….and really just about to flip out. I’ve been perusing the websites of a number if different private colleges across the country that are known for outstanding academics. We’re looking at a minimum of 30K to 50K, increasing at a good 5% per annum. Then I look at what we have been able to save so far in our kids’ 529 plans (and how they’ve plummeted….a big Bronx cheer for the NY plan which allows NO fixed option, hence we opened up a CT 529). We have fixed money also….but it earns NO WHERE NEAR that 5%. My kids are 3 and 4 and after saving for several years now we can afford a solid semester for each of them at one of these top colleges. What if our country really is entering a prolonged recession? What if the global economy is really in trouble?

I know schools have financial aid packages which commonly include scholarships. Guess what though? The folks I’ve talked to still said that the cost of the school, even with the scholarship was prohibitive. I would have to ask myself how much debt my kids reasonably want to be in upon graduating college, especially if they plan to go to graduated school.

So as a back-up, I’ve started looking at state colleges. They are getting more competitive….and that’s likely because college costs will continue to be more and more out of reach for more students. Education is becoming more and more a privilege for the wealthy. If I hustle out there, I can likely pay for a state university and maybe have some money left over for graduate training of the children’s choice.

I’ve often thought about brining other children into our family. This is one area that deters me. How the heck will I educate all of them? How the heck can I promise to provide a real future for them? I know…it’s probably more education than they would have gotten back home. I wonder sometimes if I should give up the thought though of really being well off. That was always the plan, but I wonder sometimes if I’m shoveling *poop* against a tide. I read on another blog that maybe many of us should get used to the idea of getting poorer and poorer. He may be right. After all that’s what’s been happening to the average American family for several decades now. I don’t see any end in sight.