Sharing College Costs with Children

SouthernHope
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 21:34:24 +0000

I’d give our example as one not to emulate.

Two kids in college…they both have merit aid…then we pay 100% of the remaining tuition and room/board (both have stayed in dorms).

They’re expected to then cover everything else themselves…outside food, entertainment, clothes, whatever. The problem is that both work and they have very little overhead so they spend pretty much 100% of the money they make on ridiculous things like a 4th pair of gym shoes or (in the case of my daughter) expensive haircuts and crazy amounts of make-up, for example. They spend like they/we are millionaires.

I’m not even sure how we got ourselves into this situation…and to make it worse, they sometimes get in over their head and my husband will then deposit more money into their accounts (“I can’t not have them eat”) but the reason they don’t have the money is because of their crazy spending. He literally won’t stop sending them money.

It’s been insanely frustrating.

Next year, though, we’re trying to change it…D1 is starting grad school and, after merit, we are paying 100% of tuition but she’s responsible for 100% for everything else. She really needs to live on her own economy.

In the case of S1, he’s moving out of the dorms and we’re also looking at a way for him to pay his own monthly rent and food costs.

But we have absolutely set them off on the wrong path.