How are you paying for school?

[Pjbarney]

How am I paying? Cash, a little at a time. I've been running the numbers every way I can think of, and even if I had the full Pell award (which I don't, and I'm unemployed,) I would still have to come up with about $1300 to enroll and be locked into 6 credits for 4 semesters, to break even and I'm a NJ resident (in-state rates.) I'm determined to finish without any student loan debt. If I do incur any, it would be for grad school, and I'm old, so I will probably be taking my student loans with me to the afterlife.

An interesting sidenote: as I've been thinking about this, I remembered my first year of B&M college in 1968. Tuition, room & board was somewhere around $3-3500/year, and I only lasted a little over a year, couldn't afford it much into the 3rd semester, and couldn't keep up with the workload and a job too. I was curious and looked up to see what it is today at the same school -$55,000!

[ryoder]

Tuition and fees at USF in Tampa in 1994 were about $1200 a semester for 15 credits. A one bedroom cost $450 per month and if you split it with your girlfriend that meant you could go to school for under $5000 a year with tuition and rent. Student loans would easily cover that and if you worked part time you could have enough money to have cars and a social life. I did.

[OpenRoot]

Thanks for the replies, all! Very impressed by what Rebel did with the Pell grant. Also a very good point about testing put of the classes most likely to ding your GPA. I had actually been thinking about taking a B&M math class since its my weakest subject and I didnt have the confidence to try to test out. Now thinking about at least trying for the college math clep. Looking at the FAFSA report for spring, the only aid I'm being offered is a loan which I want to avoid. However, as long as my GPA stays above a 3.0 for this program I can get a 33% discount on tuition at the larger state U after transfer. Thanks for the ideas and encouragement!

[dewisant]

The company I work for pays for me to sign up for school, my annual fee, and any classes either online or butt-in-chair. I have paid for all of my tests and my one graduation fee to date. A test a paycheck or a test a month makes this easier to afford. A number of my tests had grades attached to them.

[dewisant]

Here's my best advice at how to afford college: Never, never, never lease a car or truck. Never. Never buy a car or truck new and if you did, sell it and buy a good used one. The difference in costs will go a long way toward paying for a college degree. Now, I'm off of my soapbox and back to studying.

[ryoder]

I disagree with the thoughts about leasing and buying new. I once bought a brand new Silverado for 14k after rebates and GMCard earnings redemption. I drove it for 14 months and traded it in for 15k. So I made 1k on that transaction.
Here is how I buy a new car. I google "amex zag" and use that site to get a price. Its a super low price. Then I take that price and compare it to the same car's value on the used market as defined by the kbb site with 2 years and 20k miles on it. I drive 10k per year. Take that used car value and determine how much you lose in depreciation over those 2 years. Thats the true cost of owning that car. In some cases, if you get a good deal on a new one, owning a new car can cost less than used.

Just do the math before making a decision. Here are the numbers for someone with a 2010 Vette with 20k miles. If they keep driving it another 2 years and add another 20k on it, the value will drop 4.6k. This means the car costs $200/month to own.

Used 2010 Corvette 20,000 miles very good condition 33.8K
Used 2008 Corvette 40,000 miles very good condition 29.2K

You can do the same thing with a new one, how much can I get a 2012 Corvette with 0 miles for? Well I have an offer in my inbox for a brand new 0 mile 2012 with automatic for 36k. So that means if I bought that Vette I could sell if for 2200 less in 2 years. If I kept it another two years those next two years would cost me 4.6k. So you need to crunch the numbers before purchasing.

New 2012 Corvette 0 miles 36.0K (lots of offers and incentives in this including Corvette owner loyalty)

[dewisant]

All valid points indeed. My assumption when answering this thread was that there was a lack of funds to begin with. Market research, only looking at/buying high-end sports cars and SUV's, and in general using a much more targeted approach is a whole different animal. I am a Mercedes owner and I bought my current Benz @ 9 years old, 41,000 miles, and $21,000 instead of the $78,300 that the car cost brand new.