Wrote this in 2012 as my daughter was graduating from University. This was my oldest, who I learned a lot about RESPs with.
For those wondering where I might have been yesterday, I took a day off to attend my daughter’s graduation ceremony at WLU in Kitchener. I haven’t actually taken a planned day off for a long time (my Dad’s death last year was the last “break” I took from writing).
As a proud Dad I was happy to see my daughter succeed and reach her goal, but as she was handed her diploma this thought came to mind:
So that is what $50,000 looks like? {but then after a moment I had a further thought} Best investment I’ve ever made.
Indeed, it is hard to get your head around paying that much money and at the end of it your child has a piece of paper and no real guarantee of employment, however, as a parent the sense of pride silences the nasty inner financial demons that keep asking, “… was that really a good use of your money?“. Whether my child gets a job, or whether their degree helps them is a risk I (as a parent) am willing to take (hell I have invested in much riskier things and been paid back much less).
Best Investment ?
I have made a career complaining (aka Blogging) about University Costs, and I will continue to rant about the cost of Post Secondary Educations in Canada (the costs are outrageous at times), however, I am still willing to pay for it as an investment in my child’s future. If you can’t invest in your child’s future with money, help out in other ways, it is a good use of your time and resources. An RESP is still your best option if you want to help out financially.
Good luck, Bonne Chance and cheers to all the Graduating Students!
I am shocked and awed about the costs of school both here and the USA. BUT, I am vexed when a person goes in $200,000 worth of debt (in the USA) at one of the “Named” universities, then goes out and gets a $20,000 per year job in the non-profit sector. In what CENTURY do they think they will finish PAYING off that school debt? I am more vexed that someone does not belt them upside the head and ask “Are you flipping STUPID????”
OTOH, I have heard students saying “Oh THAT assignment is only worth 0.5% of the overall mark so I can’t be arsed to do it.” Stupid is as stupid does!
The statement, “The assignments are only worth 10%, so why should I do them, the final could be worth 100%”, so you don’t want 10 free marks? It was happening in the 80’s and it keeps happening now, WTF?!?
I did not mean United States. it was us as in we, as in a family. So, the question can mean many things depending on the way you want to look at it. may be you are right – it is odd.
I meant US as in WE actually as well, either way, keeps us chatting 😀
Interesting point of view.
What is first – us or money?
An odd comment, US is always first, money is a TOOL, US is US.
50K is only a year of college education in the US! (Of course, most kids pay much less than that because of financial aid, community college etc.) We’re hoping to be high income enough that we don’t qualify for aid, so we’re looking at something like 200K for a private school in today’s dollars. (Nothing against state schools, but he’s not going to this one, and out of state tuition at good schools is as high as for private schools). My parents paid for my degree and I want to be able to do the same for my kids. They can be responsible for incidentals like I was.
Congrats to your daughter!
Allow me to be clear on this, HOLY CRAP!!!!! That is a SHIT LOAD (I said it) of MONEY!!!! Yikes…
Yes Congrats to your parents for not trying to sell your kidneys on EBAY! WOW!
(oops…car = $300 piece of sh&%).
My parents didn’t pay for my degree……however, the bank of dad offered 0% loans to all 5 of us when the summer jobs couldn’t cover it, repayable when we started earning money. I needed to borrow once…then I started with co-op workterms, paid him back and graduated debt-free.
I’m hoping to do the same to the kid — have him pay, and spot him when he’s low. BUT, if he truly wants to pursue architecture, he’ll have a little trouble as that’s not in our province (SK)….so we may have to rethink this.
Hubby — didn’t qualify for student loans back then — even with co-op work terms had 1 or 2 part time jobs as well. Talk about time management….it’s hard enough getting the engineering degree — back then they purposely overloaded us to weed us out — and then worrying about food/rent on top of that…those years were character building. (And he got NO help from his parents — they moved out of province. I remember him being so happy when the VISA cheques started — he could pay rent with his VISA the month he started the workterm – as his savings were out – instead of having to sell his car, again.)
Since my mom covered my college tuition I definitely can’t bash you paying for her education. In my case though it was only a 2 year diploma program at a technical school. So it wouldn’t have been quite that much money. I think if you can afford it, it’s awesome to be able to get your kids off to a good start on their careers without big debt affecting them. I’m sure she really appreciates it. If not, she will appreciate it down the road when she hears about her friends struggling with massive student loan debt.
I am surprised no one challenged me on paying for my kids education.