When my sister and I each were in high school, my dad told us that when the time came for college he and my mom would fund 100% of our Freshman year, 75% of our Sophmore Year, half our Junion year and a quarter of our Senior year. The rest was our responsibility. As a result I knew I had to work hard to either earn the money for the rest of my education or study hard and get financial aid. I wound up valuing my education more because it cost me and was not handed to me.
“...100% of our Freshman year, 75% of our Sophmore Year, half our Junion year and a quarter of our Senior year.”
What a great plan.
I was a stockbroker for more years than I care to remember. One of my customers was the CEO of a major insurance company. During a visit, we talked about “funding” children. He set up trusts for both his son and daughter. His son’s had incentives that he had to meet before he could get any distributions. I can’t remember exactly how it worked, but as I recall, the son got a healthy distribution based on a percentage of his annual earnings. That way he couldn’t be a “trust fund cowboy.”
His daughter’s, on the other hand, was much more liberal, because he was afraid that if her marriage broke up, she wouldn’t end up being reliant on her ex for alimony, child support, etc. for maintenance.
Yours, and his, plans make a lot of sense.