I have a question about shuffling money around to pay for tuition for our oldest DS, who will be starting college in the fall. He received the maximum merit scholarship at the school he will be attending, but there will still be significant out-of-pocket expense.
(Before posting this, I searched the forum for “college tuition” and read countless debates about using community colleges and in-state schools, etc., but those are not options with my son’s field. Our other two children do not have such particular interests and talents, so they will absolutely, without question, go to the state school, to which oldest DS received a full-ride. We have been debt free since paying our 30-year mortgage off in just a little over 5 years, we drive 20-year-old vehicles, and live very sensible lives. Our kids have also adopted our financial sensibility. Even though I’ve been in a fetal position about the finances of paying for college for a week now, we are certain this is the best path for him. None of this is relevant to my question, but I wanted to put it out there to avoid a repeat of the debates we financially savvy people love to engage in )
The plan is to have him borrow as much as he can in his own name, but, while I still don’t understand how much that is, I am certain there will still be a nice chunk of change still owed to fully cover expenses.
We have 529 plans, but, again, we will not have enough for him since we started saving so late (have already rectified this for his younger brothers).
I’ve looked at parent plus loans and cringe at the interest rates and fees. I just don’t know if I have it in me to do that. We Have also considered HELOC and 401k loans; again, that goes against the very essence of my DNA.
We have a savings account that we were using for a down payment for a cabin in the mountains (intended to rent it out to pay for mortgage and it would be our retirement home) that will cover two years of college expenses. Although emptying this account would make me sad, it doesn’t make me physically ill like the other options above.
If we go this route (using cash after he has maxed his student loan options), is there a creative way to funnel it in any way to reap any sort of advantage? I’ll definitely check and see if I can pay with a credit card for rewards if they don’t charge fees, but I was wondering if I should maybe deposit it into the 529 and then withdraw? I’ll absolutely talk to our accountant first, but I was just wondering if anyone else has done something similar? I thought I remembered reading something about the advantages of a Schwab account to do something similar, but I can’t find anything like that now.
I’m also wondering if I shouldn’t use his brothers’ 529 or stop contributing to theirs; while my accountant said our state’s tax benefits are good, they certainly are not earning significant money. Again, I’ll discuss with the cpa, but I’m wondering what others have done.
Sorry for the long post- it’s proportionate to my anxiety over this! I am looking for every nickel and dime to offset this.
Thanks for any tips!
(Before posting this, I searched the forum for “college tuition” and read countless debates about using community colleges and in-state schools, etc., but those are not options with my son’s field. Our other two children do not have such particular interests and talents, so they will absolutely, without question, go to the state school, to which oldest DS received a full-ride. We have been debt free since paying our 30-year mortgage off in just a little over 5 years, we drive 20-year-old vehicles, and live very sensible lives. Our kids have also adopted our financial sensibility. Even though I’ve been in a fetal position about the finances of paying for college for a week now, we are certain this is the best path for him. None of this is relevant to my question, but I wanted to put it out there to avoid a repeat of the debates we financially savvy people love to engage in )
The plan is to have him borrow as much as he can in his own name, but, while I still don’t understand how much that is, I am certain there will still be a nice chunk of change still owed to fully cover expenses.
We have 529 plans, but, again, we will not have enough for him since we started saving so late (have already rectified this for his younger brothers).
I’ve looked at parent plus loans and cringe at the interest rates and fees. I just don’t know if I have it in me to do that. We Have also considered HELOC and 401k loans; again, that goes against the very essence of my DNA.
We have a savings account that we were using for a down payment for a cabin in the mountains (intended to rent it out to pay for mortgage and it would be our retirement home) that will cover two years of college expenses. Although emptying this account would make me sad, it doesn’t make me physically ill like the other options above.
If we go this route (using cash after he has maxed his student loan options), is there a creative way to funnel it in any way to reap any sort of advantage? I’ll definitely check and see if I can pay with a credit card for rewards if they don’t charge fees, but I was wondering if I should maybe deposit it into the 529 and then withdraw? I’ll absolutely talk to our accountant first, but I was just wondering if anyone else has done something similar? I thought I remembered reading something about the advantages of a Schwab account to do something similar, but I can’t find anything like that now.
I’m also wondering if I shouldn’t use his brothers’ 529 or stop contributing to theirs; while my accountant said our state’s tax benefits are good, they certainly are not earning significant money. Again, I’ll discuss with the cpa, but I’m wondering what others have done.
Sorry for the long post- it’s proportionate to my anxiety over this! I am looking for every nickel and dime to offset this.
Thanks for any tips!