<p>My parents don’t contribute significantly to college expenses and don’t think they should have to. I’d like to think that if they realized the system is structured in a way that assumes they will at least assist, maybe they would have been more prepared and more generous, but they probably wouldn’t have been. They were all about college until it was actually time for me to go, then they thought, “well, that’s a nice dream, I hope you figure that out.” I don’t think they genuinely cared whether or not I got a college education, and even though they knew I couldn’t afford one on my own decided that was up to me. I am a little bit bitter, I admit-- mainly because they were not honest about what they planned to contribute and left me in the lurch at the last minute-- but I forgive them. I think they were within their right to handle it the way they did, I just think it wasn’t very nice.</p>
<p>My goal is to be able to save up enough to be able to send our kids to schools without graduating with an unmanageable debt load. Unless our financial situation changes significantly, which is doubtful, they may have to go to community college and/or commute for their bachelors degree-- and they will probably have loans. But we will save as much as we possibly can, and plan to limit the number of children we have to the number we can afford to educate… we’ll see how that goes. Maybe my perspective will change, but having the experiences I’ve had this past year I think not having major debt is more important than having an education, so we will do whatever we can afford even if it means not the best schools. Hopefully my kids will be more gifted than I was and get scholarships. I will not cosign for unreasonable loans like my parents did, but I will make sure my kids have other options.</p>
<p>I am grateful to be going into my marriage already agreed that this is a financial priority, especially since my fiance chose not to attend college himself. He doesn’t want to pressure our kids to go to school if they think, like him, it isn’t for them-- but we agree the money needs to be there for them to do something if they want to.</p>