Talk to your kids!

kelsmom
Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:38:55 +0000

Youdon’tsay, the fact that your family chooses to have only one income shouldn’t make a difference. If you made the same amount with both working, the bottom line would come out the same. Maybe I am wrong? I haven’t tried that in the calculators.

I have played with the calculators a lot, because I am struggling to return to work after being a stay at home mom from the time my oldest was born. When she started high school, I began substitute teaching. Even working every possible day, I can only earn around $14k/year. I have looked at what the income from a “real” job would do to our EFC(if I ever land one — I live in MI, the home of what Mitt Romney calls a “one state recession”). I have found that doubling my income would cause a VERY large difference in our EFC. However, because I know this, I know that earning twice the money would not change my lifestyle … the extra money would be expected to go to college. I could whine & say, “Why bother then?” But that doesn’t make sense to me. If I earn more, I can afford to pay more. And it’s the rare school where I would get so much grant money thrown my way that making more money wouldn’t be to my benefit.