Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). I've been sorting through a few financial chores with DL(19) and have a few more financial chores to get through.
Done:
**Opened a high yield savings account
**Opened a ROTH IRA
**Opened his own credit card
For the ROTH IRA, we moved $5K over from his gifted college fund, same as his brother did during his first big income year.
For the credit card, we skipped the intermediate step of getting a student card. Our CU refused to ever increase MM(21)'s $500 limit, so it seemed to be more hassle than it is worth. The only thing DL(19) needs to be concerned about is utilization, re: high credit score and paying balance off monthly. So he will still be using my credit card for a while. I told him to just use the new card as a gas card. Until he gets a bump to his ($1,000) credit limit.
Random side note: Both kids have 780 credit scores. I noticed a few months ago that MM(21) had been 'pre-approved' for a $60,000 car loan. I showed DL(19) and he got a kick out of that (both the idea of spending that much on a vehicle at any age, much less at 21, and the 25% or whatever interest rate). It's moot because MM(21) has *no income*. Not like he could actually get any car loan.
We went into this year deciding to utilize DL(19)'s college fund (that we had not touched yet). I was over it. Paying up front the tuition due in June but not getting financial aid refunds until November. With all the political nonsense, who knows where the state grants will land. But I was already over it, before the political uncertainty.
DL(19) Year 3 'Gifted College Fund': $21,500 (+$5K ROTH IRA)
The question is: Will DL(19) get a $3,000 (financial aid) refund to put back into his college fund? This $21,500 balance is what he has left after paying his Fall 2025 tuition. He is expecting a $3,000 lower-income grant this year. Which is really more of a lower-asset grant. Our income was always below the threshold. But after spending down assets to pay for college for 4 years... Now our assets are under the threshold too.
My best estimate is that this will be a $0 net tuition year for DL(19): $8,000 tuition/fees, minus $6,000 grant, minus $2,000 tax credit.
July 7th, 2025 at 04:27 pm 1751902037
July 7th, 2025 at 11:38 pm 1751927884
July 8th, 2025 at 02:46 am 1751939200