Entries Tagged 'Saving' ↓

My husband and I are both fortunate to have generous parents who paid for most of our college expenses.  From my experience, it seems that in the Asian community parents are always expected to pay for their children’s higher education. I have even heard of stories of some parents who take money from their homes or retirement  to pay for a son or daughter’s schooling. Now that I am expecting a child, I am wondering if parents are really obligated to pay for their children’s higher education.  After all, parents already spend considerable time and money raising a child into an adult.  Should they be obligated to pay the expenses of their legally adult children  for another four years or more?

My personal take on this is that parents really have no obligation to pay for college after raising their children to age eighteen because they have done enough.  Parents who pay for their kids’ college expenses are bestowing their children a huge gift, but when something comes too easily  it may not be appreciated as much as something earned by hard work. I have met quite a few classmates who had everything paid for and then later dropped out because they did not focus on their studies.  On the other hand,  I know some people who did not have parental help during college who worked extremely hard and ended up doing quite well.  They did so well precisely because they did not have a parental financial cushion, and they knew that they needed to work hard and  be on the top to win more scholarships and internships.

Some parents use the fact that they are paying for college to dictate many aspects of their children’s lives, and I really think that is worse than not paying for college.  I know too many people who hated what they were studying in college but still soldiered on because they felt like they were obligated to please their parents by graduating with a degree in a certain major. Many of these classmates ended up doing something radically different from their college majors after they were out of college and tasted freedom.  These outcomes make the parental sponsored schooling almost pointless.

When parents refuse to pay for their children’s higher education, they are basically letting the young adults become independent right after highschool.  That is not a bad thing at all because there has to be a point where parents let go of their children and let them survive on their own.  I have to admit that I only felt true freedom after I graduated from college and got my first job because I truly no longer depended on my parents. For some people higher education is not necessary for success, and letting a young adult explore the possibilities outside of an institutionalized education system might also be beneficial.

In closing, I think parents should not feel obligated to pay for their children’s higher education unless they are legally ordered to do so by a court. I would probably help my kid with college expenses since I am sure any school will become extremely expensive in 18 years, but I would help in the form of a loan of some sort.  As the cost of higher education rises it is impossible to expect parents to afford everything and the college aged children will have to pitch in by securing scholarships, grants, and work to fund their own education if they want it.

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In this economy everyone is trying to save a few bucks, and one tool many people have used over the years is the Entertainment Book. This is basically a book of coupons that you can purchase and it contains many buy one get one free coupons for restaurants, services, and entertainment in your area. One of my friends have used it in the past and he saved quite a bundle eating out with his wife while they were dating. Basically 2 to 3 coupons from the book would cover the price of the book. So I was pretty happy when Entertainment Book offered me a free review copy and one to give away to my readers.

Today I received my Entertainment Book for the San Francisco/San Mateo area. This book is a bit smaller than the East Bay version because I guess not as many merchants participate. Nevertheless, I found quite a few buy one get one free coupons for local restaurants. Additionally, there are coupon codes to use at online retailers like Borders and ProFlowers. There are also $5 off coupons for Longs Drugs and Safeway. I am organizing all the coupons I can use during the year and I think I could save at least $300 at the restaurants and shops I already frequent with my husband. This coupon book is definitely an excellent deal for couples because essentially you are paying half price for many meals.

So now for the best part. You can win a copy of the 2009 Entertainment Book for your area for just commenting on this post. Give your best money saving tips or link to a blogpost where you saved money with coupons. Winners will be chosen randomly on 2/14/2009 and you will have to give your contact information to Entertainment Book’s marketing folks to claim your prize. I want the winner to start using the book as soon as possible!

Sorry I forgot to update this, but the winner is comment #6!  The winner has been notified and they will be receiving a copy of the Entertainment Book!

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Last week I read an article on CNN titled “Why you can’t teach money”.  In this article, law professor Lauren Willis argues that financial education is a waste of time and money.  Here are my thoughts on this matter.

Her first argument that financial education doesn’t work because financial product companies “spend billions drowning out well-meaning messages to consumers from nonprofits or government agencies.”  This is certainly true. I am sure people are more likely to know lines from the  MasterCard “Priceless” commercials rather than their own credit card interest rate.  Also, she says that financial products change all the time so it is hard for educators to teach a subject that is constantly in flux.  That is also true, but some basics stay the same.

Next she argues that teaching the basics of finance is a waste of money because sending people to class gives them the illusion that they are educated in the ways of finances and they  don’t change their financial behavior.  I’m not sure if I agree with this because just listening to the basics of budgeting and getting out of debt can be really helpful.  It may be that people who are forced to take classes in personal finance do not change their behavior, but people who want to learn and change can certainly benefit.

Finally, she believes that the government should spend more money on regulating the financial industry rather than trying to educate consumers about the dangers of certain financial products.  I agree that there needs to be regulation on deceptive business practices, but an informed consumer is more able to use the wide variety of financial products to his or her advantage. People do not need to have the knowledge of a professional financial planner to understand some arithmetic  and figure out what is best for them.  Indeed, some financial companies make the math more complicated than it really is, but I think  the basics of budgeting and interest rates be understood by any  human being with average intelligence.

To close the interview the professor stated that parents should continue to teach their children about money and finances because families can educate their children better than the government could.  That may be true, but if the parents have no financial knowledge, then it would be the blind leading the blind.   Financial education has to start somewhere, and blankly stating that it is a waste of time and money does not help the fact that many people are clueless about how to manage their money.  I know a lot of people want to learn how to manage their money better, and those who seek the education voluntarily are more likely to benefit from it.

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I read Laura Rowley’s Yahoo Finance column pretty regularly, and this week she wrote about college debt and how many young adults with large student loans and small wages are basically debt slaves doomed to pay for their education for decades. I have also written a little bit about college finance before. In “Not rich enough, not poor enough” I wrote about how many middle class families do not qualify for financial aid or even scholarships at expensive private colleges and that drew many different responses. Some say that kids should pay for their own college expenses and others say that the financial aid system needs to be reformed. Either way, most people agree that there is a problem with having to take out huge loans to fund college. Here are some things I think parents and college bound teens should consider before signing on to a generation of debt.

1. Consider attending a state public school with in state tuition- I went to the University of California at Berkeley and all four years of tuition plus room and board cost less than one year at any private university. My parents paid for it, but if I could have paid off the entire amount with less than a year of income after I graduated. Recently an article in Forbes ranked UC Berkeley as one of the top colleges for getting rich. The study was done by PayScale.com and the schools were ranked on the median salary of alumni with 10 to 20 years of experience. I think if they gathered data on the amount of student loans some of the private school alumni are still paying, then they will probably find that Berkeley grads keep more of what they earn and pay less to the loansharks. There are plenty of great state college in this country, and I think they are the best bang for the buck.

2. Consider graduating early - If you could shave one semester,term, or even year off your college education then you would save quite a bit of money. It involves a lot of hard work and creative class scheduling, but it is worth it. I took classes that could fulfill multiple graduation requirements and also took classes in the summer session and I finished about a year early. I used the year to work at a couple internships and took one class in my last semester of senior year.

3 . Try  going to a cheap school for the first couple years and then transfer – I know quite a few people that went to community colleges and then transferred to Berkeley or other schools during their junior year. Their final degree is still from the more expensive school and no one can tell that the first two years were spent in a cheaper school.

4. Work before college – I know some people who worked for a year or two before college to save money for college. Many colleges allow you to defer enrollment for a year so you can have the opportunity to do something. 

5. Start saving early in tax advantaged accounts  – Right now I do not have kids yet, but I am putting $100 a month into a 529 education savings plan under my name.  I don’t think parents and children could save too early for a college education.  A 529 allows you to withdraw the savings for education and any gains on the investments are tax free.

Finally, I totally agree with the advice given in the Yahoo Finance article that you shouldn’t borrow a lot more than what you would earn after college.  However,  it is hard to look at the financial impacts of college loans when you are a young idealistic teenager who wants to do the things you love regardless of money.  There needs to be a balance between idealism and practicality, and perhaps more high school counselors should teach students about the effect of massive student loans.

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Today I read a rather refreshing article called “Casting off life’s cares” on the LA Times. Basically it tells the story of an ordained pastor named Dave Dixon who gave away pretty much all of his possessions and started to live on a boat and sing songs in a restaurant a few hours a week. His expenses are $565 per month, and he says that “time, not money, is the real commodity in life”. He says that his lifestyle is divinely inspired and “sees himself living out God’s message that faith and people, not possessions, are what is of true value.”

Interestingly enough, I wrote about Chinese proverbs today on Wise Bread and this article reflects the first proverb I wrote about, “an inch of time is worth an inch of gold; but it is hard to buy one inch of time with one inch of gold”. Time is definitely more precious than money, and Dave Dixon has that figured out.  Additionally, I think it’s great to see that someone realizes that you really don’t need much to survive in this world.  My friend the Retirement Hobo said that in South East Asia he was able to eat well on $1 a day, and $10000 is a good retirement fund there.  He might be exaggerating a bit, but I really think that if we are able to let go of a lot of luxury that we have we can live well on very little money.

I think it is awesome that this pastor Dixon seems to trust God so much with his lifestyle.  Though, it’s funny that the author of the article describes Dave as “quixotic” multiple times in the article. Obviously, some people might think that Dave is a fool for trusting God with his health and not having health insurance, but  apparently God provided for him when he had a kidney stone.  He may seem like a stupid bum living on a rickety boat, but I know so many people with huge houses that they slave over and complain about.  Can these people with so many more possessions than Dave Dixon say that they are really truly free and happy?  Dave said in the article, “my possessions made me work harder and stole my time”, and I agree with that sentiment.  We all have an extremely ephemeral existence on this earth, and for us to devote so much time and effort to acquire things we can’t bring with us to the next life is quite pointless.

Now, would I sell everything  and go live on a boat?  Probably not because I don’t like boats very much, but I wouldn’t mind living in a faraway city in Asia where rent is less than $100 a month.  I could even have a little piece of land where I can plant some tomatoes, peas, and corn, and raise a few chickens and ducks.  These are all things I had when I was a kid in China, and really that’s all I need to be happy.  It is a dream lifestyle that is so far removed  from my current daily grind in a glass tower, and maybe one day I can convince the hubby to go there.

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