Would You Like to Pay Cash for College

This money Monday we are goin to consider How to Pay Cash for College.

We have been taking Reed, our high school senior, on college visits over the last several months.  This spring he will be making decisions on where to attend college. We have two students in college and a senior in high school. As a family, we are committed to not borrowing for college. I'll ask you to pull up a chair to our kitchen table and listen to what we have taught our students.

Can We Borrow Ourselves Rich

An economist was evaluating the deficit spending that our government has been doing during the Bush and Obama administration. He made an interesting observation. He said that we have gone from an economy that creates capital and produces real value through manufacturing and commodities from farming and mining, to an economy where we just pay each other for services and we just move money around, while producing less and less value. He said we are trying to "borrow ourselves rich". Well I don't know if he is right or wrong about our economy. At least the farm economy is still producing real value.

But lets look at this from a personal stand point and ask ourselves if borrowing will help us prosper.

The $10,000 Summer

I asked Andrea to write this article for our website. She was a little reluctant to do so because "we aren't supposed to talk about money, right". 

I told her that her ideas on how to fund her college education could be very helpful to other students. 

Her approach is very entrepreneurial and unique. 

Andread started her own business. 

She developed a whole series of curriculum for a broad age-range of students her first summer out of college, and she has been implementing this vision for teaching young people about music and music theory. God has been blessing her vision academically, financially, and spiritually as she serves her students and their parents through these classes.

Andrea is a double major in Music Composition and Vocal Music Education at The University of Northwestern in St. Paul. She has a 2-inch thick binder full of very positive evaluations from her students and recommendations from her student's parents, from these summer classes she has been teaching, and she hasn't even started her student teaching yet.

As you can tell she is a very talented teacher and a very hard worker both in the classroom and on the farm.

--- Brian, Andrea's father

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Some things just don’t seem possible.

Like graduating from college without debt. Right? With the price of universities all across the country skyrocketing, there is no way to go to a university for 4 years without at least a LITTLE debt, is there?

What would your world look like if you could make $10,000 in one summer?

But is THAT possible? (Probably only if you are a senior in engineering or maybe if you worked construction and a lot of overtime.)

I am here to tell you that it is; here's how I did it:

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 6 I Didn't Know This, Now What?

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

I didn't Know All This. Now What?

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 5 - The Role of Parenting in the College Decision

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

The Role of Parenting in the College Decision...

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 4: Choose a Good Major

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 2: Choose a College You Can Afford

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

Choose a College You Can Afford...

How to Pay Cash for College - Lesson 1: Why Not Borrow

I wrote "How to Pay Cash for College" for April edition of Autumn Ridge Church Magazine. You can find the condensed version on the church website. They did a great job of publishing the article with pictures and graphics. I had to take out a few examples to fit their space requirements. This is the full article in its entirety. I'll split it over several posts to make for easier reading.  Thanks to Lisa for helping me write and edit this article.

 

How to Pay Cash for College

We have been taking Reed, our high school junior, on college visits over the last several months. A year from now he will be making decisions on where to attend college, just like this year's seniors. We have two students in college and a junior in high school. As a family, we are committed to not borrowing for college. I'll ask you to pull up a chair to our kitchen table and listen to what we have taught our students.