Funding College Tuition May Be A Mistake
Parents today are constantly being lambasted by media experts for overindulging/overprotecting our kids and for creating a generation of entitled young adults unable to deal independently with life's struggles.
And while most of us acknowledge the benefits of becoming a bit more "laissez-faire" and a bit less "hovering helicopter" when it comes to our kids, we are unable to break the pattern. Too often, to our kids' and our own detriment, as parents we succumb to emotional decision making rather than logical reasoning.
In light of the troubling lack of "independence skills" on the part of many of our young adult kids, some of us may be re-thinking the wisdom of our assumptions regarding child rearing.
One that I believe needs re-examining is the widely held assumption/expectation that parents who can afford to, should pay for their kids' college and/or graduate school educations...that helping our kids achieve a promising future is our job as parents, isn't it?
It turns out, parents may be approaching this issue and what it truly means to be able to "afford" to lay out the tuition costs, in the wrong way.
There are many strategies for maximizing retirement income, the most basic being that the more years of savings and of compounding growth you have, the better off you will likely be. While this may seem a very obvious point, too many parents fail to consider this simple reality when deciding how to fund their kids' college educations. For those who end up forking over big bucks in tuition dollars, they can, ultimately, feel a real impact on the quality of their retirement.
The potential effects on your future lifestyle of taking tuition dollars from either savings or from current income that could be earmarked, instead, for retirement savings, warrant serious consideration. You may think you can afford it at the time, but the question is, can your retirement afford it? Then there is the issue of how seriously our kids are really taking their gift of the opportunity to attend college.
College educations can be financed through loans, retirements can not! As a result, many advisors recommend that parents help their rising college freshmen secure the most advantageous borrowing available as opposed to taking the money out of the parents' own retirement savings. I know, it's a painful and even radical concept...putting yourself first. With the retirement phase of life now so much longer than in the past, it is actually sound advice.
Read more about common retirement planning mistakes
Once Tuition Decision Is Made,
Focus On ROI (Return on Investment)
Choosing The Right Major:
While the wisdom of funding our kids' college educations may be debatable, their need for adult guidance in making important life decisions is not.
While they may believe they are more worldly and experienced than us, most students truly need direction in what to study once they get to college and beyond. In the rapidly changing economy we live in, researching current opportunities, salary ranges, requirements, etc. is crucial.
In a recently published Jobs Rating report on the nation's best and worst jobs for 2012, Software Engineer ranks tops. Following last week's news regarding the purchase of the popular iPhone photo application, Instagram by Facebook for $1 billion, this should come as no surprise!
Here is a look at how different jobs are trending: Best And Worst Jobs of 2012
Read more about latest findings on the true ROI of a college education.
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A long history of Swiss bank account secrecy is about to come to an end as a result of a newly amended tax treaty between the Swiss and the U.S. governments. It was recently approved by the Swiss parliament and now awaits all but certain ratification by the 
