10.17.08

Should parents pay college tuition for their kids?

Posted in Children tagged , at 10:19 pm by kyrias

Brip Blap says that parents shouldn’t be expected to pay for their kid’s college tuition. The readers mostly seem to agree with that concept.

I’m just going to put out there, that if I’m not prepared to help pay my children’s tuition, I’m simply not going to have kids.

I do not subscribe to the idea that once they hit 18 they are legally adults, and as such I’m not responsible for paying for them.

Certain people have commented that they have felt that putting themselves through college was a good experience for them and that they appreciated having that opportunity. Certain others point out that it is insane to expect parents to shell out what might be a couple hundred k, what with inflation, for a child’s private school education.

I’m not going to dispute any of that.

I don’t agree that college is simply a time to have fun, get laid, figure out how much alcohol tolerance you have, and maybe study a bit on the side. That said, I think that my child might have a more enjoyable and productive college career if s/he didn’t have to work 40 hours a week and had astronomical amounts of stress.

I’m not going to put my retirement in jeopardy or foolishly pay out the nose for a kid who doesn’t know how to appreciate the amount of money I’m putting into his/her education.

However, considering that children whose parents have the financial means to do so are not eligible for aid — I’m also would never consider making them shoulder the entire burden by themselves if I was in any way able to help. It’s true that perhaps equipping them with common sense, a good work ethic, and a strong foundation in education would be more useful than simply throwing money at their college career.

Perhaps, but not definitely. Scholarships are getting more and more competitive to obtain and what with the current financial mess, it’s also difficult to find lenders willing to loan money.

I’m not going to go into the concept of private schools vs public. I went to The College of Wooster, and it’s a private school that my parents paid out the nose for. I don’t regret going there, but I’m pretty sure there’s also a post somewhere in my archives about how I’m fairly sure the amount of money spent compared to what I got wasn’t worth it.

That said, getting a piece of paper with B.A somewhere on it is almost indispensable in today’s society so far as I can tell. I’ve seen how some jobs simply screen out applicants who don’t have a college degree. There’s nothing anyone can say to convince me that a college degree isn’t almost mandatory to get a good job.

Not being willing to help your children obtain it if you could and they were deserving of it? I’d honestly have real problems with your worldview.

07.19.08

Renting V.S buying?

Posted in Children, Future, Money tagged at 1:26 am by kyrias

I’ve been reading a series of posts on how renting might be a better idea than buying for certain people and thinking about it.

Millionaire Mommy argues that she would never have been able to become a millionaire if she had not sold her house and invested the money. In her area, supposedly rent is so much cheaper than the combined costs of mortgage interest payments, property taxes, and maintenance that she’s unlikely to buy another house again.

Another post on MSN Money argues the same point — saying that houses are a terrible vehecle for “investment” because of the associated fees and that your money would do much better in stocks since you’re not really realizing “gain” on the house, per se, since you’re living in it.

There’s a couple of other bloggers on the Internet who support this, such as the author of Investing Lessons and Cindy Allen.

Then there’s a spiffy little calculator tool that one can use to determine if it’s worth it to buy the house or just rent. It’s assumed that if you’re not breaking even within a reasonable time frame, up to 30 years, just rent.

I’ve poked around a bit and it seems that the answer is not even quite as cut and dried as “if you’re paying less than your mortgage+insurance+taxes, then you should rent and invest the savings”.

I want to share rent with people for as long as possible. I’m not even averse to the idea of sharing rent with people after I get married or have kids.

After all, prices are steep in the cities.

I also want to have a vegetable garden, a baby, and possibly a pet or two. That’s just the “normal” stuff. I’ve also been thinking about chickens in the yard and compost bins and possibly worm farms.

With that, it seems slightly safer to actually own the house so that the landlord can’t just toss you out if they don’t like what you’re doing to their yard. Although it seems that vegetable planting is catching on as a result of the food price hike.

Two of the friends I’ll be sharing rent with come August say that they will probably want to move out once they have their own kid. I don’t know how willing people are to share rent with a couple who also has a little tag-along.

After all, it’s not quite the same when your flat-mates are being slightly too loud with the volume control and when the baby is shrieking at the top of its lungs because it’s sick. One you can yell at, the other not quite so much. Heck, I don’t know that I’d want to move into an apartment with a couple with a baby. Not unless we were good friends.

Guess there’s going to be some more playing with numbers to see how they fall.

07.17.08

To say yes, or no to Virginia?

Posted in Children, Spirituality tagged , at 1:35 am by kyrias

Not that, I would ever name a child of mine Virginia…

Unless, I guess, I was going to devote her to Christ from day one. Perish the thought. At any rate, for those who don’t know the story of Virginia and her question of whether Santa Claus exists, here’s a link.

At any rate, I was wondering about children and faith and what I’d do. Mostly prompted by a discussion with Caesura about allowance and handling money, but also by a post from Thene about a certain fracas.

I never really gave any thought about what religion, if any, any child under my care would be brought up in. Caesura sits somewhere between believing there’s “something” yet not quite defining what “it” is and rather intensely disliking Christianity. I just toodle around, beliving in a God that is some how an amalgam of all gods, and not really defining anything either. I always imagined that the child would develop his or her own ideas, hash them out with us, think on them a bit, and then settle down to his or her own world view.

I don’t think I would try to indoctrinate a child in any one religion. Firstly, I don’t think I have the knowledge in me. I haven’t really made an effort to read the Koran, Bible, or the Torah - or anything of the sort, really. Secondly, after seeing how much stress it puts on certain of my friends — I could hardly do that to any child. Sure and the friends in question draw strength from it too, but I don’t think one outweighs the other and so would prefer the child decide for his own. Lastly — why teach religion? Is it not enough to teach them to be good, upstanding, moral people? Perhaps not, according to some religions and perhaps so in others. But I’d rather let the cards fall where they lie than potentially cause harm.

But about Santa Claus.

I don’t think I’d teach them about Santa Claus, per se. I don’t think I’d mention it.

In fact, I’m fairly sure that we’re not going to be celebrating Christmas at my house. So none of that falderdaddle of someone peeking in on them and making a list, or whatnot.

If my child actually asked me about whether or not Santa exists — I’m afraid I’d have to say no. I figured out at about 3 or 4 that Santa didn’t exist and it was just my parents, but even if the kid wanted to believe in Santa and came and asked about it, I’d have to refer him to Caesura:

“Santa Claus is the spirit of giving that we should all keep in our hearts — but no, there is no fat man.”