On a recent Money For Couples episode a couple in their early 50s said they wanted to pay for their children’s college and provide a “financial safety net” for the children’s future.
Without hesitation, Ramit said,
“You cannot afford to pay for your children’s college. There is no safety net. You don’t have enough money.”
The couple was too old, had accumulated too much debt and could not even enough during their remaining working years to offset living beyond their means for their entire adult lives.
Ramit said their kids should search for scholarships, apply to lower tuition schools, evaluate work-study programs and find another way to fund their college educations.
It was a tough message for the couple to hear, but it was reality.
Facts and numbers don’t lie.
We all need a reality check sometimes.
I wasted too much of my life in wishful thinking:
- I maxed out credit cards thinking someday I’d work out how to pay this off.
- I defaulted on a small student loan after dropping out of college thinking I’d eventually pay it off without penalty when they caught up to me years later. (The loan was only a few hundred dollars. The late fee penalty cost me an additional 33%. They “caught” up to me with a collections letter within 9 months).
- I was fired after missing quota too many times hoping my company would continue to pay me.
- I was laid off/downsized from several companies that were clearly struggling for months (or years) before the ax fell.
- I struggled with my weight for decades until I finally accepted that controlling my diet mattered more than exercise.
- I lost my wife to cancer after 29 years together pretending our 19 year age difference and her longterm, serious health problems wouldn’t cause her to die before me. I was widowed at age 50.
The reality check always hits me hard and suddenly. When I’m emotionally invested, afraid, or purposely trying to ignore the problem, I can avoid dealing with it for a long time.
Until one day it catches up to me.
When I finally face the facts and the numbers they never lie.
Only then does the solution to my problem seem obvious.
I don’t always like the answers – but that doesn’t change reality.
Hopes and dreams motivated me to accomplish things I thought were impossible. Still, when it came to solving big problems, reality eventually determined the outcome. It always does. There is no escape.
