OT: saving for college vs. life experiences

Is this money that you suddenly came into? Or do you mean “extra” money that is left over in the budget from time to time?

Myself personally, I would invest it in the opportunity to raise livestock. Not only is it an excellent life experience, you’ll be raising your own food. Eventually you may see some cost savings in the grocery bill which can in turn be put into college.

The other thing is, once you have the initial set up cost, you could then take any extra and split it between maintaining the livestock and college.

We’re in a slightly different situation because we’re dairy farmers — so we have the animals.   But we don’t have money! *L*

What we’ve decided to do is we give each heifer born to a certain cow (her name was Gina.  She has since moved on to that great farm in the sky.) and her daughters to each of our daughters in turn.   So, Cow Gina had a heifer and we gave it to our firstborn daughter.   Then Cow  Gina had another heifer and we gave it to our second-born daughter.  And so on.   When Gina’s daughters (Gillian, Gino, Gillo, etc.) give birth, it goes to whichever of our daughters is next in line.  So, none of our daughters are only getting Gina’s hiefers or Gillian’s heifers, etc….. it’s just that particular cow family is the one we’re using to “save” for our daughters’ futures.

If we have to sell a heifer/cow (Ginette was sold), that money goes to whichever daughter “owned” her.  So, it’s sort of luck of the draw.  Right now our second-born daughter’s savings account looks fat for a 9yo!!!  Everyone else’s cows are still with us, so they have no money! *L*

Our idea is to invest in IRA CD’s as the girls save enough money to do so.  (I’m thinking that depending on their ages, the CDs might be in our names with that particular girl as the beneficiary – but we will talk to our accountant when the time comes and get her recommendation.)

Doing this is easier money-wise on us, because we don’t really have extra money each month…..and if we get extra money, it seems like we need to spend it right away on the farm.  When we sell a daughter’s cow, we can “borrow” it and then pay it back as we’re able, so that works nicely for us.

Then, when they’re ready, they can either use the money for college or for a house or a wedding or whatever.

All that to say this:  if you invest in animals, it’s sort of risky (the animals could die, etc.).  But, the children will gain invaluable experience by working with the animals.  If it ends up working out, the sale of the animals or the product from the animals could fund a “college” fund better than simply putting that extra money in a bank account or college fund right now.