Episode 86. How do I pay for college without going broke with special guest author Ron Lieber?

All right. I was very emotional for you. I am dying to know how did college drop off go.

It went well, Rena. It went well. And I will tell you, like, I got the saddest, the last night we were home before we took her. I'd sort of been holding it together pretty well. And we had a long to-do list. And the night before we left to drive her to college, we went out to dinner with my in-laws and my husband's sister, and that was the

last thing on the to-do list before taking my kid to college. And as soon as we came home from that,

I just got this huge wave of sadness. And I think that all of the to-does had held that at bay for a while.

Yeah. And I got sad and weepy, and was weepy as I like kissed her good night,

you know, the last night sleeping in her bed under these particular conditions. And then we

were okay. Like we got up, we got in the car, we dropped her off. She seems to be doing great.

Texting is fabulous. It lets us stay in touch without overwhelming her. You know, it can give us a quick touch, a quick hit.

I send her darling photos of her little sister. She always responds to those. So if I really need to

know that she's alive, I'll send her a cute picture of her sister. So far so good.

Oh, well, my eyes are watering, just thinking about it. I'm so emotional when people, it's like a new stage of

life, but it seems like this was such a special year because I think a lot of parents are happy

to see their kids finally be able to get off into the world in a way that you probably couldn't

have imagined. Yeah, and I was really grateful for her on the timing just in terms of where COVID is.

It made me that much sadder for kids in the last

couple of cohorts to be able to do a normal drop off with her. Right. What a big deal. Well, you know what

else makes me cry is the idea of paying for college. You said it. So I'm so excited to welcome

our next guest who's a friend of the podcast.

We've got Ron Lieber, who's the author of The Price You Pay for College,

an entirely new roadmap for the biggest financial decision your family will ever make.

Ron has been the Your Money columnist for the New York Times since 2008.

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