College-Bound

18 years and counting...

Yes, you may think it is a bit early to start thinking about college, but is it really? With tuition rising and the economy flailing, the earlier we can start planning the better. And in my mind, college is just not an option. Unless Lemon or her future sibling(s?) are passionate about a particular trade or a military career - and they are going to have to give me a deeply convincing argument - I don't really see college as an option. Not these days. It may have been different when our parents were growing up, or even as recently as my college days, but in the ever-more competitive job market, it seems you need at least a bachelors to work as a barista.

So, in the interest of goal-setting and expectations, the question is posed: Should we encourage our little Lemon to work towards any college of her dreams, including the Ivies, or do we push towards a less financially-demanding public school?

The parent who wants every possible opportunity for their child naturally leans towards the former, but we need to do the research on whether or not this is actually the smart, educated choice. January's SmartMoney magazine features an article that delves into this specific question, "Why the Ivies Aren't Worth It." It is not yet available online, but if you have kids it is worth going to the library for the quick read.

SM looks at what the majority of students expect from their school of choice (making more money post-graduation) and the actual return on tuition. Looking at historical degree tuition, average student loan debt, and corresponding alumni salaries both in early career and mid-career, it turns out the public schools - almost across the board - blow away the private schools. SM also has noted that corporate American knows this and the prestige that once came with an ivy league education is waning, with nearly half the top execs at Fortune 100 companies hailing from public schools.

As Jim posted before, we are lucky enough to live in a state that has two programs that are geared toward easing the tuition strain down the road: the Washington GET and the Coverdell ESA. We will most likely take advantage of both so Lemon doesn't have nearly the college debt load I have been strapped with. I am also happy to report that according to SM, the University of Washington ranks No.5 in the country with an average payback of 225%. I think I just became a Huskies fan...

Should I Be Worrying About This Yet?

So, I don't really have any bills from college to speak of since my classes were mostly paid by my previous employer. But my college experience consisted mainly of classes at night and on weekends with other people employed full time. Baby Momma's college experiences sound much better, but she has to send $250 a month to Sallie Mae for thirty years.
We want Lemon to have the best of both of our stories, M's normal college experience and my lack of a drag on my credit report. I've been doing some research and right now I think I've narrowed it down to two ways to help our little citrus pay for school. The first way is the Washington GET and the second is the Coverdell ESA and we could also do both at the same time.

The Washington GET (Guaranteed Education Tuition) is, according to their website:

GET is Washington state's 529 prepaid college tuition program. With GET, you prepay for your child's college tuition today. The State of Washington guarantees that the value of your units will keep pace with resident undergraduate tuition and state-mandated fees at the most expensive public university in Washington, either the University of Washington or Washington State University.

Basically, you buy units at a set price today and you use them in the future to pay for college. Right now a unit costs $76 (125 units = 1 year of college) but in 18 years it will be worth 1/125th of whatever tuition costs at Washington's most expensive public university, presumably a lot more than 76 dollars.

The Coverdell ESA (Education Savings Account) is a tax advantaged investment account designed to encourage savings to cover future education experiences. It's kind of like an IRA but for education instead of retirement. It even used to be called the Coverdell IRA until somebody realized that didn't make sense.

Both programs have their pros and cons, which you can read about in the links above. I think we will end up using a combination of both. If anybody has any helpful info please feel free to leave it in the comments.