Did you read the article recently about class and how movement between classes in the US is almost NIL? It doesn't matter what religion, race, and politics. The biggest factor is where your parents are socially and the elasticity of their position. The higher up you are, the more you can help your children and prevent them from falling down the socio economic ladder. The lower down you are the harder it is for them to climb the ladder.
Of course pretty much everyone reading this here at a place called savingadvice already is giving both themselves and their children a one up. Within your own socio economic position it's likely since you are looking at improving your financial situation or already have, the change to the family tree means that you are making things better for your kids. You are telling them early about things like debt, college, saving, investing wisely, etc.
All factors that contribute to your child's success. So compared to your peers your kid is getting a headstart on things that could drag them down financially. But instead they have parents who may not help as much financially or are able to help more financially because they have their house in order.
As I was reading this article I found myself nodding. That we are going to help our kids as much as possible. They have advantages now from our income but also we are probably going to help them in the future as well.
This came about because so many of us on this board are striving to help our kids with college. It's been written that college and student loan debts are massive (and it really is). But those of us on here I feel are doing better than our peers in helping our children through it financially because we know better and have our own house in order.
I mean we have friends we camped with who recently set aside $50k per kid for college. Our kids are the same age. But DH and I have been putting a little every year aside and we have about half as much. Right now we are considering a lump sum investment into a 529 but if we do then we'll still come out ahead having had saved less over these past 5 and 8 years. Plus the lump sum can be smaller since we'll still be saving our $2k/year.
So the little things like smart saving and wise budgeting this site encourages has helped.
Just musing how changing the family tree a little can show great result.s
social strata for our kids
May 31st, 2018 at 06:37 pm
May 31st, 2018 at 09:33 pm 1527802384
They need to be told they will live at home during those years if they are local to you. Half the college costs are living expenses and going out of state doubles if not triples the full costs. No one needs to go to a more expensive school unless they are becoming a doctor or a lawyer and then they better darn well be applying for every scholarship in existence.
I think too many parents let their children pick where they want to go instead of giving them the choice of schools where they can afford to go. Also, parents let their kids pick stupid majors. Kids need to pick something that will make them a good income after college. They can minor in stupidity, but their major needs to be something useful that has a good prospect of getting a job.
And we need to make our kids work and pay for part of their college, if not all. My son will be working for two years to pay for the two years of vocational college he wants to go to. If he saves half his income on a minimum wage job for 2 years, he will have enough to pay for it in full. Once he has his money saved then he will start school. And he will work part-time while in school to provide his own spending money.
We will help if we can, but right now we are not in a place to. But three years from now, when he is ready to start college, we might be able to. I am hoping we will have paid off our last debt by then.
June 1st, 2018 at 03:43 am 1527824634
We've opted to pay for college so our kids don't begin their adult lives in debt. But not cell phones, cars, weddings, house down payments, etc. it's interesting to see the differing priorities of families with similar income to us.
College costs are getting out of hand, and I think it's partially because of the easy access to student loans. It's not going to get better until we collectively stop being willing to pay crazy prices and start thinking twice about taking on big loans. Even if you are going to law school or medical school as LR mentions, where a high salary is waiting at the end of the tunnel, what happens if you don't like the profession after all? If you've got 6 figures in student loan debt, you're stuck.
June 1st, 2018 at 01:39 pm 1527860362
I'm still way in the hole, but I've at least got a shovel and am working my way to dig out of it. My hope is that I can instill better financial principles into my children (if I'm lucky enough to have them), and not burden them in my retirement. If DH and I can accomplish those things, I will consider that a win. It'd be a bonus to be able to help with school, but I think it's a better gift to never have to rely on them, so retirement is our first focus after debt payoff.
June 1st, 2018 at 03:01 pm 1527865287
I agree that most of the people here on SA are ahead of the game. And we learn from each other. Finance is really a game and if you don't know the rules and regs, you often miss out.
Thanks for opening up this discussion.
June 8th, 2018 at 07:45 pm 1528487156
June 14th, 2018 at 05:01 am 1528952476