Real College Funding Strategies: Scholarships, FAFSA, and 529 Tips

So it's, it's, it is incumbent on us as parents to make sure that, you know, you guys have access to the resources and do the stuff. But I will also say one of the things that I do regret, and I'm remedying that right now or trying to, is I know better. I knew that you weren't.It's just like with the applying, you know, submitting your videotapes and doing all that stuff to try to get recruited.

Right.

I knew that it wasn't going to be something that was high on your list of things to do. But it was easy for me because I have other, so much other stuff going on to just be like, well, if she's not going to do it, then that's on her.

Right.

And you know what? True.

Yes, true. Exactly.

But I also want to not have to go into a lot of debt to pay for college.

Right, right.

So, you know, it's, it's a double edged sword.So I would say you have to find a balance between trying to help them, you know, find their own way, teach a man to fish, as they say, but also not shoot yourself in the foot. So by the time you get to May of your senior year, you haven't done anything right.So, so it is a, it is a balance for parents to try to figure that out.And this is the part that I didn't do up to this point that I wish I would have done more of or had a little more detail on to figure it out, which is these extra scholarships. Well, hello everybody. How are we doing today? Welcome back to the Texas Real Estate Finance Podcast. My name is Mike Mills.I'm a local North Texas mortgage maker with Service First Mortgage. And today is a very unique and special episode because I back for the fifth time.I have my daughter with me today because we are going to talk about money in college, which is something that I know all parents out there, especially with the cost of college these days, are very concerned about.So we're going to dive into that a little bit and give some details on how we went through the process ourselves and what you can maybe expect if either you are have a young kid who you want to send to college at some point or even if you have a high school senior that's about to graduate and you're looking for some money somewhere. So we're going to go into all that. But first off, thank you very much my dear, for joining me today. I appreciate you.So let's start before we get into all the money and the boring stuff. I want you to tell everybody a little bit about your journey, right. How you kind of got to this point. You know, when we first.When you were young and we first started thinking about college and stuff, we weren't really sure what route we were going to go. We knew we were going to do something, but. But we didn't exactly know what that something was going to be.So we got to a place where we, you know, you've been playing volleyball for a very long time, and we knew that that was probably going to be part of it.

Right.

But we didn't know exactly how that was going to be part of it. So tell us just a little bit about, you know, kind of how you got here, you know, where you kind of.Where volleyball kind of played a bigger role for you, and when you kind of decided that that was the route you wanted to go, and then we'll dive into all the rest of it.

Okay. Well, I don't know. I started playing volleyball in, I don't know what, seventh grade.

Seventh or eighth grade.

Seventh or eighth grade. So I started not late necessarily, but maybe not as early as some other people. So I was definitely a little bit behind.And it took me a while to really kind of first of all grow into my body because I'm a tall person. So I was a little uncoordinated.And at the beginning, I just was kind of discouraged with volleyball and the whole thing because basketball was my sport either way.But as I grew up and as I started playing more competitively, I feel like my skill increased and that made my passion go up, at least, and so my screen turned off.

I know.

And so, I don't know, it made me like volleyball a lot more.And then when I got older and I started thinking about college and stuff, it was always on my mind because I feel like everybody when you're a younger athlete, you, like, want to play in college because that's just what you do at the time.And then once you start getting into freshman, sophomore, junior year, then you start thinking, like, is this really something that I want to do, especially after you been playing for so long?And I'd say at the beginning I did, and then I kind of thought about it some more, and then I didn't, and then I did, and it took me a really long time to decide, but I think probably once I started taking maybe a little bit of time off from volleyball, just in the break between club and school season, because I think I'd just been going, going, going for so long, once I took that Break. And I, like, felt the absence of volleyball.I kind of realized that that was something I wanted to do and then it was of where I wanted to go, how, what level I could play at, where I wanted to play and what I wanted to do.

In college, you got kind of bored. Basically. Basically you realized that if you weren't playing volleyball, then it was going to be a problem for you. Ultimately.

Yes. Yes. Because I can't sit still.

Yeah. Well, okay. So I.Before we get a little further too, I want you to talk about, because I think, is anybody that plays any sports really, it's not just volleyball and is trying to play in college, I think it's important for them to understand how you come to the realization of where you fall in the pecking order of athletes. Right, right. And it's.It's easier when, I think, when you play club sports because with club volleyball and select baseball and basketball and soccer and all those things, you.You see a lot of times the elite players, like when we would go to those big volleyball tournaments, we would walk by those courts and there's six foot five middles, you know, and their parents that are seven feet tall walking around. We're like, okay, I don't know if we're going to be playing volleyball at Georgia or LSU or what. Right. Yeah, you were kind of. You kind of.We got to see that. But for other people especially, like, football is one in particular, because you only play.There aren't really a lot of club football sports and you only play people that are in your high school and that you play again. So you may not have a real perspective on exactly where you fall in the pecking order. So. So how was that like for you as an athlete?Because you're competitive, like me. Very competitive.

Yes.

How was it? You know, I know that played a part in the beginning because you didn't have a lot of interest. Like your sophomore year and your early junior year.There wasn't a lot of people coming after you.

No.

So how did you kind of come to grips with that?

Well, I think because whenever I feel like the thing with a lot of people that want to play in colleges, they're like, oh, I'm going D1. And I kind of feel like I was the opposite of that situation.I was like, I don't even know, like, if any schools would want me, just because I don't know. That's just kind of the way I'm wired. I'm.Some people are on the more confident side and I'm not, not confident in myself, but sometimes I think I second guess myself. And so it was kind of a thing of like, oh, like, I don't even know where I could go. I don't know what I want to do.And then I started looking at the bigger schools. Not necessarily in a way that I wanted to go there, but just to kind of see where I fit.And like you said, we go to those big tournaments and you see the girls that are 6 5, and like, you just are like, this is just not. Like, this is insane.And so I kind of was, like, looking at the rosters of those lower level D1s, and it's like, nobody on that roster is under, like 6:3. And I was like, okay, so maybe. Maybe it's time to look in some other places. And I mean, I did.And it's not necessarily something that it's like, it might be a little. Not embarrassing is the word, but sometimes it's like, oh, you're going to, um, HB. Is that D1, D2? And I'm like, no.Like, sometimes it's hard to not come to terms with it, but just have people know. But then also at the same time, not everyone is able to play, like, college athletics. So, like, that's part of it, but I don't know.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's.It's hard because when you're competitive and you want to be your best and you want to do your best, when you realize that maybe you're not at the elite level that you kind of hoped you would be. Right. Then it's. It's deflating. Right. A little bit. Right. I mean, it's just normal. It's. I don't know. I don't fault anyone for having those things.But it's also like, you have to be somewhat realistic because the recruiting process, if you're not as. What. What do I always call it if you're not. I don't know, that girl.

Oh, that. Oh, my gosh.

But if you're not that player, if you're not that player that everybody finds and knows and they see and whatever, then you're not going to have people beating down your door necessarily. Right. It's just not how it works.And these days, because especially in most of these sports, you know, high school sports doesn't really get you recruited, would you say?

Yeah, no. At least for volleyball. Not at all.

Right. Aside from maybe football, I think football is the exception of that rule. Right.But for the most part, club soccer, club baseball, you know, swimming, any of that stuff, if you're going to be recruited. You have to be playing in those.Because then the coaches, they can show up to those big meets and those big tournaments, and you can see all of the athletes that are competing at a high level. They don't have to go to 50 high schools, you know, across the state to try to find somebody.

Yeah.

So it's one of those things where, you know, if you're playing a sport and you're not putting yourself out there, sending emails, setting up profiles on all these sites and doing all this stuff, then it's very hard to get seen and very hard to be picked up. So.So tell me about, like, what your experience was with all the emails that we were doing and the profiles we were setting up, and then what you understood about how you actually get money to play versus at different divisions and whatnot.

Right. So when we first started the whole recruiting thing, I had no idea about it. I don't know how much you knew, but I'm sure not a lot.

Not a lot. No, I didn't. I was. I was learning as we went, too. I'd never gone through it myself.

Yeah. And so we set up profiles on, like, NCSA sports recruits and stuff. And I don't know, it took. It took some understanding.Like, you can't just email a coach once and just move on. Especially earlier in the process.Like, because I started, there's like something called, like, June 15th, where it's on June 15th of your, what, going into your junior year, then you can, like, start getting recruited. But I didn't start my recruiting process until after that, so I was already kind of behind and I had to start sending out emails. And it's a process.You have to go to all. Like, go to all the schools that you want and, like, send them all the email and you have to personalize it to them.Like, you can't just copy and paste it. And it just was kind of a shock at first. I was like, oh, my God, work. Yeah. I was like, this is so much work. Like, I don't know if I want to do this.Like, how bad do I really want to play? Like, all this stuff?And I think that's kind of in the peak because between me not really wanting to send emails and then also, like, we had our thing, like, you weren't nagging me about it, but every once in a while, you know, I didn't. I'm just like, oh, my gosh, like, yeah, this is not what I'm worried about right now. Like, I want to go Play club.I'm not worried about college, exactly. Like, it's two years away, and then it kind of starts getting closer, and you're like, oh.And then I got interest from umhb, and I went on, like, an official visit there, and I was like, oh, like, this is cool. Like, this is something that I want to do. Because it never really felt real.Like, you would have phone calls with coaches and, like, zooms, but, like, it just. It still didn't really feel real. You're like, this is so far away.Like, it didn't feel like it was really on me until we took a visit to umb and I was like, oh, wow. Like, this is cool. Like, I want to start reaching out to more schools and see what other visits I can get and stuff like that.

Yeah, well, and that part, because I think that was kind of the turning point for you, is that once you actually had a coach, which that's what the UMHB coach was, and they've been great. Is once you had somebody actually reach out to you and say, hey, we want you to come see us, like, that gives you a certain amount of validation.Regardless of what level it is, it doesn't make any difference. If you have a coach that says, hey, we want you to. To come play with us, then that makes you feel good, right?

Yes.

And that gives you a little bit more motivation to try because you're like, well, if one school wants to do it, then maybe other schools want, and I just need to work a little harder and try a little harder.

Right? Yes. Yeah.It was more of just a thing of putting myself out there because there are so many people who are trying to get recruited, and it was just me realizing that it's like I just had to put myself out there and keep going.

And what would you say to anybody who is playing a sport that wants to play in college? I mean, do you think it's attainable for most.

I would. I think there is a school for everyone.

Yeah.

Like, I've. I've. Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, because if you. If you play. If you play club at any level, for the most part, and you stay consistent with it and you really want to play in college.

Right.

Then you got it. Now, the difference for us is that you got a little perspective. Right.Because I want you to talk about how when you went to UMHB and what you experienced there in the campus and all that, and then also when you went to, like, Arkansas Tech and a few of the other ones that you saw and you were like, oh, okay, now I understand.

Right?

This is.

Well, so UMB was my.

By the way, UMHB is University of Merhart Baylor. The Crusaders in Belton, we're committed to there. We had our national signing day on last week, so we're officially player now.We're all very excited.

Yes. Okay.So when I first went to umhb, I guess I didn't realize how, like, nice necessarily that I had it there, because I loved everyone there, the players that were there that I met, because. So I visited.And then I also had a camp for like the recruits that we went to and we all like kind of played together and the coaches, the whole coaching staff. So nice. All the girls there, the girls that were already on the team. The campus is beautiful. Like, it was just great.And I was like, okay, like, all schools must be like this. I was like. Because, you know, in my head at first I was like, oh, like, it's a D3. It's whatever. It's not going to be that nice.And then I went and I was like, this is really nice. Like, the other D3s must be like this. And then I went on my official Visit to a D2 and it just. Which is Arkansas Tech.

No shade.

No shade. No shade.I. I had so much fun at that camp and some of the girls on that team I still talk to, but it just was not necessarily what I was looking for. And the environment I just didn't necessarily love.And there were some other things, but it just kind of put it into perspective for me like, that not all schools are like that. And because I got so lucky with my first one, I think I was so convinced that everyone else was like that and it just wasn't the case.

You hadn't had perspective yet. You didn't really understand what you had at UMHB and what it was like. You just, you just. That was your first one. So you had no idea.And then once you got to see a few other places and realized, okay, wait a minute, this isn't like Arkansas Tech was nice, but it was out in the middle of nowhere.

Middle of nowhere.

Like you had to drive for hours.

Just saw cows for the last two hours of that drive.

Yes. Yeah. So it was a long trip. And you know when it.When you're thinking about, like, for us as parents, like wanting to come see you play and you maybe wanting to come home and all that kind of stuff like that all kind of adapted it too. And so like a six hour drive.

Or something like that. Yeah, yeah.

But. But that made you. Okay, wait a minute. This. This other school is really good. And that's why I think it.I mean, would you say it's important for anybody considering this to go look at several schools?

Absolutely. Yeah. Don't look at more. So you. Yeah. Yes. If so, you know what you want.

Yeah. Because then you get an idea and you get a. You get reality of. Okay, this is what it actually is. And the great thing about UMHB is it's.I mean, it is like a big college campus. It's got, you know, a big football stadium.The arena that you guys plan for volleyball is very nice compared to some of the other places that we've seen. So it's even like there's. We've seen a few lower level D1 schools that.

That are. Yeah. Like UMHB is so like. Yeah, like what you said, some D1 schools are not as nice as UMHB. We got really lucky with.

Yeah. Yeah. Now so just so everybody understands how Division 3 works. So Division 1, Division 2. Division 3. Then there's NAIA and then there's Jucos.

Yes.

Division 3, I'm pretty sure, is the only one that doesn't give athletic scholarships.

Yes.

Right. Because in AI. I know you can in junior college. I'm pretty sure you can too. Right. Did you go? I think you can.

I don't really remember.

But either way, Division 3 does not. And UMHB is a private school. Yes, it's a private Christian school and they.But they give out academic scholarships and they have, you know, kind of a. If you're an athlete coming in, you know, you have some priority on that stuff, you know, so they can give them to you.Now you have to meet certain qualifications with your grades and whatever. Right. But ultimately that athletic scholarship or the academic scholarship that we got for you playing there is going to pay for half of your school.

Yes.

And that's awesome.

Yeah.

Right. Now granted, if, you know, we were. Let's say you didn't go the.Call the volleyball route and you decided to just to go to like Texas or something like that, then it would have been.

Probably get. Forget more.

It would. Huh.

I could. Yeah. It just would have been not as expensive.

It would have been significantly less expensive. Yes, yes, yes. So. So that kind of gets into, you know, okay, how do we pay for all this? Right. And. And where. Where does the money come from?And so for anybody listening, you know, when, when both of my kids were young, I can't exactly remember because my, my accounts change a couple times, but I Want to say I started it somewhere around first or second grade. I started a 529 college savings plan. And the way that those work is you contribute as much or as often as you want. $100, $500,000, whatever it is.And that money builds over time. So what happens is, is they invest it. You get obviously interest on that money that gets paid or the, the returns on the money.And then that, that money then becomes tax free.So when you go to use that money for college, all of the gains that you made on the savings you don't have to pay taxes for, but it has to be used for, for expensive, you know, expenses related to school.And they're very specific on a few of those, you know, things like books and housing, you know, obviously tuition, extra training, anything you have to do there. But you can't use it for like an apartment, you can't use it for a car, you know, stuff like that. You can't really use it for food.So unless you're paying for the meal plans, which, you know, you went that route. So we'll, we'll see how that goes when we get there.But having to stay in the dorms, you know, that's part of the deal anyway, so, so that's what I started with. And you know, we got close to. I'm almost at $100,000 for you that we'd had saved up for that period of time.And really the way these 529 plans work is the money grows tax free. But. And you control the account as the parent, so the kid doesn't have any control of it. You're the one that does control it.And you can set up monthly withdrawals, but also you can have family members contribute.So instead of, you know, having them give them, you know, all these toys and stuff that are going to be tossed away when they're in fourth or fifth grade and never be used again.You can have grandparents and family members contribute to the college fund as well, which will help you grow it over time because as we know, college is very expensive. Do, do you remember like, or do you know how much all this is, generally speaking?

I mean, I, I'm gonna say a number and I don't think it's going to be right. But like, I don't know if it's a year is 80k or the whole time is 80k.

So it is. No, it's not a, it's, it's almost the whole time, but not quite.So it's, it's about per semester it's somewhere in the neighborhood of around $45,000 for UMHP. Okay. Now for state schools, depending on other tuition plans, you might be in the neighborhood of say, you know, 15 to 20.And then of course there are a lot of per year, but there are a lot of, there are a lot of scholarships you can get for state schools. And then of course schools at neighbor Texas, if you're in Texas, they have, you know, incentives for you to come, like Arkansas and Oklahoma.In other words, they kind of share students back and forth. So it varies wildly. But you know, if you're going to any type of college is going to be expensive these days. It's very expensive.And every state is going to have 529 plan. But you don't have to do a state specific 529 plan. So like the one that I picked is with T. Rowe Price and it's out, it's called the Alaska 529.I actually looked that one up simply because I was trying to see what got better returns and how they invested it. And that was the one I chose.But they do have one for Texas and you actually get some better benefits if you pick a Texas school and you use the Texas 529. So there are a few little things, but as far as the growth was concerned, that's why I picked the Alaska one.And just to kind of give you an idea of how some of this money works, so let's say that you started at age one. So at one years old you started contributing every month. And let's just say you did a hundred dollars.So $100 a month and you're going to say assume an average rate of return of about 7%, then your total contribution is going to be about 20 grand and over the, the life of, of the student for 17 years. And then if you appreciate that growth at 7%, then you're going to walk away with about $38,000. Now that's great.That could pay for an entire year if your kid had some athletic scholarships or academic scholarships or whatever. And that's assuming that no one else has helped or contributed or done anything like that.Now if you add family member contributions and say now you get up to say $500 a year or additional 500 a year for birthday, you know, stuff like that, Christmas, whoever would put it in. So now you're almost 30 or almost $30,000 of contributions and now you're close to 50 grand in at the end of that term.So and that, that really grows on itself. And then of course, if you continue going from that point, you know, the numbers get bigger and bigger.But, you know, it's just a matter of how much you can contribute every month and what you can put towards it.But if you set it up on auto draft, then just like you would do your insurance payment or your, you know, car payments or whatever, then it's kind of money that you sit and forget and you don't, you don't think about it until you go check on it every once in a while. Now, there is a rule with the 529s that you do if, if you, if it has to be active for 15 years, so. Or. Well, I'm sorry, I'll get to that in a second.They, they did update the new 529s that include an IRA rollover. So this is something that just happened, I believe, earlier this year, first part of last year.And what that means is that if you don't utilize all of that money, then you can roll it over into a retirement account for your kid. So if that money doesn't get used up, then you can roll it into retirement account for them and then that money then grows, you know, from there.So now the rule on that though is, is that the account has to be open for 15 years in order for that to work. So you have to start early because, you know, most kids are going to graduate when they're 17 or 18 years old. So.And then the last five years of contributions can't be rolled over because that is specifically for what they're identifying for college. And there are some rules that are going to change with this a little bit. And there are some lifetime limits on that.I think it's around 35, 000 for the rollover part of it that you can contribute on.But, but again, it's still one of those things that every little bit, especially when you look at retirement accounts and how they grow, is going to be helpful because the kids then get to use that money and let it grow on its own so they can retire, you know, when they're older and that money could turn into, you know, like basically I did one of the maths on and it was like if you took $31,000 and you rolled it over at age 22 for your student because that's what you had left over, and it grows at 7% by the time their retirement age, they're going to have half a million dollars in that account, which is just a huge head start for most kids because nowadays people have a really hard time saving for retirement because everything's so damn expensive, as we all know, because we spend our money there. So real quick, what.

When we.

I want you to tell everybody what we talked about as far as me saving the money for you, what we were doing for it, what, how you were going, what I told you, as far as if you could get money and pay for it, where that rest of it would go to.

Right. You said that if I could get scholarships and pay for college, whatever was left, I could have.

Correct. So. And did we, outside of academics, did we try any other routes for scholarships? For scholarships outside of volleyball and academics?

Not necessarily.

Not necessarily. This is the part where we kind of start to fall short here because there is a ton of money out there. But just like the recruiting process. Right.What does it take to get that money?

It takes work.

Takes work. What do you have to do?

In most cases, you have to write essays and apply and do look for them.

Yes. It is stuff that you have to go search for and find.And we're going to get to some of those sites that I'm aware of that I am still actually looking into because it isn't too late. Even if you have a graduating senior that's going to graduate this year, there.There are actually a lot of scholarships that you can't even apply for until you're a senior because they take into account your class rank, your gpa, and all that kind of stuff. So there's a ton of stuff out there that you can still get if you want to, you know, find money out there.Now, what you have to realize is we're not talking about 10, 20, $30,000. We're talking about 500, a thousand, 2500, you know, but every little bit helps, you know, especially because how have you looked into the books?You know, when I was in college, we had to pay for books, and books were expensive as hell. I haven't even looked at that yet.

I. I haven't looked. I know that they do a lot. A lot of the books are online now.

You should probably have to pay for license fees.

Yeah, yeah. It still costs money. I think it might be less expensive, but I'm not sure.

So before we get into the scholarship stuff, I want to talk about another way that a lot of parents are paying for school. And that's almost not a requirement, but it's requirements to fill out. And that's fafsa. Okay.

Yes.

So tell us about your FAFSA journey.

Well, so I. I mean, I knew what it was like Everybody kind of has a good idea of what it is.

Jack paid a hundred bucks for books. Thanks, Elizabeth. Love it. That's good to know. Makes me feel good.

I have, like. I had a pretty good idea of what it was, but I didn't really kind of, like, understand what I had to do until I went into my counselor.Because at the beginning of your senior year, you have to talk with your counselor about college plans and stuff, and it's actually a requirement for Mansfield High School to do it before they can graduate. Like, you cannot walk the stage until you complete fafsa. And so I was like, oh, shoot.

It's a requirement for most colleges to apply, too, because we had to do it for UMHB also. I mean, it was a part of the application.

Yes. And so I didn't really know what it was, but I just went ahead and looked it up and it seemed pretty easy.Like, I didn't have to look up a tutorial or anything. I literally just looked it up and was like, fastfa.com and I created an account, which was easy.The only thing that I didn't really know was my Social Security number, but I got that. I know that now. Don't worry, guys. And then, I don't know, I filled it out. It was pretty easy.The only thing I really needed help with from you was, like, the tax stuff because then it started talking about, like, the irs, and I was like.

And it's not. It really isn't that much. It's just asking, you know, some basic. On how you're claimed and stuff. So it wasn't. But for a. For a 17.17 year old at the time, listen.

Just a lot of big words I didn't really understand, so I let him handle that one.

Yes, yes. Well, and that's, you know, as parents, we forget. I mean, we. Do you. Would you say that we. You and I talk a lot about money?

I mean, I don't think so. Not necessarily, no.

Well, I feel like we have.

But I don't know.

You just don't listen, probably.

Okay. Define talking about money, though. Like.

Well, just. I mean, we've done four podcasts about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just mean we don't talk about, like, how much things cost and like, outside of college, in my future, just, like, current stuff.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, we don't go into great depth.I mean, you know how much stuff costs because you buy a dress every time you have an event, so you know how much that stuff is.

But that's necessary.

Says You. Yeah, so, but we have had discussions on money. We talk about credit cards and interest rates.

Yeah, yeah.

And savings and you know, all that kind of having a job and all those kind of things. And, and so we've gone through it a lot. But you know, taxes isn't something.

No, we do not talk about taxes.

I mean, I don't talk about taxes with your mom really, because I handle all of it myself.

Right.

But it is still something that you need to be aware of.And now nowadays, which we'll talk about soon too, is with the advent of AI, there's a whole lot of information out there that can just be spoon fed to you pretty easily. And she knows my relationship with AI.But real quick on the FAFSA stuff, just so everybody knows on that it's free application, so you don't have to pay anything for it. It is required for all kinds of federal aid grants, work study, federal loans. Most colleges require that you fill it out.Even if you can't get money or you think you make too much, then you, it doesn't matter, you still have to fill it out.And one of the, one of the benefits which we haven't fully looked into, but I'm going to, is even if you as a parent make too much money, the student themselves can still apply for a limited amount of, of money or student loans, small student loans if you need to fill the gap. So if you, if your income is too high but you haven't been able to save as much, you can still as a student apply for.And I think it's up to 24,000 a year, maybe 20,000. I have to look at, I can't remember when I looked at it last time, but it's somewhere in that neighborhood that you as a student can get.Now the idea of college, you know, scholarships and academic scholarships and all these things is that you don't have to take out student loans because as a loan officer and doing mortgages for everybody, I see what their student loan impact can be as expensive as college has become the last 20 years, which is insane. Did you know that back in 1978, the year that I was born. Do you know what Cal Berkeley is? Are you familiar with that school that was free?What if you lived in California, you went to Cal Berkeley for free.

That's insane.

That is insane. And now it's somewhere in neighborhoods like a quarter of a million dollars.So, so it, now you have to pay for books and room, board, whatever, but, but the, the state school is free. But now college is A business and they make a lot of money. And so here we are. There's, there's.It used to be something crazy like the class size, and I'm going to get these numbers wrong, but it's somewhere in this neighborhood. The class size per student to teacher ratio was like 1 to 30 or 1 to 50 or something like that. And that is basically still the same.But the administrators to student ratio back then was like 1 to 50. Now it's like 1 to 3.

That's crazy.

So for every three students on campus, there's one administrator, which is insane.That's where you get into all the, you know, the people getting jobs because people donate and you know, they're, they're contributors to this university and they give millions of dollars and they're like, hey, but I want my cousin over here to get a job in that registrar's office. Or what? It's, it's, it's whatever. I got all kinds of opinions on that, but we won't go into today. FAFSA also opens up every year on October 1st.Yes, you want to do it as soon as possible after October 1st of your child's senior year.Because often some of these are first come, first serve, meaning that if there are grants and scholarships available, you have access to them sooner if you apply and they do, some of them do run out. And you have to do it every single year, not just your freshman year, that they're in there.You have to have Social Security numbers, driver's license, Federal tax returns, W2s, bank statements and investment records, if you have those. And then, you know, records of any untaxed income is what they require. And the IRS has all this data.And trust me, if you have email like I do, you're going to be getting all kinds of emails about it. So the odds of you forgetting about it are going to be pretty, pretty slim. So just don't forget to do it. Don't put it off.And make sure that any school that you want or you think your child may want to attend, even if they haven't gotten in yet, you want to list those.Because there are, there are school specific scholarships that are available or grants, I should say, not scholarships, grants and loans that are available per school. So you want to make sure that, that you make, that you list those schools even if they don't get into them.So, and it's all based on how much money you make and you know, your family size and assets and all that kind of stuff. So bottom line on this is it's it is annoying, right?

A little.

Filling all this stuff out is not exactly fun.But, you know, most people, if they don't have the fortune of having their family pay for college and being able to graduate their undergrad degree with no, no debt, you know, you need as much help as you can get because, you know, these days, four years, you know, you can spend upwards of, you know, a quarter of a million dollars to go to college, depending on the schools you go to. Like, it's. It's insane. All right, so that's fafsa. Definitely check into that. If you haven't already. If you're a senior and.Or family of a senior and you haven't done that yet, you know, you still. We're still relatively early. It's November 15th. Most people procrastinate, put time off. So. So go ahead and get after that right away.All right, so we did fast. So we got our, we got our academic scholarship from college, which a lot of schools have those too.Even if you're not playing a sport, there's a lot of academic grants available for Perth College. We got our FAFSA stuff done. Yes. Now let's talk a little bit about all the other scholarships, the stuff that we didn't do. Right.So when it comes to that. Right. What. What have you heard? Or talking to other students, like, do you know any friends that have gotten other scholarships or.Or applied for other stuff outside of the stuff that we already discussed? That's a little different.

Honestly, no. And I think that's kind of maybe one of the bigger reasons why I haven't been so big on the other or on the other scholarships.Because, I mean, I have been looking like, I have. There's like niche and bold.org and like scholarship.com and I have profiles on all those. And you know, I've applied for the ones that are like the.No essay ones that are like. Yeah, look at you. I know. I've been doing it a little bit, guys. Okay. Just a little.

Okay. I didn't even know that. All right, I'm excited. That's good. But I got, I got, I got build a bold.org on my list here.

But part of it is, it's like I look at the ones that are the easier ones to apply to that are. But they're the bigger numbers, like $25,000 and it's like 100,000 people apply and I'm just like, oh, I'm probably not going to get this.It doesn't even matter. But let me just apply and so part of it's.The only ones that I've really been looking at are the bigger ones, which I do need to look at the smaller ones.But I think because I've been looking at the bigger ones and it's so much money and so many people apply, I think part of me is just like, oh, I'm not going to get it, so it doesn't even matter.Like, I think that's maybe what I've been thinking about, too, and the fact that at least what we've discussed, none of my friends have been really, like, locked in and looking for those scholarships and applying for them either.

Yeah, but that's not something that you guys think about. Like, in fairness, I mean, I wish you did, but every parent wants their kid to be, like, locked in to try to help figure out pay for college.But what are you thinking about?

Yeah, I don't know.

Not that.

Not that. Hanging out with my friends, going to a football game after this.

Yes. I'm thinking about Mansfield High School playoff game, first round. We got to drive to Oklahoma. Not really. It's just in fall. It's quite a haul there.But. But yeah, it's.It's hard for parents because I think we want you to consider this stuff and think about it, and as a parent or for me, I always want you guys to learn to do this stuff. I don't want to just do it for you because I want you to be productive, industrious adults.

Yes.

And if I do everything for you, your mom already does everything for you already. So if I also do everything for you, then you're going to grow up to be, like I always say. Right?

Right. Yes. And we don't want that many times.

Yes. That's. That's. My job is to make sure you don't grow up to be an. Conrad says hello. What's up, Conrad?

Hello.

So. So it's. It's. It is incumbent on us as parents to make sure that, you know, you guys have access to the resources and do the stuff.But I will also say one of the things that I do regret, and I'm remedying that right now, or trying to, is I know better. I knew that you weren't. It's just like with the applying, you know, submitting your videotapes and doing all that stuff to try to get recruited.

Right.

I knew that it wasn't going to be something that was high on your list of things to do, but it was easy for me because I have other. So much other stuff going on to just Be like, well, if she's not going to do it, then that's on her.

Right.

And you know what? True.

Yes, true. Exactly.

But I also want to not have to go into a lot of debt to pay for college.

Right, right.

So you know, it's, it's a double edged sword.So I would say you have to find a balance between trying to help them, you know, find their own way, teach them into fish, as they say, but also not shoot yourself in the foot. So by the time you get to May of your senior year, you haven't done anything. Right.So, so it is a, it is a balance for parents to try to figure that out.And this is the part that I didn't do up to this point that I wish I would have done more of or had a little more detail on to figure it out, which is these extra scholarships. And you know, there are websites like fastweb.com so it's the largest scholarship database out there. It's free to use.You create a profile like Katie said, it matches you to scholarships that match your profile. It updates pretty regularly with new opportunities.So if you go on there and just check it on a pretty regular basis because remember what you're doing here is you are looking for money, right?So if somebody told you every day you could go out in your backyard and there might be a thousand dollars under a rock, you just need to go look, you might go check it out.

Right?

Just saying. Yeah, but that's a good place to start. It takes a little bit to set up your profile. It does take a little time.But this is where teach a man to fish, sit down with your kid, help them set it up. Or if you have an industrious one like mine that already did it, thank you so much. Then, then that's helpful as well.And then there's scholarships.com, very similar to Fast Web. It's a free matching service. It's a little bit different database. They have a few other things on there, but it doesn't take as much time.And you'll have.What I would suggest is when you go through the first one and they ask you all the questions, copy it, write it down, take screenshots, whatever, because then each subsequent one you fill out.

Yeah, that was, that was my biggest thing when I was signing up for all the things, especially in the apps because there's a few apps and it's like so tedious filling it all out.But it's helpful because you fill it all out and then it gives you scholarships that match you based on that and you can kind of just input your information, but filling it all out is so much work. And I had to go back and look at my sat. SAT score like a thousand times. So, yeah, write it down.

Okay.

It's really annoying.

Well, and it's kind of like what we talked about too. And this goes back to the recruiting process a little bit for athletes is. Do you remember the questionnaires?

Yes. Although it did help because he made a spreadsheet that had all my information. And so I was able to just go and look. And that was.

Yeah, whenever you are interested in playing for a college, especially if you go through any of the sports recruits or NCSA sites or whatever, when you do that, a lot of the schools or what are the. Part of the process is they want you to fill out a questionnaire. And again, if you are that girl or that guy, you ain't got to do this. Okay.But most people aren't that girl or that guy. So that means you do have to do this.But have a form or something saved because it's going to ask you obviously all your name and the date of birth and all that, but it's going to ask you your metrics, how tall are you, what's your vertical, what's your bench press or, you know, whatever, where, where your profile is located, what position do you play, what, what, some of your stats, all those things. You want to have all that because it just makes filling out all this stuff very much easy. Very much more easy.If you have it saved somewhere and you're just a little bit organized with it, it. It makes a big difference. There's also bold.org so tell me about that one.

So, because when I. This is.And this is fairly recent, I will say this was like less than a month ago, I just was kind of looking it up because I don't remember I was talking about it. I don't know if it was a teacher or someone, but someone. I think it was someone next to me that I didn't really know was applying.And I was like, oh, shoot, like, because I know we've had a few conversations about it and I'm like, oh, I'll get to it. I'll get to it. I'm like, oh, I got to get to it.And so I looked up just like scholarships, and it literally gave me scholarship.com bold.org and so I started on scholarship.com because it said scholarship in the names. I was like, that probably is the best one, probably good one. And it was the top. Top one.So I looked it up and a lot of the links that were on there, because once I filled out my account, a lot of the links that were on there brought me to Bold.org or whatever. And so I was like, okay, let me go ahead and make a profile there. And that one had a lot.Like, I just put in all my information and then it gave me, like almost a hundred scholarships that I could apply for that were similar.And then of course, there were some that I couldn't really apply for, but most of the ones that they got, that they were like, given to me were ones that fit my credentials that I gave them.

And I think a lot of those are no essay, right?

Yes, most of them. Because you could. There was a preference that you could, like, toggle between. It's like you could filter them.So it's like under a thousand dollars or over $10,000 or no essay. Essay. Like, there was stuff like that. So I looked at both.

Right. So you can. And you can. I think you can apply for multiple at once. You don't have to go to each particular one. Right.You just click a button and it, like, lets you.

Well, so kind of the only hard. Like, there were. I think there were three that let me. It was like a. A page that I just clicked a button and it applied for all of them.But then there were other ones that had to bring me to other websites. Like a lot of the websites that I looked at when I was looking at what college I wanted to go to, like, niche. And what was that other one? Hold on.I don't really remember. But you had to go and make an account for those, so it just kind of depended.

Yeah, there's a few more. There's one called goingmerry.com and this is. It's one application. Again, applies to multiple scholarships. It is free.Again, you don't have to pay for this service. And it goes. It's.It's especially good for students that don't want to write a bunch of essays if from what it says on the site, you just have to write one essay and it can apply it to multiple ones. And that's called. And that's going mary.com m e r r y not Mary, like the name.And then there is one called capex.com c a p p e x.com and it also matches up scholarships. This is. This one is recommended for juniors and early seniors.So if you don't know where you're going but you want to go ahead and start applying for this stuff ahead of time. It opens it up to there and it, again, is pretty easy for everything to be filled out. And then there's local scholarships. So have you met with your.Has your counselor talk to you about stuff, like locally?

So, yes, kind of. There's a link on canvas for us because there's a counseling module in canvas and there are quite a few linked.But I haven't really gotten around to looking into those, which I definitely should because I feel like those are what my whole thing is like. The big ones, I feel like so many people apply, I won't get. But those little more.The smaller ones that are more local, I feel like I have a better chance of getting. So I do need to look into those, but I haven't really explored that yet.

So I'll tell you on this one, I have a little bit of personal experience in two ways on this because I like that.I'm a mortgage loan officer and I'm a member of the Arlington Board of Realtors, and I actually serve on the education board for the Arlington Board of Realtors. And they offer.I want to say it is because it's changed, but I want to say it's 5,005, $1,000 scholarships to anybody in the metro area that services that Board of Realtors.So for here, it's like Arlington, Mansfield, Kennedale, Midlothian, you know, all of those schools, all the obviously, Arlington High, Martin, you know, Bowie, all those schools. And all you have to do is fill out a form and submit an essay and we go through and we look at all of them and we award those scholarships.Every year there's a deadline for when they go out. And the thing is, is we communicate to the counselors of all of these schools that are available.But in the last couple of years, I think last year we got. We got the most we've had since I've been on the board last year, and I think we got 25 total. That was it, 25 total applications.Now, previous years they had more, but like, the first year I was on the board, I think we got like 12, and I'd say 25. It might have been closer to 30 or 35, but. But the first year I did it, I think we had like 12 or 11 total applications, and that was it.And it's not to throw shade on counselors or because I think it's a balance of counselors, kids and parents in that communication goes out, emails, all these things go out, but people just move past it, right?

Yeah. I get so Many emails from my counselors, I stopped looking at them. Right.

So I think they communicate, but they just don't communicate in a way that is going to pop out at you. So you have to go looking for it. But every school should have a list of all of the local scholarships available. Yes.Mansfield High School Booster Club, which I serve on, we have scholarships that we give out. I think it's only two for the athletics program. One for a female, one for male. But again, same thing there, there.I think last year there were maybe 10 students that applied for it. Like it's just a lot of people either a don't know about them, don't want to spend the time to do it.But you would be amazed at all the little ones because if you, if you got $25,000 scholarships from all these, that's 25 grand, right? I mean that's, that's, that's a lot of money that helps. I'm not saying you're going to get 25.I'm just saying when you think of it as 500 and $250 and all that, it doesn't seem like much, but it adds up and you just have to go find them. And it takes work, it just takes a little bit of time.So has they, have they given you guys any, like, I know there was, they hold like different little seminars and stuff that they have at school for all this stuff. Have you gone to any of those?

No, there was I think one that was required that we went during English but I happened to not be there that day.So we had like one mandatory assembly at the very end of our junior year that talked about like everything you could do your senior year and after high school, like the military, whatever.And then I went to, we had one this year that was mandatory that I was not there for and then the rest were like optional and like I'm not going to that.

Yeah, well, I haven't gone any either. So I'm just as bad as you are on that.But I would strongly recommend, if you're a parent, you're looking for money to go to these things because you're going to pick up stuff. And again it's, it's just, it's the 8020 rule in its fullest extent because 80% of people aren't going to apply for these.And if you go to these local ones and find them and search them out, then you can pick up a good amount of money that you can use, you know, towards college. And so it just can't be Understated.Now, one of the things that we did not have in the very beginning, when I started this process, and especially when I was going to college, is AI, okay? And I know you roll your eyes because I talk about this all the time.

Loves AI. Loves.

I'm in love with AI. That's right. We're. We're best friends. My new friend Claude, Chat and I are taking a break.We still hanging out, but Claude's my girlfriend, so that's like.

He doesn't even. Like. He calls it Chat. It's Chat GPT. He's giving him nicknames like, Help.

You can name your AI. You can name Chat. Like, if you want to call Chat like Bill, you can be like, hey, Bill.

See? And it's where it's worrying me that you know that.

Yes. Yeah, I know a lot about it. Some of the things I do know about is you can use AI to search, okay? If you go online and you.And you tell Chat, gbt, Quad, Gemini, Grok, any of these, you tell.You give them the information, tell them the age of your student, where you guys are located, their gpa, their SAT score, their class rank, all of those things, and ask it to search out possible scholarships for your kids. It will give you an entire list of stuff. Okay? It will. It will lend it all out for.You can just ask it questions like you were sitting with a high school counselor and asking them what you should apply for, because it's all there. So not only can it get you the resources, right? But when you tell somebody like, hey, you know, how many. Here's my student.How many backgrounds, you know what. What possible scholarships are available based on this profile in this area, and it'll list them all out.The other thing it can help you do, which is a little. I don't want to say it's controversial, but it certainly isn't something that everybody's like, oh, you can't do that.You can, which is write these essays, okay? Essays are a pain in the butt. There's no doubt. All right? And you can't just go in and tell Chad, I want to write an essay that says I'm awesome.You know, 300 words, blah, go, right? Because then it very much will sound like AI if you haven't primed it properly.But if you have your student sit down and write out, you know, in their own Gen Z language, you know, with the 6, 7, and all this other stuff that it throws in there. If. If you. If you have them do that, take that and upload it into Chat and just ask chat to help you refine it a little bit.Then it's just going to edit it for you, it's going to clean it up and it's going to make it sound a little bit better and you can even tell it, write it in the tone of a, you know, 17 year old kid from Texas. And it will do that and it will give you, you'll be amazed at what it'll pop out for you.And you can just use that same chat over and over again and adjust it slightly depending on what the requirements are for that essay. And are there, are there certain scholarships that are looking for that? Probably, maybe.I'm sure that there are that are saying, you know, sending it through AI and saying, hey, is this likely AI generated?But I would also guarantee you that over 50% of those essays submitted are going to be AI generated and the ones that aren't or some version of AI generated and the ones that aren't are going to be like who, who wrote this? A third grader? Like what's going on here?

Right.

So, so use it intelligently and use it smart. And you know, something that I did for Katie that she doesn't use all the time and I think she probably forgot about it is her.And I've done this version of this podcast four times. This is our fifth one where we've talked about all kinds of different stuff related to money.And I've taken the transcripts from those podcasts and I've uploaded them into chat and I created her own what, what they call it GPT which basically says it takes her, her tone, it takes the words that she uses frequently and all of that.And when I ask it to create an essay or write something, it does better job of writing it like she writes, writes it instead of like an AI bot writes it because it knows how she sounds, it knows what she says, it knows her general demeanor because I've given it all the information to be able to pull from, to be able to do that. You haven't used it though, have you?

No. Well, I know you have Chat GBT Premium, but I'm not even logged into that on my phone.

So I mean it's just shocking.

I need, I need to.

You do?

You do after this?

Yes, after this. We need to get you in there.Yeah, yeah, but, but use it because it is going to help you write the essays, it's going to help you find the application or find the schol scholarships and then you can also use it to create a spreadsheet. For the ones you've already applied for.Because once you start applying for these on a regular basis, you can upload it and say, here's the ones that I've made. It'll create a Google Doc for you and then you can track which ones have responded, the ones you need to follow up with.And you can then share that with your child and say, hey, here's all the stuff that we've done already. Make sure you follow up on these ones that you need to. So.So if we had had this, you know, five years ago when I've started, it would have been a whole different story. But, but we just wasn't available. I mean all this stuff started in 2022, so it's only been like three years. So it's, it's pretty, it's pretty new.So, so that is how we paid for college. Now we, like I said for this particular.For her school at university, Mary Hart and Baylor, we did, you know, it's inexpensive because it's a private Christian school. But we are paying for her to go have an experience, play volleyball and do what she's going to do for that, which I don't think you can replace.But, but on average, if you save either through start the 529 when they're young, you know, make sure you get your FAFSA stuff done and start looking at these other applications at these other scholarships that are smaller but available. There are ways to pay for all of it. You just, it just takes work. It's just not something that you can just do.But with AI being what it is, it will save you a ton of time and a lot of work if you implement it.So now, last thing before we go, here is the big question that we are discussing at home ourselves, and I think a lot of parents are, is with the amount of money that college costs, the next question becomes is college worth it? Right.

Right.

Is it worth it? Right.So in your own words, tell me what you've heard me say about whether or not it's worth it to pay for school and specific to you and you can even maybe bring up your brother.

I think you can definitely be successful without going to college. There's lots of, like, for some jobs require whatever, like professional degrees, right? Yes.Like if I, I want to be a physician's assistant, so I have to go to PA school, like that's just something you have to do. But there are plenty of things that you can do that don't require college, like your job. I mean, technically doesn't even require.

I have a college degree, but it does not require it.

Exactly. And a lot of people who have college degrees, I don't even know if they use them for the job that they're in.So I think it kind of just depends on what you want to do when you're planning with it.

Yeah, yeah.It's these days, especially because of the cost and because of the advent of AI and the potential for it to displace a lot of jobs, parents really have to think about, is it worth it to spend $200,000 or a quarter of a million dollars on my kid to go to school, especially if I haven't saved any money for it? And I think the answer for a lot is going to be no.Because if you're going to be a teacher, a doctor, an attorney, an engineer, any kind of professional degree that requires you have this in order to do your job, then yes, obviously it is worth it. You have to get those things to go through that.But if you have a kid that's kind of wandering and doesn't really know what they want to do, and, you know, I do want to speak to the college experience just a little bit, because part of. And this is what we're doing, part of what. What we are paying for, for her to go to this thing is. Is the experience, is the college experience.Because it's a thing. It's a place where you grow up. It's a place where you learn how to be independent.

Right?

You learn how to be an adult. You learn how to have responsibility, all of the things. But you're in a kind of a protected environment.

Right.

Because mom and dad are still in control to some extent. You're not out there just, you know, free in the world necessarily yet. But. But it's also something that. I think there's a lot to that.And that's why, you know, if you say, okay, well, you could go to JUCO and do that, well, you're going to have a different experience at JUCO than you are, say, at the University of Texas. Right? It's going to be different.

Yes.

And. But you're going to have a different experience at the University of Texas than you would at Texas Tech.

Exactly right.

Because Texas Tech is in Lubbock. That's where I went. It is out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Lubbock's a big city, but it's not really.

Right.

And Austin's in the middle of Austin, which is one of the biggest cities in the country. So it's a Different experience there.

Yes.

You know, depending on what you're going for. So these are the conversations you have to have with your kids. Because, like, for me, like, when I graduated from high school, my parents did not.Like, we did not have any of these conversations, right? None. Right. And it's a different time. I don't blame my parents for it. It was just a different. We were living in a different world.So my experience was, am I going to go to college? Yes. But I was going to go to college because that's what you're supposed to do, Right. Like, you graduate from high school and you go to college.Right. Well, then my experience was I went to college for two years at Texas Tech. My first year. I got a 0.6 my freshman semester. That was my GPA, okay?Because I had a freaking blast, okay. Like, it was so much fun. Not fun in the. In the good way, but fun in the. I'm a college male at college doing, you know, unspeakable things.So that was, you know, that was my experience. And then the second. The second year I was there, it died down a little bit. My grades got a little bit better.But then I also came to the realization, like, I don't want to be here because I had gone through, you know, you go 12 years of high school, right? Right.

Yes.

And you come out of high school, and you're like, now I got to go to school again.

Right.

Does that sound real exciting?

No.

No. Right. And I wasn't playing sports, so I was just at school doing things, and I had no idea what I wanted to do. Right. Not a clue.I didn't know I was in business school or whatever, you know?

Right.

And so I decided it was funny. It was after I watched. What was the name of that movie? The Truman Show.I went and saw the Truman show movie and the end where he kind of like, knocks on the thing and he's like, see you later. He just leaves.

Yeah.

In my head, I'm watching that. I'm going. So I could just leave. Like, I don't have to do this. Like, I'm an adult. I'm 19 years old. I could do whatever I wanted to do.So because I was paying for school myself through loans, I went to my parents, and I was like, I'm. I'm leaving school. I said, I'm not quitting. I'm just taking some time off. And me and two buddies, we left.We drove to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, actually, we stopped in New Orleans for two weeks and spent all of our money. But Then we drove to Florida. I got a job working on a cruise ship, and I was basically out of school for two years. Right.But I will tell you that my experience working on that ship taught me way more than I was ever going to learn in the classroom. Right.But what it did teach me is that being just simply being born in the United States, I had so many other opportunities that a lot of the guys I interacted with didn't have because I had access to this stuff. I had to pay for it, but I had access to this stuff that they didn't have access to.And so I had a friend of mine that was on the ship that basically was a pretty good friend of mine, and he was from Columbia, and he was a bartender, which is what I did, too. I was a person, a bartender. But.But he told me, he was like, if I ever come back on one of these ships and I see you here, I'm gonna hit you in the face. I was like, whoa, what? Why?And it's like, because I, you know, I'm here away from my family, you know, trying to support my family back in Columbia, sending money home, and you're just here on vacation. And, like, I find that insulting. And he's like, you have all this opportunity and you're not doing it, so you're an idiot.And I was like, I got an appointment. Right. So. So I came back. I went to. I graduated from UTA here in Arlington. That's where I met your mother. I bartended, I taught swim lessons.I worked two or three jobs, went to school full time, and just busted my ass to get through it. Right. Right. I finished with the degree and a lot of debt.A lot of debt, but a decent amount of debt because I made decisions on where to go and spend my money, but I've never really used it. Like, the one job I had to have to get it. I went to go work for Radio Shack as a merchandise buyer, and I was making $19,000 a year. Yeah, okay.I was making $50,000 teaching swim lessons. Managed to swim school with no degree. Right, Right. So I'm like, this is not for me. So then I got into.Did a bunch of other things, and now I'm a loan officer. And I don't need it to be a loan officer.It's not required now if I ever want to go back into, like, the job world and have to get it, you know, there are jobs that require degrees.

Right.

You know, you have to have them and whatever. But. But this is all about the college experience.Because for you, your college experience is going to be playing, traveling with your team, meeting teammates that are going to be your best friend for the rest of your life. You know, having that whole thing. If you weren't playing volleyball, right. And you wanted to go to tcu, right?We having a different conversation, right?

Yes.

Right, yes. So.So as a parent, I think that's something that you just have to kind of talk to your kids about, but also come to your own understanding is what are they going to do, where are they going to go? I mean, your brother, you know, God bless him, sweet kid. But you know, he's 16. He's a 16 year old boy. He's. His brain is non functional. Okay?But he and all of us, it's not just him, every, every boy at that age, we're idiots.

Right?

So. But he has no idea what he wants to do.He might be able to play baseball or football in college, possibly he's decent athlete and you know, he's got some growing still left to go, so we'll see. But, but I don't know, if he were to come to me and be like, hey, I want to go, you know, to Florida and go to this private, what do you think?I would say, heck no. Right. But that's just because he is who he is. Right.And, and it doesn't have to be the same path, but nowadays again with AI being a part of it, there's way more opportunities.There's trade schools, there is, you know, services like fire departments, the police academies and all kinds of things that you could do that don't necessarily require a college degree. Some police station, some, some of that doesn't criminal justice and you can advance, be a detective and things of that nature if you have it.But a lot of those will help you pay for it too, if you go through their programs. So there's so many other opportunities out there that don't require.And by the way, some of the most wealthy people that I know, I'm not saying I don't know if they do or they don't have college degrees.

Right.

But I know that the businesses that they run and they own do not require college degrees. Degrees.

Right.

Because they're contractors, they're landscapers, they're electricians that run their own businesses. They're doing. Those guys make a lot of money and it is a very good career.And you know, I'm trying to talk him into maybe thinking about going into the fire academy because for me, not only is that a great job and great career path, you know, you get to hang out with your buddies and play video games and then you go risk your life. I mean, there's a trade off but, but, but also you have so much free time that you can have your own side business.And I know a lot of very successful guys that were firefighters and have multiple businesses and a great, great human being.So, I mean, there are so many different paths that you don't have to pay a quarter of a million dollars to send your kid to school if you want to go that route. So it just depends on the kid and, and what they're going to do and where their head is and you know, how it's going to handle for them.So, you know, I don't know if all of this gives you more questions rather than answers on all of this stuff, but what I'm curious from you, like, what, what has been your, you know, we're about to graduate. Right. Right. We got a couple more months.Volleyball season for school's over, fortunately, we're all very sad about that and, but we still have club and we got more volleyball to play, so we're good. So.

Yeah.

What, what have you, what do you feel like you've taken from all of.

This experience from like talking about this plan?

Well, no, no, just, just being an athlete, getting ready to go to school. Like, what are you excited about? What have you. What did you. What's changed about what you think, what. You know, I don't know.

I think I'm just more on the volleyball side.I'm really excited just because I feel like for a while, not that I didn't like volleyball, but I just got bored of it and I just, it wasn't really my biggest focus.But I think now that I've seen what it is without it and even, I mean, I'm home from school every day at 1pm and I'm coming home and I'm just bored and obviously like I work and stuff.

But you're wired a little different though.

Yeah.

You can't just, I mean you're you regular volleyball club volleyball. You have a job. You know, you've had a job your whole time. You're a student council, you know, vice president, senior class.

Right.

You nhs, you got a lot of responsibilities, you don't function that way.

I got lots of stuff to do, but I don't function well without doing things.And I think I'm really like, I'm just really excited to see, especially after going up to UMHB and meeting those girls and talking with my Roommate and talking to the coach. Like, I'm just so excited to go 1.Just go play volleyball, but also go be around those people in a environment that I think is really going to be good for me.And I think there's going to be a lot of things I can take away from it outside of just volleyball, like, just experiences that I'm gonna get that I don't think I would get other places and, I don't know, world stories. I'm very excited.

If you had. Let's say you had a. Sorry, water went down the wrong pipe. If you had a friend, right. In seventh grade. Not that you do.

No.

But if you were. If you were hosting a. A seminar.

Okay.

For seventh graders.

Right.

And asking them, and they asked you about paying for school. Sorry. What would you tell them? Like, what would you tell them to make sure that they do get good.

Grades so you can get academic scholarships?

Talk about freshman year real quick.

Okay, so for me, freshman year was quite the shock. It just wasn't really like middle school. And I would say the first two, six weeks, almost the first semester of school, I didn't have great grades.I was in, like, the 80s, 70s, and I mean, that's. Whatever. That's. Those are good grades, I guess.

Were you.

I was like, okay, well, maybe the first six. I don't. Maybe like the first three weeks.

Okay.

Okay. I don't know.

I'm just trying to, you know, pretty much finish straight. I think you're right.

So the freshman year is really important is what I'm trying to say. You cannot get C's freshman year and then realize your junior year. Oh, crap.I need to have good grades because your class rank is still going to be low. It's still. Your GPA is still going to be low. It's not like it just follows that one year. It's your entire high school career.And so I would say focus on academics. Your entire year, freshman year matters. Despite what other people think. Freshman year matters. And then. I don't know.I think the one thing I really struggled with is not knowing what I want to do. And I think that's common for kind of everyone kind of figuring out what you want to do.But I changed my mind so many times, and I spent so long putting it off, I just didn't really want to think about it. And I think that's kind of where I got stuck, because then I started the recruiting process late, and I kind of figured out what I wanted to do late.And I'm not behind anymore, but I was. And so I would say just get ahead of the game.

Yes, it all matters. And, but what? Doesn't matter. Senior.

Oh, senior year does not matter. I still am trying to get good grades just because I'm a competitive person, but I don't know. It doesn't matter.I've been at school for three hours and I'm coloring in all my classes.

Yes, yes. She has a severe case of senioritis, especially now that school volleyball is over with. Now we're, we're bored most of the day.

So bored. So lock in the first three because junior year sucked.So, but then just think all junior, just be like, okay, senior year is going to be so easy because it was. It is.

Yes, it is. And it, it makes it better.And, and, and really and truly, you know, you don't know this yet, but we'll, we'll do another one of these when you come back after your first, maybe your first semester of college. We'll talk about the differences, but I think most people will tell you they're in their college experience.Unless I'm talking about for us dummies like me that were in the business school, not the, you know, if you're a pre med and you're doing all that, it's a different story. But, but for many it is. You know, you go to school three or four hours a day and that's pretty much it, right? And you got a lot of free time.So it is, it is easier in high school. And that year is not as big of a time commitment. I mean, you got to study, but I didn't do that either.So my time commitment was spit at the bar, which is unfortunate, but we all have our own path. But that's where, you know, for the most part, it's going to be a lot different. The experience is different.And high school in some respects can be even harder. Just as far as the requirements and you know, being under somebody's thumb 24 7, it's just, it's just more difficult.So before we wrap it up though, I do want to say that I want to tell you something because I'm never really good at saying these things, but I want to make sure that I do. But I am so incredibly proud of you. Like, you have been amazing and easier as a child than I could ever possibly imagine.I appreciate that because we had your brother shortly thereafter, but you have, you've worked your butt off in school. You are very high in your class. What are you? Top seven, top 6%, top six or seven top six or seven. Six or seven, nobody knows. And that's incredible.National Honor society senior class vice president. You had multiple jobs. You worked at the swim school for. For a while, and now you work for us at Hot Works.And even though you don't have to be our best employee, you pretty much are, because that's just your nature. You're always going to do what you're supposed to do. Now we have some other great employees. I don't want to dog them, but.But, you know, for being the child of the owners, you know, most of those people are lazy and they don't do anything. And you've done fantastic. You've stayed out of trouble for the most part. We've had a few.A few little incidents, but nothing of any significance because you made a lot of really good choices, and I appreciate that because, you know, you're so incredibly smart, you're capable, and you have your head on straight, and, you know, that's not a thing that, you know, every kid out there has. And so, you know, yeah, we're gonna. We spent a lot of money on club volleyball. We did over the years.And, you know, people will say, you know, between the travel tournaments and the club fees and everything else, that we could have banked that money and paid for college itself.

Yeah.

But I wouldn't trade that for anything, because the money that, you know, it didn't just buy volleyball. It bought our family experience, and it was amazing. And I don't think your mom would trade it in. I wouldn't trade it in.And ultimately it got you the opportunity to play at Maryhearn Baylor, which is. Which is what? You know, it took you a minute to get there, but ultimately is what you wanted.And if you didn't have that opportunity right now, I think you would be miserable. Not miserable, but definitely sad about it. So. So from, you know, from all of this, just take away from it that, you know, college is important, but.But life is not about just money. It is about the experience.And so some people want to pay for the college experience, and there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want to do. I'm not anti college.It's all about finding what fits and what's important for your kid and in letting them learn and grow and become who they're supposed to be. Because at this point, you know, like, you went to a Halloween party or you, you know, you had some friends out at the lake house to.For your birthday, and, you know, we're not putting restrictions. I mean, if we haven't taught you what to do at this point. You know, then, then we failed as parents.You're an 18 year old adult at this point, which is terrifying, but it is true.So, yeah, spending a lot of money on education, maybe for some people and it may not be for others, but you know, if you have scholarship money, you could find the FAFSA and, and you know, the extra scholarships that are available that you find online, then there is a route to go.And if you're a college athlete on there, out there and this is something that you want to do, then you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to work at it. If you're not that dude or that girl.And all of this stuff takes time, but it is worth every penny and every second that you do it because the stuff that people take away from it I don't think will be immeasurable. And you know, funny story, I told you this, but on the college athlete thing, I, I talked to.When we took Troy in to get his arm looked at at the orthopedic, his arm was bothering him.The pa, the physician's assistant that was working there, she came in and we started talking and she was younger, she was probably like in her mid to late 20s. And we started talking about athlete stuff and you know, going to school and I. Because she told me she played basketball in college.

College, right.

And she was like a point guard, UTEP or something like that.And she said that when she was going through PA school that her advisors told a big group of them that if you played college sports that you definitely want to put that on your resume and your application whenever you go start looking for jobs.

Right.

Because employers, and I know this myself in value college athletes. Because you know how to work. Right. You know how, how much time and effort things take. You're dedicated to stuff. And you also know how to lose. Right.You know how to fail. Right, Right. We experience that easily. Yes. So. But, but life goes on and it's okay. It sucks in the moment. Right.A lot of tears and all that kind of stuff.But, but this is the stuff that you have to learn to be an adult and to understand that life doesn't always go your way and it's not always a benefit, but it is a true.You know, I, I would encourage any parent that has a kid that thinks that they want to play that spending the money on the select stuff and the, in the, in the club stuff, I don't think it's a waste of time and I don't think it's a waste of money because A, you get experience as a family and B, it could lead to something because like you said in the beginning, there is a school for everybody, right? Right.

Yes.

If you want to play, there is a place you can go play. We know because we know many people.

We know many people, right? Yes.

So it's just a matter of how hard you want to work for it and how much time you want to put into it. But. But that's it.That's all we got for today for our fifth installment of Father Daughter Time, where she committed to help me out today, so I really appreciate her. Is there anything that you would like to say before we wrap this sucker up? Give me something. Give me something strong about what? I don't know.Just about life, what you learned, all the experiences.

Plan ahead. That's what I've learned.

Plan ahead.

That's all I got for you. Sorry.

Spend some time and plan ahead. All right. Well, thanks for everybody that stuck, you know, stuck around. Listen with us today and watched. I appreciate it.This is not our normal real estate and mortgage talk, but it is finance and we are the Texas real estate and finance podcast Cast True. So we talked a lot about that today, but hope everybody has a great weekend.We are off to watch some playoff football tonight in Justin, Texas and Northwest, watch Mansfield take on Byron Nelson. So we're excited about that and I hope everybody has a great weekend and we will see you next week.

Bye. Bye.

Bye.