Fox 25 Morning News Talks with ACCC (American Consumer Credit Counseling) About Student Debt in 2012

There was a time when going to college, building a career, getting married, starting a family, and retiring by age 65 was the general plan many high school students followed after graduation, but in the year 2012 this plan may not be logical or realistic.  The video below shows an interview by the Fox 25 Morning News with ACCC (American Consumer Credit Counseling) education team lead and trainer Matt Paradise about the current state of student debt from both school loans and credit cards . . .

Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston
It seems that university-bound students can no longer rely on getting a job in their field after graduating college (or even graduate school for that matter).  According to Paradise, high school students and their families need to have a back-up plan for paying off student loans in case their college graduate cannot secure employment in this competitive job market.  It is my belief that such families may also want to keep an open mind about alternative plans other than entering college right from high school, such as working for a few years to save tuition money or attending college classes virtually.  I shudder to think what our family will be facing financially when it comes time for our three children to enter college, especially with twins and their brother being only 3 years older.  There will be one year when all three children will be attending college simultaneously.

NOTE:  My apologies, but comments have been closed for this post because of the enormous amount of spam comments it has been receiving.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Changing Views Towards Associate, Bachelor, and Graduate Programs

In my generation, as a high school student belonging to an average "middle class" family, the philosophy towards higher education was to be accepted to the best rated school you could (Ivy League if possible), to study hard, and to enjoy the college experience.  Back then, graduating from a 4-year university was the minimum expectation (a 2-year associates degree was not good enough) and obtaining a graduate degree was preferred.  Of course, money was an issue and students turned to their parents, scholarships and grants, working part time, and student loans.  Fast forward to the present, when those high school students now have children of their own with dreams of attending college, the situation is quite different.

How can students today make their dream of going to college come true when their parents are losing their jobs, losing their homes, and the price of college tuition has not stopped rising?  Even if these students work part time, they will likely need to contribute those earnings to their family's finances to make ends meet.  In addition to applying for scholarships, working extra hours, and attending a state school, here are two things students can do to achieve their goal of a college degree . . .

1.  Consider taking online courses to earn college credit.  Many students are choosing this route because the tuition is much lower than attending a school with walls.  Yes, the experience would not be the same, but this may be a good choice for students who need to save as much as possible on tuition and decide they can forego the social interaction.

2.  Take several years to work and save up money for tuition before starting college.  This plan throws a kink into the traditional timeline of 4 years of high school, 4 years of college, and 2 years of graduate school with no gaps in between.  People have actually been doing this for decades.  In fact, the average student age of many state schools is much older than at private colleges because of adults who chose to attend school after they have been part of the workforce full time and after they have started their families.

If you have a success story about how you, your children, or someone else you know were able to get their college degree even though the odds were stacked against them, I would love for you to share it with me and your fellow-readers.  Your story might inspire those who feel like college is not meant to be for themselves or their children.


This post and the subsequent discussion were supported by Online College Classes. The site is a resource for those looking to further their education with a nontraditional program.

Getting Ready for Those College Costs

My children are still young and high school seems like years away. The day they go off to college, then, currently feels like a lifetime in the future. I simply can’t imagine having my children grown, out of the house, and no longer needing their mom on a daily basis.

But, as we all know, time moves quickly and our kids always grow up faster than we’d like. This means that we should certainly take advantage of every opportunity that we have to live in the moment, appreciate the time we have to spend with our children, and enjoy the process before it gets too late. It also means that it is never too early to start looking towards college on a financial level. College costs are incredibly expensive these days, and the price of tuition is high enough at most schools to put a considerable burden on all but the wealthiest of families.

On this note, my husband and I have decided to start saving and planning now. We don’t know what our children’s future hold, but we want to be prepared for any eventuality. Here’s what we’re planning to do:

Contribute Regularly to a College Fund  The best way to save for college is by regularly contributing money to a dedicated savings account, just as one would do when planning for retirement. We are going to open an account for each of our children and routinely set aside part of our paycheck for reinvestment in these accounts. If you do your research, you can probably find some investments that are specifically geared towards college savings and provide higher interest rates, such as a 529 plan. Any online student resource should be able to help you get started.

Allocate Our Assets With a Long-Term Focus  For the last few years, as careers have changed and children have been born, my husband and I have approached our financial lives with a more short and medium-term focus. When choosing a credit card, for example, we have looked for the best cash back credit card offers or have gone for the Chase Freedom card, which offers great monthly rebates. But now our financial plan has begun to take a much more long-term approach. Specifically, we want to minimize the assets that colleges will evaluate when determining financial aid. This means contributing more to retirement accounts and refinancing our mortgage so that we don’t own our home in 15 years.

Getting Our Children Involved  My husband and I hope to contribute significantly to our kids’ college costs, but that doesn’t mean we want to completely shoulder the burden alone. Instead, we want paying for college to be a full-family effort. To this end, we hope to raise our kids with a comprehension of the college situation and an expectation that they will help us out in the ways that they can. As they grow older, I hope that our children’s babysitting and summer jobs can contribute in part to our university savings fund. I don’t want to deprive them of all their earning, and I know that what they add to the fund won’t be much, but on principle I still believe that the expense of college should reflect a communal family effort.

These are the ways that my husband and I are beginning to plan for the eventual cost of our children’s college tuition. Although I certainly have no idea where my kids will be in 15 years, I hope that they are getting a good education and I pray that we are prepared to help them finance it.

This has been an advertorial guest post.