Quinn ponders the College Conundrum

Connie and I had four children between July 1970 and September 1975. That was a fun decade especially given I was going to school three nights a week until 1978 when after nine years I received a degree.

Those fun times were only surpassed by the ten years when we had one, two or three children in college at once. Our oldest went to Carnegie Mellon on a required five-year program and the others all went to Franklin and Marshall – yeah, that Franklin. 

To be honest I don’t know how we managed financially and all the numbers are a bit fuzzy after our youngest graduated in 1998. To complicate matters with a display of financial foolishness, we bought our Cape Cod house in 1987. Truth be told we could only do that because we rented it most of the summer and it operated as a business for ten years lowering our tax bill. I still wouldn’t recommend that strategy though. 

Regular HD readers may recall my big purchases – my car and our vacation home – were very much emotionally driven. I guess you could say that about paying for college too. Connie and I never had the chance of going to proper college, but we were determined our children would. No column on a spreadsheet covers that kind of spending😎

When our youngest graduated in1998 the yearly cost at F&M was around $26.000. The first year total cost at Carnegie Mellon in 1988 was about $18,000. Today both are around $80,000. The CPI index says the $18,000 should be $47,897.95. Something is amiss me thinks. 

Our oldest grandson just started at Gettysburg College and that too has a annual sticker price of about $80,000, but he received a good aid package.

We are going to help our grandchildren in college as much as possible. Given the youngest is only nine, some of that help may be posthumously.

If you asked me to detail how we paid collage costs for four children, I couldn’t do it. I do know what aid they received was minimal. Two received jobs on campus as part of aid package.

I do recall we cashed in two small mutual funds. I lowered my 401k to just the match level. At one point I took a 401k loan – not a great idea. Our first major debt was a HELOC, but it had a variable interest rate and after year or so writing checks, the interest rate started to rise. I panicked. 

We then remortgaged our home taking as much equity as possible. That meant we were still paying college costs years after the youngest graduated.

All this was supplemented by simply paying what we needed from my income. 

I still feel stress recalling writing checks for those monthly payment books. I started a small – very small – side business from home to help with those checks. All our children had campus and summer jobs to pay for their books and personal expenses.

Full disclosure here. In retrospect we would not have the lifestyle we have today in retirement without my pension. We have substantial investments, but they could never generate an income equal to my pension. The thing is, when using all our assets at the time, borrowing to the hilt and living paycheck to paycheck for ten years, the possible future impact on our lives never crossed my mind. 

I was age 45 when our oldest entered college. That son is now 54 with three children, the oldest 13 and twins 11. Our other children are in similar situation. Our second son is 53 with children ages 14, 12 and 9. I’m pretty sure with no pensions, retirement in their 50s maybe even 60s is not in the cards.

Was it all worth it? For us it was because it was something we had to do and wanted to do, but from a practical perspective for the person accumulating years of debt, I have my doubts. 

Our daughter used her teaching degrees for a few years, our oldest son used his civil engineering degrees for a few years, the other two sons work far afield from their degrees. 

When it comes to college, paying for it and assessing the value, society has a long way to go separating the wheat from the chaff in my opinion.