The Moment of Truth

I knew this year would be tough with two college tuition bills to pay. Luckily, I happened to check (both kids' colleges now do not issue paper bills and both are due on August 5th-at least first installment). With son #1, I always waited til the last possible moment to pay. Bills were always due starting in May (1st installment). Waiting til August let's you put off paying, but makes the first payment 3x what the normal installment is, to catch up.

Everything was fine with son #2. Loans properly credited to his account. I get so mad that middle class people like us get no aid. People say that when you have two in college you get something, but not really--or not enough!

With son #2, he didn't sign his tax return or some technicality like that so the loan did not show up on his bill. I told him to go to the website to look it up, but he didn't know what site, what his password is, etc....ugh...I estimated what he got last year and just applied that.

When paying the first big installment for both kids, it hit me. Would there be enough money in the checking account to cover it? I withdrew money out of each kid's 529, when I realized I'd have to withdraw money from one kid's account to cover the other kids first bill. Was that fair? Should I do it?
Of course I did it, but put in the "memo" how much I "borrowed" so I could pay it back on the next bill. It all evens out, its my money, and I will pay for them both of course. But it did stop and make me think, was I using one child's money for the other's education?

I hope that as they grow older they realize a family is a family and what we have is all of ours. My parents would have done anything for me--and my sister and brother. Its all one pot of family that gets mixed around in some way or another. So I felt better knowing that I wasn't gypping one kid. They'll all happily go to college. Perhaps grad school. Perhaps one day, I'll pay for their wedding or God forbid a house--or maybe my grand children's education.............Gee......I'll be working for the rest of my life, mixing up all our meager amount of money, and love every moment of it.