Should I save for my kids college?

Over the past few months as we have seen the pandemic play out across the country a question keeps popping up. What is the benefit of a college education?

Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I both value education and are attempting to transfer that love to our two young boys, but we also realize that the world is changing when it comes to higher education. The rising cost of an education dwarfs the potential possibilities of a career that pays well enough to afford the loan payments. 

My wife attended a small liberal arts college in southern Virginia straight from highschool. I delayed my education and decided to enlist in the Navy. We met in her sophomore year of school. I used my GI bill to go back to school after I left the Navy and worked as an industrial electrician for a number of years. 

I have since entered the white collar world of banking and have to say that the hours are better and less hard on the body. In my current career  I am surrounded by people with letters after their names, MBA, PHD, CPA, and so on. Alot of them achieved the letters prior to leaving higher education. I do not discount their efforts, or determinations, but I do have to think about the cost of those letters and the time it will take to repay. I have thought about an MBA but there are limited schools around me that offer the program, and with a price tag of roughly $60K I don’t believe it is worth the money.

Back to my kids. I have started two savings vehicles for their education, and you can find my video on the explanation here https://youtu.be/9n_VeaWVu_s. Basically I want them to have a head start no matter what path they decide to travel and this will give them the means to choose a direction.

I am a big proponent of the trades when you are younger and your body can take the physical demand, but I also want them to learn the business aspect of the trades. I have seen many businesses fail because the owners know how to do the job, but struggle with bookkeeping. 

I think that as a country we are at a crossroads of what an education means. I believe that when we stopped looking at college as a place to learn, and instead looked at it as a place to get a job, it lost value. I believe that higher education has also come to a point where the bloated budgets and tenure of staff is causing it to reevaluate what courses it may offer. This is only my opinion, but you cannot leave school owing $200,000 and work at a local bookstore making even $15 per hour. I am by no means knocking those types of degrees, I just think that Higher education will need to do some soul searching on an appropriate cost/value relationship.