Val,
Totally respect your view but that is also your plan. You are thinking about his options and what you could direct him towards, and he is 9. That is kind of what I am thinking, but my thinking is different. But at least my thinking is paying off right now. Thinking negatively makes a lot of money these days in the markets. Last fall, it was like printing money.
And that is my other "plan". I will teach DD to trade when she gets to about 12.
Ren
Well, I think what I was trying to say was that the idea is to give my kids freedom to choose. If one or more wants to go straight to a four-year college, DH and I wouldn't hold them back. We might not be enthusiastic about letting a 16-year-old live on the other side the country in a dormitory full of 18-23-year-olds, but that's a different story. I expect that this particular decision would depend a whole lot on the maturity level of each kid. Plus, there are lots of great colleges and universities where we live.
Ultimately, for me/us, the decision about which college to attend has to be the child's. We're trying to teach our kids to make their own decisions, and college choice fits into that category. In college, I knew people who'd been handed a list of approved colleges when they were 16/17 or who entered professions based on parental expectations. Many of them weren't happy or were less independent than might have been optimal (or both). I think that these seeing their experiences helped helped me form my approach to parenting.
I guess this is why I doubt I'll ever be concerned with admissions to an Ivy League school: it's really my son's or daughter's thing to worry about. Not that I won't be happy or sad at the outcome and be rooting for the kid to get into his/her first choice. But I believe that I need to back away to a certain degree.
Just my 2c! YMMV, etc. etc.!
Val
