Paying College Expenses Today

College debt is an issue of concern in Seattle and all over the country.  Because college tuition is continuing to climb each year, you have a difficult task to save for your kids to go to college.  If over the past eighteen years you have saved enough to pay $60,000 your child to get a four year education, you will be very limited in your choice of colleges.

While eighteen years ago, $60,000 was a liberal amount including projected inflation to save per child for four years of college, college tuition has increased much faster than inflation so your $60,000 will pay only for in-state public college tuition (including room and board) in only the most depressed areas of the nation.  

If you child wants to consider a private university for his or her education, it will not be available with only $60,000 to spend on tuition, room, and board.  In addition, because your child has this $60,000 to spend, his or her options for receiving many grants that are based on income will be thwarted.  This leaves only the options of either paying out-of-pocket or borrowing in order to make up the difference between what you have saved and what you will need to pay the tuition.

Possibly, you can utilize the money that you are no longer depositing into your child's college savings plan each month to make up part of the tuition.  Probably, you will need to take out a loan or have your child take out a student loan to make up the amount that you lack in tuition if you want your child to go to a private university or to a public university that is either in an affluent area or out of state.

If you want your child to attend the University of Washington in Seattle and your child wants to live on campus in order to take full advantage of his or her education, your $60,000 will purchase approximately two of the four years that your child will be in college.  This will mean that between you and your child, you will accrue $60,000 in college debt.

If you send your child to a less expensive university that is not in Seattle, your child could incur tuition, room, and board expenses that come up to say, $80,000 over a four year period.  While this leaves only $20,000 in college debt, it is still debt that you will accrue after having saved for your child's education for nearly twenty years.

Imagine if you have not saved money for your child's education.  The possible debt that you could accrue would then certainly be an issue of great concern to you.

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