If your kids are approaching college age, youre probably starting to think about how youre going to pay for it. Most parents dont start doing much until in the few years before college which is often too late. So how can you pay for those huge college expenses? One partial solution is to get your kids to help out as much as they can.

There are lots of ways to do this. First and foremost is getting a job a lot of parents dont want to do this, especially because of the risks that grades will suffer. If your child is likely to be competitive for a scholarship, this is a very important consideration, and you probably should go that route instead. If not, it actually isnt that harmful to work part time five to ten hours a week doesnt interfere with studying much at all. If the alternative is not being able to pay for college, then its well worth the risk working teaches your kids responsibility and the value of a dollar, and if they cant balance school and a part-time job, they arent going to be suited to the hectic pace of college. You dont want to overload your kids, though dont make them go out and work thirty hours a week. They need to be contributing to the costs of their own education, but they dont need to be treated like cheap labor. The point of a job is partially the money but more importantly, its to teach your kids how to manage their lives. If you arent going to be able to pay for college entirely, they may have to work part time to pay their way through. If you havent taught them how to do this, it will be a sudden shock at a time when they wont have you there to guide them through it.