quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

quote:

Originally posted by craigcpa:
You asked for it:

See that big ole balance in your 491k's? Start taking some out to pay for it.

You can't take it with you. What else are you going to spend it on?

You're not living forever. Use the money!!!

Literally the worse advice I've ever read on this forum.

Any financial adviser worth their pay would advise against using retirement to fund a college education. And not having equity in a house makes the retirement funds even more indispensable.

Your nest egg is nothing to sneeze at, but you don't own a home.

My three step solution is simple:

Step 1 - Don't retire.

Step 2 - Have your wife get a job.

Step 3 - Have your daughter get a job.

Everyone has skin in the game then. At $10 an hour, your wife and daughter together ought to be able to pull in $20,000-$35,000 a year, plus whatever you make. In four years, your daughter will graduate debt free, you and your wife will have more money for retirement, plus you'll have an additional 4 years of whatever benefits you currently receive from your employer.

It's a trifecta of win.

Top observation: That seems like an OBSCENELY EXPENSIVE school. My daughter just graduated with two degrees simultaneously from the University of Utah, and it was about $21 K per year. If your daughter is dreaming of an Ivy-League school, that is fine, (I know they all do) but it is time to get rational and realistic.

Once you start thinking of an in-state college, it all becomes more realistic. Live at home, work part time, brown-bag your lunch, ride a bicycle, etc. That's how I did it, and how my daughter kept her expenses down.

My mom did that with my two littler brothers and paid for everything for them at schools she couldn't afford. Neither appreciated it. The youngest one, now 26 partied flunked out of college and never even got an AA degree. The other now 28 years old got a degree in English (without wanting to be a teacher) and got fired from 4 different corporate jobs over 2 years and is now selling cars (which requires no degree) at a Ford dealership his GF's father owns. My mom can't even retire now, she's 65 and works a full time job, and only way she'll be able to retire at all in 2 years is to sell the house she's owned since 1978 and move to a crappy 1 bedroom condo.


My sister and I had a little help, but we both worked, but I went to a community college to get an AA, worked 36 hours a week, lived at home while going to college for most of it, paid for the majority of college ourselves, and we worked for it. I partied a lot and goofed off, BUT I was the one paying to retake classes out of my own pocket, so you learn! Both of us make 6 figures, own our own homes and are 10x more successful than our 2 little brothers ever will be.


In your current situation, you can't even afford to retire with 2 people with what you have without already owning a home outright (which you don't), and you certainly can't afford to pay for a school for your daughter at that price. Make her get an AA at the local community college, make her work part time, and help her some, see how her grades are, then go from there.

Definitely try community college or online courses for all the general education requirements IMO.

1- Join the military branch of her choice, in a career field that will transfer over to a good paying civilian job.
2- Use the educational opportunities offered by the military to become degreed.
No way these days would I spend my own money in the vague hope that a college degree will help the kid get meaningful employment. And going into any kind of debt to get a degree is not an option either,

Lots of good advice here. At your age and not owning a home, please DO NOT co-sign for any loans. You don't want to be on the hook for student loans so close to retirement.

First of all, Nampa/Boise is pretty safe. She'll be fine.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that you'll be required to complete a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) where you share all of your intimate financial secrets (income, savings, college savings, debt, 401K, IRA, home ownership, etc). They will score your daughter's financial ability to pay as well as your ability to contribute. Once the college and university see your FAFSA, she may qualify for generous financial aid or be completed locked out.

Is your daughter eligible for scholarships? Have her shop around to a few schools to see what they would offer her. My son is a sophomore at BYU. He has a part scholarship. With our college savings, we can essentially pay for his tuition, books and housing, which is about $15K year, less when you consider his half tuition scholarship. He had a more generous offer from Utah State that would have made is four years VERY affordable, almost laughably cheap.

Our daughter is a freshman at a hot shot school in Boston where tuition, housing and food retail for $70k/year. She has a very generous scholarship which makes her out of pocket cost per year, is better than what she received from UCs. We contribute the same to her the same dollars as we do for our son. She's on the hook for some modest loans per year and is required to work 10-12/week (campus requirements to fulfill her financial commitment, skin in the game). She'll graduate (pre-med) with $30-50K in loans, which I find obscene. However, if she's going to be a trauma surgeon, I can't worry about her student loans for 12 years.

We did not, and will not, co-sign for any student loans. I will not be contribute to the scam that is cheap/easy student loans, lame degrees for students with no employment opportunity, or torpedo my retirement plans. We also have a kid in high school, so I've got to save for his college as well.

My six brothers and I did junior college before transferring to various universities. If she's disciplined, she can do it, excel and save a boat load of money. Because your in the bay area, this only makes sense if she can live at home!

My daughter graduates high school this year. She was accepted to Baylor, her dream school, and initially decided she was going no matter what. Now she is applying for the Army ROTC scholarship. Her plan is if she gets the scholarship, she will go to Baylor otherwise she is going to community college to knock out her general course work and transfer to a 4 year school after that.

She came to this decision when her mom and I showed her on paper what kind debt she would be enslaving herself to. Just like others have already posted, we will not co-sign loans or take any parent loans for her education.

Not sure if ROTC and military service is an option for you but throwing it out there.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:

First of all, Nampa/Boise is pretty safe. She'll be fine.

I missed where Boise was mentioned as the location; but I am from Boise, and it is about as safe as it gets. (Although an imprudent person can find trouble anywhere.)

You can appeal financial aid decisions and the school can massage numbers to make things work better for you. Your daughter needs to pursue scholarships like it's a job. There are a variety of different student loan programs that you and your daughter need to become familiar with before relying on them to fund her education or signing your names. Taking on some student loans is going to happen. It's important not to take on an absurd amount of debt chasing the wrong thing. Make sure the school she goes to is strong in what she wants to study and will position her well in the job market. Dig deeper into employed after graduation numbers and see what employment in her major is actually in the field of study. There's a big difference between engineering students being employed in the field and engineering student picking up shifts at Starbucks but the the school does a shit job of placing students in relevant jobs.

quote:

Originally posted by Crom:

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:

First of all, Nampa/Boise is pretty safe. She'll be fine.

I missed where Boise was mentioned as the location; but I am from Boise, and it is about as safe as it gets. (Although an imprudent person can find trouble anywhere.)

Relatively speaking, Nampa and Boise are neighboring communities.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
One final thing to consider is where those jobs will be.

I’m assuming the alumni network of this university will primarily be in Idaho, and you are in California. Is Idaho where she wants to live after college?

Yes she plans to move to Idaho. Wife and I are planning to retire in Idaho. Wife has been looking at real estate listings around the out skirts of Twin Falls Area where things seem affordable on what we have for retirement.

I have two maybe three more years to work. I contribute 6% of my pay into a 401K account. Company matches it dollar for dollar at that amount. At the end of the year the company adds another 6% for retirement instead of a defined pension.

Besides what was stated in OP I have two other small retirement accounts with cash value of almost 50k. It is portable. Wife and I live very meager and like to grow vegetables. Wife’s health prevents her from working at this time. Our middle son wants out of California also.

GI Bill

We used a multiple source approach. Scholarships (apply for all that you can), parental contribution, student loans and student work. Got my stepdaughter through Colo. School of Mines with a BS in Chemical Engineering. It cost us about $14k out of pocket and she carried about $25k in student loans.

She ended up pursuing a research PhD in computational molecular genetics. That one was paid by Wake Forest.

It can be done.

So my original advice was based on the limited information in the original post. Where does your daughter fit in the newly revealed middle son group of children? Is she the first or last one out the door?

New plan:

Daughter moves to Idaho, gets a job and establishes residency in Idaho. With the money she saves from working for a few years, she pays for a state school. A good dose of reality of what happens if she doesn't do well in school before she goes should keep her motivated when she does go. It also should help her focus on majors she can do something with that make economic sense.

With multiple children, a wife with health issues, and no home paid for, I wouldn't touch your retirement funds, cosign any loans, etc.

quote:

She'll graduate (pre-med) with $30-50K in loans, which I find obscene. However, if she's going to be a trauma surgeon, I can't worry about her student loans for 12 years.

Agreed. If you want to be a Dr, there are going to be significant loans to repay.

Just the rules of the game.

The engineering department at the University of Idaho has a co-op program. https://www.uidaho.edu/engr/programs/cda/coop It does not look as comprehensive as the one at my school (Georgia Tech) but you might contact them and see how flexible they are. Perhaps they will let your daughter start earlier. In my case I found my own company/co-op job and, in effect, fashioned my own co-op degree. The administrative staff were very helpful Tom in this regard.

Different people keep saying ROTC. There is also the National Guards, they have pretty decent benefits for college. They also have a simultaneous program where you can belong to both.

I only read the first page so forgive me if this has been said before.

I'm not familiar with the university system in California but in Virginia you can do your first two years at a community college and if you maintain a certain GPA you are automatically admitted to ANY state university as a junior.
I had a subcontractor do this and he ended up going to medical school at UVA and is now a MD.

I will also agree that you should not raid your 401K at this stage of your life.

Do community colleges offer first and second year engineering classes?