I think it is very hard to tell.
And it sounds like some parents really wouldn’t be happy for their children to make their own choices about what they do….that they actually want some kind of financial control or I out into their choices well into adulthood. I get the sense that some choices, just couldn’t be contemplated by some young adults because if family attitude.
My example of joining an alternative community that didn’t engage in economic activity was tongue-in-cheek. I said it was an extreme example.
But lots will be like the examples HardBackWriter gives - looking like they will definitely be goi g to high paying careers….and then not, or starting them and switching quite dramatically. There are medics who never practice, those who get highly sought after careers in the city and leave within a couple of years. I’ve known qualified actuaries leave to become Vicars and those on impressive training contracts with law firms leave to do environmental charity work. And of course, lots of women who are highly qualified have children and never work again.
For me, there are some choices my DC might make that I would be rather concerned about, but I hope that I will allow them to choose their own paths and not take the view that only the things I think are ‘worthy’ are acceptable.
In terms of the Uni fees though, it does beg the question whether some people later regret their choice to fully fund Uni fees. I guess if the fees are paid and there’s still plenty to fund a house deposit or further training and the fees were a drop in the ocean, then it doesn’t matter. But if the DC had their fees paid and then couldn’t have any further financial help if any magnitude, it might feel it wasn’t the best use of the money….given they might have never paid much off a student loan at all.
I guess it’s true that everyone does a ‘risk assessment’ and considers what a DC is likely to do. If they do medicine, then perhaps you have a clearer idea. Most parents of 18 year olds who are deciding if to apply to student loans though, don’t know what their kid will do. I agree with anniegun, that taking the loan at 18 and re-assessing at 21 and then again at 23 and perhaps 25 and whenever else seems useful is a better ‘risk assessment’. At those later points, your assessment of risk can be far more accurate and based on less unknown variables.
Yes, at any point a DC in their 30s or 40s can suddenly change course dramatically and you might have a feeling that you misjudged what to do with £60k, but the further down the line, the more information you have.
I agree that at 18, as economic agents, we just do t have enough information to make fully rational decisions, so almost have to ‘hedge our bets’ by taking the loan. Then in the years after graduation we can decide if to stick with it, or to pay it off. This will involve some interest payments, but those of just a few years feel worth it, to have had the possibility of keeping the cash for other things like a house deposit. That’s what we will be doing. And that’s a shift of position for me. I will have paid school fees for more than 15 years and in some ways, paying for Uni would have been just more of the same. In lots of ways it makes sense to me for the reasons given by others, which include ‘finishing off the job of educating my child’ and wanting them to start debt free like I did. But if I do that, I won’t have the £60k to give them for a house and I think that’s more valuable in most cases.
I finished student life debt free and would like the same for my DC. However, when I finished debt free, it was also possible for a young single person to buy a property in Greater London. That isn’t so possible now, so to me, prioritising property access over being debt free makes sense. And as I said before, if then some extra money turns up (inheritance or we sold and downsized) then I’d pay off the student debt in all liklihood. But I’d do that 2nd and not 1st.