<prompt> Human: I come from generations of poverty. Many of my cousins have been to prison, or live in trailers in the same dead-end town we grew up in. No one has a steady job, or a career to speak of. My mom did the best she could as a single parent, always working two or three jobs. I was never given any advice on how to plan for a life, career, college, etc. and so I took some classes but still dont have a degree in my thirties, neither does my husband. We make an OK living, probably lower-middle class income, but we are still struggling at times. Our kid is five, what do I need to do to NOW to help him become the first person in our family get a college degree? Seems like everyone else is successful by this point in our lives and were still struggling. I dont want him to have to struggle so hard just to get by... Edit: Getting a lot of comments along the lines of dont have a kid if you cant afford it. Just to clarify, we can afford it just fine. We dont have 8 kids, we have one. my question is in regards to how can i help my child get out of the lower class? middle and upper class people have access to lots of information and resources that i didnt growing up - what are those things? what are the basics i need to start teaching him now?Edit2:wow, this is getting some attention! heres a little more details:weve since moved away from the dead-end town in a bigger city, so no sleazy family influences to deal withwe picked our current location based on the best public school system in the area, but its still only rated about a 510were good on the basic-basic daily needs, we have a budget, but just cant ever get ahead on getting an emergency fund togetherfinancial situation is mostly due to me not having a college degree, and my husband finally got his GED last week hooray!Edit3: holy cow! im making my way through comments slowly, lots of great stuff in here. thanks for all the kind words and encouragement!Edit4: OK almost 900 comments, I am so overwhelmed, lots of encouragement. Gonna take a break for a few hours and keep reading later, todays Library Day open late on Mondays! Much Reddit love Edit 5: OK guys, Ive tried to keep up, but checking out for now! Lots of people have suggested going back to school myself, and it looks like I may be able to sign up for some summer courses. Thanks for all the awesome stories of moms and dads who did make a better life for their families through sacrifice and hard work. Its good to know it was worth the effort and was a good lesson too. Lots to think about, and a big list to put together! Assistant: You still dont have a degree in your thirties. Its still not too late for you - once course after another will get you there. I realize your question is about your son - but youd be a terrific role model if you could show him that a getting a degree is so important that you were persistent pursuing that goal.I went to night school - been there, got a degree. Made me happy. Made my employer happy.Human: I struggle with this choice, probably because my mom was never around... do I sacrifice money and time on school for me, or go to his tball games and save up the money for him to go to college? Will he just remember that mom was never around just like I do now? Seems like we dont have money and time to do both...  <response>: My mother worked to get her degrees BA in psychology, masters in theology starting when I was 9. Honestly she was an awesome role model for me, and since I was with her so much she paid me a dime for every library book on her reading list I could find, reading quietly in the hallway while she was in class, it really made it so that college was a normal thing for me. Something that you worked at and sacrificed for, but was also fun and interesting. 