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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

I'm in my mid-40s and I'm already burned out on work. I am desperate to retire. I can't imagine working past retirement age, just because I am still capable to do so.

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Ditto, but despite having mortgage paid off and healthy 401k, I have 2x kids college expenses coming up over the next 12 years. I’m resigned to working till I drop dead. 63, or whatever Medicaid will be at, is the minimum.

As a college student, you really aren't doing your kids any favors by paying for their college. Its not going to teach them the value of money when they have never earned anything themselves and their tuition is magically paid.

Taking loans and working in the summer/internships to pay it off, without being reliant upon your parents is the ideal to aim for.

After all, I think Warren Buffet said that he plans to give enough to his children so that they could anything, but not enough so that they can do nothing.

As someone who paid his own way through college, I disagree entirely. There's nothing heroic about taking out loans. Not having to worry about college expenses allows one to focus on college and all the benefits that college has to offer. I never got to take an internship. Wanna know why? Because I had to ensure that I had enough money for the next semester, and I wasn't going to go from making $10 an hour back to $4.25 just so that I could go be an underling... I couldn't have afforded the next semester.

Buffet is giving his kids retirement money, not yacht money. They've all been in the work force for decades. He's still giving them far more than the price of a college education.

I guess I am really biased, being in Tech. Internships pay around half of what full times make, which as a college student is an insane amount of money. It's more than enough to graduate debt free.

Maybe if you go to a cheap state school and your parents are paying for all of your expenses. Otherwise, that won't even begin to cut it.

I’m doing them the favor of not taking out $80k in student loans at 7% interest.

Totally your choice, but I'd look at and offer subsidizing their loans for X years (10?) instead of just funding it up front.

I can cash flow it as long as they go in-state, then use the saved cash to buy a cheap house instead of paying for rent. No way I’d have them take out a loan if I can pay for it; just debt slavery.

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