I like this. I like encouraging students to change their dream from being at a certain school to four years, to doing whatever it is they want to do with their lives after they finish school. We've talked with our kids about the tradeoff of four years at an expensive undergrad vs. cheaper undergrad + grad school support or help with starting a business or support while doing unpaid internships after undergrad etc etc etc. The talks have been, uhm, ineffective
but I get where the blogger is coming from, even if my kids don't.
That said, the example is a little bit of a stretch. You can't get student loans to buy a new Mini or pay jazz musicians. Money for college might be coming out of accounts where there are significant tax penalties if the money's not used for qualified education expenses. In short, it's not a one-to-one swap of $200k for whatever your heart desires instead of $200k for college. Maybe it's a swap of $40k of whatever your heart desires during college plus another $60k in added support/buying power in the first few after-college years.