I’m a single mom with two awesome daughters.  One will be going to college in two years, the other in six. I think every parent struggles with responsibility issues with their kids. Yes I want my kids to grow up to be very responsible adults. I know that letting them have and solve their own problems is key to that development. However they are not really capable of funding college tuition at this time, are they?

Responsible Kids Pay for College?

I also know that too much responsibility at too early an age can result in some seriously messed up choices. I’m living proof. As a young kid I was faced with some serious issues for which I had no prior experience, knowledge or judgment. In addition to that there were no caring adults to help me along through the process. It’s a good Oprah story and I won’t go into details here.

However, as a result of that, I declared that my kids would NEVER have to face any of the horrifying challenges that I did as a young kid.  My kids are going to get the best treatment I can give them.  I’m not going to overprotect them either, but the level of responsibility will be commensurate with their age or personal development level. So that leads me to paying for college.

When I graduated from high school I got a summer job at the place my dad worked. My dad said he’d buy my books if I paid the tuition and I’d live at home. I was able to save enough money at that summer job to pay for most of my tuition and then got a job during the winter break to pay for the rest.

Well if my kid did the same she’d have to earn over $35 per hour working 40 hours per week. People with serious college degrees make that much or less. That is totally ridiculous to expect that a high school grad could do that. I’d be willing to bet that there are a few who have done this but it’s not the norm.

One might make the argument that “that’s life” and you have to work with the reality. Yes, but no. No, I can’t take that reality as my answer. As much as I thought that I would be the “hard guy” mom and make my kids suffer the way I did and do things the way I did, I realized that this thinking is pointless.  Just because I had to pay my way through school (when it was a lot easier back then) doesn’t mean my kids have to.

Just because I suffered at the malicious hands of manipulating adults doesn’t mean my kids have to. No way. I’d like to think that this generation can gain from the mistakes and the knowledge of the last generation. That’s what advancement of society is all about isn’t it? Well yes it is for me and I expect many other single moms will agree that they want their kid’s lives to be better than theirs.

Update on How My Daughter is Funding College Tuition

She got a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University that pays for about half of her college tuition, and boarding.  How’s that for a kid funding college tuition?

If you’re like I was, a single mom with kids approaching college or possibly in college, you know the pain and frustration of trying to figure out how to send your kids to the best possible college they can get into and then paying for it. My oldest has big ideas, probably got it from her mom, about going to Harvard. She can probably get accepted, she’s a smart kid.But do you know what it costs to send your kid to Harvard? I’m going to need a lot of cash for college.

What Is the Cost for College?

Well I didn’t know exactly so I Googled it. For an undergrad degree it costs about $45,000 a year. And for four years of medical school it is around $450,000. They say to think of college as an investment.If you invested that amount of money for four years at 7.5% you’d yield about $209,000. Sink that into an investment that earns 7.5% and after 40 years you’d have close to $3,700,000 dollars. That’s right. Now that’s an investment.

How much money is your kid going to make in a lifetime after you or your kid invests $200k over four years? Hopefully it’s more than $4M. Plus also remember that if you borrow that kind of money you are going to have added interest expenses to go along with that.

OK. OK. Not that many people go to Harvard or expensive schools like that. But even a public college costs somewhere around $23,000 per year for a resident, and $44,000 per year for out of state or non-resident.These numbers are from the University of Michigan undergrad program and include tuition, room and board, books and other expenses. Holy Cow!

How Will You Pay Back Cash for College?

No matter who pays for this, you or your kid, it’s a huge chunk of money by most people’s standards. If you pay for it and you don’t have the money already saved, it means working more hours, leveraging your home or borrowing the money and paying it back. This could put a serious crimp in your lifestyle or plans to retire.

Well I’m faced with this reality. I want my kids to go to college. I think that education is valuable regardless of what you earn because of it. I also want to avoid loading up myself or my kids with a huge debt if I don’t need to.Yes we will research scholarships.I’m pretty sure their dad will contribute, but some single moms aren’t in that situation. They are totally on their own.

It seems a shame to work so hard to get your kids ready for college only to find out that the costs are prohibitive. Well I never take no for an answer when it’s really important. I’ve been looking all over the place for ways to fund my kid’s college and earn some serious chunks of cash. I figure I’ll need roughly $4,000 per month for every year one kid is an undergrad. The way my kids are spaced out, that will amount to eight years of $4,000 per month, close to $400,000.

Well there is a way to fund your child’s education, if you start now, and I found it.You’re not going to make that kind of money instantly but after a while that extra $5,000 a month will go on autopilot. How sweet will that be! No more worrying about tuition when you find cash for college.