As a kid you think that your parents have been socking money away for your future college education. Then you grow up. And chances are that magical fund that you thought existed, doesn’t.
When you head off to college you really aren’t worried about things like student loans. You don’t even grasp what debt can really do to you. You just go with the flow and take out as much as money as you can.
After a couple years you smarten up and realize how much debt you’re now buried in. And you wish your parents would have helped you cover the cost of your education. Or, do you?
Reasons Parents Should Help Pay for College
The average student debt in the U.S. for 2013 was $29,400. And that’s just the average. Many students have found themselves buried in a much, much larger amount of debt.
As a parent the thought of my daughters starting their young adult lives out with that much debt is scary.
Here’s why parents should help their college aged students financially:
- So kids don’t have to start their adult life’s making monthly payments
- Students can focus on education therefore improving their GPA instead of working full time
- Students can complete college quicker when they aren’t working full time
Just as there are advantages, there are also disadvantages to parents paying for their children’s educations.
Reasons Parents Shouldn’t Help Pay for College
I’ve got to admit I’ve always felt that kids should bear the burden of paying for their own education, until I had kids, that is.
I’ve seen so many friends and family members change majors three or four different times, take a minimal amount of courses each semester, and act so self-entitled when their parents pay for their education.
Then I talk to someone or read a story of student who’s paid her own way through college, excelled academically, and come out on top. And I think that’s the way to go.
Here are some reasons parents shouldn’t help pay for college:
- Students learn more responsibility
- Students remain more focused on education rather than party life
- Students learn the value of money and are therefore more prepared when they hit the “real world”
And I think if a student’s willing to put in the work she can find creative ways to help minimize the amount of student debt she needs to take out.
Meeting in the Middle
There are huge advantages to both helping pay for a student’s education and letting college students fend for themselves. Perhaps, the better solution is to meet somewhere in the middle.
By teaching children money management at a young age parents can prepare their children to make smart decisions – like only taking out student loans for education rather than financing their lifestyle. And parents can still pitch in to cover the cost of education and leave a smaller portion for their college aged kids to pay.
But in a lot of instances parents don’t have the capabilities to help their children financially.
What Do You Think?
I’ve always steered in the direction that it was best that parent’s do not help pay their children’s education. I’ve had to take care of myself starting at a pretty young age and I think I’m a better person because of that.
At the same time, I now have two young children. I want them to succeed. I want them to get an education and I don’t want them to start their young adult lives buried in debt. Which is why I’m thinking meeting in the middle is a better choice.
What do you think? Should parents pay for their children’s college educations?
Ready To Escape Your Debt?
Sign up below and join 25,000 others who've taken the first steps to escape their student loan debt. Just for signing up, I'll give you my five favorite tools to master your student loans!
I recently wrote about this, and think that it really depends on the situation of the family. Ultimately, if you could do both, that would be great. Education (in my view) is more important than ever, and it’s also more of a problem for people to have onerous student loan debt. To the extent a parent can give his/her child a solid start in life with a good education and little debt, that seems ideal. That being said, I also think that the bottom line is that we can’t borrow for retirement, so those needs should be the top priority.
You’re right about the balance. I think that ROI on the education needs to be considered as well. If the ROI is there, the parents should be more incentivized to help.
If the parents can afford their child’s tuition fee, then for me it’s better if they would pay the tuition fee. My sister who is a first year nursing, she is a half scholar and we only pay the miscellaneous fees.
Agreed – if they can easily afford it, I don’t think there is harm in paying it.
I wish my parents would have paid my college tuition, but paying for it myself has taught me an amazing work ethic and understanding of money I don’t know if I’d have otherwise.