Just read about the Baby Einstein refund. Sometimes people are so easily taken in because they don't spend the time to think rationally.
Reminds me of the scare mongering when financial advisors advertise that most parents will not be able to afford local university unless they set aside $XXX/month in some fee sapping investment fund that probably pays for the bankers' lifestyle. By using charts and graphs, they conveniently compound the present day cost by 20years using rates that I would love to see in my investments.
Of course that scares the wits out of any loving parent BUT...(this thread leaves the all important knowledge/thought process gifts of education and solely focuses on the $$$ part)
1. If education is going to cost you $xxx,000, your kid had better earn a hefty enough salary to justify that cost. Why? Because that money that you just spent has opportunity costs. And you better factor those costs correctly cos' if you spend every cent you have on your kid to the point that you cannot afford your retirement and he/she has to feed you on top of joining the rat race, you and your kid may be very well better off if you invested those funds for a perpetual income that feeds you. If you are good and start young, those assets may very well be capable of feeding you and your kid instead.
2. My reasoning as to why education cost cannot and will not spiral out of control is that: Can you imagine if only the top 10-20% of wage earners can afford higher education? The costs of running the institution would be horrendous and the cost per undergrad would be crazy. It is a numbers game and it must be affordable to the average person. If only the doctors/lawyers/CEOs can afford to send the child to university, then society will have to pay a hefty price in a lost generation. Besides, alternatives to accepted higher institutions will sprout out if there is money to be made.
3. So now your kid has graduated. What now? Join the common rat race and face the ever present corporate pay squeeze? Only if you possess special skills/talents/higher education of the rare sort, can you command a "pay competitive advantage" similar to superior businesses that maintain their margins over time. So most wouldn't meet the cut and will just fall into the rut and the daily grind of the rat race.
4. The key point of this: Be financially educated and rational in all your actions. Question principles and practises that the common man simply accepts without questioning. Invest wisely for your child BUT don't be scared by those financial scare mongers. Remember: Its the commissions that they are after!