I have had some interesting conversations the last few days regarding a common financial topic that we all wonder about. I have been thinking a lot of the NEED to have a funded EMERGENCY FUND or account yesterday after having to visit my dentist to repair a broken crown on one of my teeth. I’m not going to go into that story again but I had the opportunity after my appointment to talk to my dentist for a little bit on another financial subject.
My family has been going to this dentist for the last 20 years and I have been extremely happy with the service that he has given me and my family and I respect him.
Normally he is pretty busy, but after my visit we had a chance to talk for a few minutes to find out what was happening and to catch up on what our kids have been up to.
He has 10 kids ranging from ages 42-22.
I teased him a bit when I said I saw in one of the tabloid magazines a while back, that the Duggars, who were on TV for several years, were trying for number 20 I think? I believe they have 19 now with several grandchildren. He said he couldn’t believe it but “who was he to tell them what to do.” We had a GOOD LAUGH!
We got on the subject of paying for college education and how expensive it can be. I wanted to know what his thoughts were in regards to paying for or helping your kids with their higher education costs.
You can imagine this is a topic that pretty much comes up in every financial interview with clients and prospective clients alike. A lot of parents feel it is their duty and obligation to pay this expense. Others don’t have the ability to pay anything for their children’s education, so they can’t. He said that he didn’t pay for any of his kids educations for a reason. He taught them while they were young while they were growing up that this would be the case and hopefully, by working hard in school in academics or in athletics they could earn scholarships. He also encouraged them to take summer jobs and to save that money for their upcoming educations.
As you might imagine, some of his kids were upset that he never offered to help them with their tuitions or any part of their educations for that matter. He said he “felt it was important that they figured out how to fund this important event in their life and to take care of this expense for themselves.”
Here is the COOL PART of what has happened with his children.
All of his kids have graduated at least a with bachelor’s degrees from pretty decent universities. Several of them went on to graduate with their master’s degree. One even got a degree from the London School of Economics prior to getting his MBA from Wharton and currently works on Wall Street as a managing Director with Wells Fargo. 6 of the 10 kids work in the finance industry in different cities throughout the United States from New York to San Francisco and everywhere in between. Of the remaining 4, one works as an Oral Surgeon in the Midwest and the other 3 are stay at home mothers, but they all have university educations.
How cool is that! I love hearing SUCCESS STORIES like this. All of these kids were taught a financial principle from their parents about saving and planning for the future and they took it to heart. Maybe it wasn’t the funniest thing to do at the time but WOW, what a fantastic outcome. He even said that the student loans that some of them had to obtain were all paid off much quicker than expected. He is obviously very proud of his children and what they have accomplished in their lives.
It is important that kids have “some skin in the game in regards to funding their educations.” This is an great story that I will pass on to others who are wondering, “How Am I Going To Pay For Johnny’s Education?” Great news, YOU DON’T HAVE TO!
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