Today’s episode brings Roger Whitney, “The Retirement Answer Man,” to the microphone who will be indeed answering some of our questions on retirement planning with college in sight.

Roger has been a financial planner for 24 years, walking with his clients through the retirement maze. Eventually he developed a podcast and blog on the subject on his website offering tips and guidance along with a free retirement toolkit.

Later, I’ll be answering a question about owning a business and its impact on your success in receiving financial aid. You may have gotten conflicting answers from well-meaning friends, so we’ll break it down for you.

How do you approach college AND building your own nest egg?

Roger sees the college planning process as a balance sheet decision. When he himself was just starting a business with his partners, he had to make a decision on whether to continue to save for college or invest in his business. He opted to channel the cash flow toward the business to structure the funds so that down the road when his kids would be ready for college, he would also.

I also have advised families with small children, let’s say three years of age or so, to focus more on building their net worth and structure themselves financially. A lot can happen in 15 years and to put the money toward college may be a bit premature.

Let’s get more creative

I’ve often heard the adage, “You can borrow for college, but you can’t borrow for retirement.” It’s true, but it’s not always helpful when it comes to facing a tuition bill.

Roger feels we aren’t nearly as creative as we should be when it comes to selecting and paying for college.

“College is a major industry…the availability of financing for college feeds the tuition rate increases that we’ve seen over the past 10 or 15 years,” he says. He’s seen parents fund their students four-year tuition in a major that leaves them jobless and in deep debt.

According to Roger we need to “do college” differently, not just focus on the four-year university experience.

In his own experience, he laid out the balance sheet for his daughter, who as a high school junior was passionate about being a band teacher. She also said she wanted to attend Texas Christian University. When they reviewed the salary of a band teacher (perhaps about $40,000 per year) and the cost of TCU (about $50,000 per year), he was hoping the logic of the numbers would work a little magic.

Not so. She was crushed; however he also later learned that her initial decision was in part based on her own band teacher who had graduated from TCU, and he happened to be “hot.”

So, parents, understand that it’s your role to offer options, but also a framework with limits. Roger explains that it’s a fine line between supporting your kids’ dreams and desires and enabling them.

What is creative college planning?

Roger had a client who had the means to pay for his son’s education at Rice University. In talking with the son, Roger explained that he could go to community college for the first two years to get the basics out of the way, live at home and save about $80,000. He could then transfer to Rice and split the difference.

The idea was not just to get the student thinking in different economic terms, but also the parents, who often see only one option. Roger wishes more people would seriously consider community college to help control costs of college.

However the lure of the “college experience” is strong, and families who want that need to examine whether it’s worth taking on the debt it may require. In addition it’s up to parents to examine their student’s reasons for wanting to attend the school they do. It’s not unheard of for students to pick a school based on its fight song, so a little logic in a college planning discussion is needed. Parents, this is where you come in.