If yes, what will you help them with? Paying for college? Grad school? Wedding? Home?
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We just plan to help with college (have a 529 plan), but we don't plan to fully cover it 100% unless it just works out that way. And we'll help with a wedding only IF we have the money to do so at the time. And we have no intention of helping with a house, though they can always stay with us if they need to.
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We don't have a plan in place for that but if we have the funds, I would definitely help LO (s) with college, weddings & maybe even a down payment on their first car or something depending on the life stage they are in. My parents don't have a lot but they always have helped us anyway they can. Even if it was just helping us with negotiations when we bought our house & car. I believe that it's good to have to provide for yourself but it can be scary no matter what stage you are at & I appreciate my parents (even grandparents) help to give us the life that we have.
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College tuition will be covered, she'll have to work a part time job to cover room and board unless our financial situation takes an unexpectedly awesome turn.
I don't think we'll be able to pay for any houses, but she'd always be welcome to come back home if she needed a place to live.
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We plan to help with college and grad school if our children are deserving. We will not throw good money after bad just to say our children went to college. I could see us being initial investors in a business or product our children create. We will likely contribute to a wedding, but not a home or underwriting vacations and cars into adulthood.
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Definitely planning on covering college and if we can, money to get them started in life.
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Depending on the situation, I would be comfortable funding part of the total expense for college. I had student loans and I think having was part of the learning process of my young adulthood.
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I would love to be able to pay for college and the rest, but I am not sure how much cash we will have! One thing my MIL has done for her kids is provide an amount of seed money to pay for something like starting a business, higher education, etc. I like the idea of giving them some choice. Of course all this also depends on the kids. If they're (lovable of course but) totally flaky dopes, I would think twice about dropping money on education or anything else.
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College and money set aside for wedding. I'm sure we'd invest in a business to get LO started if that was a path she chose.
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We really want to. We plan to try to pay for or at least help with college and then depending on our means anything that our children need. My husbands parents who have a bit of money are also generously socking some away for our son as well.
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We will be helping with college (probably just undergrad) as long as child has a plan (we have a fund as do grandparents) and I am willing to help out with a wedding like our parents did for us, not the entire thing and nothing extravagant but we will give them X amount to help put toward the wedding.
House is all up to them, we will not be helping with that. My children will work though high school/college. I did not have a free ride and they will not either.
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We will pay for some portion of college and have a 529 set up for that purpose (my MIL and DH also set up a 529-trust for LO as well). I would definitely help with grad school as well, especially because I think grad school will become more common and necessary for advancement.
We would like to help with a down payment for a house; especially if her earnings are impacted by student loans.
We will not be paying for a wedding. We will likely pay for something (photog or similar) when the time comes but a wedding is not something I would ever dream of saving for or thinking about saving for now. It’s a party.
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Definitely college and some living expenses for 4 years as long as its a state school. Grad school would be up for discussion. Probably help with weddings. Living expenses after college though would most likely be a definite no, barring some very specific short term circumstances.
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We will pay for college (along with a trust fund from my parents) and we will try to help with others things as well. My parents have been very generous in helping me by either loaning me or outright giving me large sums of money and I hope/intend to pay it forward with my children. My parents have been good savers their whole lives and when they're gone we should receive a sizable amount of money. I think they'd love for that money to go towards paying for a nice wedding or helping our kids buy a home.
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I would like to have a savings account for my child to be divided between college, a wedding, and a down payment for a home. We'll see if I'm able to do that.
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Assuming I go back to work and we're not totally broke anymore, (AAAH) I hope we'll be able to pay for college, and probably my parents will chip in for that but they will need jobs to cover their own spending money. I'd like to give them a lump sum for weddings that they can spend how they choose. For a house, grad school or anything else, I think we'll help out as we're able to.
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DH and I had completely opposite experiences (my parents paid for everything except our house, his parents paid for nothing). After thinking about how I turned out (I don't think about money seriously enough!), I think somewhere in the middle would be best. If we can, I want to support my children through college and their wedding and don't want to leave them with crazy amounts of debt. But at the same time I want them to feel and experience firsthand how expensive it is by making them responsible for a good portion of it.
If I'd really known the value of my college education, I don't think I would've gotten a D+ in Survey of Bio freshman year (a SURVEY class! HOW!).
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We plan to pay for college. Everything else, like wedding and down payment for house, we'll help out if needed.
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I would love to help out with all of those if we're able to. At a minimum we'll be paying for college.
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College will be taken care of. Probably contribute to weddings, but we won't be able to buy a house. They're always welcome to stay with us, though.
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I would pay for college and a car. Everything else they are on their own for.
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We plan to pay for college and maybe grad school, depending on how we're doing against our retirement goals. I'm thinking they'll be on their own for wedding & a down payment. If she needs to move in with us I would be supportive of that, as long as she has a plan in place.
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College as much as we are able (she has a college fund) and a portion towards a wedding up to a certain amount.
House buying is an adult responsibility. Thats on her.
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Collegeand grad school definitely. Weddings - forget it, if you're old enough to get married, you pay for the wedding you can afford, by yourselves as a couple. Good practice for the future. House downpayment - doubtful, again, I am pretty big on standing on your own two feet. Also, I am very aware that parents paying for adult childrens choices often come with strings attached no matter how careful we try to be.
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our parents helped as they could/can and we'll do the same. we hope to pay for college outright, help with a wedding and/or downpayment.
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We will help with college, though not entirely, as I think taking out loans (even a small amount) can give children an additional feeling of ownership/responsibility. And we will help with the cost of a wedding. No car, no house.
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We won't be paying for college, but will help here and there if we can. We will pay for a certain amount for their wedding.
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I would love to help our kids out as much as we can (and feel they deserve depending on circumstances) with things like college, weddings, maybe the first car. They won't know that growing up though.
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We are probably not going to straight out pay for anything. If we can help with college, then it will be after they are done. We will not be buying vehicles, paying rent, etc. If they are in a jam, we will help out but learning to make/manage money is what becoming an adult is all about.
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We've already started a college fund but will advise that it will probably only cover partial expenses with everything rising in costs. We'll pay for her first car and cover car insurance until she finishes school.
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We will contribute as much as we can to their college education and their wedding.
But grad school and home? Unlikely, unless we win the lotto or something.
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We are thinking of giving each child a set amount when they graduate high school. We are not sure what amount that will be because it will depend on our income and how we save and basically the future is unpredictable sometimes. We hope it's a large sum like 50k more or less.
They can choose to do whatever with it, spend it on *some of* college, save it for a wedding, save it as a down payment for a house or even buy a car. We hope to instill some money values in them and hope they don't just buy random stuff with it and actually use it for their future but it's really up to them.
We are just consider this... because we have been brainstorming what is fair? What if one kid goes to a pricier college than another. What if one kid gets married and one doesn't? What if one wants money forever but the other doesn't? So if we just give all kids one lump sum we are being fair. Right?
I don't know again up in the air.
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I guess I won't really know what we'll do until we're there.
I guess a catastrophic even could happen to change our finances, or we may know more about LO and figure out a path that would benefit her more, but theoretically it would be nice to help LO pay for undergrad. But that idea would come with strings--like is she choosing an institution appropriate for her major? (I wouldnt't pay for a child of mine to go to an Ivy League school if they want to be a teacher, for example. It's just unnecessary, unless they have a giant scholarship).
I like the idea of "matching". LO can work hard and we will match what she manages to generate herself through part time jobs. That would go for first car, college room and board, and *maybe* grad school.
It really just depends. My husband and I both have graduate degrees, and we both worked our way through school (undergrad and grad). He has 0 loans and I have less than $15,000 left. We paid for our own weddings. We definitely wouldn't/didn't accept help from our parents for things like down payments. So we'd like to raise our LO in the same vein--self sufficient and aware of finances and hard working.
But...you know, who knows?
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Uni is the plan -and driving lessons/first car. If we have more money by that time we will see! I plan to help her as much as I possibly can.
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Obviously it is a long ways off and you never know what direction life with turn but ...
I plan to be able to cover tuition, room, and board for 4 years at a public, in-state school for college (this is what mine and DH's parents did for us). Anything beyond that (out of state, private, fun expenses, etc) they will have to cover themselves either through scholarships and/or loans.
I also would like to pay for a wedding (again, what our parents did for us) but we'd set the budget and definitely would have a say in the planning.
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My parents paid for my college, I lived with them after graduating and they also gave me one of their cars since they didn't need it. I'm forever thankful for their support in getting me started without having financial worries and would love to provide that to our future kids.
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Our goal to pay for four years of in-state tuition. Room and board will be up to them, and I plan to spend A LOT of time helping them apply for scholarships to help with that. Hopefully we will be able to help with weddings, as well.
I think one of the coolest things my Mom did for me was to spend a little of her personal budget on me and buy me one "little" kitchen or household necessity each week when she could afford it. I think she started when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. A $3 mixing spoon one week, a frying pan when she could swing it, drinking glasses, a dish scrubber, a can opener, etc. I didn't realize how awesome that was until I watched my friends struggle to pay for all of that stuff! Although I have replaced some of it, most of those items are still getting used today. -
@Lindsay05: I lean this way, too.
The one thing I would definitely do if we live far away from each other is help pay for any travel to see each other. A young family rarely has the cash to see long distance relatives and if I have the money I will totally finance plan tickets/ hotels/ rental car/ the works.
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We definitely plan to help with college. We didn't get any help with college which is why we didn't go and went straight into owning a business after high school. It was significantly less expensive but I'd love for our daughter to go to college.
I would also love to help with the house in a small way, depending on the situation. I think there's a way to do it (ie when she's working, etc.) that isn't over the top. I have friends who are married, working great jobs and they live at home with their parents. Their parents pay for their car, insurance, cell phones, etc. I just couldn't do that.
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My parents paid for my tuition and have unexpectedly helped us with some things. I am forever grateful for their help. I would feel selfish if i didn't do the same for our kids since i got all this help (and head start) from my parents. College tuition is a lot cheaper in Canada, and DH and i talked about how we'd only financially support our LOs going to a US college if it was for a top program. Hopefully we'll also be able to help them with their weddings as well.
@Anagram: I hope that we can still raise our kids to be self-sufficient, financially aware and hard-working even if we provide them with financial help. DH and I always had the "we'll do it on our own" mentality as well, but my parents were adamant about providing us with some financial gifts as they would rather give it to us now than wait until they're gone. I think they were paranoid that we'd divorce if we were struggling financially at the start of our marriage! *rolling eyes*
I don't know again up in the air.
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