Tools Debt Freedom Planner Podcast
About
Brad
Contact Us
Send us Feedback Podcast Guest Request Request Brad to be on your Podcast
Join Roots!

Episode 268 - College Planning 101: Start Early, Save Big

Navigating the financial landscape of higher education can be daunting for many families. From understanding the true cost of college to planning for financial aid, it's important to be well-prepared. Fortunately, Angie Grimm from College Solutions, LLC, offers expert advice on how to plan effectively for your child's college education. Here’s a comprehensive guide drawn from her invaluable insights shared during her discussion with Brad Nelson, founder of Debt-Free Dad. 

 

The Big Picture 

Higher education is one of the most significant financial undertakings for families, often second only to mortgages. With the cost of higher education continuously rising, it is more crucial than ever to plan ahead. 

Understanding the Financial Landscape 

Angie Grimm has been working with students and families for over 15 years, with extensive knowledge about admissions, financial aid, and how colleges distribute their funds. Angie's goal is to help families save money and make informed decisions about college expenses. Her own children graduated with degrees from big-name schools in Texas with no debt, underscoring the effectiveness of her methods. 

Common Mistakes in College Planning 

One of the most common mistakes families make is not starting early enough. Parents come in during their child's junior or senior year of high school, which is often too late. College planning should be looked upon as a significant financial transaction requiring proper research and planning long before the application process begins. 

The Importance of Early Planning 

Starting early gives families better understanding and more options. Angie stresses that parents should start discussing college preparations with their children as early as freshman or sophomore year in high school. This includes decisions about dual credits, AP classes, and resume building, all of which can significantly impact college admissions and financial aid offers. 

Financial Aid & Scholarship Navigation 

Three types of financial aid exist: need-based aid, merit-based scholarships, and outside scholarships. 

Need-Based Aid: Often, middle to upper-income families don’t qualify for federal need-based aid, but they still need to navigate the financial aid process, which includes the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). 

Merit-Based Scholarships: These are awarded based on a student’s academic and extracurricular achievements. Identifying schools where the student is likely to be in the top 25% of applicants can increase the chances of securing significant merit-based scholarships. 

Outside Scholarships: Though the process of applying for these can be burdensome, it’s certainly worth it. Angie recommends a strategic approach, starting with local community organizations and then broadening the search to include online scholarship databases. 

Debunking FAFSA Myths 

Many families have misconceptions about the FAFSA. Angie highlights the importance of filing the FAFSA every year of undergraduate study, regardless of whether you qualify for aid. The FAFSA is crucial for access to federal student loans and other financial aid programs. Recent changes, such as the FAFSA simplification act, have made the process less cumbersome but also eliminated certain benefits, like discounts for families with multiple kids in college. 

Post-Graduation Financial Planning 

Understanding the financial impact of student loans post-graduation is critical. Parents should be transparent with their children about the financial burden of student loans and encourage alternative paths, such as starting at a community college, which can drastically reduce costs. 

Real-Life Experiences and Practical Advice 

Angie emphasizes practicality. For instance, families should focus on essential academic offerings during college visits rather than amenities like rock climbing walls or gourmet dining options. Also, parents should encourage students to work part-time to pay for some of their expenses, teaching them financial responsibility early on. 

Earmarking Future Funds 

For young parents, it’s advisable to start saving early with a flexible, multipurpose fund. This fund can serve various future needs, whether it’s college, vocational training, or even starting a business. 

Conclusion 

Strategic financial planning and early preparation can significantly alleviate the burden of college expenses. Angie Grimm's advice provides a roadmap for families seeking to make informed decisions, maximize financial aid opportunities, and ultimately ensure their children obtain a quality education without being saddled with debt. For more guidance, Angie’s webinars and consultations offer tailored advice to navigate the complexities of college financial planning effectively. 

For additional resources and consultations, you can visit College Solutions, LLC’s website or their Facebook page. Check out https://www.collegesolutionsllc.com/ for more information!  

Resources Mentioned
Get better results with your finances in 30-60 days - GUARANTEED. Watch this video to learn how! - https://www.debtfreedad.com/payoff-debt-in-60-to-90-days 

Free Tools and Downloads at www.debtfreedad.com

Connect With Brad

Thanks For Listening

Like what you hear? Please, subscribe on the platform you listen to most: Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Tune-In, Stitcher, YouTube Music, YouTube

We LOVE feedback, and also helps us grow our podcast! Please leave us an honest review in Apple Podcasts, we read every single one.

Is there someone that you think would benefit from the Debt Free Dad podcast? Please, share this episode with them on your favorite social network!

Episode Transcript: 

Brad:  

Hey guys, today I am thrilled to have a special guest, Angie Grimm from College Solutions LLC, joining us to dive into a topic that's on the minds I know for a fact on the minds of a lot of parents and students who are knocking on the door to college, and that's right. We're going to be talking about financial planning for college. Today, With the rising costs of higher education, knowing how to navigate the financial landscape is more important than ever, and Angie is here to share her expert insights and answers to some of the crucial questions that you need to ask to ensure you're making the best financial decisions for your child's college education. Stay tuned.

Speaker 2:  

You're listening to the Debt-Free Dad podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experience the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.

Brad:  

Hey guys, I'm Brad Nelson, founder of Debt-Free Dad. I paid off about $45,000 in debt, have been debt-free now for more than 11 years. I've also been fortunate to help thousands of other people save and pay off tens of millions of dollars with the work that we do here at Debt-Free Dad. Now, after listening to this episode, if you want to take your finances to the next level, you want to start getting better results in just as little as 30 to 60 days. I'll be sharing some details about how you can get started with that later on in today's show. So, as I mentioned, guys, I'm really excited to have Angie joining us here on the podcast. Angie, welcome to the Debt-Free Dad Podcast. I'm so glad that you're joining us today.

Angie:  

Thanks, Brad. I look forward to having a good conversation today.

Brad:  

Yeah, thanks, brad. I look forward to having a good conversation today. Yeah, absolutely, and a really important one as it relates to college education. Before we hit record, you even mentioned in your experience it's probably one of the biggest debts, maybe outside of mortgages that most people are dealing with and stressing about is college debt, is student loans, and you are an expert in this field of helping parents and kids who are going to college on how to start properly planning for this. So can you just share a little bit with? You are an expert in this field of helping parents and kids who are going to college on how to start properly planning for this, so can you just share a little bit with the audience, like how you started to get into this and how are you an expert in helping all these people do this kind of stuff?

Angie:  

Yeah well, I have been working with students and families now for the past 15 years. A lot of schools are starting here in Texas tomorrow and today, so this will be my 16th school year Worked with hundreds of families. I started off I worked for a small financial firm and we really felt that we needed to become experts in the college planning world, Because when you sit down and talk with parents, they mostly have two financial goals how are they going to get to retirement and have their senior years the way they want? And they want to help their kids with college at some level. But most parents were stressed In today's world they think maybe I can't do it at all. And so we became experts.

Angie:  

I studied the financial aid system. We have extensive knowledge about admissions and how colleges actually give out their money. You know college estimates, so we've become an expert in that and I have a larger network that I'm a part of, you know, a nationwide study group that helps us do these things and to stay up to date on the many moving changes every year with financial aid and college admission. So I had a real opportunity, you know, to help a lot of families and save them thousands of dollars and not make the wrong decisions on schools and wrong budget decision for college. So that's kind of how I got into it and then it helped me navigate my own kids through it. I have two grown children who both successfully navigated college with four-year degrees from big name schools here in Texas with no debt, and that's one of the things we're the most proud of, and now that they are 25 and 27, they can't thank us enough that we did not get them into a mess of student loan debt.

Brad:  

So you're telling me that it's still possible in today's day and age to go to college and not graduate with, in some cases, zero debt, in some cases, very little debt, 100%.

Angie:  

Wow Okay.

Brad:  

This is going to be a fun conversation today because I'm sure people who are out there who have kids are like, okay, how? And especially, you know, students are like how? In fact, I just did a podcast interview with another individual here last week who's younger, and the conversation went to student loans because they were like I went to school, I really didn't properly plan for college, my parents didn't properly plan, and it was a huge eye opener when I graduated and started getting all these student loan bills, you know, and how am I going to manage all this? She's like if I could go back and start over and do this different because she's like I never would have I never would have realized how much of an impact it was going to have on every financial decision I was going to have to make moving forward because of these student loan bills now that I have. So I love that you're here. I think this is going to be a great conversation today. So my first one for you is what are people doing wrong? So if I'm a parent and if I'm a student getting ready to go to college, what do you see people missing the most, or where are people making, I guess, maybe the biggest mistakes out the door in properly planning for such a big expense like college education.

Angie:  

Well, one is they're not starting early enough. So many times they'll come in the door junior year, even senior year, and this is the single most expensive endeavor you're going to do for your child outside of getting them to 18, and you got to pay for it in four years, so it's even harder to pay that off in a quick amount of time. It's like taking on a second mortgage, and only if you have one kiddo. If you have two or three, you're taking on a second, a third and a fourth mortgage and possibly they're just not starting early enough to understand their options. And the second thing is they're not budget planning for school. We're not looking at colleges in the way we should of any other financial transaction we're going to do.

Angie:  

And it really to me starts, brad, with the parents understanding the process and knowing it, because your students and your son or daughter are looking to you for the information and if you don't do any homework or your due diligence to have data to bring to them to have a relevant conversation about the financial piece and educate them on that, they are the ones going to college. You're making the investment and they should make some investment too. You're not going to do your child any favors by not talking to them about the financial piece. So you've got to start earlier, and you have to start gathering the facts of what the true cost is going to be at each school for your family. The process is the same, brad, for everybody to get financial aid, but everyone has a different result, and so they need to know what's going to be relevant for their specific family and their specific kids, and we've got to start that plan early. Yeah, do you know?

Brad:  

why people are starting so late? Is it because finances are just a tough topic in general for most people One is, your face was different types of societal expenses.

Angie:  

I think now, with your kids, from pre-K to high school, we're playing club sports, we're doing all kinds of different things, and we have to still get cars for our kids and put braces on them. And many times people say well, angie, we just had a lot of life, we didn't get around to saving. It was tough. Yeah, like you said, I've raised two kids. I get it. We did cars, we did braces. You spend a lot of money while you're raising them. They said there just wasn't a whole lot of extra. Now we're here and they're actually expressing an interest in it. So now we need to pay attention to it, because now little Johnny says I actually do, I think, want to go to college and they want to reward them because they are doing well in high school, and so it's human nature to put things off to the last minute and people for sure do it with college planning.

Brad:  

Yeah, so, okay. So if I, if I walk in your door or give you a call and say you know, angie, I got, I got a child who's getting ready to go to school, and you know, let's say we're in that junior year, maybe getting close to senior year, like what, what? What is the process for parents going through this and what does that look like?

Angie:  

as far as time and investment of time, yeah, so we do tell families this is your next part-time job, helping your student find the right fit college, academically, socially and then we want to help you find the right fit financially. It's a threefold process. So the sooner we can start talking to their child even freshman sophomore year, with the parents, help navigating through all the myriad of choices in high school. How many dual credits should we take? Should we take AP classes or not, because we're looking at an admission goal. How can we get into college?

Angie:  

Where I live in Texas, we have two flagship colleges that are some of the most elite colleges on a public school list to try to get into, which is University of Texas and Texas A&M.

Angie:  

You can't just walk in the door there and it starts with your transcript being built and it starts with strategic test prep, planning and resume and activities and leadership and those types of things. So it's a progression of time through their high school years to make sure they're positioned to try to get as many admission offers and look at as many schools that are possible, and many times, if they come in senior year, we've set our grades pretty much. We maybe have some things to improve, but the sooner we can start talking to that student, the better, and then helping parents understand. If we make a good working list starting freshman, sophomore year, of 10 to 15 schools, how do they give out their aid? We've got to start looking at their cost and aid estimators, researching their actual cost, because there's a ton of mispronouncement out there about how schools give out money and actually what they cost. Because we educate parents on the cost and they're shocked every time about what it's going to be year over year for four years at that school.

Brad:  

Yeah, yeah. So talk a little bit about that, I guess. From a financial standpoint, how do you even navigate the costs and the financial aid that's available, and how does your income play a role?

Angie:  

Right. So there are three types of financial aid. There's need-based financial aid, there's merit-based scholarships and then there's outside scholarships. So first we help a family navigate through to see are you going to be qualified for any type of need-based aid from the federal government a Pell Grant or subsidized loan or a college subsidized work-study program? Many people in the middle class to upper income families aren't going to qualify for that type of aid, but they still need to navigate through the financial aid process to show the school a good faith estimate of what their ability to pay for school is good faith estimate of what their ability to pay for school is. So many people in that category shy away from that and there are times that there might be things we can do in strategic planning to make their student aid estimate lower than before they go in the door. So, strategic asset planning we want to use all the legalized rules and regulations to possibly bring down what's called their student aid index. It's a number that the colleges use after you file your FAFSA to say what can this student pay towards college? Think of that as your deductible. So some students will go through the process and their deductible will show up as they can pay $45,000 a year, the school costs 30, so they're not going to get any need-based aid. We have to help them look at that.

Angie:  

And then the second type of aid is merit. How do we maximize their students' potential with a higher test score, with a high GPA resume, those types of things? The biggest money out there, Brad, is from the colleges themselves for your students' merit of how they've done through high school, and we have to search for those colleges for each kiddo where they're going to be in the top 25% of applicants. So there's some searches that we need to help people do. Some people come in looking at all the wrong schools for all the wrong reasons, and there are times we're able to add schools to their list to say, if we apply over here, they're going to be in the top pool of their applicants and that means they're going to get more free money from the school. Everybody likes free money, right? Yeah, Dollarship or grant, we don't have to pay back, right?

Brad:  

Yeah, and that's something you bring up, you know. Like you know and I hear this a lot you know I want the college experience. Well, the college experience can come at a very high cost and it may not directly reflect the degree that you technically want to get, and you could save a tremendous amount of money by selecting a different school. So how do you work with kids, or even parents who have their you know, these dreams and aspirations of their kids going to save some of these name brand schools that have a higher price?

Angie:  

Yeah, you know that's a really great point and question. There are times we really do, we're really candid with our families about look, here's the bottom dollar that we think you're going to get and, as we're going through your strategic financial plan of how to do that, this is probably going to be a financial detriment to your son and to you if you do this Right. So my job isn't to do that. But what I try to educate parents on is, in today's prices we don't have time to explore at the university level anymore. You want the college experience. I will sometimes just very candidly say you're going to pay for it. You will pay that price if you want it. There's a certain price to pay and they're willing to let you pay it and you'll, you'll pay for it.

Angie:  

Yeah, I firmly believe your son or daughter does not have to leave your current zip code to grow up. So parents want sometimes more than what they had for their student because they had a certain type of experience and maybe didn't have the opportunity to go off and do those types of things and give them the best dorm, give them the best food plan. I mean, I'll have conversations with parents in the summer saying don't buy the unlimited plan your son doesn't isn't going to eat six meals a day because he's going to get sick of it by the minimum. Like, how are we trying to streamline costs here? Right, what I love I get to do is have practical, sometimes parent conversations too, like here. Here's some conversation, parent to parent Cause I've been there, done that. Right, think about these types of things.

Angie:  

But when we really, it usually comes down, brad, to that bottom dollar saying if you say yes to this school, you are going to have to be paying $45,000 a year times four, and there might be some loans to fill that gap. We've got to make sure we're there that you're able to have liquid, accessible money to click and pay eight times. College wants the money, the same as when you and I went to college. They like to get paid every semester to provide that product and let them in the dorm and slide their card at the Chick-fil-A and eat. So they're kind of funny like that. They need it one semester or you get politely asked to move out of your dorm and you don't get to come back. So they need the money.

Brad:  

So can you you mentioned, like food, like your kid doesn't need to have six meals a day, you know. Can you talk a little bit about some of maybe the costs that people don't consider? Obviously you look at the overall education, but what are some of the other costs that are involved that tend to, you know, really eat at the total cost of the whole education?

Angie:  

Yeah. So when we tell parents are going to go visit a college, or they get a flyer in a mail, look at the total cost of attendance tuition for full 30 hours. What's the? What are the room and board choices? Are you going to overpay for a certain dorm where you could get away with a different dorm? Because if you move outside your zip code they're going to require you to live on their campus? Most colleges have done significant building improvements in the last decade. They need those dorms paid for, so they're going to ask you to live on campus at least two years. That's pretty standard across the board for most public universities.

Angie:  

So you can't get out and say now we're going to cram four kids into a cheap apartment. You have to pay. First year is always the most expensive. You have to pay what they need you to pay. They're got to buy the food they say you got to buy, live where they say you have to live. And then you have to look at the ancillary. You have to buy books.

Angie:  

Then what's the transportation cost? Are you driving to that school because it's four hours away, or are you three plane rides away? How many holiday breaks do they get to come home for how many times are you going to get to go see them for the parent weekend? Will you get to fly there for that, will you not? Right? So ancillary. But the colleges have to be transparent about that. Now, brad, too. On their cost and aid estimates, they're required to put out what I call the full sticker price. It's a little like the MSRP on that new truck you might go look at. Sure, what is the all-in worst case scenario number? Here's where we're at now. How do we start trying to chop that down with realistic thoughts and ideas of how to get there?

Brad:  

Yeah, yeah, I love that, I love it. Can you share a little bit about the FAFSA, maybe even talking a little bit? I would love to know your thoughts on scholarships too, and where students and because I feel like that's like a whole nother area that some people tend to just either don't think that they'll qualify for anything or they don't quite understand the process. So first, can you kind of cover the FAFSA, because I feel like that's kind of the first step in a lot of the cases what people need to be doing. So can you cover what that is and then let's talk a little about scholarships.

Angie:  

Yeah.

Angie:  

So the FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Think of that as your new college tax return. You have to file it every year. Your student's in undergrad work and your student will typically be your dependent for financial aid all four years they're in undergrad. Many parents have a lot of myths around that, asking me if I had a dollar Brad. For over 15 years everyone asked me if they shouldn't claim their kid on their tax return to get a Pell Grant. I'd be rich. There's new rules to it. Whether they live in your house or not, whether they pay their own apartment, the government considers them your dependent for financial aid until at least age 24. So your information is going to be required on that FAFSA.

Angie:  

It's been streamlined. Last year I don't know if you keep up with this at all, but it was a giant nightmare. Last year they streamed. There was a FAFSA simplification act that was put on the books. There's a couple of good things that happened and a myriad of horrible things that happened with it. So one is the form is shorter. That's a win. Only like 36 questions. You have to answer it Less manual.

Angie:  

The thing that's detrimental about it is prior to last year, the math in the formula from the federal government used to take into account if you had multiple kids in college. Well, now the disappearing math on it is they took the discounts away for when people have multiple students in college. So say, your student aid index was 40 grand for your first kid going to school. When your second kid joined, it would typically cut that in half. So now each kid could qualify for more financial aid. The government took that away. They said why do families need discounts? That's going to start to trickle down. Nobody knows about this, that this is happening. Only people like myself and in this world know about this. So it's going to cause middle-class families to have to pay more. That disappearing discount has gone away. Now they make you value your business if you're a small business owner, if you're a farmer or rancher, now they make you value your business. That's new. So I have more clients than ever that have small business or have a farm or a ranch.

Angie:  

How do we evaluate that for a valued number? On the FAFSA? That was exempt from reporting until last year, so it was delayed last year. We just learned that the FAFSA will be delayed again for the 25 year typically rolls out for students in their senior year, october 1. This year it's delayed again to December 1. The national numbers are not in yet, brad, from last year's debacle, but we fully believe with all the data we're reading, enrollments will be down nationwide for freshmen at college because the aid was so messed up. Kids didn't know what they were getting. The very section of people they were trying to help the most, which is actually low income need based, will be the most affected because they didn't know how to interpret the delay. They didn't know they were still going to get their free money and they just probably gave up and they didn't go.

Brad:  

Wow, that's great, that's crazy.

Angie:  

We keep our pulse really our finger on that pulse very, very tightly, because every family needs to file for it. Now, the second reason everyone needs to file for it is it shows your ability and good faith estimate to the college. If you're trying to do everything you can to find every dollar available to pay for college and the main one is through the federal direct student loan process If you need the federal direct loans for your kiddos, you have to file that form. You don't have access to those low interest loans that are delayed till they get out of college unless you file that form. So many high income parents make that mistake and then they call me later saying well, I want my student to borrow that $5,500, but I didn't get that on my financial aid award. Did you file your FAFSA? No, I'm not going to file that. They don't need to see my information. Then you don't get offered the loan. So there's mistakes that happen. It's an arduous process. Did you do it right? The colleges get the information, but everyone needs to go through it.

Brad:  

So yeah, and I do want you to talk about scholarships. But just on this, like, how do you, how has parents? Like how do we, how do we even understand? Oh, I know you said it needs to be a part time job, but where do you even go and find the accurate information that you need to be educated and to be able to make those right decisions?

Angie:  

Right. So one mistake I think people make they rely on their high school to help them. My son went to a large public high school. There were 650 kids in his class. They had one college coordinator.

Angie:  

Your public high school's job is not to help your student find the right fit college, navigate financial aid and figure out the most tax efficient way to pay for it. They're not going to do that, so you have to seek that out and that information out. You can get on studentaidgov. That has a lot of free information. That's the hub for the FAFSA. They've done a good job actually in the public facing forum giving you tutorials like play their little videos how does the FAFSA work, why do you need to do this and when.

Angie:  

But it doesn't tell you the rest of the story, right? So the colleges, when you go visit, try to tell you some. Here's when you should apply, here's when this timeline should come in. This information could come to us. But financial aid awards, brad, when they come out in the spring, are not standardized. So if you apply to 10 colleges, they're all going to look different and I work with some. You know, if you apply to 10 colleges, they're all going to look different and I work with some you know very intelligent people who get their financial aid awards and it looks like it's written in Greek because it's not standardized and it doesn't have to be across the board and like what is this grant, what is this loan, what was this scholarship? What do I have to pay at the end of the day? Colleges try to make it transparent, but we help them interpret that to see. So you've really got to start seeking out as many resources as you can to understand how this process is going to go, and it's not too early to start visiting the college.

Angie:  

Sophomore, junior year of high school, take an excuse day and take your kid. If you're going to spend over $100,000 on one school, possibly it's worth your time and a couple of days off of work shop. It Make them dazzle. You Make them say why is there a worthy investment for me to come here To find out what's going to be that return on investment? How many internships could they get? Will you get my kid through in four years?

Brad:  

Right, make them impress you so when it comes to these scholarships, because obviously that can help too, is you know? And again I have a feeling it's kind of the same way start early, but I would assume, based on your high school education, you probably only start so soon. Right, you have to probably wait a little bit, but can you talk a little bit about that, like what parents need to know, even what students need to know about scholarships, and maybe even some misconceptions about them?

Angie:  

Right, so one? I mentioned this earlier the biggest scholarships that exist are from the colleges and universities themselves, through their endowments, through their merit base for people that have given you know to their college, in some cases for 100 years. Right, so are we going to fall in their top 25% of applicants? You've got to start finding and doing that homework early. We're considering, you know, going to Baylor. They have a lot of scholarship, but how much are they going to give? Some of these colleges print rubrics, brad, saying if you have this GPA and this test score, you'll get this. Others are subjective, saying apply, you might get our chancellor scholarship, you might get our presidential, and they don't give you an idea of what they've done in the past. You just have to put your best foot forward and wait and sit back and say, okay, I hope they give me something. Right, because they're not going to be transparent to you, because they're afraid of telling you some of that number ahead when you're shopping that school, because we're all going to hear what we want to hear, and if you have someone on the tour that says, oh, I bet we can get you X amount of dollar and later you don't get it, you're going to remember that person. But that person is given thousands of tours so they hold that information very close to their best. So college selection is extremely important. Understanding do they give out merit scholarships for your students achievement Now.

Angie:  

The second is the online search. Right, it's a shotgun approach. So there's myths there. I've heard. There's all this unused money. So plan on about a 10% rate of return. When you shop all these online platforms, you need to put in at least 100 or more to maybe get eight or nine of them. Now, when my son was a senior, he refused to do any of those. He was too busy. He wasn't able to do it because that's actually your student's job. And when they're still in their senior year, that's where it all collides. That's where the work comes. Senior year, from about October till about April, is the time frame they should be working on those. There's not a lot of money that gets given out to a high achieving sophomore junior because you're just not there yet. They don't know if you're going to go to school right.

Angie:  

So, you have to search for those, but be realistic about it. Right, how many of those can we get? And usually the moms at the end of the day that wind up putting some of those things in, because your student writes a general essay and you're going to put in general information. But if you apply for four or five of them, don't be surprised if you get zero. Now you need to check with your employer, check with your local resources, your church, your community groups. Usually your local high school is going to keep a really good pulse on that. So pay attention senior year If the Kiwanis Club is giving one out, right, if the Rotary Group is giving one out, pay attention to your high school's list. That's the information you need to be dialed in on at your high school. Is that counseling team keeping up with everybody in the community who wants to give out dollar and put in your application?

Angie:  

If you don't apply, you want to get awarded, but the online search is big, it's arduous, it takes a lot of time. Can you get awarded some of those? Yes, but it takes a significant amount of effort. So we don't sugarcoat that to anybody and we don't put a list out there. It would be impossible for someone to give my student the 20 best scholarships that they're supposed to do, right? You actually cannot hire someone to do that and you really can't hire. So I had someone call me one year and say, can I hire you to like, actually write the apps out? I said no, you might be able to hire like a college kid maybe to do that, because everyone wants a shortcut, right, throw money and there'll be a shortcut. That isn't really how that works, right? It's a failing process and it's for your student to do. They're the one going to college, do this information, check the searches and do one a week. So that's where we have to be realistic about it.

Brad:  

Can you share a little bit about post-financial planning, post-graduation financial planning, and I think this is an area that this is where I come into play. People come to me then after the fact. They're like Brad, I've got these two loans, I got credit cards, I got a car payment, I'm trying to pay my mortgage and it's all of these things that they're trying to. You know balance and it's like I just mentioned.

Brad:  

I had this recording with a younger individual who had no idea how much her student loans were going to be when she actually got out of college. So can you talk about what needs to be looked at beyond the actual education itself and what life looks like afterwards, and do you walk through families with that? Or what do you advise families to understand about that? Because I don't think people quite understand, especially at the young age of 18, when you're getting ready to go into college, they're looking at fun, it's going to be an experience, it's going to be all those things, but they don't quite understand that that one decision is going to affect them for the next 10, 15, 20 years in some cases, and how does that play a role into the rest of your life?

Angie:  

Right. So what we try to do with families ahead of that looking at what they're going to graduate with, right, what's the average salary? So you might have a petroleum engineer, a young person, who's going to get out there and maybe make close to six figures just with a bachelor degree. But you have another person who really felt called to study social work and they might get out in the work world and maybe make $38,000. What's our ROI? What are we going to have there? So we educate students and families on it right away and have parents start to think. One of the questions I pose to every family is have you, as a couple or if you're a single parent, thought about the first thing you need to think about how much student loan debt are you willing to let your student shoulder? That's a real question they need to start to think about because, at the end of it, if you're requiring your student to pay that back, that's a real number and we need to share that with your student as we go along too. So they understand, brad, I've met with many young people too, who were casualties of it, whose parents said hey, we're helping you with college and you know what they did when they graduated, all those private loans they co-signed.

Angie:  

They said these are now your responsibility. What do you mean? My responsibility? Hey, all we could do is be a good credit co-signer for you. Congratulations, here's your graduation gift. Yeah, worst gift you could give it's a ball and chain of debt 80 to 100 grand we've seen for undergrad. Wow, how is a student going to dig out with us?

Angie:  

You have to be transparent with your student. What can you do and what can they do ahead? Because I guarantee you that young person you talk to might have made a different school selection, might have maybe chosen to say I'm going to start at community college with no debt and then work my way into my undergrad, which is possible. More people need to be open to that plan. By the way, it's the right fit for their student. No one cares at the end of the day where you graduate Like. This is real talk. No one cares after you graduate out of high school. Where you go, it matters where you finish, it does not matter where you start. I know doctors, I know lawyers, I know physical therapists who started at community college and finished somewhere else with the big degree and their transcript matriculated in, and no one knew it, because they don't care when do you finish. So we have to have real conversations about those things as well, because if that student was empowered when they were younger to make a better financial decision, I've had hundreds of kids who we've empowered with that, who I've seen make some amazing, great decision, and I always congratulate them. I'll shake their hand and say congratulations.

Angie:  

You made your first mature decision about money. You decided not to go into a mountain of debt because you thought that prestigious college was worth it. You got a tremendous deal here at this public university with a lot of scholarship, and you're not going to have to have any debt. Yeah, because they chose to do that over the other, because it was a process of discovering all of that, right? So you have to understand that ahead.

Angie:  

And parents really need to get in the trenches of it to understand what debts out there. How much am I going to have to take or not? And I'm going to. Am I going to shoulder it or are they going to shoulder it? Because if parents choose to shoulder it, brad, it makes a significant difference in their retirement, right? Yeah, and we're trying to keep parents healthy and whole and make colleges a speed bump.

Angie:  

So at the end, my favorite joke with parents I'm a lot of lighthearted planning and jokes I make you got two kids. Odds are one of them will let you move in with them when you're broke at 75. Do you think they'll do that, which we don't do in American society, right? Or is one of them going to let you move in? Or mom, dad, I didn't hear. Your retirement plans are hey, you want to move to a one bedroom apartment and travel the world. You're not going to do that. You only move to a one bedroom apartment because you chose to. But what if you financially have to do it because you have so much debt going into retirement because you helped your kids write the whole check? It has to be a safety financial decision for them too, a healthy one for them.

Brad:  

Yeah, yeah, this has been so good. I love that you're bringing up some of these things and saying some of these things, some of these truths yes, it is so true. So talk to me a little bit about going to school with little debt or no debt at all. I have two. I have a niece and a nephew. It's my brother. My brother works for our company as well. Uh, it's my brother. My brother works for our company as well. He got out of debt, really worked with his kids on this, because he knew like college was going to be like a big expense. We wanted to make sure they made the right choice and both of them graduated from college with no debt. And we've we've talked about this publicly on like our social media channels and things like that. You'll be amazed how many people will come and be like that's impossible. Nobody can go to college debt free. So how do people do it? I mean, you're an expert. You have people go through this. You see people do it. What are they doing different than, say, everybody else?

Angie:  

Right? Well, it starts with you know real strategic planning early. How do? There's three.

Angie:  

The key to paying for college is liquidity, liquidity. Liquidity you have to have liquid dollars you're ready to deploy when your kiddos go to college to put towards that. It's no different than buying a car or investment property. We know how debt works. As adults, if we can't afford that car, we go to the bank and ask for their money because we don't have the cash to pay for it. So if we want to do that with college, we got to have a lot of cash ready to deploy and a long-term plan how it's going to be there.

Angie:  

The second is we're not asking our students for enough buy-in. I have a lot of families who will tell me I just want my son to work really hard in his engineering degree. I don't want him to work, I don't want to have any of that distracting him. And I'll ask the parents did you work through college? Oh well, yeah, I had to. I had a part-time job. So why are we not applying that same to your son now? Now, is it possible for a student to work their way through a public school undergrad all on their own? It's not impossible. Just what it will be, brad, is. It will take them longer. With these prices, how do you go out and earn 10 to 15 grand a year to pay tuition and be in your own apartment and maintain that three-quarter time job? Really to pay for all of that and do all of those things, you need some parental support. So I firmly believe because I have my children do it they can work to help mitigate some expenses as they go. We have real budget talks with families like over the next couple of years, release more expenses to your kids. One, so they understand how to be responsible with bill paying. Two, that they can do that.

Angie:  

My son was upset when he graduated college. He had little to no savings. I said you're not supposed to have savings when you graduate college. Here's how you will have savings the very next month with your job, you get to start saving and investing for retirement and for emergency because you have no debt to service. So you can start peeling away some of those expenses to your kiddos their own food, their own internet, their apartment. They can have more of a buy-in and they need to know they're going to balance school and work and have a significant amount more money that can go towards it A realistic dollar. My son the last two years was making 12 grand a year. I thought that was fantastic. Right, they can make and work summers 10 to $15,000 and release that money towards some of those bills. So you're, by the end, maybe you're just only paying tuition. So you can mitigate that down as long as we're candid to say here's what you need to actually realistically expect.

Angie:  

Barring being a division one athlete, my firm belief is every student can help work while they're in college on a part-time basis. Those division one athletes are being paid to be there, especially literally now in today's world right where before they weren't. That's their full time. Even I've helped division two and division three athletes and some will have a part-time job or they'll work through the summer and they need to know they're going to be responsible things. Have them buy their own books. They will for sure not turn it late on the rental if they're going to get paid a fee. They'll have a buy-in or a little skin in the game.

Angie:  

Everybody calls it right. You got to have some skin in the game if you released your money to do those things and let them have a few financial hiccups while they're still under your radar, right, let them have some of that while they're under your radar, otherwise they're not going to know how to do it. So, looking at that aspect and then there are times with parents we look at how do we mitigate having more liquidity? We want them to still invest for retirement, but we need liquid, accessible funds that they can access, that they're going to be able to deploy towards the cost of school with no penalty. And I call it a multi-purpose dollar, not just, say, a 529 plan where if one of their kiddos says they're not going to go to school, they invested all this money and they can't get it back.

Brad:  

Yeah, yeah, and you're bringing up. The next question I have for you, and it's the last question before I want you to share. Where people can learn more about you is is if, if you you're an expert of this, you've been doing this for many years, as you said, if I'm a young parent maybe still just in elementary school or whatever and if it's a perfect world like, what do you suggest to them to start doing right now? That'll make this a heck of a lot easier when they get to these ages of being in like junior and seniors in high school.

Angie:  

Right, let's be intentional about earmarking so much money per month towards your kid's future, and I don't say just college, because we're going to have a start, an evolution, I believe, of other things that students are going to do More students now than ever getting out of high school and some in college are saying why am I here? I don't know if I need to go to college. Well, maybe you want to make an investment in their future entrepreneur endeavor right, because they don't want to do that. Maybe they want to go become a diesel mechanic or become a plumber, or be in a journeyman tradesman with electrician. It's fantastic. Make an investment in some of those things. But let's be intentional about a dollar we're earmarking for a multipurpose use, because it's not just needs to be earmarked for school, because if we don't use it for school, that comes back into your net worth to use it for other things, because life's always going to happen. They're going to need a car. My son was the giver and receiver of many dings in the high school parking lot and dinging someone else's bumper and you're making a cash deal with the other parent Like we're not turning this in right. Life happens along the way. You want to maybe give your kids a wedding in the future? What if you choose, you want to have a big family vacation every year?

Angie:  

Multi-purpose use of your dollar is extremely important. So I look more at a long-term compound savings plan for people, not just a 529. Many parents, brad, have told me over the years I wish I wouldn't have invested in a 529, because it's been no more than just a glorified savings account, because it is tied to the market performance. It goes up and it goes down. No one wants to risk college money. They might do it when they're kids too, but the closer they get, how much more investing do we want to do where it could disappear tomorrow? A lot of people don't want to do that. So we've got to go back to practical ways to compound, grow our money with a multi-purpose use. But let's be intentional about what that number could be in your budget planning now that we could accelerate later. It just takes intention.

Brad:  

Yeah, love it. Angie, you've shared such great information here today and I have a feeling we're going to probably get a lot of feedback from this, so I might want to bring you back on. So we get some questions from real life people who are dealing with this. But if people want to learn more about you or maybe get some more information about where to find you, how can they locate you guys?

Angie:  

So go right to our website, collegesolutionsllccom. And then we also have a Facebook page, collegesolutionsllccom. But what we do, brad, sometimes five times a month, sometimes twice a month, we have webinars that we provide. So they're free webinars for families. To log in view our next webinar schedule, to understand how does financial aid work, we get really in the weeds in our hour presentation. What do they look at? What are assets are on the form, what aren't? What are colleges costing? What do you need to be looking at? What's the timeline you should be following? And then maybe people need to use our services as an expert.

Angie:  

People hire coaches and consultations and consultants all the time. This has gotten so arduous. The colleges have made this so difficult that people like myself need to exist to say hire us to be your coach, to come alongside you and your kiddo, to save you tens of thousands, one in time, two in huge amount of errors you might be poised to make right. The colleges don't want you to know all this information. They want you to go in blind, and you are going to go in blind if you don't take the time to realize this. So you can sign up for a webinar. We do some local events too, they'll see if they're in our local area to come sit in a conference room with us. But also, too, you don't have to be part of our webinar to have a consultation. Right on there it says if you want to have a 30 minute discussion with us to see if you're on track, schedule a time we're open to that. You know.

Brad:  

Complimentary consultation for whoever wants to talk to us Good point I said I didn't have any more questions, but I got another one. But no, for real, you bring up a good point about this and I love that you said that. Well, first, earlier on you said it's a product. The education that you're buying is a product that they're selling and you have to be mindful. So I guess, in your opinion, what are some do's and don'ts you to necessarily know? They're selling you, they want you to buy it and obviously you as a consultant can walk them through and share the do's and don'ts of this whole process. So what do you see there as like hey, if I go see a college or do it, like, what don't you want to do there?

Angie:  

Like one, don't focus on the amenities.

Brad:  

Yeah.

Angie:  

Because they're all going to be fantastic nowadays. The kids are going to want to look at it. How is their rec center? Oh, look, they have this rock climbing wall. This is fantastic. Some colleges have a mani-pedi center right on campus.

Speaker 2:  

Oh my gosh, the amenities are going to flow right.

Angie:  

Focus on the academic presentation. Make sure you have a scheduled visit and make sure it's a visit that includes talking to that department or that college you're interested in. So if you are interested in you know pre-biosciences, you know pre-med, something like that make sure you have that time scheduled with that department to walk through what's the degree plan. Look like how long will my kiddo be here? How competitive is it to get in the door? Make sure you're talking about the education piece. Then go eat at one of the places to see if the food's okay, right, and then go look at the dorms. Like, keep an open mind. You need to be the one shopping them and making them dazzle you to say here's why our education is so valuable. And really too, brad, what's become more and more relevant for people? What's their value base? What will my kid get exposed to here? What will they not get exposed to here? Not getting political, but the college campus used to be a really big place for free thought, lots of good argument on either side. Is it going to be not that anymore? Where, if you have an opinion that doesn't agree with the majority there, how are you going to get treated. That's a real cultural pulse that's happening. Post-covid. Many people had issues of how will that campus react to my kiddo. Putting kids to college through COVID in the last few years has been very, very challenging. Now we've kind of evolved out of that, which is a good thing. But how did they behave in the past that if anything like that happened again, what will they subject your kiddo to Right? So people have to look at those types of things and understand what happened right. How far is it from home? Can your kiddo drive it? Okay? Are you okay? Is it safe there for your kid to be right? Young ladies and parents of young ladies look at that a little bit different than parents of young men. You know safety protocols put in place. Do they have escort services? They have emergency buttons on campus. How are they going to handle that if something happens Right? So you need to focus on the academics and all the other things will come in line of how that's going to be, will come in line of how that's going to be. Student faculty ratio is more important than will they be in a large lecture hall for 300 people in their first couple of years with their gen eds, which they might be, but look at the student faculty ratio, right? Different things like that. So dig in on those colleges as much information as they're willing to give you, because they have it all. It's just make them give it to you. Right, pay attention to the financial discussion. It's just make them give it to you. Pay attention to the financial discussion. What are they talking about? What's the average you can find online, brad, what is the average amount of debt that that kiddo graduates from? From ABC University, you can find that that's a relevant piece. Kids in Texas are graduating on average with $25,000 of student loan debt, but at some schools it's way higher than that. So start looking into that, but I wouldn't get enamored with it.

Angie:  

Also, one thing I caution kids on is the city where you're going. Don't judge it on that city, because odds are you're not going to live there the rest of your life. So they might have a preconceived idea of one city they've gone to that they've heard things about. Well, I don't know if I like that place for X, y or Z. You're probably not going to live there for the next 10 years of your life. You're going to go to college and you're going to leave.

Angie:  

So kids are more in tune than ever for amenities, right? Are there going to be other things for me to do? Are there going to be concerts? Are there going to be all of these things? We, as parents, are thinking you're supposed to be going to school. We're not worried about what we're going to get to see, right? Or can you get to the beach? Or is it near the mountains where I can ski? Just because you go to Colorado to school does not mean you're going to ski every weekend. You're going to be busy, right? So we're not picking it for the location. I mean, it would be great if we could all go, you know, to Malibu and go to school on the beach. But you'll pay for that location, right? Just like you do on vacation. You'll pay for it.

Brad:  

Yeah, angie, this has been great. Such great common sense advice and, again, more just, I guess, opening the doors to what parents and what students need to be thinking about when it comes to college planning. I can't thank you enough for spending some time with us here today and sharing this information. And again, as Angie said, if you want some additional information, even to jump on some of those free webinars, make sure you guys check out the link. We'll also have that in the show notes for you guys as well. But thanks so much, angie, for being here. Appreciate you.

Angie:  

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Brad Yep.

Brad:  

Hey, so if you want to pay off debt, say, you want to save more money, maybe you want to take better control of your finances? And heck, you would just like to start seeing results finally in your life. And seriously, you can in just 30 to 60 days. Now all you have to do to get started is head over to adeptredadcom, click on the green button at the top of the page and I'm going to explain how we've helped so many people improve their finances in as little as just 30 to 60 days.

Angie:  

Go check it out, hey, as you guys know that sound means it's time for the celebrations of the show, and today we are kicking off with Stacey. Stacey says my budget is done and it is balanced to zero.

Brad:  

She says I finally have put money in my savings and I started an envelope system for my problem spending categories. So using cash as an accountability tool. Stacey, I love that win, she says I'm feeling motivated and inspires and I finally feel like I'm able to start doing this. Stacey, such a great place to be. Great win. Love that you are feeling confident once again in your financial life. That's what it's all about.

Brad:  

Tara says I just finished listening to module number one, just joined Roots. Now I still have my bank statements to print out and I need to start reviewing my spending. But hey, tara, I still have my bank statements to print out and I need to start reviewing my spending. But hey, tara, I love that you're getting started. I love that you are already taking action. And, tara, welcome to Roots. This stuff is going to change your life. So excited for you and Elizabeth.

Brad:  

I spent $10.10 at Starbucks in cash, all within my budget. She says it tasted so good. I also read a book with sipping it in my car. She said very peaceful time for her. I love that, elizabeth. I love that you're budgeting that stuff into your life. It's so important. A lot of people think if I'm getting out of debt or if I need to save money, I just can't spend on the things that I want to spend and enjoy life, and that's just not true, elizabeth. But budgeting being intentional, you can and you are proof of always. Hey, congratulations to all of you guys who are working so hard and taking a stand for your financial life and are wanting better. Hey, we get that getting out of debt isn't easy, but hopefully, with our help and with your consistency and discipline, we promise you guys this will be some of the best work that you guys do in your entire life. Hey, thanks for joining us on today's show. We'll see you guys on next week's episode. Take care.

Speaker 2:  

Thanks for listening to the Debt-Free Dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram. Just search Debt-Free Dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. We so appreciate it For resources, show notes and links mentioned in today's show. Visit DebtFreeDad.com. Catch you next week.

Search Our Episode Library

Categories

Check Out our Courses
Check out our Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner