(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 10:28 pm
the child support, single mother benefits, pension for seniors ( who has not even work from day one and hence did not contribute any tax ) are all coming from the tax we paid. So, just imagine how big the tax will be. Oh, by the way, the medical benefits is also NOT completely free … at least in 2 provinces i have been, we still have to pay for non-prescription drugs, contribute monthly health insurance (in ontario, this is free due to higher provincial tax, in alberta i pay $44) and more often than not you have to wait in queue for months if you require a specialist.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Child benefits/allowances here in Ireland are paid in cash by the governement either thru checks or direct deposit to a bank account in the state. And is not dependent on the family income status.
Education here is free upto the Secondary level though… even special schools (though it’s quite difficult to get a slot because need is much greater than supply at this stage). College though is a different thing, and everybody here prepapres for it and typically cost more for non-Irish citizens.
Since these are government benefits, they are funded by taxes: on wages (20% upto a cut-off point and 41% thereafter), other sources of incomes, property tax, VAT (w/c is 21% for most items, much less for food though), etc.
The social support structure here (much like most of Europe and in other countries, I believe) is really millions-of-miles apart from that of the Philippines. For that alone, we feel so, so blessed.
Don’t mean to rub this in or get readers depressed (if it did, sincere apologies). I guess I merely wanted to let people know back home that such (socially centric governance) is possible and is happening in the real world. I only wish to inspire, hoping that this could be a possible starting point for future leaders of the country to build on. Start with an end in mind, someone says.
Cheers.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Uy may mga Pisay kids pala dito
“I wonder how they finance these child support benefits from a policy standpoint…”
Taxes! Some of these countries also deduct unemployment tax so you can collect money when you lose your job. O di ba?
Also notice that these countries are not overly populated so every citizen is taken cared of. Some like those mentioned above even encourage open migration pa nga kasi they need more people.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Robert, thanks also for your input. I always thought education IS free in Canada, as well as medical treatments etc.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:06 am
purepinoy, excellent point and drives home the reality that something has got to be done on the policy level about the rising cost of education. there’s a unique suggestion from joey salceda on “cash for education”. for money to go to families that really need them, he says scholarship is not the answer. let the kids enroll where they want, and give them cash subsidies to help the parents defray the cost of education. parang canadian-style di ba? i think that’s too out of the box for the philippine government though. and just think about the corruption again. enforcement will be a major problem.
the other answer is to improve the quality of teaching in public schools to eliminate the need for expensive schooling in exclusive schools. here’s a thought on cheap public education: Pathways in Ateneo tested public and private schoolchildren in selected cities in Metro Manila, and found that the topnotchers were public schoolchildren. when they made an in-depth study, they discovered that these children benefited from full parents’ support (the parents made sure the children did not watch television on school nights, and if it meant they would miss meals so that the children will eat full meals during examination time, they would.)
amazing, huh? my child is enrolled in UPIS and i’m not paying through the nose. but my other child who did not pass the rigorous kindergarten examination (thousands try out and they get only 40 children), i don’t think i would enroll him in other public schools near my home. I’m currently paying 70,000 per year for his education. 70,000 compared to 4,000 I pay for public school is pretty funny.
until the public school system is improved to the level years ago when it produced graduates like Washington Sycip, education will continue to remain a privilege rather than a right. Oh, come to think of it, I am a public school educated gal, from kindergarten to college!