Dreamer, whats your view on children's education? I mean if a person saves and be frugal lets say for 20 years, by which time his/her child(ren) will need to go to university. Assume on average you are not able to secure a scholarship (most people dont) and you obviously want an acceptable tertiery education for your child (read: overseas), with the value of our ringgit right now, that whole education package for even one child is enough to set a person back by a big amount, in some cases most of their savings over the last 20 years. So, what do you recommend for a person to be financially independant when he/she retires taking into account the big amount he/she will have to spend on their child's education? Is being frugal alone enough?

One suggestion I've heard is to plan ahead and determine where the person wishes their children to study in. Then work towards migrating there, even if it means a career bump, at least you earn the local currency in that country and also the education costs will be local rates as well. He/she can then continue saving in that country's currency which would in most cases be a stronger currency than here. Of course the downside to this is there will be a substantial overhead investment in the initial move. What's your take on this?

Ahh so you did go the migration route. I dont believe in 100% financing either, but without a green card in the country of education, it is very very difficult to work yourself through college, if the country is anything like the states, without a PR, a foreign student cannot work outside campus (and not more than 20 hours a week) and most campus jobs pay minimum rates (when I was working, it was around 5.50/hour) which is scarcely enough for room and board, let alone tuition. I've been there done that and I was lucky cause at that time the exchange rate was only slighly above 2.0 and my parents was able to cover my tuition. The exchange is currently 3.7 and as far as I know the tuition in the states have increased steadily over the years since I was there.

So looking back at just the financial point of view, assuming a person does not have very high pay, does not have a big high risk investment going on, the only source of financial stability is a mediocre pay job with good sense in frugality, the only option so far I see to provide a good tertiery education option for a person's offspring in a foreign country would be to secure at least a residentship in the country of interest. Another option would be to secure a scholarship, but that is abit risky as a lot of them depends on your child's secondary performance, but not everyone has a child prodigy.

As far as I know, paying in-state tuition is up to the university and not an immigration law. Not all unis provide that. At my uni, they only normally provide that for master's students and not bachelor's. Also, as far as I know, back then, I'm not sure about now, immigration clearly states you cannot work more than 20 hours a week for foreign students. Sure some of my friends work over the quote and some even work outside campus, but just because they never got caught doesnt mean it wont happen. In fact after 9/11 our uni did a crackdown on students working in campus exceeding the immigration quota and refused to sign their i20s for reentry and asked those students to quickly finish their course and head home. Of course those that worked illegaly outside campus was not caught since the uni's only focused on in campus employees.

So for 20 hours a week, at minimum wage (5.*/hour) is NOT enough to cover out of state tuition. Yes you did it, but you are not an average case as far as I know. Btw does your uni guarantee in-state tuition for ALL campus employees? Which uni is this?

I did not claim you have a green card, I merely state you went the migration path since you claimed your children has residence status in the states.

You are approaching this wrong. How do you determine if your children is college material? When he/she is born? When he/she is in primary school? When he/she is in secondary school? Do you only plan for his/her tertiery education then? Personally I believe it is prudent to plan it now. Even if he/she is not interested in tertiery education or is not cut out, then no point forcing him/her. I never said about forcing tertiery education upon them. You assume too much. But if he/she is made out and wills to extend their education, by then it may already be too late to plan.

Not only does our education standard bad in educating children, it is also bad in evaluating smart children. As an example, someone who scores 15As does not necessarily mean they are smart and capable of critical thinking. It could just mean he/she is good in memorizing materials and spitting them back out. Sure they have some level of intelligence, but 15As hardly provide undeniable proof that they are a genius. Look at our SPM for instance, at one point you can excel in all subjects but considered to fail or at least get the lowest grade if you fail B.M. How is that even an accurate determinant of whether someone is cut out for tertiery education? In fact my own brother was in this situation, he failed his B.M. but got decent grades in all other subjects. He went on to do his A-levels and got a degree in the states easily.

As for focing tertiery education upon our children, I've never said anything about doing that. But I do believe in planning ahead in case they do need it. Even if they dont, the already laid out plan can be used for something else, as you said the money can be used for them, even their residence status/green card can be used for them to secure a job.

Hmm this is good information. Thanks. I never knew about Texas law since I've never met or known anyone studying there.

Havent gotten to the point yet, one step at a time. Havent even have a child yet, will soon though.

Thats probably true anywhere. I dont equate college degree with guarantee of making a living. But it does give the person with a degree a chance of being short listed for interviews. Whether the person can make a living or not is another question. Personally I think if the person has genuine interest in the work, then even with average intelligence, he/she should be able to make a living.

Thats some good suggestion, I have some of those in mind but not all, will keep that list in mind. Thanks.

That is so true. Parents here nowadays dont focus enough on ethics and morals as well.

Another thing I'd like to add, teach them to question what they read/hear/told.

Well the problem, as I see it right now, a lot of parent are setting a very bad example for their children. As an example, jumping queue, parking in the middle of the road (yes this happens very frequently in Bandar Utama where I'm staying, you see parents parking in the middle of the road during end of school day even though there is a big free MPPJ parking lot right next to the school because they dont want walk a few steps, the school in question is puay chai, if anyone stay nearby, go take a look at 6.30pm everyday), swearing at people, etc. A lot of these are basic ethics and morals, I've no doubt all these parents teach their children morals, but it is useless if they themselves turn around and do all these inconsiderate actions right in front of their children. All they are giving them is lip service and showing them how to be selfish. Also note, all these parent are most likely well educated, successful middle class people considering a lot of them drives cars better than proton make. So yes, based on my own experience often times its the parents to blame, because they themselves are not setting a good example for their kids. No doubt the society contributes a big part as well, but it is quite hopeless for a kid if their own parents are inconsiderate hypocrits.