<prompt> Human: So I am very very lucky that my parents were able to pay for my college. I hope to do the same for my kids someday. However, what my parents did was say, Okay weve saved up 150k. Heres the account statement.I could have gone to a school that cost 10kyear and used the rest for a down payment, or gone to a school that cost 50kyear and taken out a loan for the last year. They trusted me enough to turn control of the account over to me, so I knew exactly how much was being paid for my education. Even though the money was from them and I had done nothing to earn it, the account was totally under my control and felt like my money. This made me far more likely to use it responsibly.My college had plenty of people who would rather use 200 of their parents money than 100 of their own money. I even know people who are spreading out classes over their senior year because theyre just not ready to leave yet. This is a massive cost either to their parents or to their future finances.A lot of peoples parents just paid the incidentals like books without question, and my classmates didnt have any reason to give it a second thought because they never even saw the bill. I paid for everything except for some of my flights from school to home.I didnt always make decisions that my parents would have made. I spent where they would have saved I studied abroad 3 times in 4 years. I saved where they would have spent I didnt stay in any hotels while abroad. And it worked for me.They gave me the money, but I was a participant. If I was in a position to pay for my childs school, I would want to do things the same way. And, because I worked hard to overload and graduate early, I have a little bit of money left over to start my life with.  <response>: Honestly, I wouldnt do it your parents way. Not to say I wouldnt trust my kids, but temptation can be a powerful thing that I wouldnt want for them when they should be concentrating on their studies. My dad just cut me a check for all the tuitionroomboard bills, I paid for the other stuff. 