(Photo courtesy of Joe Goodz, Flickr)
Getting ready for enrollment should have been done at least six months ago.
Not today, not in May, and certainly not a week before school starts.
A couple I interviewed once said enrollment time is their most stressful season of the year. Christmas spending may put them in debt, but the warm, fuzzy feelings ease the pain. What the heck, it’s Christmas! they say. No such thing for enrollment days. It’s just pure financial pain.
Alex C. wrote:
It’s enrollment time again for my three children in grade school. Every year, I get so depressed during this season. Everything I save whole year round disappears at this time. Then I start at zero again, saving for next year’s round of tuition fees. Can you give me advice on how I can manage this time better? How can I prepare the needed funds adequately in time for next year? — Alex C.
There’s a trick called “sinking fund” that I learned when I was a beat reporter many years ago. You may tell the kids it’s a wormhole that will bring them to a great place across the galaxy. We drop an amount monthly into the wormhole to let it grow big enough to pay all our tuition for the year. How much to feed the wormhole exactly? Divide all tuition expenses by how many months you want to save up for it.
So, when the kids are hankering for their third serving of Dairy Queen Blizzard, suggest feeding the Blizzard instead to the wormhole — the wormhole that can send them to college and a good education. Let them decide. You’re giving them a stake in their own education and an unforgettable lesson delivered without words. Great for teenagers and children.
Enrollment blues, our personal finance article, talks about this tip and many others. Check out the entire article here.
Make a date to start your wormhole. Don’t just file this tip away for future use.
For those whose wormholes have already started growing, don’t stop at next year’s tuition. Go for high school. Go for college. Go for your own post-graduate degrees in Oxford. Sky’s the limit.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:06 am
hachiko, yes it does! when i was in college, stipend time was fun too hehe. what batch were you in pisay?
April 17th, 2008 at 7:05 am
C_A, thanks for the information. these are cash allowances sent to your account or deducted from your tax payments?
The Irish, Canadian and New Zealand government seem to be very efficient and generous when it comes to family support. I wonder how they finance these child support benefits from a policy standpoint… Public finance is one of my pet topics kasi.
I hope we can eventually have that here in the future. Heh maybe in 10 light years eh?
April 17th, 2008 at 2:54 am
here in canada, if you belong to the low income group, the government helps by giving you monthly child benefits that can go as high as cd$500/month BUT this is considered as income earned by one of the parents. Unfortunately for me, i do not get a dime for my 2 kids…and by the way, education is NOT totally free too….. DEPENDS on which part of canada you are in… contrary to the rumors being circulated back home. And you also have to dig out a few bucks now and then for some school activities…
April 16th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
the idea of sinking fund is always helpful even for other future major spending. it is cheaper and safer compared to taking a loan today and paying it in the future. it is better to pay the installment now and get the full amount in the future especially that enrollment expenses are will definitely come and at a specific date.
but going back to education, a friend once told me that the cost of education here (private) is sometimes beyond reason. he told me that the cost of sending our children to school from pre-school to college plus the lost income of our children (they cannot work while studying) will still be in excess with the potential future income. although this comparison is an exageration, there is a bitter reality to it. education has really become a privilege and not a right.
but if we will really dwell into that argument, where have our graduates gone? they are abroad working, and most of them doing the jobs a) that dont need a college diploma b) not related to their college degree.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
salve, i know exactly how you feel. it’s always a privilege having a scholar at home. with all the benefits that come with it - monetarily and emotionally