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The reality of paying for our children’s college, in my opinion, can be one of the most stressful things any parent will ever experience. Our daughter will be turning three in two weeks and it seems lately that the question on everyone’s mind is when we are having another child. Though we would love to give Riley a sibling, another child is a huge financial responsibility especially when looking beyond the horizon to the day when our daughter decides where or if she wants to continue her education. I think a lot of people find humor in our mindset, but our responsibility as her parents is to set our child up for success and releasing her into this crazy world with thousands of dollars in student loan debt is a huge burden, trust me I know!
One of the major reasons I am a working OFW is to pay off my student loans and to save save save for Riley’s education. Coming from a middle class family, my parents were not in a position to send me to college so I worked two, sometimes three jobs to survive and took out student loans to pay for tuition and other school related expenses. I do not want our daughter to have to do this. I would be lying if I said there are not times when I want to take up my husband on his offer of paying off my loans for me so I can stay home with Riley, let’s be real they can make in a weeks’ worth of overtime what many make in a month, but I refuse because not only do my monetary contributions help us achieve our goals that much faster and provide additional security for our family, but my hard work in addition to my husband’s also sets a solid example for the type of person we hope our daughter will be one day.
Over the past three years I have found a variety of ways to save for our child’s education. First, we opened Riley a 529 College Savings plan through our insurance agent. The 529 plan is great because the initial set up is very minimal and then they just auto draft $50 from our account every month. Family members and friends can also gift money into the same account too for holidays and special occasions. Second, every purchase from our checking account I round up to the next dollar in my bank register. At the end of the month we are always plus $50- $100 and I transfer that money into a private savings for Riley. Those pennies really add up! Lastly, I am a consignment fool. Having a daughter makes me a bit of a shopaholic, but when she outgrows anything I resale her items at a consignment store and the cash I get goes into her money jug, which is also emptied into savings twice a year. My advice, anything that can accumulate interest is the best way to save and see it add up fast. It is never too late to start!
Some little girls play pretend they are going shopping or they play house, our little girl play pretends she is going to work. This makes me smile, even at almost three she already loves school and is so smart, plus she thinks having a career is cool. I may not have known then what I know now, but I know exactly how to help get our daughter get off on the right foot in life and that makes it worth every moment of struggle through my college experience.
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