How To Pay For College Without Sacrificing Retirement

HomeFinanceCollege SavingsHow To Pay For College Without Sacrificing RetirementThis page may contain affiliate links.Oct 30, 2019I woke up today deep in thought about college costs and all the aspects of a family’s life it impacts. It hit me how much making the best decision possible on where my kids go to college is key for the financial health of our family, and in particular our retirement. Heres my backstory that got me thinking so much about this. The other month my husband and I both missed the high school graduation ceremony of our middle son. Thankfully, other relatives were there to attend, but we couldnt make it because my husband had been hospitalized, unexpectedly. So we had to settle for watching the graduation on livestream. My husband is home now, still recuperating, but otherwise he’s fine. Thank God. Our recent family health scares made me realize how grateful I am for the college decisions my children have made. Strategies That Helped My Son Get a Full Tuition Scholarship Most recently, my son (our 4th child of 6) was awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship to a small private college. The scholarship came after we did the following: appealed twice; met personally with his admissions officer; met with financial aid, in person, and he still wasnt offered any institutional need based aid (not even work study); sent in his interim transcript; sent in his 3rd marking period report card; sent in all four SAT scores and then we waited. My son literally didn’t get offered his scholarship until one hour before the May 1st College Decision Day! My son had been perfectly willing to go to Community College for free on Delaware’s SEED scholarship if the full tuition scholarship hadnt come through. Candidly, we will have four kids in college at the same time this year, and no matter what FAFSA says we simply can’t afford to put a whole lot of money towards ANY of their college costs. [Read: How We Afford To Pay For 4 Kids In College At The Same Time] The Family Impact of Choosing Affordable Colleges Which leads to my point. My husband is almost 55 years old. He’s gainfully employed. We still have two kids at home in addition to the four in college. And yesterday, we realized that because our oldest four children all chose colleges offering either full tuition scholarships or full rides, their father doesn’t ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO continue working the type of job that puts his health at risk. Although he still cannot retire yet, our childrens wise financial college choices may literally wind up prolonging their fathers life. He can now take a lower stress (and lower pay) job and still be able to maintain our family’s lifestyle. These types of decisions about college have serious implications to the financial health of a family and parents retirement. Initially, we were just trying to be frugal when we steered our kids towards affordable options. We never imagined what a blessing their choices would turn out to be. We hadn’t even factored in potential circumstances where having minimal term college bills to pay could have indirect health implications for their father. Im sharing this type of personal information for those families on the fence about expensive schools versus more affordable ones. There are no easy, simple answers, but I urge you to make sure you keep some affordable options on the table when your children are applying. You might be glad you have them if unforeseen circumstances arise!

Research and Decribe The Voting Process In United States - 1925 Words

Research and Decribe The Voting Process In The United States (Essay Sample) Content: Name:Instructor:Course:Date:Voting in the United StatesWhy is voting important?As the United States 36th president Lyndon Johnson noted, a vote is one of the most powerful instruments created by man to destroy walls that imprison some people because they are different from others. At the same time, a vote is a powerful tool that can be used to break down injustices noted in the society. The United States constitution has been amended numerously to safeguard its citizens right to vote. The 15th amendment of the United States constitution in the year 1870 was one of the modest laws to be put in place allowing people to vote irrespective of their race or ethnicity (Gritzalis 12). However, most states through Jim Crows laws prevented a number of African American people from voting by establishing laws that could hinder them directly. For instance, for one to be eligible to vote, he or she had to be literate, their grandfathers had to have a right to vote, and some fee wa s imposed on the voters. It was until 1971s 26th amendment that all people were included in the voting process irrespective of their race, ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status (Gritzalis 12).Due to the fact the elected people are the citizens representatives it is important that each and everybody affected by this leaders is allowed to vote. At the same time, involvement in the voting process helps sharpen once mind. The sharpening of ones mind happens through a vigorous study of various candidates and what they support. Moreover, through the voting process, individuals get the opportunity to understand various polices propagated by the government and establish o how better the policies can be handled by different people in the same position. Actually, the voting process is as well and educative process for the people engaged.What groups of people in the United States are more or less likely to vote, explain why?In the United States, women are less likely to vote while men are more likely to vote. Despite the high number of registered voters in the United States, there is a poor turnout of voters during the voting process. Different groups of people are represented differently among voters. Ethnicity, gender, age, and race have been the major effects on voter turnout. To begin with, women are less likely to vote as compared to men. Similarly, they are less involved in politics. A small percentage of the elected leaders are made up of women both at the national and local levels. The number of female senators is too low as compared to that of men (Weiser, Wendy R., and Lawrence Norden 16). However in the recent past, there has been a steady increase in the number of women participating in the electoral process though not elected as political leaders. Age is another factor with a great effect on the voting behavior of individuals. As Sundquist, James, (18) observes, older people are more involved in the voting process as compared to young people. Statics sho w that people between the ages of 35 to 65, are the most active politically. Their activity is politics is exacerbated by the fact that most of them have settled with a stable income hence have a strong political command in the community. Unlike the young people who are still struggling to establish themselves financially and politically.Historically, race and ethnicity had been at the center stage in the voting process. However, through various amendments all people have been allowed to vote. Nevertheless, there is a slight difference in the number of people turning out for voting among African-Americans, whites, and Latinos. In the recent past, African Americans have become the most active politically almost surpassing the whites despite being the minority group. For instance in the recent elections, there has been an average turnout of 65 percent of the registered African American voters as compared to about 66 percent turnouts among the whites within the same socioeconomic statu s. On the other hand, there is a low turnout of Latinos despite the fact that they form a significant voting bloc. Language barrier had been one of the major factors affecting the voting behavior of Latinos. Consequently, necessitating the use of Spanish by presidential aspirants while campaigning to reach out to the majority Latinos left out due to the language barrier. As Green, Donald and Alan, (15) writes George Bush was among the first people to present both English and Spanish advertisements during the 2000 elections and 2004 elections (Weiser, Wendy R., and Lawrence Norden 16).What are the consequences of democracy because certain groups do not vote, please give examples?Various groups of people have different interests that are similar and presented by a particular candidate. Elections help these various groups people elect their preferred leaders who can champion their issues. Hence, when one group fails to participate in elections, they fail to get their preferred leaders (Gritzalis 12). As a result, most of their issue may not be addressed as per to their wish. The leaders selected might not be representative of the whole population hence bringing about conflicts in the management of key public organizations and funding. For instance, most of the Latinos and African Americans are of the lower social economic status (Wright, Olin and Rodgers, 2011). Therefore, they could like to have leaders who advocate for their issues and fund projects that are aimed at promoting their qualities of life.What are the voter registration laws in Kansas? Why are the laws in Kansas this way? Do you believe they help or hinder democracy in Kansas?Kansas has introduced voter registration laws that require a voter to present their photos when voting in person (Wright, Olin and Rodgers, 2011). Similarly for those, who are not in the list of the permanent advance voting, they have to provide copies of their IDs through the mail for their votes to be admissible. In addition , the voters signature has to be verified with a Kansas. For people registered as voters from 2013 have to provide proof of American citizenship before they can be allowed to vote (Weiser, Wendy R., and Lawrence Norden 16). The new laws hinder democracy since a number of people legible to vote can miss out on the activity for the fact that they did not present as American citizens. Unlike the past, many people are likely to be left out as voters in the upcoming presidential elections due to the fact that they might not have presented the American citizenship proof. For instance in Kansas, many people were left out in the 2014 election due to the fact that they did not meet the minimum requirements for them to be registered as voters. Most of them were left out on the grounds that they did not provide proof that they are American citizens with late communication. Kansas and other states with similar provision in the law, believe that the laws will help to have legible voters partici pating in the electoral process. However, some states have made it easier for their residents to participate in the voter registration and voting ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "DOI" : "10.1177/1065912911430671", "ISBN" : "1065912911430", "ISSN" : "1065-9129, 1938-274X", "PMID" : "1445174652", "abstract" : "Voter registration is thought to have a substantial negative effect on American voter turnout. The authors clarify this understanding in two ways. First, using a natural experiment in Wisconsin, they estimate the pure effect of registration, stripped of aspects such as the closing date. Registration lowers turnout by about 2 percentage points. Second, the authors argue that administrative capacities of local election officials are important moderators of how much registration affects turnout. Municipalities with less capacity are associated with bigger decreases in turnout. Researchers and policy makers should consider administrative ca pacity as a component in the equal application of voting laws.", "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Burden", "given" : "Barry C.", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Neiheisel", "given" : "Jacob R.", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "Political Research Quarterly", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issue" : "1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2013" ] ] }, "page" : "77-90", "title" : "Election Administration and the Pure Effect of Voter Registration on Turnout", "type" : "article-journal", "volume" : "66" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=157c9e1a-4798-4e83-97d0-f378fba7d0dc" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Burden and Neiheisel)", "manualFormatting" : "(Burden and Neiheisel, 80)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Burden and Neiheisel)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Burden and Neiheisel)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schem a" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Burden and Neiheisel, 80).Many states have made efforts to make voting easier for their citizens. What have some states done?Even though most republican controlled states have made voting more difficult, some states have decided to make the voting process much easier. For instance some sates like Oregon have made it easier for its legible voters to register (Fujiwara, Thomas, Kyle Meng, and Vogl 15). The state does not require the person registering to fill and return forms to become voters. Instead, one becomes a voter automatically by meeting the motor vehicle bureau requirements. Other states like West Virginia, Vermont and California, have also enacted the similar automatic registration processes (Fujiwara, Thomas, Kyle Meng, and Vogl 15).. Hence enabling low income earners, students and other minorities participate in the voting process....