First, I just want to say congratulations! This is such an incredible accomplishment and your children are so lucky to have you as parents. I am a first generation college student, and my parents were immigrants with no formal education. They had the same mind set as you and your wife, and were able to send both my sister and I to college without us having to take loans. This was one of the greatest gifts that they could have given us - your children are so very lucky.
Back to your question - I don't think there is any other tax incentive to reduce college expenses. However, there are tax credits that you could possibly claim to reduce your income taxes when they attend. I would look up the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credit.
I would definitely encourage your kids to apply for as many scholarships as possible and hopefully the university that they go to will provide them with some scholarships to reduce your college expenses.
Best of luck to you and the family!
Thank you for the kind words. We live in a HCOL area. Despite being single-income we earn too much for the tax credits.
Most scholarships require a demonstrated financial need. What can my children do in college to make more scholarships available to them?
My boss and her husband are very high earners, and their child was able to get a very good scholarship to attend university. Based on what I know of the situation, the child is very good academically and enrolled in a good university but was not as popular as an ivy league or one of the ones that people apply to around this area (so, they needed to attract 'talent').
I didn't qualify for many finance based scholarships, but I landed ones academically. I applied to the most random scholarships that just showed that I had good grades and was able to write a decent essay. I also got one that paid the majority for an off campus apartment. There are so many random scholarships that don't need to be finance based - your kids just have to dig.
I don't know if this helps - but for the first year, I attended a very popular university but transferred to one near home (not popular). It was more affordable and they offered me a very good scholarship to attend (even helped pay for my masters). I was worried at first at my career prospects BUT since my school was in a major city, I knew that there were a lot of companies that would offer internships (that I could do during the year AND the summer). This plan worked and I was able to secure a lot of internships with major companies that eventually led me to my career. I ended up working with a large company with a starting class filled with people from top universities (with accompanying higher tuition) and despite being the only person from my university, my starting salary was more (bc of the masters). I guess what I am getting at is : don't ignore the unpopular universities around - they can be more affordable and offer good scholarships with good opportunities. My advice to your kids during school is to network and try to get as many internships as possible(which can help pay for college or offer scholarships!). Have fun during college but you want to end it with a job offer (if you can). A college education, unfortunately does not guarantee a job - you got to hustle!
My searches haven't turned up much at all. Any tips on searching?
"Demonstrated financial need" eliminates most of them immediately.
My current high school senior has a 4.1 GPA, is a minority, and is a first generation student. Even with that focus most are eliminated by the financial need requirement.
You may find our [Taxes wiki](/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) helpful.
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I am paying for children's college by funding my retirement accounts.
As a first generation Asian college graduate, I know first hand what a burden it is to have to support my parents while going to college and decades afterwards. I don't blame my parents, they did and are doing their best for us.
However, that is my one singular goal. I will not burden my kids. I am not compounding the problem by paying for their education as well. I will of course pay as much as I possibly can but not at the detriment of my retirement as I've already stated is much worse than student loans. (The former is much worse because my parents will starve or not have a place to live, the latter, the interest and penalties will pile on.)
I'm tackling the problem by maxing out all my tax advantaged accounts so that I will not be a burden to kids. I cannot take out loans for retirement just as my parents can't. My children can take our student loans if they need to.
In addition, maxing out HSA, 401k, and Roth IRA maximizes my money which in turn maximizes the amount I can give my children for college. The tax advantages far exceed what a 529 provides. So as contrary as it sounds, I am paying for my children's college by contributing to my retirement.
What state do you live in and where your children will attend? I would talk to your kids guidance counselor to start making plans. They can take a lot of classes at the high school level that count as college credits (think AP courses) that will help to cut down on the amount of time they are in college which helps you pay less.
We are FL residents and have a bright future scholarship program, any child attending high school qualifies for this program if they keep a certain GPA, meet the volunteer requirement hours by graduation and have a certain score on their SAT/ACT tests. I am expecting my kids to qualify for the second tier level which will pay for 75% of their college tuition at any of the 14 public universities in FL.
They also have early college entry programs at all high schools that are close to a public university. Which means my children, starting in the 11th grade can attend college at the local college and receive college credit and high school credit at the same time all paid for their high school district including books. This program is not for everyone because it does require them to have a certain maturity level at 16 to go to college classes, driving themselves there and back each day and being in class.
We are lucky we have what is called dual entry program. The local public university teaches classes at their high school they can take that count as both college and high school credit. This is the one I am going to push my kids for. They still attend classes at high school with their friends, but it is at college level. These tend to be the first-year college classes, think Composition 101 and College Biology or Chemistry. Classes that really do not need to be taken at a college and my kids can easily handle the course load. I am hoping when they enter college at 18 they actually will be considered sophomores and have 1 year already complete. We have college tuition taken care of, but not room/board/food at college. This is going to run me about $20k per year for my twins. So if I can get one year cut off that would be great.
I highly recommend talking to your kid's guidance counselors and see what kind of programs they have at the high school level to get some credits knocked out while still in high school. We are a military family and currently living in MA. The high school my kids are at here already have meetings with the 9th graders to go over their academic plans for the next 3 years and they offer college credit courses at the high school. They also have a program with the local community college to take classes online in high school that count as college credit.
Lastly, my niece in FL had a very good college resume because she was 4.0 in her studies, was in an International Baccalaureate program in high school and swam 4 years varsity for her school. Her parents make too much money for needs based scholarships and she was good at swimming, but not college level good. She was accepted at 4 different public schools in FL that all offered her their own scholarship money (not needs based) because they really wanted her to attend their schools. They were not the top 2 public schools in FL (FSU and UF) so to compete with those top 2 schools they offered their own scholarship money as a recruitment tool. I am told this is a normal practice in most states, the mid level schools need to compete with the higher level schools so they throw money at kids. Your kids might find if they keep their grades up they will be offered money by the colleges they apply, to attend.
First, I just want to say congratulations! This is such an incredible accomplishment and your children are so lucky to have you as parents. I am a first generation college student, and my parents were immigrants with no formal education. They had the same mind set as you and your wife, and were able to send both my sister and I to college without us having to take loans. This was one of the greatest gifts that they could have given us - your children are so very lucky. Back to your question - I don't think there is any other tax incentive to reduce college expenses. However, there are tax credits that you could possibly claim to reduce your income taxes when they attend. I would look up the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credit. I would definitely encourage your kids to apply for as many scholarships as possible and hopefully the university that they go to will provide them with some scholarships to reduce your college expenses. Best of luck to you and the family!
Thank you for the kind words. We live in a HCOL area. Despite being single-income we earn too much for the tax credits. Most scholarships require a demonstrated financial need. What can my children do in college to make more scholarships available to them?
My boss and her husband are very high earners, and their child was able to get a very good scholarship to attend university. Based on what I know of the situation, the child is very good academically and enrolled in a good university but was not as popular as an ivy league or one of the ones that people apply to around this area (so, they needed to attract 'talent'). I didn't qualify for many finance based scholarships, but I landed ones academically. I applied to the most random scholarships that just showed that I had good grades and was able to write a decent essay. I also got one that paid the majority for an off campus apartment. There are so many random scholarships that don't need to be finance based - your kids just have to dig. I don't know if this helps - but for the first year, I attended a very popular university but transferred to one near home (not popular). It was more affordable and they offered me a very good scholarship to attend (even helped pay for my masters). I was worried at first at my career prospects BUT since my school was in a major city, I knew that there were a lot of companies that would offer internships (that I could do during the year AND the summer). This plan worked and I was able to secure a lot of internships with major companies that eventually led me to my career. I ended up working with a large company with a starting class filled with people from top universities (with accompanying higher tuition) and despite being the only person from my university, my starting salary was more (bc of the masters). I guess what I am getting at is : don't ignore the unpopular universities around - they can be more affordable and offer good scholarships with good opportunities. My advice to your kids during school is to network and try to get as many internships as possible(which can help pay for college or offer scholarships!). Have fun during college but you want to end it with a job offer (if you can). A college education, unfortunately does not guarantee a job - you got to hustle!
[удалено]
My searches haven't turned up much at all. Any tips on searching? "Demonstrated financial need" eliminates most of them immediately. My current high school senior has a 4.1 GPA, is a minority, and is a first generation student. Even with that focus most are eliminated by the financial need requirement.
You may find our [Taxes wiki](/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) helpful. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I am paying for children's college by funding my retirement accounts. As a first generation Asian college graduate, I know first hand what a burden it is to have to support my parents while going to college and decades afterwards. I don't blame my parents, they did and are doing their best for us. However, that is my one singular goal. I will not burden my kids. I am not compounding the problem by paying for their education as well. I will of course pay as much as I possibly can but not at the detriment of my retirement as I've already stated is much worse than student loans. (The former is much worse because my parents will starve or not have a place to live, the latter, the interest and penalties will pile on.) I'm tackling the problem by maxing out all my tax advantaged accounts so that I will not be a burden to kids. I cannot take out loans for retirement just as my parents can't. My children can take our student loans if they need to. In addition, maxing out HSA, 401k, and Roth IRA maximizes my money which in turn maximizes the amount I can give my children for college. The tax advantages far exceed what a 529 provides. So as contrary as it sounds, I am paying for my children's college by contributing to my retirement.
What state do you live in and where your children will attend? I would talk to your kids guidance counselor to start making plans. They can take a lot of classes at the high school level that count as college credits (think AP courses) that will help to cut down on the amount of time they are in college which helps you pay less. We are FL residents and have a bright future scholarship program, any child attending high school qualifies for this program if they keep a certain GPA, meet the volunteer requirement hours by graduation and have a certain score on their SAT/ACT tests. I am expecting my kids to qualify for the second tier level which will pay for 75% of their college tuition at any of the 14 public universities in FL. They also have early college entry programs at all high schools that are close to a public university. Which means my children, starting in the 11th grade can attend college at the local college and receive college credit and high school credit at the same time all paid for their high school district including books. This program is not for everyone because it does require them to have a certain maturity level at 16 to go to college classes, driving themselves there and back each day and being in class. We are lucky we have what is called dual entry program. The local public university teaches classes at their high school they can take that count as both college and high school credit. This is the one I am going to push my kids for. They still attend classes at high school with their friends, but it is at college level. These tend to be the first-year college classes, think Composition 101 and College Biology or Chemistry. Classes that really do not need to be taken at a college and my kids can easily handle the course load. I am hoping when they enter college at 18 they actually will be considered sophomores and have 1 year already complete. We have college tuition taken care of, but not room/board/food at college. This is going to run me about $20k per year for my twins. So if I can get one year cut off that would be great. I highly recommend talking to your kid's guidance counselors and see what kind of programs they have at the high school level to get some credits knocked out while still in high school. We are a military family and currently living in MA. The high school my kids are at here already have meetings with the 9th graders to go over their academic plans for the next 3 years and they offer college credit courses at the high school. They also have a program with the local community college to take classes online in high school that count as college credit. Lastly, my niece in FL had a very good college resume because she was 4.0 in her studies, was in an International Baccalaureate program in high school and swam 4 years varsity for her school. Her parents make too much money for needs based scholarships and she was good at swimming, but not college level good. She was accepted at 4 different public schools in FL that all offered her their own scholarship money (not needs based) because they really wanted her to attend their schools. They were not the top 2 public schools in FL (FSU and UF) so to compete with those top 2 schools they offered their own scholarship money as a recruitment tool. I am told this is a normal practice in most states, the mid level schools need to compete with the higher level schools so they throw money at kids. Your kids might find if they keep their grades up they will be offered money by the colleges they apply, to attend.