<p>
</p>
<p>My husband insisted on this approach for our kids, and boy, did it backfire.</p>
<p>He told them that, because we can afford it, they could go to any undergraduate college they could get admitted to, and that we would pay for it, but that the money would be cut off when they graduated.</p>
<p>One of our kids wants to get an MBA after several years of working – and she knew that this was what she wanted before she started college. If my husband had said “If you choose a less expensive college or get a merit scholarship, you can have the money saved toward graduate school” she likely would have made her college choice with this in mind. But given the rules he set, she chose a very expensive undergraduate institution because she had no motivation to do otherwise. And when the time comes for business school, she will have to go into debt. In no way does this make sense, in my opinion, but my husband is the one with the money, so I had no choice but to go along with it.</p>