357. Debt-Free College: Top Tips to Avoid Student Loans

Worrying About Paying for College? Free Webinar!

Our Free Life Without Payments Workshop is on July 15th. You can sign up here: https://www.debtfreedad.com/pl/2148605132

Subscribe to Simplify My Money:
https://www.debtfreedad.com/newsletters/simplify-my-money

Discover how to help your kids graduate college without the burden of student loans. In this episode, Ryan Nelson shares practical tips including early planning, comparing degree value vs. cost, working while attending college, avoiding prestige schools, leveraging scholarships, and utilizing community college programs. Learn how these strategies enabled his three children to earn their degrees debt-free and how they can work for your family too. Start planning for a debt-free future today! 

Support the show

The Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner https://www.debtfreedad.com/planner

Connect With Brad

Website- https://www.debtfreedad.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thedebtfreedad
Private Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/debtfreedad
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/debtfreedad/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@debt_free_dad
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bradnelson-debtfreedad2751/featured

Thanks For Listening

Like what you hear? Please, subscribe on the platform you listen to most: Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Tune-In, Stitcher, YouTube Music, YouTube

We LOVE feedback, and also helps us grow our podcast! Please leave us an honest review in Apple Podcasts, we read every single one.

Is there someone that you think would benefit from the Debt Free Dad podcast? Please, share this episode with them on your favorite social network!

Episode Transcript

Ryan Nelson (00:00):
You hear it all the time right, college is so
expensive and my kids are nevergoing to be able to afford it,
so everybody just has to takeout loans for it.
Well, I'm here to tell you thatthat's a myth.
It's a lie, and I have threekids that are all debt-free,
that all went to college andgraduated and we, as their
parents, we didn't pay for theirtuition, we didn't pay for

(00:20):
their books.
Honestly, we just did a reallypoor job planning for their
college education when we wereyounger and not really great
with money, but they did itthemselves and they did it smart
.
So how did they do it?
That's what we're going to talkabout in today's episode.
My name is Ryan Nelson and mywife and I paid off $160,000 in
debt while we were raising thesethree kids that all went to

(00:43):
college and debt-free.
So one of the first things inpoint number one is having a
plan for college, and this issomething that my wife and I and
my kids as they got into highschool.
We just kind of talked about it, having a plan.
And what are you going to doafter high school?
And the biggest mistake I see alot of people make is they are
waiting until their senior yearof high school to even think

(01:06):
about college and even talkabout it, and you really need to
have a plan.
And you need to have a planearly.
And for us, this wasn't aboutdictating their future, but it
was really about discussingoptions.
What kind of career are theyinterested in?
What degree does that require?
Having these conversations longbefore applications are due

(01:26):
opens up a lot of possibilitiesand it allows for more
intentional choices and not lastminute scrambles or that last
minute feeling of, oh, I want togo to this school, but we
didn't really plan for it.
Point number two is you got todo the math, and this is where
the degree value versus the costcomes in.
And again, this is an areawhere I see a lot of parents and

(01:49):
kids.
They don't really think aboutthis, and this is a huge one,
and it's easy to get caught upin going to that dream school or
being accepted to that dreamuniversity.
But let's be real.
Not all degrees are createdequal in terms of immediate
earning potential and in evenlong-term potential.
Before my kids even looked at acollege, we talked about what

(02:09):
they plan to study and what thetypical starting salary for that
field looked like.
Then we would compare that towhat tuition costs, especially
for these out-of-state schools.
Yes, my kids talked about maybegoing out of state.
But is paying double or triplefor an out-of-state public
university worth it if you'repursuing a degree that might not
have a high starting salary?

(02:29):
Often the answer is 100% no.
A fancy name on a diploma, afancy school name, doesn't
always translate to more moneyin your pocket and, quite
honestly I used to interviewpeople and I know this to be
true.
It's not to say that collegesdon't matter or where you went
doesn't matter at all, but it isnot the main focus or the main

(02:53):
decision maker for most places.
For most places, it's going tobe a checkbox that you have the
degree when you got it from.
Not going to say it doesn'tmatter at all, but it doesn't
matter nearly as much as whatuniversities wanted to portray
it to me, because they'reselling you a product and that's
school.
Point number three work whileyou attend college, and I
seriously mean this.

(03:14):
This is again an area and mykids all had friends.
A lot of them went to collegeand many of them didn't work,
and all of my kids, from thetime they've been 16, they've
all worked and my kids allworked through college.
And you know what?
Millions of adults do it everysingle day.
People go back to school allthe time.

(03:34):
My daughter just graduated witha nursing degree.
There were a lot of people inher graduating class that were
adults working full-time,raising kids going to school.
So think about it they go backto school.
They're in their 30s, their 40s, their 50s, all while working
full-time jobs.
But suddenly our 19-year-oldkids, or 18-year-old kids that
are going to college, we actlike they can't work part-time

(03:57):
while taking classes.
It's 100% doable.
It teaches responsibility, itteaches time management and,
most importantly, itsignificantly offsets the costs.
I mean, it might mean fewerlate-night parties, but it also
means a lot less years of payingoff debt.
It also means a lot less yearsof paying off debt.
Now.
All my kids lived at home,which certainly helped while

(04:18):
they went to school, but theirpaychecks went directly towards
their education.
Number four is ditch theprestige of these big name
schools and embrace thepractical.
And I'm hearing it now, but Iwant my kids to have that
college experience.
You know that big campus, thedorm life, the football games,
the independence.
It sounds amazing.

(04:38):
And don't get me wrong, there'spart of me that wishes my kids
could have experienced that.
But here's the cold hard truththat experience comes with an
average of 20 years to pay thatloan back off.
That is, the average amount oftime it takes to pay a loan off
is 20 years of your kid's life.
And my kids didn't chase theprestige of an out-of-state

(04:58):
university.
They prioritized affordabilityand practicality.
They still got a fantasticeducation, they still made
friends and they still had fun.
The only difference is they didit without the crushing weight
of debt.
Point number five scholarships.
And this is an area where Ithink a lot of people just they
think it's hard to do.

(05:19):
I don't want to spend the timeto do it, but this is free money
, free, like there's not a lothere that you have to do.
There's some upfront work.
But my kids applied forscholarships and here's one of
the cool things we found out allthe places they worked at that
all my kids worked.
There was some sort ofscholarship through the place

(05:42):
they worked.
So they got money throughgovernment scholarships, but
they also got money throughtheir work scholarships.
In fact, my daughter, as I said, just graduated with an RN
degree and they basically paid asignificant portion of her
college, provided that she staysfor a certain amount of time at
the hospital she's working atwhen she's done.
I mean that is awesome.
It's literally free money, and,again, that's a benefit of

(06:02):
working while you're in school.
It does take some effort, it maytake some essay writing, but
every little bit helps.
I mean, even a few hundreddollars for one scholarship can
cover your textbooks for thesemester.
So don't leave money on thetable just because it seems like
a hassle, and then leveragestate community college programs
and, I'll be honest, this was agame changer for our family and

(06:24):
it's how all my kids startedtheir college journey.
I think community college getsa bad rap but, quite honestly,
it's super affordable, and thefirst couple of years of almost
any normal university you go tois just a lot of core classes
that don't have anything to dowith your major, and so we
researched state programs thatoffer tuition assistance for

(06:45):
community college.
Many states have initiativesthat make the first year or two
incredibly affordable andsometimes even free, and so this
allowed them to get their corecredits out of the way at a
fraction of the cost of afour-year university.
So then they transferred thosecredits to a state university to
complete their degrees.
It's smart, it's strategic andit saves a ton of money.
So there you have it Six keystrategies that helped my three

(07:09):
kids graduate college withabsolutely no student loan debt.
It's not about being rich orhaving some secret family trust.
I will tell you that a bigcomponent of them graduating
debt-free is my wife and I.
Finally, the stuff that I thinka lot of people push their kids
to do Go out of state.
You know, my son had theseaspirations of going to Florida

(07:33):
State and, honestly, it wouldhave probably cost $120,000 for
four years to go there.
We couldn't pay for it, hewould have had to take out those
loans and he would have beensaddled with debt for the rest
of his life because of it.
If we didn't take control ofour finances, we wouldn't have

(07:56):
been able to teach them how todo this, and so it was about
planning, being strategic,making smart financial decisions
and being willing to put in thework.
The myth that college isunaffordable without loans needs
to be busted, and I see this onsocial media a lot.
A lot of people just constantlyjust how expensive college is.
And don't get me wrong, it isand can be very, very expensive,
but it does not have to be.
It can be done on a budget andit can be done debt-free.

(08:18):
It just requires a differentmindset and a willingness to
challenge the traditionalnarrative.
If my kids can do it, yours cantoo.
And if you're an adult lookingto go back to school, these
principles apply to you just asmuch.
Start planning today, talk toyour kids, research those state
programs and remember the goalisn't just a degree, it's a
debt-free future.

(08:38):
We are partners with thescholarship system and in the
show notes for today I'm goingto go ahead and put a link there
.
They have a fantastic freewebinar that you can attend that
they can help you getscholarships and know where to
look for scholarships and canget you money for your kids
tuition.

Brad Nelson (08:56):
Now listen if you're ready to break free from
living paycheck to paycheckwhich, if you're listening, I
hope you are.
You want to reduce financialstress.
You want to build savings.
You want to finally pay offdebt for good, but you're not
sure where to get started.
Don't worry, we've got youcovered.
Here at Debt-Free Dad.
Simplify my Money is sent eachSunday to your email.
We make it easy and Simplify myMoney.

(09:20):
It's your step-by-step roadmapto better financial control, and
you're also going to learn easyto follow strategies to manage
your money effectively.
You're going to get stress-freemoney decisions that will help
you simplify your financial lifewith proven tips that actually
work.
You're also going to gain thetools and the confidence to
tackle your financial goals headon.
You can sign up for Simplify myMoney by clicking the link at
the top of the show notes.
Thanks for joining us ontoday's show and we will see you

(09:42):
guys on the next episode.