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This idea of college tuition for the kids has been weighing heavily on my mind.  Around tax time it hits me particularly hard because I see the statements from my college loan lenders reminding me how much I paid them last year for the privilege of borrowing money for college and law school.  Trust me, it's a lot.  It's the kind of money that makes my mother cry.  I borrowed enough that, together with interest, I could have bought the home that I live in - more than once.  Yeah, that much.

Let's face it:  college is expensive.  And it's not becoming more affordable by any stretch of the imagination.  In Pennsylvania, where I live, the average cost of college for a four year public college is close to $15,000 per year.  A four year private college approaches $30,000 per year.   I assume, with my kids, I'll land somewhere in the middle.

I have three kids.  At $22,500 per year (splitting the averages) for four years for three kids, that's nearly $300,000 - not taking into consideration increases in cost of living or tuition increases, nor interest, etc.   And no, I don't happen to have an extra $300,000 lying around the house - nor do I anticipate having it.

That's why I decided it was time to look into saving something for college.  Pennsylvania, like most states, has a college tuition savings program, the so-called 529 plan.  You can find out what your options are for your state at savingforcollege.com.  I decided to poke around and find out what I needed to do to set up plans for the kids.

Don't stop reading yet!  I know what you're thinking:  you're thinking it's expensive and that you have to dump loads of money in it to make a dent in that kind of expense, so why bother?  Well, you'd be wrong.

First of all, I set up my plans online.  It cost me $25 per account to set up online.  The minimum contribution?  Not the thousands that I feared.  My minimum contribution to open the account was $25 per account with no requirements for future auto-debit or monthly contributions.  This, for me, was huge.  I was absolutely sure that I'd have to commit to forced savings, at a time when, quite frankly, my husband and I don't have it to put away.  I know that financial planners are all gripping their chests in horror right now and thinking how terrible I am for not making a commitment to deposit the $1800 per month (yes, that what the college calculator recommended) into the account.  I refuse to be intimidated.  Just opening the account is a good first step for me. 

This is the thing:  I am the first person in my family to graduate from college.  I did not come from a wealthy family.  I had to borrow my way through college and grad school.  As a result, I have lots of student debt.  It actually doesn't bother me to have this kind of debt.  I don't love it, the monthly payments really are painful, but the reality is that if I had not borrowed that money, I wouldn't have been able to go to school and do what I wanted to do.   Borrowing for college was simply my only option - and it did not ruin my life.  It was a fact.

All of that said, I don't want my children to ever have the fear that chasing their dreams is not within their grasp.  I would love to be able to hand them as much money for college tuition as I possibly can.  But I'm not going to bankrupt their lives now in order to plan for later.  I want my children to be able to take vacations, to go to museums, to eat out at restaurants without giving me a panic attack about college costs.

I think it's important to be responsible about saving for college.  It's a huge expense.  I also think it's important to be realistic.  As a parent, you do what you can.  That's all you can be expected to do.  The rest will work itself out.

There are some other ways to leverage these plans into more savings.  I'm looking into them and I'll let you know what I find out!