Re-thinking saving for College...

Or....One Philly Mommy takes some advice from a Working Girl.....

After reading my post about feeling pressured to save for college and retirement and soccer practice, and...., and...., and, a friend of mine forwarded me something she'd read on a blog.

The blog is at http://www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com/?p=1657, and you should check it out.

The question in this particular post is whether or not college is worth it. Working Girl asks lots of intelligent questions about whether or not college is worth the cost, particularly with the sky rocketing costs. Many of the most successful people in this world did not attend college. And many more did not do well at college, so is this a fair question.

I am not about to get into a debate about whether or not college is worthwhile, but this blog did something super valuable for me anyway.

It made me realize that, while its under the guise of wanting to do what's best for my son, I've really been pretty narrowminded about the whole thing. What if he doesn't WANT to go to college? What if my pressure for saving for something 18 years away creates undo and unfair pressure and expectations in my son? What if he would be the world's happiest plumber? Who am I, especially at his ripe old age of 6 months, to start in on all of that already?

I think I'll stop thinking about that saving's account as the "College" fund and start thinking about it as the "Jump-start to Life" fund. It takes a load of pressure off of me, and maybe will take some off my son too!

Many, many thanks to my friend for forwarding me the link to Working Girl's blog. And many thanks to Working Girl for making this One Philly Mommy think outside the box!