Recorded live on Tuesday, October 29, 2019
My oldest daughter will become a teenager this week, and the feeling is one with which all parents can relate. As Gretchen Rubin said, “The days are long, and the years are short.” Time does indeed fly (granted, more so when you are having fun rather than when your child is having a meltdown!).
Each stage of parenting slowly morphs into the next, often without a memorable marker to remember the successes and trials of what you enjoyed (or endured) nor a guide (or warning!) of what lies on the horizon. We remember first words, first steps, and first lost tooth, and push for a child to learn to feed themselves, to read, and to consistently visit the bathroom sans an accident to liberate us from diapers!
With age comes a multitude of hopes and dreams, desires and goals, and the most common I hear clients express to me for their children surrounds college education. As a society, we know the importance of learning throughout a child’s lifetime, the importance of good grades and high test scores in high school, and thanks to the recent investigation nicknamed Operation Varsity Blues (which implicated the likes of actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin) we also know the lengths some parents will go to ensure a child is admitted to a top university. Say it ain’t so, Aunt Becky!
However, we also know the cost of a college education doesn’t come with a discounted price tag. Since the year 2000, the cost of college tuition and fees has risen at a rate more than triple that of the Consumer Price Index (the common measure for the cost of living), and a not unrelated statistic tells us over the past 20 years student loan debt in the U.S. has grown from 90 billion to over $1.5 trillion.
The trend is so alarming it has sparked all means of ideas to address the ballooning debt: from state lotteries helping to fund college education for certain high school graduates to Bernie Sanders bringing the concept of “free college” to the national discourse in 2015, all the way to higher education “disruptors” such as the computer science Lambda School which is cost-free until you obtain a job.
Massive dollar amounts and new ideas aside, ultimately, parents are faced with a simple question: What do I do next?
Join me on October 29th at 12:00 noon for a webinar in which I’ll cover this very topic. Regardless of the life stage your child may be in, from diapers to driving or from the final decision stage to being virtually done with his/her college education, I’ll provide some practical steps and tips you can consider taking in the long days and short years ahead to help achieve your own college education funding goals for your child(ren).
2-912917.1019