Vox Hunt: I'm Saving Up For This

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Tell me about it. We met with a financial adviser, who was going over options for college funds for Wiggle Worm. The conversation basically was: "You can spend this much a month, put it here, and wind up with $40,000 in 18 years, which should pay for about 1 year at our local state university." Ugh.

Yeah, it's more than a little daunting when you think about the cost of education these days. My father-in-law says he hopes Baby C will play ball (basket or foot - my FIL played both) and get a scholarship; I'm partial to the whole educational scholarship route myself. Either way, it's pretty damned scary.

The plus side is that the school where I want to send him for PK-3 and on isn't that much more per year than daycare. I don't know if that's a good thing because it means we won't be dishing out that much more a year for private school, or if it's a bad thing because it means we're paying an awful lot for daycare. Either way, I've already spent a small fortune on my little boy's education - and he's not even 4 months yet!

My parents sent my sister and I to a private preschool/elementary school. When my dad was out of work, they borrowed from their parents to continue to send us there. My sister and I both think that having such a great beginning to our education is what helped us do so well later on. It may be expensive, but if it gives him a solid foundation and a love for learning, it'll be worth it.

My parents sent my sister and me to private schools, too, from PK to 12, and I think it was totally worth it. My parents saw it as an investment in their futures as well as ours. I'll never forget the day I told my dad how much my first semester of college would cost him (I went to a public college - gasp!). I told him how much I needed to give the bursar, and he kind of stared at the bill and said, "Is this per unit?" When I assured him it was for all 21 units and that I'd already bought my books, I thought my father was going to do a little happy dance right then and there. I didn't realize it at the time, but sending me to college for 4 years was about half as much as sending me to high school for 4 years!

These days, my parents are happily retired world travelers. They reinvested the money they saved sending me to college (that still sounds odd) and the money they didn't spend after I graduated and were able to afford a nice retirement. Seeing their example and knowing it's possible, I certainly have hope that I'll be able to pay it forward to my child(ren).

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Eileen

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Eileen
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I'm sick of smiling and so is my jaw.

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