I know a lot more people going into debt for their kids’ college educations than those that could pay for it and won’t.
We are not sure yet how big a loan, if any, we will need to fund our son’s grad school, since we do not know yet which type of grad school he will pick, whether it will be funded through the grad school or not, and how much money he will earn working between college graduation and grad school (an emerging plan if he picks a costly sort of grad school).
But one thing we are sure of. We do not want him starting out life with any debt. If any loan is to be taken, we will do it. We have a home equity line of credit open and ready for us to take a home equity loan as needed.
We do not expect him to pay us back.
@TheGreyKing I’d forgotten about our HELOC. DH and I lined one up when DS1 started his freshman year of undergrad. Never needed it, but it was nice to have on tap.
We had a HELOC available, but didn’t touch it til I was unable to work after a major medical event. My income covered about half of EFC (seven years ago), and we tapped in HELOC for about 1/3 of a year’s COA. Helped that S1 was graduating just as I had my medical event – those funds went to S2’s last two years.
We won’t be funding grad school – if S1 goes, it will be employer-paid or fully funded; S2 hopes to find an employer who will help pay while he works. That was part of the trade-off for private vs. public.
D didn’t go to grad school…at this point if she chooses to go the cost will probably on her, since will be paying for S’s undergrad and getting closer to retirement…but we’ll see. We probably would’ve been more able to help her had she gone right after or soon after undergrad. It will likely be the same with S…