If you’re the parent of a high school student who’s looking ahead to college, it’s important to have a grown-up conversation with your child about college costs. A frank discussion can help both of you get on the same page, optimize the college search process, and avoid getting blindsided by large college bills.
An initial conversation: a, b, and c
As a parent, you need to take the lead in this conversation because most 16-, 17-, and 18-year-olds are not financially experienced enough to drive a $100,000 or $200,000 decision. One approach is to start off saying something like: “We will have saved ‘a’ when it’s time for you to start college, and after that we should be able to contribute ‘b’ each year, and we expect you to contribute ‘c’ each year.” That will give you a baseline of affordability when you start targeting colleges.
A more in-depth conversation: borrow x, pay back y
Once you start looking at colleges, you’ll see that prices vary, sometimes significantly. If a college costs more than a + b + c above, you’ll have to fill the gap. The best way to try and do this is with college grants or scholarships (more on that in a minute). Absent grant aid, you’ll need to consider loans. And here is where you should have a more detailed conversation with your child in which you say: “If you borrow ‘x’ you will need to pay back ‘y’ each month after graduation.” Otherwise, random loan figures probably won’t mean much to a teenager.
You can use an online calculator to show your childexactly what different loan amounts will cost each month over a standard 10-year repayment term. For example, if College 1 will require your child to borrow a total of $16,000 at 5%, that will cost $170 each month for 10 years. If College 2 requires $24,000 in loans, that will cost $255 each month. A loan amount of $36,000 for College 3 will cost $382 per month, and $50,000 for College 4 will cost $530 a month, and so on. The idea is to take an abstract loan amount and translate it into a month-to-month reality.
But don’t stop there. Put that monthly loan payment into a larger context by reminding your child about other financial obligations he or she will have after college, such as a cell phone bill, food, rent, utilities, car insurance. For example, you might say: “If you attend College 3 and have a student loan payment of $382 every month, you’ll also need to budget $40 a month for your phone, $75 for car insurance, $400 for food…” and so on. The goal is to help your child understand the cost of real-world expenses and the long-term financial impact of choosing a more expensive college that will require more loans.
Even with a detailed discussion, though, many teenagers may not be able to grasp how their future lives will be impacted by student loans. Ultimately, it’s up to you — as a parent — to help your child avoid going into too much debt. How much is too much? The answer is different for every family. One frequently stated guideline is for students to borrow no more than what they expect to earn in their first year out of college. But this amount may be too high if assumptions about future earnings don’t pan out.
To build in room for the unexpected, a safer approach might be to borrow no more than the federal government’s Direct Loan limit, which is currently a total of $27,000 for four years of college ($5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, and $7,500 junior and senior years). Federal loans are generally preferable to private loans because they come with an income-based repayment option down the road that links a borrower’s monthly payment to earned income if certain requirements are met. Whatever loan amount you settle on as being within your range, before committing to a college, your child should understand the total amount of borrowing required and the resulting monthly payment after graduation. In this way, you and your child can make an informed financial decision.
If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that parents believe their children may get more out of college when they are at least partly responsible for its costs, as opposed to having a blank check mentality. Being on the hook financially, even for just a small amount, may encourage your child to choose courses carefully, hit the books sufficiently, and live more frugally. Later, if you have the resources, you can always help your child repay his or her student loans.
Target the right colleges
To reduce the need to borrow, spend time researching colleges that offer grants to students whose academic profile your child matches. Colleges differ in their aid generosity. You can use a net price calculator — available on every college website — to get an estimate of how much grant aid your child can expect at different colleges. For example, one college may have a sticker price of $62,000 but might routinely offer $30,000 in grant aid, resulting in an out-of-pocket cost of $32,000. Another college might cost $40,000 but offer only $5,000 in grant aid, resulting in a higher $35,000 out-of-pocket cost.
Prepared by Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright 2018
