LW readers’ kids should get merit scholarships to college :-P
But if you’re doing your estimate for a specific subset of the population, you should mention which subset it is.
College costs are also rarely fully paid by the parents—typically a large chunk of them ends up being student loans to be repaid by the kids later. And time costs are a very fuzzy/squishy thing, you can make them anything you want them to be.
if you’re doing your estimate for a specific subset of the population, you should mention which subset it is.
Like most of us I tend to write about “people like me” vaguely defined. Is that actually a problem?
If you’d like to use the article’s estimate of $250k that doesn’t really change the argument.
College costs are also rarely fully paid by the parents
The current student loan limit is $25k while the cost of the school I attended is now $232k, both over four years. My family got financial aid, but as someone earning to give my children likely wouldn’t. The argument “don’t have kids so you have more money to give away” applies even more strongly to “work a higher paying job so you have more money to give away” so I think this cost applies broadly. This college cost is definitely on the high end, but schools are expensive all around.
There’s some relevant Mr. Money Mustache stuff on having kids “on a budget”. He suggests $300/month for a kid, which is substantially less. But I’d guess that he’s just missing something, because I expect you do much of the things he already suggests.
They’re talking about having one parent stay home. In opportunity costs that’s several thousand dollars. As my wife and I both get paid several times what daycare costs we’d pay for daycare instead. There’s also housing: a kid roughly doubles our housing needs.
(But we haven’t done this yet, and don’t know what our real costs will be.)
Like most of us I tend to write about “people like me” vaguely defined. Is that actually a problem?
I don’t know what “people like you” look like. I have no idea about your socioeconomic status or where you live or what sub-cultures you hang out in (except for LW).
It is a problem insofar you produce numbers which don’t seem to be based on much and, as it turns out, it’s quite unclear to whom they apply—and then proceed to make an argument on the basis of those numbers.
The current student loan limit is $25k
No, it is not. Even if you look at only Federal loans, the limit is over $57K.
you produce numbers which don’t seem to be based on much
The numbers are based on the article’s estimate with an attempt to account for the opportunity costs of parenting in terms of time as well as college. The argument is also not very sensitive to particular numbers. Even at $150k it would still be larger than any other expense I have. I would like better data, and intend to continue keeping track of all our spending as we have a kid, which will at least help people coming along a few years later.
Even if you look at only Federal loans, the limit is over $57K.
That’s for independent students, right? But I think here we’re talking about dependents. There are both yearly and total limits, it’s only $57k if you take more than four years by which point tuition goes up even more. The $25k number I gave is the dependent limits summed over four years ($5.5k + $6.5k + $7.5k + $7.5k). But: (a) this is all way less than the $232k total and (b) not a very good predictor of what it would look like in 20 years.
My oldest son tops his class easily in cognition. But he is also smart emough to not invest more energy in school than necessary. He has lots of pet projects (constructing a fighting vest, collecting a survival kit, organizing a fly market, exploring the suburb, planning his birthday) which don’t gain him merit in school but from which he also learns a lot.
So whether he will merit scholarships to college depends a lot on whether he specializes in signalling ability or in actual ability. And currently I’d bet on the latter (which I guess will earlier or later earn him merit anyway).
Of course in-country has the advantage of being free :) But there are a few free or near-free options within the EU for german passport holders. And there’s also the possibility of winning a scholarship.
LW readers’ kids should get merit scholarships to college :-P
But if you’re doing your estimate for a specific subset of the population, you should mention which subset it is.
College costs are also rarely fully paid by the parents—typically a large chunk of them ends up being student loans to be repaid by the kids later. And time costs are a very fuzzy/squishy thing, you can make them anything you want them to be.
Like most of us I tend to write about “people like me” vaguely defined. Is that actually a problem?
If you’d like to use the article’s estimate of $250k that doesn’t really change the argument.
The current student loan limit is $25k while the cost of the school I attended is now $232k, both over four years. My family got financial aid, but as someone earning to give my children likely wouldn’t. The argument “don’t have kids so you have more money to give away” applies even more strongly to “work a higher paying job so you have more money to give away” so I think this cost applies broadly. This college cost is definitely on the high end, but schools are expensive all around.
There’s some relevant Mr. Money Mustache stuff on having kids “on a budget”. He suggests $300/month for a kid, which is substantially less. But I’d guess that he’s just missing something, because I expect you do much of the things he already suggests.
They’re talking about having one parent stay home. In opportunity costs that’s several thousand dollars. As my wife and I both get paid several times what daycare costs we’d pay for daycare instead. There’s also housing: a kid roughly doubles our housing needs.
(But we haven’t done this yet, and don’t know what our real costs will be.)
I don’t know what “people like you” look like. I have no idea about your socioeconomic status or where you live or what sub-cultures you hang out in (except for LW).
It is a problem insofar you produce numbers which don’t seem to be based on much and, as it turns out, it’s quite unclear to whom they apply—and then proceed to make an argument on the basis of those numbers.
No, it is not. Even if you look at only Federal loans, the limit is over $57K.
The numbers are based on the article’s estimate with an attempt to account for the opportunity costs of parenting in terms of time as well as college. The argument is also not very sensitive to particular numbers. Even at $150k it would still be larger than any other expense I have. I would like better data, and intend to continue keeping track of all our spending as we have a kid, which will at least help people coming along a few years later.
That’s for independent students, right? But I think here we’re talking about dependents. There are both yearly and total limits, it’s only $57k if you take more than four years by which point tuition goes up even more. The $25k number I gave is the dependent limits summed over four years ($5.5k + $6.5k + $7.5k + $7.5k). But: (a) this is all way less than the $232k total and (b) not a very good predictor of what it would look like in 20 years.
“All around” meaning ‘in the US’? Tuitions are one or two orders of magnitude cheaper in continental Europe.
My oldest son tops his class easily in cognition. But he is also smart emough to not invest more energy in school than necessary. He has lots of pet projects (constructing a fighting vest, collecting a survival kit, organizing a fly market, exploring the suburb, planning his birthday) which don’t gain him merit in school but from which he also learns a lot. So whether he will merit scholarships to college depends a lot on whether he specializes in signalling ability or in actual ability. And currently I’d bet on the latter (which I guess will earlier or later earn him merit anyway).
If he gets high enough SAT scores it should compensate for the lack of silly extracurricular stuff...
Here in Germany admission to university still depends on grades.
Not if he goes to university out of the country.
Noted. A possibility that will be considerd in due time.
Of course in-country has the advantage of being free :) But there are a few free or near-free options within the EU for german passport holders. And there’s also the possibility of winning a scholarship.