Busting the College Planning Lies – Episode 492

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[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity thinkers, welcome to the podcast. We’re going to be talking about a new book that is coming out soon. And it is, I’m going to say, almost controversial because of the markup and the style that is happening with the education system and kind of the revolutions that are happening. So what is the book called, Kim? And let’s talk about it for a moment. Absolutely. I’m actually hoping that all of our books are controversial. I mean, they do mostly start with the word, busting the blank lie. So I think Begg’s controversy writer, which is a good thing, has helped us learn. So this newest one is Busting the College Planning Lies. And it was written with me and Elizabeth Hagenlocker.

[00:50] And I’m so grateful to have it out there because this has been a subject that I have wanted to have a book about for a long, long time. And Todd Langford and his Truth Concepts calculators has some very specific education calculators that help us prove not only the cost of college, but the opportunity cost of college. And that’s a really missing element. And then I have some team members and some people have gotten their kids through what you would call college and or basically anything after high school in some amazing ways. And so I really wanted to get all that out into our listeners’ hands and our readers’ hands and with information that can help them take action and get better results.

[01:38] Okay. When you meet with people, what percentage would you say have a concern of funding their kids’ college? Yeah, I’m going to go with probably about 50 percent because if it’s not funding kids’ college, it’s funding grandkids’ college. Okay. So again, 50 percent there. And then what does that conversation typically look like? Is it am I going to have enough? Or is it how do I prepare? What does that sound like? Yeah, I think people realize that they’re not going to have enough. Like that’s just almost impossible in the tip of the fence. Like if your child is looking at a four-year degree from any of the public or private universities, it’s very, very difficult to actually handle that. I mean, some families can.

[02:26] They just pay for it out of cash flow, and it’s fine. But your person that’s got a young baby or a young grandchild on the scene that wants to save a hundred bucks a month for this thing called college, that’s not probably going to do it. So it’s less that question and more what do I do? Like I don’t have enough, so what do I do? And the book addresses, as I was saying, numerous examples, not theories, but actual stories of people that have gone through getting either an associate’s degree or a four-year degree, an amazingly reduced price, and or they’ve chosen the myriad of special programs that are out there now that are, you could call them college alternatives, that have gotten them into the next phase of adulthood,

[03:18] which is getting a job and very, very happy lives because they went about it their way. Okay. So because they did it their own way, I’m going to tie in a chapter, and I have a chapter heading in here, which is cutting costs without cutting value. So what does that look like from your perspective? Well, chapter, there are four or five very specific programs slash strategies that any family can use to get the courses necessary to get either a job or a degree. And so the families that went through that experience shared their experiences with us, their stories, their successes, their failures, their results. I’m so grateful that Elizabeth took the time to write them all up and share links and resources

[04:12] so that you truly get the value that you want at a cost that your family can deal with. Because one of the main messages of the book is that if you choose to pay either out of cash flow or with assets, the typical class of college in the typical way, you know, let’s pretend $100,000, not only did you lose that hundred grand, but you lost that opportunity with that money for the rest of your life. And that opportunity cost is triple and quadruple the actual hundred grand that you spent on getting the child through school. 100%. And it’s the time. That’s the big thing I see right now is this age of 18 to 22, we’ll call it. That is a time when I reflect and it’s like, you don’t need much sleep.

[05:02] You have tons of energy. You’ve got a great network around you. And if you squander that away, getting a degree that you changed three times because you’re trying to figure it out, that’s a massive opportunity cost that’s lost. Yes. Well said. And furthermore, because so many colleges teach things about values that parents would be disappointed in, it’s a dangerous space. And I know the family relationships that have been ruined because of that environment. And so I’m so grateful that we can put a book out there with some awesome solutions, some amazing pieces of information about a way to get a child from 18, you know, you said to 22, it’s like 23, 24, 25 these days with the typical structure.

[05:52] And that is a big loss of time and effort and energy and enjoyment. And college is right for some people. They absolutely should go through a four or five year program and do whatever the typical structure is, but not everybody should. And so I think that’s really, and there are very specific things in the book also that it’s that aspect. How do I figure out what’s best for my child, my grandchild or me? The book is actually written so that kids in high school can read it and benefit from it, just such as a parent or grandparent can read it and benefit from it. Or listen to it, because Spencer, you’ve helped us get that book on audibles. And so when this podcast release, if by chance it’s not there,

[06:38] just give it a few more days because it will be available both as a soft copy, a Kindle version and an audible version. Perfect. And I think for me as a parent with my oldest is 16 now, we’ve had the college conversation. We’ve gone over these pieces. For my son, my oldest, probably not going to do college. Right now, he’s not even at home. We flew him out to Colorado, and he is filming drones with Red Bull and GoPro right now. So he started a drone company. He’s doing his own thing. I suspect that’s what he’ll continue to do. Now, there are others. If you’re getting an engineering degree or whatever it is, it’s required. Absolutely. This book is a required reading for any of those kids. The reason what I love about it,

[07:30] because I’ve glanced through it, I haven’t read it all cover to cover, is that you’re not indoctrinating people with political correctness. You’re not doing things that are going to skew. It’s very family valued. It’s very principle valued so that you can look at it and get a very clear prosperity perspective of it and then make the right decisions. To me, very incredibly valuable. Thank you. It was a joy to do, and I can’t wait to get it into our listeners’ hands. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit ProsperityThinkers.com.