Your kids won't really have a choice on the loans... very few colleges give need based aid packages that don't have at least federal loans as part of the package. Also, regardless of whether you intend to pay or not, the colleges will require your financial information and assume you will help out as they believe you are able (which may truly not be much, but they will ask for the information). It used to be true that kids could work their way through college without parental help when we were that age, but it is far more difficult today. Any help parents can give is a pretty huge benefit. There are ways to keep college expenses down - living at home and attending state schools are the most obvious ones, although that depends on your state. Even in-state tuition is climbing pretty high in a lot of states.
Yes, indigo, what I meant was that most tax-deferred savings options for retirement lock up the money so you could not use it for college expenses. And I have to say that schools that use the CSS Profile do look at those assets -- I don't believe most count it as money you could spend on college, but they do look at what you contribute during the years you kid is in college and add at least some of that back into what they would expect you to be able to pay for tuition. I am not an expert on the calculation (go to the financial aid forum on College Confidential to find those wizards), though.
Last edited by intparent; 01/17/14 09:45 PM.
