unequal money for unequal kids?

rhandco
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:36:48 +0000

A guy I work with said “I allocated $10,000 per year for each child, and if they wanted to go somewhere more expensive, they paid the rest. If they wanted to go to this college for free (and one of six did), I gave them the $10,000 per year to do with as they’d like.”

But personally it depends on the child. If I can afford to fully pay for each of my three kids, why would I offer one extra money? But if one needed money, let’s say a campus where a car is required or public transportation is required, why not provide it?

I would not consider personality traits when deciding how much to give kids for college, unless someone truly thinks the “social butterfly” will end up somewhere expensive just because and fail out. An alternative is to have them both go to community college first to show their abilities, then go to a four-year school.

My father has contributed more or less to each of us four kids. One kid started a business and failed, probably cost my parents over $500,000. The rest of us have ended up with $100,000 or so in dribs and drabs ($2,000 for a new car down payment, $5,000 if someone was out of work). Are we going to beat up my brother who was dumb enough to start a business and fail at it? No, it was up to my dad. He owes none of us anything and it was his choice to do more.

From a parent’s perspective, look at the need and whether you can afford it AND whether you think it will be appreciated. The worse you can do is make it clear that you can financially afford “anything” because some people will take take take and will NOT do well when they are the person paying the bills.