Never Pay Sticker Price For College!

Would you go buy a car from a dealership and pay the sticker price? Of course not, that would be absurd! Most people know that the sticker price is the starting point in the negotiation process at the car dealer. Now that we have established this concept to car buying, let's compare the experience to going to a college or university.

Imagine your little angel wants to go to a college or university in the next 3 years...2 years...Next year (yikes!) and you are worried about the cash to pay for it. Little Junior says that he/she wants to go to either UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Texas, USC or Miami. They have done their part and have excellent grades and possibly good SAT/ACT scores. You want to give them the best but research shows that between these 6 schools the average cost per year is around $30,000. Where is this cash going to come from? You may have some in savings, maybe a 529 plan or Grammy and Poppa have a few bucks put away for the grandchild. But do they have $120,000 for the four year degree?

Now what most parents don't know is this is the sticker price! I mentioned earlier that buying a car from a dealership at sticker price is absurd (and I stand by this statement) but with college costs parents do this all the time.

College is a big business but parents do not treat it as one. There are negotiations and formulas that minimize parent's out of pocket costs and maximize the grants (free money) that is avaliable from the individual schools. How would you know this unless someone explained it to you? Great question and nobody is letting the parents know. A result is that too many students are then getting loans to subsidize costs and coming out of college 4....5...6 years later sitting on a mountain of debt. This needs to stop to give our youth a chance to survive!

College just might be the single greatest expense that a family will incur in their lifetime. Here is the reason I state this, especially if you are going to eventually send more than one student to college....

Four years at a public university, allowing for annual increases, will easily run $80-$100,000. Over half of today's students go on to a fifth or even sixth year. Many private universities are expected to cost over $300,000. If you purchased a home in this price range wouldn't you want the help of a real estate agent or attorney?

The solution is to become an informed buyer and get the help of a professional. Most people get their taxes done by a CPA and go to court with an attorney because you will leverage their experience and knowledge. You could do it yourself but if you are like me you may screw it up. Don't you want to get the advice of a professional who has the experience and knowledge to provide you with value beyond the basics? Never pay sticker price for education again. You could get started by calling Ronald Palmer 925-331-0824 Certified College Funding Counselor.