[todeen]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

In my family no one borrows for college...or grad school. We figure it out. We started saving for my daughter's college when she was born and we never stopped. She is completing a masters at Columbia this year and will graduate debt-free...but only because she is living with relatives in NYC. Undergrad was a state school, and even so, we had to sacrifice a lot of luxuries (and I had to sell a lot of cards) to pay for it. My parents did the same for me--well, not the card bit, but I got a full ride.

Totally worth every dime, IMO.

My dad tried to save for college. He saved $20k each for my sister's and me. I was the only one to go to college. After two years of running start, I entered school as a junior and $20k paid for about one year of tuition at private school. My sister used her cash as a down payment on a house. I don't know what my other sister did with hers.

But my father was blown away by the cost. He graduated in 1970. He talked about paying $250 in 1966 for his first semester, then he joined ROTC. ROTC put him on scholarship after that. He thought I was a fool for going to private school, but looking back on it private school was worth every dime. It opened up a lot of doors for me. I consolidated my debt, $300/month for 30 yrs. It is what it is. I've often wondered if I made the right choice, and I'm know other teachers question whether going to college to become a teacher is a smart ROI.

Here's the paradox. I was making $55k in Walla Walla as a teacher. It's a small rural town. Compared to Spokane, which is 15x larger, Walla Walla had higher housing costs (until COVID), and higher gas prices. I moved to Spokane last year, and now I'm making $25k per year more but my costs remain the same as Walla Walla. You wonder why there's a teacher shortage? This is partially why. Salaries are so different district-to-district regardless of housing and other regular living costs. It's very arbitrary. We never dreamed of buying a house in Walla Walla on my salary. That dream is becoming more of an option now that we're in a big city.

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