Why I Have No College Fund for My Kids

Because I love my children and I care about the future of our country and this world, and because I care deeply about their education, I've decided not to set up a "college fund" for my kids. I think there was a time when universities taught students how to read and think deeply, and a few decades ago it seemed like you needed a university degree in order to do well in life. I certainly believed that back when I was in college getting my degree in business from a major university.

Now I'm not so sure.

I hope you don't think I oppose education when I say that I'm absolutely not creating a college fund for my kids.

I value real education.

A Learning Environment with Discipline and Accountability

In the words of Will Hunting: "In 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you coulda' got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library."

I realize it's not this simple in all cases, but the majority of students could get a better education just by reading more. The problem isn't access to knowledge. The real problem is a lack of discipline. 

They're not getting up early, working out, and studying late into the night. College just becomes an extended adolescence, so if what you're looking for is a real education, get a job and started reading on your own. At least that's where my real education came from, and that's yet another reason why I'm not setting aside a large nest egg of cash for the university.

My education didn't come from university. It came after. It came from me just loving knowledge and reading hundreds and hundreds of books. That's what I've done and that's what I'm continuing to do. I've got tons of books in boxes and on shelves.

My Big Idea for My Kids' Future

Schooling and education are completely different, and one does not necessarily equal the other. And so instead of getting this college fund for my kids, what I've decided to do is I set up a business fund for both of my kids. I'm really doing this.

I'm putting money into this fund, and they're putting money into this fund. And when my kids "come of age," which may not necessarily be age 18, they decide what they want to do with that money, they get to pitch an idea to a board of directors, made up of like-minded family and friends. It becomes my son's job to convince this board of directors to fund the idea with his money.

This means they'll have to make a good pitch, to make a good presentation, to put a good business plan together. This will teach my kids good business sense, delaying gratification, and it'll educate them about what it's like in the real world.

Does this mean that my kids could potentially be 34 years old before they can cash in on that business plan? Yes. Of course the longer it sits there untouched by the frivolity of adolescent adults, the more it'll grow and the more grateful they will be down the road when they land that investment in their idea.

More Discipline and Happier Kids

So anyway, this is my plan for my kids. It's not extremely well-fleshed out. My kids are still pretty young. But I've started now to try to just, over time, build up a little nest egg that one day is going to be quite substantial for them, and I'll set them up for success. It also keeps me from ruining my kids

Spoiled, undisciplined kids with no grit and no common sense are pretty miserable kids.

I may not be able to control the outcome of the nation and the world, but I can plot the trajectory of how my kids go. I can't decide their lives for them, but I can do small stuff to put them on the right trajectory. And if we all did that, our country and our world would change for the better.

I went to a major university and after all those years in school there's maybe a handful of things I learned that have been valuable to living life. My education didn't really start until after school when I started to read and think deeply.

My college degree did not teach me much of value and I honestly don't think my degree was worth the paper it was printed on. I feel that I wasted years of my life in school when I could have just entered the workforce, apprenticed under some skilled people and read really good books.

DISCLAIMER: Of course I'm not talking about all areas of study. My ideas here might not work out so well when it comes to the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) or Medical type degrees where you're learning how to fix people's bodies or build skyscrapers. I'm talking more on the liberal arts side of things.

School has its benefits, of course. It offers untrained minds an environment where they're required to read and write and meet deadlines, but that's why it's important to instill this kind of discipline into your children before they reach college age. Hopefully this will set them up to be disciplined readers and thinkers as a way of life.

I love books. I love learning. And I want my kids to be good readers and good thinkers, but I don't think spending $100,000 at a university means they're necessarily going to get a real education. I do have an idea for an education fund for them though that will teach them a little bit better about how the real world works.

Russian Roulette with Their Values

Unfortunately, a great majority of the people who go to school won't actually even graduate. A lot of kids will just spend their parents' money or rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt to extend their adolescence. In addition to the price tag and, in many cases, a woke "education," these kids wasted four to six valuable years of life that could have been spent learning a real skill and building a career.

And with the money they spent on college, they could have invested and grown in wealth.

Dennis Prager says there's a five in six chance that your kid will go off to college and take on values antithetical to those they grew up with. So rather than paying for their development as good humans, your finds might be going toward their moral dissolution. This is one of the central missions in many secular university classrooms, and it's obviously getting even worse. 

Train Hard. Train Smart. Helps Your Kids To Do the Same.