<p>if you were fairly well off, would you want your kid to pay you back for college?
assuming the kid was very good behavior too.</p>
<p>also, with interest?</p>
<p>Well, I PERSONALLY wouldn’t. </p>
<p>But I can see scenarios where that would not be out of the question, for example, when a family depletes its retirement savings to pay for a kid’s education.</p>
<p>No, but I wouldn’t criticize someone who would. Parents have different ways of teaching responsibility. It’s not my way, but I can imagine how some would think it’s important for one’s kid to have a monetary stake in the game.</p>
<p>Also, what seems “fairly well off” to a young person may not reflect reality.</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t even if I wasn’t “fairly well off”. It was something we planned for and wanted to do. They can pay me back by doing something with the education.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t criticize others who feel differently either. Every family has their own way of looking at things and I can certainly see where other families would need the money.</p>
<p>My mom is very well off, but she is still going to make me take out a loan for one year to show me “responsibility” and how most graduates enter the workfield. If you plan on entering into a healthcare field, some employers will help you pay off loans, so in that case, taking out a loan instead would be a much better option.</p>
<p>An interesting story, I wonder if this will be applicable for you in any way?</p>
<p>I once heard a speech about paying someone back. The central part of the speech was a student telling a story about his father, who happened to be a vary famous veterinarian in Wales.</p>
<p>When his father was a student, he went on a foreign exchange trip to spend a semester in South Africa. The family he stayed with happened to be an incredibly world-renowned veterinarian. When the elder man asked the father if he had any ideas for his career, the father replied, “I have none. I have to drop out of vet school because it’s too expensive for me to afford. Perhaps I will pick it up in the future.” “How much money do you need, son?” “About $100,000.” </p>
<p>A few weeks went by, and much to his amazement and surprise the father received a check in the mail for $100,000 from the veterinarian in South Africa. He called to thank the man and put together a repayment plan, but the man said, “(Name), when I was an aspiring veterinarian one of my dreams was to one day be able to help another person. This is the way I am helping you. I do not want you to repay me. Instead, when a young vet student comes to you with a similar situation, you write him or her a check and tell them my story. That is how you will repay me. Good luck and thank you.” He hung up. The father used the money as it was intended, finished vet school, and is now a famous veterinarian.</p>
<p>He has kept his word to the old man and has, to date, put twelve struggling vet students through vet school. I’m eager to hear about the next generation!</p>
<p>In this case, I think the moral of the story is that leaving your children with a good education is the best gift you can give to them. This gift will pay dividends pretty much forever because future generations could also benefit from your investment. </p>
<p>I’m not paying my parents back for college. They want to pay for me to go to school and have saved and planned for a very long time. It is only reasonable that I do the same for my kids.</p>
<p>In our family, it is my children’s grandparents who are helping them through college. I hope to be in the position to do the same for my grandchildren someday.</p>
<p>Don’t pay me back. Save the money to send your own kids to college. It’ll probably be about $1 million for 4 years by then…</p>
<p>i’m going to pay my parents back.</p>
<p>i don’t know if they’ll make me or not, they’d probably at least make me pay some of it back, but it just seems wrong to take the money from them.</p>
<p>my family’s well off, yeah. but… i mean, i need to learn to fend for myself. if i want to go to a school that costs more as opposed to a worse school that would give me more merit aid, then it’s my responsibility to pay for it. not necessarily right away. student loans, etc. would come first. but i would definitely try my best to get as much of the money i borrowed from my parents back to them.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider. Suppose the grandparents always said they were paying for college. College comes along, parents are financially Ok at the moment to pay for college, grandparents are too old and sick to be bothered with asking for their promised contribution. Grandparents die, leave the <em>grandkids</em> maybe 3x the total cost of their college education – although the parents have shelled out the bucks for college. </p>
<p>Should the kids pay the parents back out of their inheritance? Let’s assume that the parents had the money at the time, but the quarter million dollars expended on education would be handy at retirement time.</p>
<p>My parents aren’t asking me to pay them back, but I think they expect some pretty nice presents if I’m successful in the future (car, house, vacations)</p>
<p>I just want my D to put me in a clean nursing home.</p>
<p>My parents helped pay for my education, many long years ago. When I asked how I could repay them, they said, “Just do the same for your kids.” We are definitely not well off, and paying for our sons’ education has involved working a lot of overtime. (They have also worked as they could and taken out some loans.) However, I am very happy that they have been able to attend the schools that were best for them and have taken full advantage of their education. </p>
<p>And they do promise they will find us a very nice nursing home when the time comes. :)</p>
<p>My daughter was offered a full ride to a nice LAC, but she wanted to go to Cornell. She said to us, “If you let me go to Cornell I’ll pay 10,000/yr.” I took her up on it. This summer she gave me some of her summer earning toward her tuition If she continues with her good performance at school, AND she makes some attempt in paying us back, we will forgive the loan. It’s never my intention to have pay for school, but I wanted to know how much it meant to her.</p>
<p>skywidjymom I have said the same thing for quite some time now to my S I think he knows the request by heart since he has repeated back to me…Put mom in a nice nursing home, with my own room, TV and remote. Your dad can be next door with his own TV and remote…</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that if you’re going to have kids, you should be responsible for paying for their education. College isn’t a luxury anymore; it’s a necessity.</p>
<p>I think it’s a different story if your kid wants to go to say NYU with its massive tuition rather than a cheaper but still good quality institution. I think it would be acceptable to ask them to pay the difference or help pay off any loans.</p>
<p>When my D saw the tuition invoice, she asked, “Is that for all 4 years?” DUH, no, kid, it’s for EACH year. She’ll be borrowing about $10K a year but I will probably pay off half of her debt. She’s going for musical theatre so she’ll basically be unemployable anyway.</p>