10 Retirement Pitfalls, Pitfall #1: Putting College Savings Ahead of Retirement

Yahoo has a list of 10 retirement pitfalls and I'm going to list and comment on them all. Here's today's pitfall:

Setting money aside for college ahead of retirement: Many people decide that placing money into their children's college funds is more important than placing it into their own retirement fund. This is rarely a good idea. While it is possible to get loans for college, the same can't be said about retirement. Make sure that you contribute to your retirement fund first, and then work on providing some help for your children's college education.

You know what they say in an airplane emergency briefing? "In case of loss in cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will open in front of you. For those of you traveling with small children, secure the mask over your face first before assisting the child." (Or something similar.) Why do they do this? Because if you fall unconscious, you'll be of little help to the child who really needs you.

It's the same way with saving for retirement before college. You must have your own financial house in order before you can really help out anyone else. Otherwise, there will be great financial pain for both of you when you retire.

Look at it this way: Junior can borrow for college -- an expense that's big (but not enormous) and which can be paid off over 50 years if need be (though I don't recommend that.) You, on the other hand, have and expense in retirement that is several times larger and you have half the time to save for it. Now, which do you think is more important?

For more thoughts on this topic, see these links:

• How Much You Need to Save for Your Kids' College Expenses

• Save for Retirement before College

• More on the Financial Tsunami Waiting for Us All

Click here to read part 2 of this series.

Comments

[Sandeep]

This is a very good post. I have been reading your posts for last 3 months & it has loads of information. I started reading more on personal finance recently. Specially on Retirement & Investment topics.

Question :
When creating Retirement Account how to balance between various ways available, like Mutual Funds, Stocks, Provident Fund etc...

[Edmund]

Or pick a fund that does all the balancing for you. For example, the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund.

Just find the year closest to your retirement. Deposit money into it every month. That's all.

[hustler]

those are some good tips for retirement. I got some years to plan.

[noma]

It's so important to not freak out about saving for college. Bottom line: you can borrow money for college easily. Try borrowing money for retirement.

[Zach]

Excellent thoughts! might i go a step further and say that when children "own" their college experience, they may take it more seriously and get more out of it. I had to pay my way through school and worked very hard to have minimal debt. Because of this hard work, I valued the teaching, worked even harder on my grades, and I think learned some very valuable lessons about life that aren't explicitly in the text of the courses i took.

Thanks for your insight!

[Jo]

I agree with everything! I am dumbfounded by parents who work second and third jobs just to build a college fund for their children.

My coworker is one of those, all of her money goes into her son(s)' college. While she denies herself, her son is going to a private college and playing Guitar Hero on a large screen TV. She almost got a second job last year, just so she could go get her hair colored and new jeans when she wanted without her husband complaining. She cancelled her new replacement glasses (she lost her pair) and wears her old ones, while her husband buys new toys.

Okay, there's other issues here, but the idea is that I find it ridiculous that all the money she earns goes to her son's education, it wouldn't effect him too much if she used a tiny percentage of that for her own use.