Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
Originally Posted by Bostonian
If the average peak annual earnings of bright people are $100K, and if years skipped mean more years worked, then each year skipped is worth $100K. I wonder why people rarely consider this. $100K is a lot of money.

Purely from an economic perspective, having your child enter post-secondary 3 to 5 years earlier than agemates also allows for a cost-savings on higher education, too. I'm sure that must seem incredibly gauche to parents who don't yet have kids in college, but there is pretty much no WAY to not think about the cost, frankly. It's eye-watering and it climbs by 4-8% annually.
Parents of young college students may have less income and savings than they will a few years later, which is actually a benefit in the need-based financial aid system. It is less bad to deplete your savings on college expenses when you are relatively young.