%%bloglink%%
My 13 year old son has autism and about every six months my wife and I sit down to review each of the therapies and/or services we are paying for. We ask ourselves questions such as “How much is he benefiting from this service?” “Does he enjoy going or does he complain?” “How much benefit is he receiving compared to the cost of the service?” “Can we continue paying for this going forward?”
I am proud to report these therapies and services has helped him improve and grow academically, socially and emotionally but everything cost money and I shudder to consider how less likely we are to reach OUR financial goals because we focused such a large portion of our resources on helping him reach HIS educational goals?
You may not have a child with autism but it seems every family I’ve come across has had at least one debate concerning how much money they were going to spend on their children’s education vs. other family budget accounts such as saving for retirement or paying down debt.
Here are just a few of the comments I have heard. What about you? What conversations have you heard or been part of concerning this topic?
- “I think we should buy that house in the better neighborhood because the schools there are better than where we live now.” (I don’t know about you but better neighborhood always meant more expensive where I came from.)
- “We need to put our child in private school because that is the only way they will get a great education and get accepted into the top colleges.”
- “I don’t want my child to have debt after college so I am going to help them pay their expenses.”
- “I’m not contributing very much into my 401k because we’re putting money aside for (John/Jane)’s college account.”
- “My child is not going to some state college. I don’t care if I need to take out loans myself!”
- “I worked my way through college and it made me who I am. You are getting no financial help from me.”
- “Your mom and I graduated from public schools and we did just fine. There is no need to go deeper into debt for the same degree.”
Unfortunately, there is no “textbook” correct number concerning how much of your budget you should spend (if any) on your kid’s education. Every family seems to find a number that works for them and their priorities, but remember, the law of budgeting is very similar to Isaac Newton’s law of physics “For every action (dollar spent on education), there is an equal and opposite reaction (one less dollar spent or saved somewhere else).”
