How Can I Plan for College Costs Without Overwhelming My Family?

Ralph00:00:01

They look absolutely terrifying, don't they? Like this huge financial mountain impossible to climb without crushing debt.But what if you could start planning for higher education with wisdom and not worry and truly equip your children for their future without overwhelming your family's finances? Well, stick with me today because I'm going to tell you exactly how to make that happen. And that's going to be the topic of today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there and welcome back to Financially Confident Christian. I am Ralph and I'm so happy you've chosen to spend just a few minutes with me today.If you missed yesterday's show, we looked at that mid year financial goal check in. We talked about having that roadmap, but remembering to go and make sure we're still on course.So if you missed the show, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out.You can find all of our episodes@financially confidentchristian.com now today we're going to change the topic completely and we're going to talk about how to plan for college wisely, but maybe more importantly faithfully and without that stress and without that anxiety. So today's guiding question is this. How can I plan for college costs without overwhelming my family? Let's talk about this, how this really feels.I can remember when my kids were just born, I think the last thing on my mind was college cost. My wife and I, we are more worried about the next diaper change and whether we were going to get a good night's sleep that night.And if you're like most people when you've got young kids, hey, the cost of college seems impossibly far off. And it seems like this huge mountain like I talked about at the beginning.But if you start thinking about it, those younger kids, listen, I have the, the ability to look at it now. My kids are 24 and 28, like where did the time go? But when they were young, I didn't really think too much about it.Well then as they became teenagers, I started thinking, you know what, we talked about that roadmap analogy. College is right around the corner and I really hadn't planned for it.And if you like most of us, that idea of college debt feels completely unavoidable. As you start to work through that process, it leads to stress. You start to stress about how am I ever going to pay for my kids education.I see the value in a college education or maybe in trade school educations. But. But you stress about it because you're like, Ralph, how am I ever going to pay for this?And many times, if we're being honest, it leads to this state of what I'll call financial paralysis where we, we don't know exactly what to do. And when we're stuck in that financial paralysis, hey, maybe you're right there right now.Maybe you've got those kids that are high school juniors or seniors, and hey, it's right there in front of you. And you haven't been able to put aside money. You know, who knows why, but you haven't been able to do that.And you're stuck in this quagmire, this financial paralysis, and you're like, you know what, Ralph? I'm just throwing up my hands. I give up. And then when you give up, you're just relying on those risky student loans.But here's the thing I want you to understand right now, this is the most, the biggest key takeaway right here as we're talking. You don't have to stay stuck in fear. Let's walk in some wisdom. Let's. Let's look to the Bible for some wisdom.Yes, there is wisdom in the Bible as it relates to education. Well, not exactly higher education, but let's get right into it.The first verse I want to talk about is Proverbs chapter 22, verse 3, which really is addressing the. The idea of foresight and prudence. I've used this on the show many times. Again, this is Proverbs 22, verse 3. The prudency, danger and take refuge.But the simple keep going and pay the penalty.Well, like I said, now that you've got those young kids, maybe you're listening right now and you're like, Ralph, I am so glad you're talking about this. I've got one that's still in diapers and another one that's just starting to crawl and maybe get them start to around that.That's a whole other discussion. But one of the key takeaways for today is you can never start planning too early. So it's the first thing I'm going to encourage you to do.And like this Bible verse talks about, you see that danger, not maybe it's not danger, but you see that need to plan. So I'm going to encourage you right now. Start planning early. Don't walk into this debt blind.You can take small, wise steps now that you can avoid those big regrets later. Like maybe you're that person sitting there listening right now. And that kid's a junior and maybe a senior in high school.And now you've got a lot less, less ways that you can handle this, but you can still do something. Let's look at our second Bible verse, and this is the one I used on yesterday show. I use it all the time on the show. It's Proverbs 21:5.And it's all about diligent planning.And really, when we're talking about planning for education for our children and maybe you're planning education for your grandchildren, Proverbs 21:5. And I'm not going to read the whole thing because I talk about on the show all the time. But the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.And that's where I tie back into the start of being consistent using thoughtful savings and research. Hey, even when the kids are very young, how that can lead to peace and provision later on.And let's look at one more Bible verse today, and that's Proverbs chapter one, verse five, where it talks about seeking wisdom and growth. And it says this again, Proverbs 1:5. Let the wise hear an increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance.Well, one of the things I love about this Bible verse and it ties exactly into what we're talking about today and a lot of people lose sight of this. One of the main things I think about Christian financial stewardship is you've got to embrace this idea of being a lifelong learner.Education doesn't stop when you graduate high school or you graduate college or you graduate from trade school. It's always a good idea to keep asking questions, keep seeking help and bigger than that, trusting God's guidance.So here's the thing I want to tell you right now. My main takeaway for today is don't panic. This isn't the time to panic. I don't care whether your kids are toddlers, like I said, still in diapers.You're trying to figure out, you know, do you have enough formula, are there enough diapers here? Are you going to get a chance to sleep through that? Man, I can still remember my wife and I, we had all kinds of trading going on with that.But I'm going to start right there. Don't panic. Just start doing something. One of the things I'm going to encourage you to do, maybe you do have that kid that's in high school now.You haven't had a lot of, you haven't done a lot of planning up to this. There are affordable college options One of the things a lot of people overlook is community colleges. Hey, it's a great place to get started.As an example, in the state of Delaware where I'm at here, my office is here where my family lives, we have a thing here called the START program or the SEED program is actually a better way to call it. And, and it puts you in community college. And guess what?You do that for two years and depending upon your grades and all the performance and all that kind of stuff, you basically can go there for free. So the first two years of college are absolutely free.Then you can always transfer to get that, that, that nice university degree that has the title that you want. There's also vocational schools. A lot of people lose sight of this.There's in state university savings and hey, things my oldest son did, you can go into the military. The military has some great programs for paying for educations through the GI Bill and things like that.So that's the first thing I encourage you to do this research affordable college options. Second thing I'm going to encourage you to do is start saving small.And especially if you've got those kids that are real young, you can open up a 529 plan. I've done some shows on those.Maybe just open up a simple savings account and hey, listen, even $25 or maybe $50 a month will help build that, that nest egg that you can use for when your kid goes to college down the road. Or maybe they don't go to college at all. Maybe they use that to buy their first home or maybe they go to some sort of trade school.And here's another thing a lot of people overlook. And it's amazing to me how many of these things go untouched and that's pursue free money first.There are a ton of scholarships, there's a ton of grants tie into that FAFSA form. There's, I'll give you a couple websites.As I was preparing for the show, fastweb.com or scholarship.com it amazed me how many people don't take advantage of these scholarships and these grants. You just, the money goes unused. So start there with the free money.Hey, put your kids to work if they've got time in the summer between junior year or maybe sophomore year and junior or senior year, hey, put them to work over the summer, research in those scholarships. Start writing those scholarship proposals. Those grant proposals don't just leave that money on the table. So here's your one action step for today.It's time to start the conversation. That's really what I wanted to talk about today, that's the big takeaway for today is start a conversation.Hey, with young kids, it's time to be light about it. Maybe start talking to them about dreams and future possibilities. And hey, with your teens, be honest with them.Have faith filled chats about the cost and the real options out there for them. And then as you develop those conversations, start to look at one or two affordable paths.And if your kids are real young, start that savings account. Open that college savings account account or that 529 plan. Hey, one of the things I'm going to encourage you to do is do it automated.Start those small monthly amounts that are just automated so you don't have to worry about it. And the other big key takeaway for today is search for scholarships and grants.Because here's the thing, here's, here's why I tell you to do all these things today. Because a lot of people are, when in that we talked about this at the beginning, they're paralyzed by that fear of that financial analysis.Well, if you do these things, number one thing it's going to do, it's going to reduce your fear. You're going to stop worrying about it because you're going to see there are tangible things that you can do.It's going to help provide you direction. It's going to be that roadmap. How do you get from point A to point B?Well, maybe you look at community college, maybe you look at a military option, maybe you look at some of the scholarships and grants. And here's the big thing I want to tell you, empower your children. I don't know how many clients I've had that come in through the years.And they'll say, yeah, my kids are getting ready to college. And I've told them, hey, it's going to be tough for mom and dad. It's going to be tough for us to pay for this.You guys got to get involved in this and empower your children. Have them search for those scholarships, have them do those scholarship applications.Yeah, it might be some work on their part, but they've got to get invested in this. And the big, all of these things lead to family peace. That's the really the key thing here. Well, how about we pray together?Father God, we thank you for the gift of learning, Lord, and the potential for our children to have an education.And we must confess that planning for college cost often brings on this immense stress and this fear of going into debt and this fear of leaving our kids with this debt of these student loans. So we would just ask that you would grant us wisdom, Lord, and grant us foresight as we plan for future education.Help us to be diligent in our savings and explore those affordable opportunities and really help us to equip our children wisely and fill our hearts with your peace, Lord, as we trust you for, for their future provision. And we ask this with confidence in Jesus name, Amen.I just want to, I want to say something here that's, that's, I just think it's really important that I say this planning doesn't erase the challenge. There's still going to be a challenge here. It's still expensive. Hey, college education is not cheap. There's a challenge here.But planning does do this. Planning makes it manageable.And hey, something manageable, break it down into small little itty bitty pieces, whatever that works, makes it manageable. So start small, but start now. Another thing I'm going to encourage you to do is share this episode with other people in your peer group.Maybe you've got some neighbors, you've got some your kids, friends from school, maybe their parents are feeling these same pressures. Or maybe, hey, listen, maybe it's your baby group. You start talking about college playing, look at you like you're crazy.I'm trying to figure out how to get through the next couple days with diaper changes and sleeping through the night. But I'm going to encourage you to share the show.You can point them to financial confidentchristian.com send them a text, send them an email, share it with your Bible study. Hey, give people knowledge. It will pay off in the long run. Now tomorrow we're going to talk about this and that is how can I teach my teenager?Yeah, we're talking about teaching teenager. It's going to be fun how we teach our teenagers about managing money without constant arguing.Listen, having to raise two teenagers, you're probably sitting there saying right now, Ralph, oh, good luck with this one. But we're going to talk about allowances. I'm going to call them something different. I'm going to have you join me tomorrow.We're going to talk about spending boundaries. Hey, we're going to talk about part time jobs and we're going to talk about doing it all with grace. I'm going to encourage you. Don't miss it.Now let's all go out there today and be financially confident Christians. You can do this. I have confidence in you. Have confidence in yourself. God bless you and you have a great day today.