To ask what you’re saving for DC university?

[ELS20]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have one DC who wants to go to university in 4 years time. We both have a good jobs and pay a bit extra into our pensions and also have about £20k in savings/shares. We put money into the savings/shares every month, which includes a savings account for DC to help with a house deposit one day.

I love to travel, as does our DC. My DH also loves to travel but he worries that we should be putting money aside to pay for DC’s university. The way I see it, university fees are so high now that in order to cover the cost of a 3 year degree (about £30k and increasing just for tuition fees) we’d have to sacrifice our travel and other things such as home improvements. My plan is to do some more family travelling before he goes to uni and then pay his university rent for the years he’s at uni (with consequently reduced travelling), and DC will get a loan for tuition fees and living expenses. Most people I’ve spoken to plan to do the same thing because student loans don’t impact credit score and only start being collected once the graduate is earning a certain amount of salary.

I’d rather spend money travelling and showing DC the world and making family memories. I’m not talking just beach holidays. So far we’ve done things like African safari, Central American rainforest, Ancient sites etc. I think this is of huge value to DC as well as very enjoyable for us all.

I do understand the need to save, and we do save, but I also don’t want to restrict what we can do as a family to save every penny.

I guess my question is: what do you all think/do? Am I foolish to want to spend so much money on travel and should I be saving more than I am? I know it’s a fortunate dilemma to have believe me. Years ago we were struggling a lot financially and every spare penny was ear-marked. Our careers have advanced a lot and we’re now in a better position and I just want to enjoy that (as well as saving some money).

I guess for the vote:

YABU: I should be saving as much as I can to pay for DC tiring fees and sacrifice travelling

YANBU: We should continue to travel and DC takes a tuition fee loan

Thank you all so much

I hadn’t thought of that actually, that employers might fund the degree. I think it depends what he wants to do, he’s interested in technology/ science and so I assumed he would need a degree but from what some have posted, sounds like there might be some good apprenticeships out there.

Yep I think you’re right!

But you said they can work. Mine have additional needs too. They were told to go for the cheapest accommodation no en suite. £300 a month is plenty .

It’s worth factoring in that accommodation can cost as much as 10k a year now. Also, bear in mind that picking up casual summer jobs has become more difficult in recent times.

In terms of graduate applications, it is relevant work experience that counts, so internships, placements and online courses relevant to the degree etc. The graduate market is extremely competitive now so summers ideally need to be given over to building up cv etc rather than general casual work. Otherwise, students risk graduating without a job to go to and having built up a lot of debt for not a lot of reward.

Agree with other posters, degree apprenticeships are an excellent choice nowadays. Experience plus degree and no debt.

I hadn’t thought of that actually, that employers might fund the degree. I think it depends what he wants to do, he’s interested in technology/ science and so I assumed he would need a degree but from what some have posted, sounds like there might be some good apprenticeships out there.

My ds2 strength is tech and science. He got an apprenticeship after school at Bae systems. Other son also got an apprenticeship at Bae but at a different site in a completely different field. Career progression is fantastic if you want it with them. As a side note both ds gf work at bae and one has been there 5 years the other two and both work hard and are getting promotions.
I definitely would look at tech apprenticeships.

I think you’ve got a good balance.
We will pay for uni in full but that’s because we have always paid for school fees, so it is just essentially school continuing for 3 more years.
I wouldn’t sacrifice everything to pay for uni, when as you say, your child is benefitting from the experiences too. As a compromise I think I’d offer the house deposit as uni fees on the understanding it won’t be replaced, perhaps. The student loan does impact mortgage affordability, just FYI.

@notacooldad There are very few of them though. Plus you are not aware of what the MEng recruits are doing. They will get qualified more quickly and have a greater choice of companies to work for.

I went to uni, it was ok, I think the whole uni experience is conpletely different now as well. I work in corporate tech and I have my degree on my cv but I have never once been asked for the transcript or evidence either.
Grad jobs might ask but after that then your experience matters more than anything these days. You can always do a degree later or do one as part of an apprenticeship scheme.
Certain professions do need one, but if you are just going to uni for the sake of then I would say don't bother. I have juniors whobare in like 100k of debt and they are worse employees than anyone who didnt go to uni and has work experience, totally unprepared for work, often immature and end up behind their peers who went straight into work.

@TizerorFizz

Plus you are not aware of what the MEng recruits are doing
No I'm not aware because I don't need to be.
I was just sharing my expierence as away of avoiding a lot of expense.

I did have savings but they have been used for DS in other ways I hadn't planned for so no savings specifically for uni.
He's getting a tuition loan and partial maintenance loan which will just cover the rent if he gets into his chosen uni. He has a part time job which he can come back to in the holidays.
I will fund his basic living expenses month to month but fun money he'll have to provide for himself!
I would feel a lot better if I had savings to cover it. I am going to struggle for the next few years to cover the expense I think. Definitely no holidays. Though I am going this year as it may be the last one we do as a family.
No way could I fund it all, I don't think many people can.

Nothing really but they'll get a bursary towards tuition fees, maintenance loan and live at home so no rent.

I didn't receive any help from my parents. Friends didn't either and I remember we all went hungry all the time. Dc will be in a far better position even without my help.

This advice on MSE is very out of date and based on entirely different repayment plans than students beginning courses now will be subject to. Most students will end up repaying their loans in full. Do not rely on this advice.

With wage stagnation a lot of graduate jobs (if they even get one) aren't all that great. If they want to move out/stay wherever they studied then if we've covered putting a decent pension contribution in on their behalf then that takes the stress off them in their initial working years. They can then increase their contributions when ready to do so knowing that it's already been building. I graduated 2011 and my loan is still a PITA around my neck. Gawd knows what the repayment terms will be when the next generation graduate.

@Chocolateorange22 Well yes but they will be contributing to a pension too. You make it sound like they get a choice not to. That’s not true. But yes, saving for a pension is good but they get the tax relief, not you I think.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-parental-contribution-tool/

I would imagine that paying for accomodation would be at least as much as this calculator suggests, so paying for accomodation is more than enough.

My DS (young adult) wishes that DH and I were more into travel. We went on holiday/did city breaks but not like you have/are planning to. It was more the minimum to appease DS. It is a complaint of DS's from his childhood...so as you're into travel I wouldn't sacrifice that to give above and beyond to the uni fund.

We could've afforded to pay for all DS's (only child) tuition and living expenses [if he went to uni - decided against that for now at least] but I doubt we would have. We would've 'just' paid of accomodation/given the amount that Martin Lewis suggested.

Thanks, I think I'll keep the money for his house deposit as its going to be so hard for him to save that with the cost of housing rising so much

I am spending the money now on life experiences with the kids. Holidays, travel, sports.

uni I reckon they can get loans same as everyone else. Eldest has a scholarship which covers everything. Youngest won’t have that opportunity but I think is looking at jobs/apprenticeships as they’re intelligent but not keen on studying.

I am looking more in the future. Once they are living independently we will review and look at downsizing, freeing up assets etc. then I will give some cash gifts and they can pay off loans/house deposit/bum round the world for a year or whatever they choose. Reckon it will be more useful to them in their 20’s and beyond than at 18 when student loans are an option.

My son has taken out tuition loans each year, and this year took out a maintenance loan too (he was entitled to approx half the full amount for that). Last year he didn’t.

His dad and I (we aren’t together) cover his accomodation between us (approx £6.5k pa) and this year he lives on the maintenance loan, other bits we send him and earnings from his Summer job and sporadic work at uni. He manages fine.

I’m not in a position to pay for it all. Of course I’d prefer him to leave with no debt; but that would involve huge financial sacrifices at my end, be detrimental to our home life and other kids. And, to be honest, I feel we help him a fair bit but also he has some responsibility too.

We gave £300 a month and they worked in the holidays. We invested money to buy/put towards their first home instead.
DH and I have been lucky enough to have low/no mortgage and it’s made a huge difference to us. We wanted that for our DC. It also seemed the fairest in the event that one or more of them decided not to go to university.

I can’t afford to support much more than buying stuff for her to take with her and perhaps a few quid here and there. My daughter has some savings from working, she is taking maximum loan she can, will have a couple of grand spare to live off and she is hoping to get a job there.

I’m not sure why you’re trying to argue with my personal experience, I appreciate yours was different but no one amount of money can be universally considered ‘plenty’ without knowing other people’s circumstances.

£800 a month is what her accommodation alone cost, so for us £300 extra a month on top of loan would not have covered all of her additional day to day costs. They needed an en suite for medical reasons. They could work but only a few hours a week, both because as others say they need to commit so many hours to study and also because their health conditions meant they couldn’t work in that type of physical role a lot. They also needed other things that cost money to get them through day to day life, I won’t list them all here. So they needed more.

They’re now out of uni with a top degree and an excellent career (with reasonable adjustments in place) and can afford all the extras they need to make life work for them so I think we the financial support we offered was the right one (before anyone thinks this is a stealth boast we have had to sacrifice a lot including holidays to make this happen for the last three years).

Hi @ELS20 - my DC is just graduating and I’ve done exactly what you’re proposing to do.
I took advantage of the fee loans and then made up the remaining maintenance loan every year by paying for her accommodation.

TBH 3 years ago I had more money and choice on how to support - cost of living has definitely made it trickier this year for me.

My thought is that if I come in to money in the future, at that point I will make a call on paying off DDs loans if interest rate is huge or if it’s really impacting her ability to live once she’s earning. For now I’m glad we took advantage of what was available from Governemnt, had some good holidays and I just topped up her maintenance loan.

good luck!

Can I ask what calculator you used? What figures you put in and what it told you?

Thanks a lot. It’s good to know others are do of the same as us, makes me feel less worried!

Honestly, absolutely do this. I'm about to buy my first house at the age of 36, if my parents had had the means to help me out with a deposit, I could have done it 10 years earlier. Paying back the student loan is nothing. If you're a high earner, you pay it back pretty quickly. If (like me) you end up not earning a very high income, the repayments are very manageable, and if you have a period where your income drops, such as a period of unemployment or whatever, then the repayments pause altogether. It's really not a big deal. A house deposit will be much more valuable to him.