In this podcast, Dave Denniston talks about an article he read recently on Dave Ramsey’s website.
You can check out that article here.
He rants for a few minutes on the top decisions physicians need to make in considering what to do for their kiddos’ education.
In this podcast, you’ll learn the 5 BIGGER questions you should be asking before your child goes to college.
TRANSCRIPT
(Note: I outsource transcription efforts, please forgive in advance any grammatical errors. I just simply don’t have time to review it all)
Welcome to the freedom formula for physicians podcast with all about slashing your debt and taxes and creating a liberated lifestyle. And now, your host, with the love of fantasy books and funk and the hatred of running more than three miles; Dave Denniston.
Hey everyone this is Dave Denniston and welcome to the Freedom Formula for Physicians Podcast. Well I was just reading an article that was put out by Dave Ramsey that was titled; The Six Most Important Financial Aid Questions to Ask. And he is talking about you visiting old schools and submitted the flash fun.
And now it`s decision time as you come down between schools. And so on this article he goes through six important aid questions to ask. You know what these are all good and fine and dandy. And I think is up till then end of the article that he really gets the meat and the heart of it from my opinion. He talks about your goal should be the right fit for your student at the right price. And that means no loans. So here are five bigger questions you guys but I want you to consider for your kids for college.
Number one; does my kid really know what they want to do or are they figuring it out. So if your child is… as many of us do were just trying to figure out where do we want to go? What do we want to do in life? What do we love? What are we passionate about? I think that the college decision really we might want to lean more towards community colleges or something cheaper if we don’t have the resources set aside for it because they are still trying to figure out life which is great. But why should you sacrifice years of your retirement in order to do that?
Number two, question that I would be asking is; does my kid really need to go to this school? So I give you an example. My ten year old daughter, Gabby, both my wife and I went to Seattle Pacific University and she would love to go there too. And to be honest I would love to see her go there but is that going to be the best place for her? She is talking about wanting to be and engineer or chemist which is awesome. We`ve been doing some chemistry experience at home which has been really fun. Did some stuffs with apples and acids and bases yesterday. But anyhow, will that be the best place for her? Can she get the best value out of going to SPU? If she did do they have a good program for what she wants to do? And related to that think about the profession of someone who wants to be a teacher that is awesome. But what is your rate of return going to be for them? You know if they are going to be making 30, 40, 50 000 dollars a year or 60 000 dollars a year? Does that justify going to a 50 000 dollar a year undergraduate program? I say no. don’t do it. And so that’s question number two you guys.
Number three question I want you to ask is what are they going to be willing to do to contribute if you can`t pay for a lot of this out of pocket? So what will they be willing to do? Are they willing to do internship, work study? What kind of demands will the undergraduate degree have on them if you are doing engineering or pre-med. I mean for sure your time crunch is a lot more of an issue. If your kid gets the athletic scholarship well then that might take care of that. So what are they going to do to contribute?
Number four, I want to ask this question; what resources do I have set aside which is the same as number five; how will that affect my retirement? Well this is the big one in my opinion you guys; how will this affect my retirement? If you have and in fact a 29th plan or up my account or your parents do a hundred thousand dollars, fifty thousand dollars then maybe this is not a big issue. But many people that I have seen will just try and focus on their own retirement and to shell aside another ten twenty thousand dollars. I have seriously seen this delay peoples` retirement.
So we have to think long and hard about this guys. In terms of where your kid wants to go. So talk about, it let me know what you think. What will you be doing for your kids? Are you going to pay for their whole undergraduate education? Are you going to have them go to community college? Are you treating one child different than another where you give one kid more money and another kid less money? What are you doing to prepare? And consider the five questions we talked about; does my kind know what they want to do or are they figuring it out? Does my kid really need to go to this school? What are they going to do to really contribute? how will this affect my retirement? And what resources have I set aside?
So let me know you guys thoughts I`d love to hear from you. Send me email; dave@denniston.com and make sure to subscribe on iTunes or through doctorfreedompodcats.com and grab three free articles and get an update to the next podcast. For the freedom formula for physicians this is Dave Denniston. Thank you so much for listening and check back in again soon.
