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WE’RE A SINGLE-INCOME family with five children, so the prospect of paying for college for all our kids is daunting, to say the least. Yes, our oldest is now in her second year of college. But we still have a long way to go before they’ve all crossed the finish line.
Our kids are ages 19, 17, 12, nine and six. We’ve been homeschooling them since the beginning, with a few brief exceptions, including one daughter in a Department of Defense high school in Korea for a year and another daughter in a private high school for two years. We’re therefore familiar with having to pay for education—homeschooling isn’t free by any means.
Navigating the college journey is particularly challenging when tackling it without the assistance of a high school guidance counselor, although my wife and I are doing our best, learning how the system works and successfully helping one daughter out the door.
As an officer in the Air Force, I’m planning to retire in four years, at age 51, with a pension that’ll start paying immediately and which—coupled with our investment portfolio—is large enough to cover our expenses. Hitting that goal hasn’t been easy. We’ve been socking away almost 45% of my income. What about college savings? We have a relatively modest amount in a 529 college savings plan, probably enough to cover one child’s undergraduate education.
Many years ago, we stopped adding dollars to the 529. We were advised that students with large 529 accounts tend to get the fewest college scholarship dollars. Quite a few articles from experts corroborate that. Still, I sometimes question our decision and wonder if we’ll regret it.
We were fortunate that our first daughter scored high enough on the PSAT in 11th grade that she was named a National Merit Scholar. Amazingly, that single score on one exam on one particular day eventually led to a full college scholarship that covers tuition, fees, books, room and board. It seems a high score on the PSAT is a surer way to obtain full-ride scholarship offers than a high score on the SAT or ACT.
Granted, outstanding performance on the latter tests is critical to admittance at universities with the strongest reputations. But only the PSAT can lead to a student being declared a National Merit Scholar. As we learned, many colleges will throw dollars at students who score in the top ½% nationally because having a large number of National Merit Scholars boosts a college’s status and rankings. We readily admit we got lucky with child No. 1—as she herself is happy to remind us.
For our second child, our plan is to use my military Post-9/11 GI Bill to finance the bulk of her education. This benefit is earned by active-duty service members after three years of service. If service members don’t use it for their own education, the benefit can be transferred to a spouse or child.
It covers four years of tuition, books and fees, along with a modest monthly housing stipend. The funds may be divided among multiple children, and is payable even if a child receives other scholarships. If that happens with our second child, we’ll invest the excess GI Bill dollars for our other kids’ college expenses.
The amount of tuition that the Post-9/11 GI Bill covers has a relatively low cap of $27,120 for the 2023-24 school year, with all costs above that limit being borne by the recipient. This ceiling therefore limits our college options, although many colleges—including most of the expensive Ivy League institutions—have signed up to be Yellow Ribbon schools. This means they agree to waive any remaining tuition costs above what the GI Bill pays. We anticipate our daughter will attend a private college with total tuition and fees approaching $52,000 a year. The good news: The school is a Yellow Ribbon school.
As a Texas resident prior to joining the military, I’m also entitled to education benefits under the Hazlewood Act, a Texas-specific version of the Post-9/11 GI Bill for veterans. It pays for the active-duty service member—or spouse or child if the benefit is transferred—to attend any Texas public university and pay nothing for tuition and fees. Two caveats: I must be retired before I can use it, and I must continue to reside in Texas for the duration. Other states offer similar plans.
Although the education offered gratis is enticing, I anticipate the stifling Texas heat may push our family farther north in retirement, at the cost of one child’s otherwise-free college tuition. Then again, we may stay here a few years if my son seems drawn to a school in Texas.
That leaves our two youngest kids, and our rather paltry 529 college savings. If we continue to have solid investment gains, we may have enough to pay for one child to attend a private university, or perhaps two if they choose the cheapest public colleges. We might also consider some inexpensive online classes, or community college for the first two years, or something else creative.
Then again, perhaps not all of our kids will even want to attend college. What if they do? We’re willing to draw on our taxable brokerage account—because we’re committed to ensuring none of our children ends up with student debt.
Casey Campbell is an active-duty military periodontist and a homeschooling father of five. He and his family currently live in San Antonio. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and shouldn’t be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the U.S. Air Force or Department of Defense. Check out Casey’s earlier articles.
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“we’re committed to ensuring none of our children ends up with student debt.”
good for you, I think that is what we should do if at all possible. My father took on debt of $3000 to pay my undergrad college, back in the 80s.. postgrad I paid for myself as I was working then.
Another calculation I hadn’t made until it was too late – if you can get two or more in college at the same time, your FAFSA expected contribution remains the same as for one. This can be helpful.
The FAFSA calculator says that paying over half your annual income in college fees is normal and expected. We discussed getting divorced, as that could enormously reduce the cost of college for our family, but decided not to play that game.
Our second boy was in the 0.75% and just missed out on National Merit, much to our chagrin.. it is indeed the best deal in college these days, maybe an investment in PSAT coaching classes is the best ROI 😉
Consider checking out some of the options here for subsequent chilren’s college education. A motivated student can get a great education and appropriate credentials for relatively minimal expense: https://www.choosefi.com/ultimate-guide-to-college-hacking/