Do you hate the thought of working past 55 or 60? Do you hate not being able to live the life you deserve today? Do you hate not knowing what your financial future looks like? It's time to stop doing what you hate, here's your host, Mr. Harold Green.
Hello. Hi everybody. Welcome to the show. This is Harold Green and it is time for you to stop doing what you take. Now in today's show I'm going to be talking to you folks about something that is very near and dear to my heart and it is paying too much for college.
00:39 Let me say that again. Dang too much for college. I want to talk a little bit about why this subject is so near and dear to my heart. I don't know if I shared with you guys before, but I have two kids. One's about 24 going to be 25 here in another week or so. And I have one that's 20 and going to be 21 and from an early age, my wife and I realized that sending our kids to college was of great importance. It wasn't a, an extreme priority for us. And so from a very early age, we just made sure that we were doing everything in our power to make sure our kids were on track to attending some of the best colleges and universities in the country. So my son graduated from MIT with good enough grades to get him a full ride into a PhD program.
01:31 I'm not going to say the school. And then my daughter, she is at Syracuse university studying for architecture and I'm extremely proud of those kids. They work really, really hard. But again, we started very, very early and truth be told, I've been talking to people about paying for college for almost 14 years, but I want to sidestep a little bit and talk about my favorite college and university. And that is the university of Florida. That's right. The Gators. That's been my favorite team ever since. Ever since I was a kid. The high school I went to are, our uniforms were the same colors as the university of Florida. So at one point in my young life, I actually wanted to attend the college, but things didn't quite work out for me that way. So I ended up having to take an alternate route in order to get my education.
02:27 But today I really want to talk to you folks about paying less for college so that you can retire faster. And we all know about my program. By now, rapid retire puts you in a position to retire seven to 10 years sooner than you normally would or then most people do. But the truth is you have to figure out how to pay for college. Now today's show, we're going to talk about which colleges to avoid at all costs and absolutely why, how about four or years ago I wrote a book title, painful college in the 21st century, the smart and efficient way to maximize your financial aid. And I'm just going to tell you about some of the chapters in the book. You can also, you can find this book over there@amazon.com and then you know, check out paying for college in the 21st century.
03:18 If you have young kids, I highly advise you to read this book before you get started in this process because I guarantee you it's going to save you a lot of headache and a lot of hassle. Chapter number one, we talk about the high cost of college, chapter number two, the financial aid process. Chapter number three where does money come from? The sources of financial aid, chapter number four, how to apply for financial aid. Chapter number five, the award letter in leveraging for financial aid. This is a very big one. Chapter number six what can reduce your financial aid award? You know, some of the bugaboos you can step into and then chapter seven when to get started. And for me, I think as soon as you find out that you are pregnant with a child, that is when you start thinking about their education and what is going to cost you.
04:08 But before I kind of get into those schools that you should avoid at all costs and why? I've been speaking on paying for college for over 14 years now and in my public workshops I talk to people about why it makes sense to illegally arrange your financial situation and system or the college planning process so you don't end up feeling stupid. At the end. We have over one point $6 trillion in student loan debt and it's only getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. So for me here in Hawaii, I work with a number of different families, kids who pretty much want to do anything that makes great money. I send the kids off to college such as MIT, Portland Pacific U, Cornell, Columbia, Linfield college, Crayton, NYU, just to name a few. And the tricky thing is 88% of the families that I work with, their kids graduate on time.
05:06 All right, so getting into paying for college, just a little history on it, 80% of Americans have about 66% of their net worth tied up in their retirement accounts. And we talked earlier in a retirement show how actually a lot of people have money tied up in their home as well. 43% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. I think that's a very astounding statistic. I was watching something on the news the other day and it was saying that although our economy is doing really, really well, it's not doing all that great for everybody. Some Americans' salaries, they've stagnated and some people's network have fallen nearly 40% now of course the market is up and as ruin right now, but that is not the case for every single person. So what I see the most is I see parents have about one or two years of the tuition saved.
05:59 Parents end up hoping for scholarships and they don't get that kind of money. So guess what they have to do? They end up taking on debt. And then I also see kids not getting a, or kids getting accepted, you know, to the colleges of their choice. But they can't go because mom and dad don't have the finances. And I also see parents and students are too busy with today to plan for tomorrow. Everybody's busy. That is true. I also see parents making choices that prevent their students from getting the most free money because they followed the wrong advice and there's a lot of bad advice out there about paying for college. And then I see kids are making, they're scared of making the wrong decision so they make absolutely no decision at all. So three schools that you should avoid at all costs. And here's why you guys are ready?
06:55 One, two, three, let's get it. School number one or schools and universities. Number one, they have a very bad history of giving out financial aid. What do I mean by that? Well, there's three types of financial aid that schools give out. They give out merit based scholarships. Okay. And that's for grades and things of that nature. They give out self help type of scholarships. Okay. Or self help type of loans. Right? Self-help. Okay. You borrow and they also give our parent based aid, which most of the time is in the form of loans. Okay. So the first thing you have to understand is schools that have a bad history of giving out the type of financial aid that you qualify for. That's a school that you definitely want to avoid. The problem is as a lot of people have no idea what they qualify for, they shouldn't be told that many people don't even have enough money to retire on.
07:57 So when it comes to paying for college, that's, you know, that's kind of like a subject they really don't get into. I, you know, I put out a stat all the time, 73% of parents say paying for college is important, but they have absolutely no real plan to pay for it. So the first thing that you have to do is figure out what position you fall into when it comes to qualifying for financial aid, there are three types of positions that you can fall into when it comes to paying for college and qualifying for financial aid physician number one, families who don't have a lot of money. Okay? And you're going to qualify for all the need based financial aid and the world. Then we have the families that fall into the second position. You're going to get some financial aid at some schools and then the other schools are going to tell you, you know what?
08:45 Get out of here. You make too much money to take a hike. All right? And then there's these parents that fall into position number three where you make too much income and you have too much assets to qualify for need based aid, but you know what they tell you or you think you have too much income. You have too many assets, so you don't even apply. But you know what? At some schools, even if you're in position number three, you could still qualify for something. You know why? The truth is this, colleges need families from all three positions, from position number one position number two, position number three. They need you position number three to help cover and offset the cost of the kids that fall into position number one and position number two because the truth is parents who fall in position, number one, at certain schools, they're going to get 100% of their need met.
09:40 Okay? They get 100% of their need that so school number one, stay away from the schools that have a bad history of giving out financial aid. Unless you work with us, you're going to have to do your research and figure that out. Okay. There are stats out there where they publish, who gives out what some of them, some of it is freedom of information. Act on, I have software here in my office where you know, we pay someone to do all the research and then they plug in the numbers as to who gets what. We know what the African American kids get. Well, you know what the Asian kids get. We know who graduates on time. We know who, who doesn't graduate on time. There's a lot of information out there, but you really have to figure out what position you fall into before you even get started with this process.
10:29 All right. School number two, and this one is kind of common sense, but it's schools that you really can afford. Okay? A lot of parents don't even look at the cost of the school until their kids are somewhere around maybe 10th, 11th, or even 12th grade. They have no idea what college is going to cost. The problem with that is, is not just what college is going to cost, it's what college is going to cost you. All right? You and your family are you in position number one. So if you attend this school and you're in position number one, this is what college is going to cost for you, but you have to figure those things out. One of the biggest things I see is I see kids, they come in, they're working really hard, they got the grades and so on and so forth, and they're aiming at certain schools.
11:20 They'll put a list in front of me and they say, uncle Harold, these are the schools that I want to attend. And mom and dad, they're sitting there and they're all quiet. They're not saying anything. And so I usually, you know, meet with mom and dad with the student and sometimes I'll send the student out because I have some very serious questions. I want to ask mom and dad without the kid there. So when I see this happen, I'll say, and you afford these schools when they look at each other and they say, no, I'll say, well, when, when were you going to tell him Jimmy that you can't afford these schools? You know, they look at each other sad enough and they say, you know, Harold, we don't know. We, we really don't want to break his heart. He's been working so hard and studying and doing all the things that we've asked him to do.
12:06 Well, you can't ask for a better kid than Jimmy. And I said, well, do you think it's fair to have a conversation with him now that he's in 10th grade or 11th grade? And then let him know that this is all you can afford? And then show him some options and some other things that he may want to do in order to get college paid for. And they say, well, you never, you know, we never really thought about that. I said, well, I see this happening all the time and I don't think it's fair to the kids. And you got to tell them right, whether you can pay for half of it, some of it, all of it, they got to know. And if you can't pay for it, you need to let them know what their options are. I don't, I hate to see parents with this wishful thinking thinking that somehow the kid's going to get some scholarship that covers everything.
12:50 And a lot of times they don't. They don't get all the money that they need. And sometimes I hear the statement where parents say, you know, I've already told them they can't go to college unless they get a scholarship. And I say, well, what kind of scholarship? Full ride, half ride, academic, athletic. And they just look at me with this blank stare and say, Oh, scholarship. And I said, you know what? A lot of kids get scholarships to go to college, but you know the scholarships that are out there, most of them don't meet all of the costs and the kids say, well, you know, mom and dad, I got a scholarship. All you guys said is I needed to get a scholarship. You never said how much, and so I'm going to tell you folks, if you're telling your kids that you may want to let them know what you can and cannot afford, okay?
13:34 We don't want this wishful thinking. All right? School number three. Great. Okay. Schools that your kids barely get into, okay, this is a big one. There's a lot of schools out there and you definitely have to know what your kid's grades are and you know whether or not they fall in the top tier, the candidates, the middle tier or the bottom tier. If they fall on the top tier, chances are they get into that college. They're going to do extremely well. But if they fall in the middle, or maybe even the bottom tier of those Canada's, here's the scary thing, that student may not be prepared to handle the rigors of that college, but the funny thing is, is so many people are so happy that their kids get in and they can afford it. They ended up sending those kids to those colleges anyway, and you know what happens?
14:30 Those kids end up doing what we call a boomerang. You guys seen a boomerang, you throw it out there and it comes back. That's what happens to many kids in the United States. Over 50% of kids get started with college and they end up dropping out. A lot of it. It's very simple. Okay? Kids go to college and they have no plan to get themselves through four years of college. Number one, they have too many options. Number two, they lack the funds and then again, no plan. What are you going to do in year one, year two, year three, year four, you're going to get internships and so on and so forth. But most importantly, you have to understand whether or not you're a kid and Excel at that school or that university. Don't send them just because they got in and they meet the minimum requirements because chances are you have a ticking time bomb on your hands.
15:25 Some of the other colleges and universities that you may want to watch, all four are schools that lie to you. Schools that tell you one thing before you apply and then after you apply they end up changing things around or you end up finding out things aren't the way they were promised to you and I tell parents all the time, don't be afraid to yank your kid out of that college and then put them in a different school. Another list of schools you may want to avoid are maybe schools near relatives and I've seen this happen before where parents send their kids off to a particular college because it's close to auntie, uncle Jeff and Michelle. Okay. So we send our kids out there close to auntie uncle. The problem is if, if we haven't really, you know, some families are distant, we don't communicate as well.
16:17 There may be some things going on with family members that we don't know about, but the truth is is sending our kids off to college is a very, very daunting task and sometimes sometimes we've, we feel a little better knowing that they're only an hour away from this uncle, this auntie, this cousin or even grandparents. And so sometimes that's a positive thing and sometimes I've seen it be a very negative thing. So thank you folks for listening in. You definitely want to make sure that you are not sending your kids to these schools that are not right for you. You definitely want to make sure you understand what position you fall into, whether you're a position number one, position number two and position number three.
17:00 And if you are not sure you've got to do me a big favor. Okay, go to my website, retire now, retire wow.com download or click on rapid retire and then go to the game changer form. Fill that form out. It has space in there. If you, you know, if you do have kids and you're thinking about college, you may want to just put that information in there or not. You may want to, I think you should put the information in there submitted to me and I will be in touch with you to help you figure out whether you're in position one position to position number three and to help you figure out a plan to get your kids to and through college and a safe and comfortable manner while still maintaining the integrity of the rapid retire program. So again, retire now, retire while.com get that game changer form. Fill it out, send it in to me and I will be in touch with you to make sure you don't do something that you hate and that is paying too much for college. So thanks again for listening in. Until next time. One, two, three. Let's get it.
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