Hi everyone, this is my first time posting to Reddit so apologies in advance for any novice errors.
I grew up low-income and was very fortunate to have graduated college through the aid of scholarships, grants, and loans (I’m a first-gen grad, fwiw). I landed a pretty decent job after graduating and have been helping my parents and sibling with expenses since.
My brother is off to school this fall and I’d always planned to help pay for his tuition, but I’m not sure if the right thing is to tell him up front, or have him believe he’s liable for school payments and have him take out subsidized loans (this is important because they are 0% interest loans while he’s in school), and make a bulk payment once he’s graduated. I ask because I think there’s a personal finance/ownership lesson to be learned here, especially since he’s kind of always leaning on me, but I don’t want him to feel stressed while he’s in school. I should note that any discretionary expenses or emergencies I will 100% cover and he knows this—I’m purely talking about taking out loans for tuition. I suppose there’s also a secondary effect that taking out loans would give me more time to save $ (don’t have a ton saved right now), but the question really is about whether or not I should tell him my plans.
TL;DR: I know what it’s like to navigate college under the extreme pressure of worrying about paying for tuition and don’t want him to go through the same. But, at the same time, I’m not sure if I’d be taking away an opportunity for him to be self-sufficient and learn about finances now if I front-load this info.
Would appreciate any thoughts, and thanks in advance.
Submitted February 28, 2021 at 02:56AM by first-gen-grad https://ift.tt/37UgQtP
