Your Future Has Arrived - No Kidding
Prior Articles
I write a lot about the importance of planning – waitwaitwait – don’t click away yet, hear me out. We all know how important it is to prepare now for expenses you will incur in the future, but most folks don’t want to think about that too much. Many of us already peek through trembling fingers at bank statements which are not in the kind of shape we’d like them to be.
And yet, fear can be a useful emotion if it motivates us to action. Truth be told, I’ve been terrified of one demon ever since our first child was born: college expense. Four kids in five years and you can imagine my wife’s and my anxieties. Fortunately, we are decent savers and we put away spare funds every chance we could, preparing for that distant “future.”
Well you think you prepare, and then one day the demon actually arrives in your mailbox. This month we are going to open up some Kilcoyne family correspondence, just to see what it’s like when your “future” actually arrives.
Frankly, your first college “statement” will be pretty much incomprehensible: you will look at words and numbers on the page but you’ll have a hard time absorbing their meaning. Ok, I expected to pay for tuition, room and board, and books. But what are all these other fees? College fees, alumni fees, technology fees and my new personal favorite: “sustainability” fees? Who ever heard of these things? And what do they mean?
We may never really understand what all these fees are for, but we do know we have to pay them - and NOW. Take a look below as I share some-real time information on the costs of a college education for two full-time students, one attending private and one attending public university, in fall semester of 2015:
| Private | Public | |||
| Mercyhurst University | State University of NY | |||
Tuition |
$ 15,600 | $ 3,235 | ||
Housing |
$ 3,774 | $ 3,995 | ||
Meal Plan |
$ 2,769 | $ 2,350 | ||
Various Fees |
$ 3,197 | $ 1,736 | ||
Total |
$ 25,340 | $ 11,316 | ||
Unless you had the foresight (and means) to put away something on the order of $4,000 to $20,000 per year for the past 18 years, your child’s future just hit your past smack in the face.
When this demon descends upon you, all you can do is pay what you have and then show your kid how to fill out a loan application. But don’t think this means you are now off the hook! Not by a long shot, because you will be co-signing as guarantor!
I hope these numbers motivate you to action. Hardworking families have to make tough decisions every month about how to spend money after mortgage and car payments have been made (and groceries, utilities, co-pays, whoops, sorry about that), but every dollar you can put away will help.
No matter how tough our own decisions may be each year, remember that an injured person has already had it much worse than we will ever know. They have already been through a horrendous and often life-altering experience, through no fault of their own, and now their very ability to earn a living may be seriously threatened.
Fortunately, this is one time when future expense demons like college costs can be vanquished and it is my sincere pleasure to help injured people slay as many of them as I can. In many cases, the net settlement proceeds, when dedicated and grown through a guaranteed and tax-free structured settlement, can mostly fund or even fully fund a child’s education costs.
For example, if you were settling a case today for a claimant with a three-year-old child, take a look at what you could do at two different levels of cost:
Cases involving injured parents of young children with net recoveries exceeding $70,000 or $140,000 are not that uncommon. When you are involved in one, be sure to inquire about how much they have put away for their child’s education. College costs will surely not be their only financial worry, but it will be a big one. Some forethought and planning could provide them with an education fund equal to a lifetime of savings.
If you are working on any cases right now where the demon of education expense is looming, call me, Frank C. Kilcoyne, CSSC at 800-544-5533. I will really be here to help.
