The Perils of Paying for Your Child's Education

There are obvious benefits to sending your children off to college, and not only for your kids. Aside from the extra million or so your children are more likely to make during their lifetimes, it lessens the chances that you'll have to raise and house them into their thirties and beyond for financial reasons. It improves the possibility that they might have money to help you through your retirement. It's a fabulous investment in everybody's future.

A child is, however, an investment with a mind of its own. Ask yourself, "Does my son/daughter want to go to college?" If he/she has low motivation, be very, very afraid for your investment.

Fortunately, there are some steps that every cunning parent can take to maximize the possibilities that your young ones will do you proud in the future.

*Invest the idea into their brains from a very young age.

Children are suggestible when they are young. Make sure you play up the benefits of college. Emphasize the growing need for continuing education throughout life. If your child is interested in studying topics that don't bring in a good living, they will need more education than those who do not. Prepare their minds to accept and be ready for school, and for school to take much of their lives. If she accepts this idea, then school will simply be an incorporated part of her life, and it will be more likely to be an acceptable idea.

More drastic steps are called for if your children are already teenagers and resistant to the idea of further education. You will have to invest in classes yourself, and show your children by your actions the necessity of continuing education. Don't think you can? How will your children accept college if you don't? Children who have one or more parents with a degree themselves are statistically more likely to enter and finish college than those who haven't. Period. The end. Make time for it, for everybody's sake.

*Planning is just as important as saving (maybe more so).

If money is an issue for you, it doesn't close the door on college. It means you'll have to think smarter. More than one child means you'll have to be even smarter than that.