My two kiddos are still pretty young, so most days college feels like it's a million years away. But despite my constant denial that they'll continue to grow, I try not to get complacent when it comes to planning for their futures. There's no way to know exactly what paths each of them will take in life, but I do know that I'll do everything in my power to make sure they end up in college. And I would like to make their higher education experience as financially stress-free as possible. Now that doesn't mean my kids can expect a free ride (I put myself through college and am a firm believer that everyone should contribute to their own college experience for a dose of character building), but I want their main focus to be on school — not how they're going to pay for their books.
Taking out student loans that follow them around for decades isn't something I want for my kids. But with 4-year public university tuitions topping in at more than $100,000 per child, avoiding that isn't an easy task. There are strategic long-term plans you can follow to help make this expense less painful for yourself and your child, but they require discipline, patience, and above all, a willing participant in your college-bound kid. Warren Buffet famously said about his children, "I want them to get enough that they feel they can do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing." I don't think I could have said it better myself!