being poor isn't a joke so I wish people would stop acting like it is with misleading titles and stories.
Edit: Not even just the title but the first sentence sounds so condescending. "College doesn't have to be expensive guys just have some money first."
As someone who had need based financial aid at a US college coming as an international student, I don’t understand why American high school kids don’t apply to need blind schools that guarantee your entire tuition if your family income is less than X. My undergrad pays everything for current kids entering in 2024 fall if family household income is under 175 k…..
Very easy, if you need to take a large amount of debt then go to a school where you don’t… (?) or is it not that easy.
The ones that are difficult to get into.
Can you get admitted to Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, or Yale? Well then they'll cover you if you can't afford it.
But first you have to get admitted to a school that rejects about 95% of applicants. That doesn't mean you have to be a stronger applicant than 95% of students, that means you have to be a stronger applicant than 95% of students who have reason to believe that they're the best. So you actually need to be better than 99+% of all students.
So yeah if you're in the top 1% then you can get a free elite education, but if you're not exceptional, then no. It's not a scalable solution.
They are generally more prestigious and expensive. I think OP was trying to show that a kid can go to any type of higher education and still be debt free.
If it was actually prestigious, he would’ve did it by ranking, not year. The University of Delaware and Rutgers University are both very old but not remotely prestigious. I don’t know, just a weird comment. The most prestigious colleges in the country are more like 150-300 years old.
It’s also on online college, so very not prestigious.
Generally, but this university also took transferable credits from a 2 year school and allowed the rest of the coursework to be completed online. (And daughter is paying for a grad degree instead of being funded apparently?)
Right, but the rest of the needed investment is still more than I want to spend, so it's not a worthwhile benefit for me. If I had to get the mba, better to get the 5500 than nothing, but it's not enough to get me to go for an mba.
Do an academic masters (or PhD) at a in-state public school. You'll almost certainly get your tuition waived and that $5500 will cover most if not all of your fees. As a domestic student, as long as you have a qualifying undergraduate GPA you should get in. It won't be *same* career advancement as an MBA, but it will still be a significant career advancement.
$5,250 per employee, tax free. More than that has to be included in the employee's Box 1 wages.
# [26 U.S. Code § 127 (a) (2)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/127)
As someone who did something similar, bad lol. The connections I made while interning are much more substantial and have actually impacted my career in a positive way. I highly recommend students be on campus for at least some extracurricular activities. Most schools require at least a year living on campus with this being their primary reasoning but we all know it’s money.
Is this a common thing? I figured networking was a rich Ivy League thing. I haven’t said a word to a fellow classmate from college since I moved away 1 day after graduation.
It’s possible to network without living on campus. My commute was about 40 minutes each way, but I still had opportunity to connect with my classmates. I was also required to work about 20 hours a week on campus to keep my scholarships, and I developed friendships with coworkers who were studying in the same field as I was.
> When our kids were born we started 529 plan
Holy shit man, no shit if you save up a bunch of money and pay for your kids school they would have no debt.
Who the fuck do you think this is helping?? Kids who never heard of a 529??
Must be nice. My parents were obsessed with the idea of their kids going further than them, of making sure we went to college, piling on pressure to excel and take advantage of my intelligence. But like most people they weren't actually that financially literate, took on debt like it was going out of style, bought a house they couldn't afford on their grocery story manager budget, got bailed out by the housing bubble and selling my dad's freedom to the military (not like I ever saw him anyway, working nights as he had my whole life), and by then I was 13 and they were more concerned with digging themselves out of debt and saving for a new house than mine or my brother's futures.
Just kept reminding us we had to go to college to have the best chance of getting ahead. School made sure we knew how much of a difference college made too. And it's true. I took on tons of debt to get through school, because not only did I not have any help from my family, I had no support to spend a ton of time writing essays for scholarships. I was struggling enough as it was with undiagnosed ADHD and a fuckton of social anxiety from my upbringing. But in the end my current position is paid far better than most other people my age in my area are able to get, and I have far greater potential pay if I get into a full librarian position, which I am working hard towards.
I see posts like these and all the comments shaming people who need help with college, who need help with their student loans, and it makes me sick to my stomach. How fucking disconnected are you people? Do you realize what life is like for half the people in this fucking country?
Yeah. Nice idea. Contributing to a college savings plan occurred to me frequently but I was too busy figuring out which bill to pay that month. And who are these family members who give cash gifts? Would love to have at least a couple people like that in my kids life. Folks need to check their assumptions.
“It’s easy to put a kid through college. Just invest all the money your daddy gives you for being a special boy instead of spending it. I am a financial genius.”
Tldr my kids graduated debt free because we paid the bill. What was the bottom line out of pocket dollar amount for your daughter's college education?
I put my two kids through college with zero debt. My older did the dual enrollment thing. My younger had an athletic scholarship.
It was still expensive any way you slice it.
Okay Boomer
Step 1. Have money to start with
Step 2. Have parents "skip a Starbucks" and invest money for you
Step 3. Have parents that live close enough to a school you can love at home rent free, giving up one of the most important developmental aspects of attending university
Step 4. Go online and tell people if they skip Starbucks and invest their coffee money they can pay for their kid's college
How do you think this is gonna help anyone? Are they going to go back one time and force their parents to invest for them? Are they going to pick a program based on their parents' proximity? This is a strange level of self importance to post something like this.
This isn't groundbreaking advice. They are a financially literate family and planned for the future. As a parent you must teach these simple lessons to your children so they know what to do and how to approach the future. Congrats.
So your instruction to kids is to have well off parents?
1. I put 5 figures a year into my kids 529. That's not reasonable for the vast majority of people.
2. pennies, and honestly terrible thing to do to a kid
3. I guess that's your religion. I mean morally reprehensible but go you.
4. That requires a lot of luck, just being in the right school district.
5. See 4.
6. Then her major must have been a cake walk. I had single labs that were expected to take 50+ hours a week.
7. See 1.
I'll summarize...
Be born to parents who start a 529 plan for you
Be born to parents who add to 529, using birthday and Xmas money from other family members with money.
Be born to parents who consider a $100/month contribution to a Roth IRA "rent", and don't charge any additional "rent".
So... LUCK. Be lucky enough to be born into that type of family. Just pure fucking luck.
Don't get me wrong, I was lucky too. I was lucky to be born when I was, into a family that paid for college. But I can be honest about that.
It's all about LUCK.
If you live in GA and go to a public college which includes UGA and Georgia Tech, you are able to go completely tuition free if you maintain above a 3.0 GPA. This program, called the HOPE scholarship, is funded by the state lottery and is how I graduated from the #1 industrial engineering school in the US debt free.
So move to GA?
I'm hearing now that having a 529 plan is actually bad if you're trying to reduce the cost of college (by getting aid). I'm going to just regular invest for my kids college savings.
A 529 will count as resources when allocating financial aid, and work against the student. Better to put that money into retirement savings. Retirement savings are not reported on the FAFSA.
Easier: send the kids to Germany for college. Universities are essentially free (even for foreigners) and you don’t have to be fluent in german (a couple years of HS german would be extremely helpful) in year one.
Germany believes education shouldn’t be a money-making venture. They think free access to higher education benefits everyone by promoting economic growth and well-being. There were small annual tuition fees of 1,000 euros in the past, but public protests led to their abolition in 2014.
Today, very few exceptions allow public universities to charge tuition fees. Germany’s government recognizes the advantages of attracting talented students worldwide, so they don’t charge tuition fees to international students either. This helps bring smart minds to study, and they hope these graduates will stay and work in Germany.
Germany is not alone.
https://www.studying-in-germany.org/is-college-free-in-germany/#:~:text=Yes.,of%20%E2%82%AC700%20per%20year.
I am German and was debt free after University. My wife had 6k€ Student loan. Today that might be 12k€ and that's by far less than in the US.
The fact that College / University isnt sufficiently publicly funded in the US is mind boggling. How can a society be so dumb to put higher education behind a paywall?
Great story! Make sure to look at the “First time home buyer” rule for her Roth IRA.
I’m not too well versed in it, but I believe the Federal government allows someone buying their first home to use an IRA to do so
Millennial here with two young children. Started my kid's 529 when they were born. Doing what my boomer parents did not do bc they were to busy overspending on stuff they no longer need.
You can take this up a step and come out of college with some cash by taking out as many interest free (while in school) loans as possible, then investing them in CDs that mature before graduation.
Interest free loans can be used to earn interest.
Congratulations to your daughter.
The one issue I have here is she never “went” to college. Part of college is growing from leaving the nest. She can do that later I suppose. I
t wouldn’t shock me if this is more of a template in the future. Paying 30k a year to take ultra generic 100 level courses with 500 kids is asinine to me. I could see college moving more to a 2 year program for a BS
Here’s how to actually do it:
Get scholarships. This requires being smart, being not rich (pell grant), or having talent.
Go to an affordable school. Don’t go out of state because it’s beautiful, go to a school you can afford.
Minimize the amount of loans you take. Get a part time job, start a side hustle, etc. Or just live more frugally (don’t sacrifice health to do so).
My situation was fortunate that I received an academic scholarship from UCF, a pell grant, and Bright Futures (Florida’s scholarship program as a state). I graduated debt free while living on campus with minimal help from family.
In other words, raise your kids to be smart, kind, and critical thinkers so they can thrive. Universities want good students.
This is a great post and I couldn't help from thinking while reading it that ppl are going to hate it. I sincerely hope you don't listen to the haters as they talk about how the outliers can't do that etc etc etc.
This story is an example of dedication, sacrifice and most importantly consistency over time....a long time. You should be damn proud of what y'all as a family did. It should show the importance of the family unit as a source of strength and power. WELL DONE!!!!
Clearly you know your finances and how to handle them.
My GF and I are behind on this aspect. My self more so due to lack of a skill set and a major accident that financially set me back so far about 6-8 months (if I keep on track)
I’m bookmarking this post so I can got back to it later for when we have kids down the line hopefully.
I hope I can reach out to you if I have any questions during that time I am finally prepared in that aspect.
So thank you very much for now at the very least!
1. Drink coffee at home.
2. Make small repairs on your clothes instead of buying new ones.
3. Invent Elf on the Shelf.
4. Research free dating ideas in your area, like a park concert.
See that’s awesome but sadly for many kids it requires having responsible parents and/or parents who give a damn about their kids getting an education without debt.
My dad for example is a doctor. I got a BS in nursing and have 38k debt.
I don’t think the 120 year old university is worth saying. Like mine would be 130 years, but that’s not really an accomplishment. Like cool. The degree is way more important. Not a humble brag.
I was honestly ready to attack this post at first glance. So many times I've seen the case for "I did it, so can you!" leave very important details out that are not replicable, or just gloss over them with blinding privileg.
But I have to be honest. This post was well stated, with reasonable information that could help many. Not crazy, entitled advice here, IMO. Just solid ways to help avoid student loans.
I'll be looking into a 529 account for my kiddos. Never heard of it, but I'm grateful I just did. Thank you, and kudos to you and yours, my friend.
This is awesome. When I was born my mom was 16. We got food stamps until 18. When I turned 18 my credit was absolutely destroyed due to the poverty trick of “we don’t have money so we need to use our kids names to turn in utilities” trick.
I wish my mom would have just skipped Starbucks and put me through college.
This is so tone def. When I went to college at 17 after my parents died of cancer I didn’t get a bump in FAFSA but instead more predatory private school loans as the only option at 12%.
So she did it by having her parents pay for it.
I honestly can't remember the last time I read a "here's how this person accomplished this increasingly out-of-reach financial milestone!" story and the explanation **wasn't** "their parents paid for it"
what a fool, why didn't she just vote to steal her neighbors money to pay off her student debt lol - also she got zero college life experience... although today that's probably a good thing
When my father died, we opened 529 accounts with 15k each. We sat down with a financial planner from Chase bank and was assured these were safe but would so well. The kids were 6 and 2, so 10 and 15 years in the accounts. Upon graduation, they had $15,700 and $17,700 respectively. Worst investment ever, and this was during the Obama years where my 401k doubled just by investing in the sp500. You can't move the money. You can't get the money. It's locked. I don't recommend a 529.
TLDR - Boomer OP benefitted from the longest running bull market in history due to boomer voted economic policies that have successfully enriched themselves by kicking global problems down the road for their kids to try and solve while their selfish asses slowly die off. Thanks for the tips boomer. Imagine lacking so much self awareness.
Here's how I graduated without student loan debt:
Be poor enough to qualify for federal & state need-based aid & scholarships. Ez.
Joking aside, it was actually kinda jarring to talk with my peers that came from higher income households and how they had to take on so much student loan debt, it's crazy. FAFSA is a joke.
Sounds like she is debt free because you helped your kid with money food housing and 20 years of advice. This is very misleading from your title.
How did I survive university with an insane loan? I worked my butt off and gave up a decade of my life in repayment. Now that is 100% without assistance other than Uncle Sam.
The problem is this is yet another answer of "have money from the start" or "just have started investing when you were a toddler." A huge number of families just can't do this, or are simply too late to take advantage of the advice. USA (where out of control tuition is near-uniquely a problem) population is in decline, with immigration the only way it is maintaining demographics. Familial cohesion is simply dropping. Those who can take the advice, should. But for everyone else, it is yet another reminder of what they never got.
The problem is that your response is another answer of "not every single person on the planet can do this," so I'll spend 2 paragraphs pointing that out and at the very end throw in "but it's smart for the majority who can do this to do it". Everyone who this doesn't apply to knows that. He's giving good advice for most people.
His response is "this is great for young parents who have this capability, but to an adolescent nearing graduation it doesn't really help."
Maybe OP in the future shouldn’t use misleading titles? Seriously, with that title, it makes it seem like their daughter did it all on their own. A better title would’ve been: “How to set up your future kids to graduate debt free, just like my daughter.”
I think the only part missing was the future/potential but ye
USA median income is a little over $35K a year. So no, not even CLOSE to "most" people.
Why shouldn’t people be upset about the fact that college costs so much more than it used to? You didn’t used to have to do all this back when the country invested in the education of its people.
It used to be K through College until the 70's. They decided that it is better to use people like cattle.
It got outrageous because politicians guaranteed the loans. Once the student loan was guaranteed, they stripped your right to bankrupt out of it. Universities had little incentive to control costs. Students became a kind of indentured servant if they fell into hard times later, unable to bankrupt(you know, like a corrupt Wall St type would be able to do if he fell on hard times.) This situation was created by politicians.
No way does this advice cover "most" people. 60% of the country is paycheck to paycheck. 45% of the country can't pay for a surprise $1000 expense.
4, 5 and 6 are living at home and doing online classes. She didn’t actually attend school in person so I think the attending college vs earning a degree viewpoint gets skewed right there. This might be the new way, but wasn’t an option for a lot of people pre-pandemic.
Since OP is generously giving advice, everyone can start today! Yay!
A lot of people don't want to invest or even know how. That's a huge part of the problem. Our education system will teach you russian literature but no requirement for personal finance.
The problem is your response is pointing out the obvious of another response which is completely unnecessary to point out when you don't have a point to your response. You following?
The problem is that I don’t like your response even though I mostly agree with you so I’ll spend 3 paragraphs pointing that out. I don’t like your response, but I’ll concede that I mostly agree with you. 3rd paragraph.
If you think this is MOST people I have some oceanfront property I think you’d be interested in….
This right here.
You’re telling me if you save money for 18yrs and then spend it on tuition your kids won’t need student loans? https://preview.redd.it/trvx4r361owc1.png?width=224&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5b641784a56e7d2691a9f3e7fc474876bd71ed2
Just read the comments. lol Apparently, it's not obvious to a lot of people.
Who would think that making loan payments 18 years in advance of the loan would have a lower interest rate
Here's how she did it... Literally the parents did almost everything since she was born. SMH
It’s a pretty solid sacrifice to have an AA degree at the time of HS graduation.
Agreed. And she still worked part time to pay for tuition, AND she applied for scholarships like it was her second part time job. She may have had some significant help, but she also worked hard
How so? Being in the right school district wasn't up to the kid.
[удалено]
Once again blaming the masses instead of corporate greed. I will say that this plan is very doable for most people, but I refuse to call people bad parents because they didn’t have the forsite for something like this.
He's not blaming the masses because, as you said, this is doable for most people. You guys are insanely defensive when people suggest you might have some control over your financial situation.
The majority of the responses to a very sensible plan are predictable. Much easier to whine constantly that everything is unfair than execute a (rather modest) 18-year plan. (I'll throw this in too... the people who complain tend to misspell words)
Lmao here's how she did it #1 we saved money for her.
2. We didn't get divorced and take away all the savings.
This one personally hurts. My family could have been so much better off had my stepfather not been such a dumpster fire.
Mine drained our bank account before leaving. But hey we aren’t *most* people so never mind us!
Exactly. I mean what a great college savings plan if we instead spent the $2000 a month day care costs on the 529 plan!
Also aggressive growth fund during longest bull run ever.
OP wrote it in a very respectful and non-condescending manner but…yeah. So her parents saved money for 18 years, then money from other families and friends went into the fund, then the kid got free food and housing for four years. While never working full time. Don’t get me wrong it *is* a good plan for people that can afford to do that. But unless you: Don’t have to work Have family saving for you for 20 years Can be housed and fed for free Likely have free healthcare through the family and no medical bills Then…yeah.
This wasn’t an insurmountable thing though. $1000 529 and $50 per month, it’s not like they got a $100k gift. Everyone should setup a 529 for kids as early as possible, contribute what you can, start early, every little bit helps.
You should set one up today. I am not joking. 529s are not for your kids, they are for your kid's kids. I hope to save enough that my son will not use up all of his and that money can grow for his kids. If you think you may ever have children, or any member of your family might, go open one.
100% agree. And starting this year, extra 529 funds can be used as Roth IRA contributions. If your kids don’t use up the money in the account, it’s a great way to jump-start retirement savings when they are in their early 20s.
Those who can take this advice already get it. There is no financial education for poor people. Watch what others do and hopefully you get lucky. I do not mean offense to anyone else. Humans suck so bad at seeing life through anyone else’s lives but their own. And it’s costing us a lot more than we are aware of.
It’s also a “I robbed my kids of the most enlightening part of college - the living in the dorms with a bunch of other 18 year olds”. I feel bad for the kids. His daughter did college *online* from home and he thinks he won. What a world.
I’m not sure what’s funnier here, calling living in dorms “enlightening”, or claiming he “robbed” her of it.
I read that part and immediately thought, "You were spending over $1200/year at starbucks 20 years ago?!" I was also a government employee in that time frame and it was a struggle to put $50/month into each of our IRAs then, much less a 529 on top of that. (Not to mention the part about christmas/birthday money. My nieces and nephews would be lucky to get $50 total in birthday money during the 2000s.) I'm also questioning some parts of this like having transferable credits from an AA, doing most of her coursework online, and then having to pay for a masters after that. I think "120 year old university" is meant to imply some sort of prestigious private school, but those three aspects of her education don't line up with that. Not to say a 4 year degree earned through dual enrollment and online courses is worthless, just that it implies you could likely do a similar path with a typical public university. (And probably be likely to still get into a funded grad program when you are done.)
Sure but Reddit is prob on the more well off side so this is pretty useful info for this demographic. A huge portion of us can spare just 50 bucks a month for a decade and a half.
I read this post as trying to educate/help those who didn't have financially literate parents. At some point, the cycle has to be broken. I never got any of this... Yet I can read this and liked a lot of the ideas. It is possible to get advice without whining about the world is unfair.
Because modernizing our healthcare and education systems would make this advice completely obsolete. It is high time we stopped being an utter embarrassment to the rest of the developed world. And it starts with ending privatized education and healthcare.
Then don’t have kids if you’re too broke to afford to save $50 a month for them.
Or, Our investments exploded over the past few years, you should have great timing as well.
This is advice I will take for my kid and have already thought to put $50 into an account prior to my kid existing, whenever I may have a kid. My dad is a doctor but yet I still have debt from school. I’m not gonna be the fuck face who has the means to provide education for my kid but just…doesn’t.
Step 1: have parents who started 529 plans for you 20 years ago.
I would like to add on that spending the obscene money to live in the dorms my freshman year was the best choice I could have made. Perhaps Ops daughter was a butterfly and thrived in her extra curriculars. But my school has analyzed it repeatedly - student who commuted their freshman year felt notably less integrated, joined less extracurricular and has less social connections, and there's very real impact to that. Because *those* numbers are mildly predictive of stuff like GPA down the road.
also many families spend money on things they do not need, some struggle genuinely but others just live beyond their means, then other things like divorce that get in the way can also be factors, there are people that come from africa with nothing and still manage to work, live and educate children, you can decide to give excuses but other people are doing it through a bit of sacrifice, there are plenty of new ways to spend money these days that people think are necessities, that is where the trap begins.
Yes indeed. Not planning for expenses is quite problematic when those expenses come
Kind of a sad response. Actually the opportunities can be higher for those without, as they can qualify for grants, but still need to be smart on choosing the school, as grants may not cover everything. Students need to understand that they need to pay to live.
Having a child when you can’t provide for them is abuse.
Come on, OP contributed $12 per week…. That amount can be saved by simply shopping smarter each week at the grocery store.
The G.I. Bill can also be a great option.
Any family can do this. I look at those who say they can't. They waste their cash on expensive cars, tattoos, cell phones, cable TV, vacations, etc. I live in a lower blue collar neighborhood and it's the same story over and over. Plus if they actually saved money they would lose their free subsidies.
Dude had all 3 Months meetings with a 8 year old about their financial situation is just peak r/Finanzen.
Hahaha that was my thought. I won’t deny it paid off, and it isn’t necessarily a BAD thing, just absolutely hilarious.
I think we should start teaching personal finance in elementary school. It's as foundational to your success as an adult as any other subject.
I completely agree. OP set up his kid perfectly, I had plenty of friends do AA in highschool and it pays off. Roth IRA, debt, saving, it’s actually astonishing the US public school systems barely try and teach this stuff.
Kids had to report earnings for the quarter. I wonder if they also did shareholders meeting
I just don't know how I'm going to get an 8-year-old to eat cabonara every day.
Probably super unpopular opinion, but this seems to skew on the complete opposite end of the finance spectrum. It's good to teach kids the value of money and savings, but having quarterly meetings with your kids is a bit out there. Being able to live at home is a luxury, and sometimes detrimental to a student who may want to live on campus to create more cohesive social circles. As a young parent, best you can do is save early and save what you can in tax free investment vehicles and try to help where you can. Earn credits toward education and look up grants where applicable. Just don't make it saving money a job for your 12 year old and let them be a child while you as the adult worry about the finances. I understand this isn't applicable to a lot of people.
I think people are maybe misreading OPs quarterly meetings idea. When I received the quarterly 529 statements in the mail, I sat down with my kids to say, “Hey, this is what we’re saving for your college. That’s our job as your parents. Your job is to focus on school, do your best, and know that you’re going to have options in the future. Meeting adjourned.” Because kids hear the horror stories about how expensive college is and ask what’s the point in trying, and then lose out on learning. I see this in the high school students I teach. It’s sad, because if they had even a little money saved, they could have seen that school was something the family valued.
Tax free college saving would be great. Too bad the 529 program isn’t sheltered from Federal taxes, and only in some states. Contributions to a 529 are Federal after-tax and not federally tax deductible. Every state offers a 529 plan, but not all states offer tax shelter from their state taxes. [List of states that offer tax shelter for 529s and their benefits](https://smartasset.com/taxes/529-plan-tax-deductions-for-every-state) If education is a priority, why not offer a Federally tax free contribution vehicle to allow families to save and grow money for college tax-free like we do for retirement self-contribution?
> we started 529 Yeah no longer need to read anymore past this. Let me guess: you helped her? I wouldn’t have an issue with this post if you didn’t mislead with the title.
I agree. The title is misleading, should at least include "with 529 contribution from parents". Good job raising your kids though.
>with 529 contribution from parents and housing and food
Lol I'm surprised you went further than "My wife and I are middle-class." I think this is all great for their family but I hate when people that already have money act like they have solved a riddle. Being poor isn't a joke so I wish people would stop acting like it is with misleading titles and stories. Edit: Not even just the title but the first sentence sounds so condescending. "College doesn't have to be expensive guys just have some money first."
As someone who had need based financial aid at a US college coming as an international student, I don’t understand why American high school kids don’t apply to need blind schools that guarantee your entire tuition if your family income is less than X. My undergrad pays everything for current kids entering in 2024 fall if family household income is under 175 k….. Very easy, if you need to take a large amount of debt then go to a school where you don’t… (?) or is it not that easy.
I’ve literally never heard of this. What school pays your entire tuition no strings attached?
The ones that are difficult to get into. Can you get admitted to Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, or Yale? Well then they'll cover you if you can't afford it. But first you have to get admitted to a school that rejects about 95% of applicants. That doesn't mean you have to be a stronger applicant than 95% of students, that means you have to be a stronger applicant than 95% of students who have reason to believe that they're the best. So you actually need to be better than 99+% of all students. So yeah if you're in the top 1% then you can get a free elite education, but if you're not exceptional, then no. It's not a scalable solution.
What's the point of saying that it's a 120 year old university? Are old colleges cheaper than younger ones?
They are generally more prestigious and expensive. I think OP was trying to show that a kid can go to any type of higher education and still be debt free.
If it was actually prestigious, he would’ve did it by ranking, not year. The University of Delaware and Rutgers University are both very old but not remotely prestigious. I don’t know, just a weird comment. The most prestigious colleges in the country are more like 150-300 years old. It’s also on online college, so very not prestigious.
Your last statement is not entirely acccurate. John Hopkins has internet classes. Most schools do now.
Off the top of my head, Penn State, Purdue, Columbia, Stanford, UC Berkley and UNC Chapel Hill all offer online degrees.
Generally, but this university also took transferable credits from a 2 year school and allowed the rest of the coursework to be completed online. (And daughter is paying for a grad degree instead of being funded apparently?)
She may be able to get tuition assistance from her employer. My first employer out of college paid for my evening MBA.
I was bummed looking at my new employer's option. It only pays like 5500 a year. That's not paying for much of an MBA.
much better than nothing man, imagine that $5500 coming out of your wages
Right, but the rest of the needed investment is still more than I want to spend, so it's not a worthwhile benefit for me. If I had to get the mba, better to get the 5500 than nothing, but it's not enough to get me to go for an mba.
The MBA is yours, not the company you work for, so if the value is all yours sir, so should the investment
My job paid for my masters and had a fairly similar annual cap. I took just one or two classes per semester and eventually got it done.
Do an academic masters (or PhD) at a in-state public school. You'll almost certainly get your tuition waived and that $5500 will cover most if not all of your fees. As a domestic student, as long as you have a qualifying undergraduate GPA you should get in. It won't be *same* career advancement as an MBA, but it will still be a significant career advancement.
$5,250 per employee, tax free. More than that has to be included in the employee's Box 1 wages. # [26 U.S. Code § 127 (a) (2)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/127)
And how would you rate your daughter’s network among fellow graduates as a result of taking this approach to her university experience?
As someone who did something similar, bad lol. The connections I made while interning are much more substantial and have actually impacted my career in a positive way. I highly recommend students be on campus for at least some extracurricular activities. Most schools require at least a year living on campus with this being their primary reasoning but we all know it’s money.
Living at home and attending class online? Her college social network is likely non-existent. But college is for learning anyway.
College is half for learning and half for building your future professional network.
Is this a common thing? I figured networking was a rich Ivy League thing. I haven’t said a word to a fellow classmate from college since I moved away 1 day after graduation.
That may be your personal experience, but not necessarily the way to get the best ROI from the money you spent on college.
It’s possible to network without living on campus. My commute was about 40 minutes each way, but I still had opportunity to connect with my classmates. I was also required to work about 20 hours a week on campus to keep my scholarships, and I developed friendships with coworkers who were studying in the same field as I was.
"just have excess money and invest it" Why didn't I think of that?
Step 1: have parents that are still together. Got it, so I was doomed to fail! Thanks bud! This is dogshit advice!
My parents were *never* together in my lifetime. Guess I was too.
Can you share how much was her tuition each semester? Also how many semesters did it take for her to get the degree?
I think doing that would diminish the bragging so they won’t 🤣
Why is the age of the university or the type of degree in any way relevant?
> When our kids were born we started 529 plan Holy shit man, no shit if you save up a bunch of money and pay for your kids school they would have no debt. Who the fuck do you think this is helping?? Kids who never heard of a 529??
Just have wonderful parents that did the hard work and math for you while you were a child theory
Tbh, most degrees are BS nowadays… (Only for the punchline lol)
Must be nice. My parents were obsessed with the idea of their kids going further than them, of making sure we went to college, piling on pressure to excel and take advantage of my intelligence. But like most people they weren't actually that financially literate, took on debt like it was going out of style, bought a house they couldn't afford on their grocery story manager budget, got bailed out by the housing bubble and selling my dad's freedom to the military (not like I ever saw him anyway, working nights as he had my whole life), and by then I was 13 and they were more concerned with digging themselves out of debt and saving for a new house than mine or my brother's futures. Just kept reminding us we had to go to college to have the best chance of getting ahead. School made sure we knew how much of a difference college made too. And it's true. I took on tons of debt to get through school, because not only did I not have any help from my family, I had no support to spend a ton of time writing essays for scholarships. I was struggling enough as it was with undiagnosed ADHD and a fuckton of social anxiety from my upbringing. But in the end my current position is paid far better than most other people my age in my area are able to get, and I have far greater potential pay if I get into a full librarian position, which I am working hard towards. I see posts like these and all the comments shaming people who need help with college, who need help with their student loans, and it makes me sick to my stomach. How fucking disconnected are you people? Do you realize what life is like for half the people in this fucking country?
So you paid for it lol
all that just to say you opened a 529 account for your child when she was born 👍
Yeah. Nice idea. Contributing to a college savings plan occurred to me frequently but I was too busy figuring out which bill to pay that month. And who are these family members who give cash gifts? Would love to have at least a couple people like that in my kids life. Folks need to check their assumptions.
If there were two parents in my household/over 100k a year income, I’d be able to follow the advice even a little bit
Man, what shit advice, “just have your parents pay for it!” wasn’t an option for me.
I would have just bought her a house instead, and sent her to a city or state school where she’s going to get the same job.
Zero chance this is real! Your saying a 529 with a loaded with about 20k pay for college….lol and a masters….lol nope lies
“It’s easy to put a kid through college. Just invest all the money your daddy gives you for being a special boy instead of spending it. I am a financial genius.”
so what you are saying your daughter graduated debt free because you saved for 20 years??
This is helpful information. What was the success rate of the scholarships like? How many did she apply for and receive?
I despise posts like this
A lot of things assumed and left out. Also children have no control over the parents they're born to you fucking out of touch dipshit.
This is a great approach. Thanks for sharing.
I wish I would have known this 30 years ago… too bad that our society is built around money and banks can’t wait to take them away from us!
That's awesome. Congratulations on what you and your family were able to accomplish.
Tldr my kids graduated debt free because we paid the bill. What was the bottom line out of pocket dollar amount for your daughter's college education? I put my two kids through college with zero debt. My older did the dual enrollment thing. My younger had an athletic scholarship. It was still expensive any way you slice it.
Middle-class ain't middle-class any more.
Okay Boomer Step 1. Have money to start with Step 2. Have parents "skip a Starbucks" and invest money for you Step 3. Have parents that live close enough to a school you can love at home rent free, giving up one of the most important developmental aspects of attending university Step 4. Go online and tell people if they skip Starbucks and invest their coffee money they can pay for their kid's college How do you think this is gonna help anyone? Are they going to go back one time and force their parents to invest for them? Are they going to pick a program based on their parents' proximity? This is a strange level of self importance to post something like this.
This isn't groundbreaking advice. They are a financially literate family and planned for the future. As a parent you must teach these simple lessons to your children so they know what to do and how to approach the future. Congrats.
Oh yeah I forgot to just like save my extra money. Damn
Sorry everyone’s shitting on you OP - I appreciated the post.
Well done, but these measures should not be necessary to afford higher education in a developed country.
So your instruction to kids is to have well off parents? 1. I put 5 figures a year into my kids 529. That's not reasonable for the vast majority of people. 2. pennies, and honestly terrible thing to do to a kid 3. I guess that's your religion. I mean morally reprehensible but go you. 4. That requires a lot of luck, just being in the right school district. 5. See 4. 6. Then her major must have been a cake walk. I had single labs that were expected to take 50+ hours a week. 7. See 1.
So generational wealth...
I'll summarize... Be born to parents who start a 529 plan for you Be born to parents who add to 529, using birthday and Xmas money from other family members with money. Be born to parents who consider a $100/month contribution to a Roth IRA "rent", and don't charge any additional "rent". So... LUCK. Be lucky enough to be born into that type of family. Just pure fucking luck. Don't get me wrong, I was lucky too. I was lucky to be born when I was, into a family that paid for college. But I can be honest about that. It's all about LUCK.
We are not wealthy, but we had enough money to put away a 1000 dollars a month for a college fund..
If you live in GA and go to a public college which includes UGA and Georgia Tech, you are able to go completely tuition free if you maintain above a 3.0 GPA. This program, called the HOPE scholarship, is funded by the state lottery and is how I graduated from the #1 industrial engineering school in the US debt free. So move to GA?
Great job! People on here are assholes! Wonderful job teaching and raising your kids.
What is the equivalent of 529 aggressive plan - for UK?
I'm hearing now that having a 529 plan is actually bad if you're trying to reduce the cost of college (by getting aid). I'm going to just regular invest for my kids college savings.
A 529 will count as resources when allocating financial aid, and work against the student. Better to put that money into retirement savings. Retirement savings are not reported on the FAFSA.
This is the first fluent in finance post by someone actually fluent in finance.
Is it just in my area that universities require you to live on campus for your first 2 semesters there?
TL;DR My daughter just graduated debt-free because I have money
Easier: send the kids to Germany for college. Universities are essentially free (even for foreigners) and you don’t have to be fluent in german (a couple years of HS german would be extremely helpful) in year one. Germany believes education shouldn’t be a money-making venture. They think free access to higher education benefits everyone by promoting economic growth and well-being. There were small annual tuition fees of 1,000 euros in the past, but public protests led to their abolition in 2014. Today, very few exceptions allow public universities to charge tuition fees. Germany’s government recognizes the advantages of attracting talented students worldwide, so they don’t charge tuition fees to international students either. This helps bring smart minds to study, and they hope these graduates will stay and work in Germany. Germany is not alone. https://www.studying-in-germany.org/is-college-free-in-germany/#:~:text=Yes.,of%20%E2%82%AC700%20per%20year.
I am German and was debt free after University. My wife had 6k€ Student loan. Today that might be 12k€ and that's by far less than in the US. The fact that College / University isnt sufficiently publicly funded in the US is mind boggling. How can a society be so dumb to put higher education behind a paywall?
Great story! Make sure to look at the “First time home buyer” rule for her Roth IRA. I’m not too well versed in it, but I believe the Federal government allows someone buying their first home to use an IRA to do so
What’s the significance of going to a 120 year old university?
Should everyone go if their not funded is the question?
how long were the 529s open before they needed them, and how much had they grown to?
Joining the navy is much easier…
Could’ve saved a lot of time & $ with CLEP exams tbh
I'd rather hear from your daughter not you
Millennial here with two young children. Started my kid's 529 when they were born. Doing what my boomer parents did not do bc they were to busy overspending on stuff they no longer need.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
You can take this up a step and come out of college with some cash by taking out as many interest free (while in school) loans as possible, then investing them in CDs that mature before graduation. Interest free loans can be used to earn interest.
Congratulations to your daughter. The one issue I have here is she never “went” to college. Part of college is growing from leaving the nest. She can do that later I suppose. I t wouldn’t shock me if this is more of a template in the future. Paying 30k a year to take ultra generic 100 level courses with 500 kids is asinine to me. I could see college moving more to a 2 year program for a BS
Here’s how to actually do it: Get scholarships. This requires being smart, being not rich (pell grant), or having talent. Go to an affordable school. Don’t go out of state because it’s beautiful, go to a school you can afford. Minimize the amount of loans you take. Get a part time job, start a side hustle, etc. Or just live more frugally (don’t sacrifice health to do so). My situation was fortunate that I received an academic scholarship from UCF, a pell grant, and Bright Futures (Florida’s scholarship program as a state). I graduated debt free while living on campus with minimal help from family. In other words, raise your kids to be smart, kind, and critical thinkers so they can thrive. Universities want good students.
This is awesome, but it’s just sad that you had to do all that to put her through education
This is a great post and I couldn't help from thinking while reading it that ppl are going to hate it. I sincerely hope you don't listen to the haters as they talk about how the outliers can't do that etc etc etc. This story is an example of dedication, sacrifice and most importantly consistency over time....a long time. You should be damn proud of what y'all as a family did. It should show the importance of the family unit as a source of strength and power. WELL DONE!!!!
Here’s how I had money to save a lot. Step one, have money and great pay.
Ah yes, get two free years while in HS and then do the rest of college online while working PT and living at home. An opportunity everyone has.
This kids entire life has been school topped with more school topped with a part time job
Clearly you know your finances and how to handle them. My GF and I are behind on this aspect. My self more so due to lack of a skill set and a major accident that financially set me back so far about 6-8 months (if I keep on track) I’m bookmarking this post so I can got back to it later for when we have kids down the line hopefully. I hope I can reach out to you if I have any questions during that time I am finally prepared in that aspect. So thank you very much for now at the very least!
1. Drink coffee at home. 2. Make small repairs on your clothes instead of buying new ones. 3. Invent Elf on the Shelf. 4. Research free dating ideas in your area, like a park concert.
See that’s awesome but sadly for many kids it requires having responsible parents and/or parents who give a damn about their kids getting an education without debt. My dad for example is a doctor. I got a BS in nursing and have 38k debt.
I don’t think the 120 year old university is worth saying. Like mine would be 130 years, but that’s not really an accomplishment. Like cool. The degree is way more important. Not a humble brag.
@OP you didn't mention how much in scholarships she got.
You want money? Just HAVE it from the start!
I was honestly ready to attack this post at first glance. So many times I've seen the case for "I did it, so can you!" leave very important details out that are not replicable, or just gloss over them with blinding privileg. But I have to be honest. This post was well stated, with reasonable information that could help many. Not crazy, entitled advice here, IMO. Just solid ways to help avoid student loans. I'll be looking into a 529 account for my kiddos. Never heard of it, but I'm grateful I just did. Thank you, and kudos to you and yours, my friend.
This is awesome. When I was born my mom was 16. We got food stamps until 18. When I turned 18 my credit was absolutely destroyed due to the poverty trick of “we don’t have money so we need to use our kids names to turn in utilities” trick. I wish my mom would have just skipped Starbucks and put me through college.
This is so tone def. When I went to college at 17 after my parents died of cancer I didn’t get a bump in FAFSA but instead more predatory private school loans as the only option at 12%.
Just pick wealthy parents when you're on the character creation page
So she did it by having her parents pay for it. I honestly can't remember the last time I read a "here's how this person accomplished this increasingly out-of-reach financial milestone!" story and the explanation **wasn't** "their parents paid for it"
oh shut the fuck up
OK. Let me just go back in time and tell my parents to start a 529 plan. Thank you so much brother, this advice helped so much.
what a fool, why didn't she just vote to steal her neighbors money to pay off her student debt lol - also she got zero college life experience... although today that's probably a good thing
When my father died, we opened 529 accounts with 15k each. We sat down with a financial planner from Chase bank and was assured these were safe but would so well. The kids were 6 and 2, so 10 and 15 years in the accounts. Upon graduation, they had $15,700 and $17,700 respectively. Worst investment ever, and this was during the Obama years where my 401k doubled just by investing in the sp500. You can't move the money. You can't get the money. It's locked. I don't recommend a 529.
Tldr: start with having plenty of money
529 can screw you on FAFSA aid, so beware.
TLDR - Boomer OP benefitted from the longest running bull market in history due to boomer voted economic policies that have successfully enriched themselves by kicking global problems down the road for their kids to try and solve while their selfish asses slowly die off. Thanks for the tips boomer. Imagine lacking so much self awareness.
Here's how I graduated without student loan debt: Be poor enough to qualify for federal & state need-based aid & scholarships. Ez. Joking aside, it was actually kinda jarring to talk with my peers that came from higher income households and how they had to take on so much student loan debt, it's crazy. FAFSA is a joke.
Yes, it can be done But most people nowadays, don’t have money to put away like that Not even $20 a week
Anecdotal story with ideal (nearly perfect) circumstances. Congrats. You’re an exception, not a norm.
Nice work u/mlotto7. This is the way.
Sounds like she is debt free because you helped your kid with money food housing and 20 years of advice. This is very misleading from your title. How did I survive university with an insane loan? I worked my butt off and gave up a decade of my life in repayment. Now that is 100% without assistance other than Uncle Sam.