The Barefoot Investor has insisted a couple focus on saving for their retirement instead of giving in to their ‘monster’ daughter and paying for her university.
Scott Pape, 46, shared the advice after Patty, a mother, wrote in about how she and her partner had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their child.
‘Have we bred a monster?’ the title of the letter read in a column for the Daily Telegraph.
‘My teenage daughter has had a private school education. This has cost my husband and I (average working-class people) upwards of $40,000 per year,’ Patty wrote.
The mother went on to say the couple had saved ‘hard’ to be mortgage free on their ‘modest’ home and were happy they could provide a private education for their only child.
The pair had been looking forward to their daughter finishing Year 12 this year so they no longer had to pay ‘inexorable fees’ for education when she attends their local university.
But the couple’s daughter has thrown a spanner into their retirement plans.
‘She wants to attend university in another city – at $40,000 per year for a live-in college – to get the “full city experience”,’ she wrote.
Patty said that even though she commutes each day to the city for work, her daughter is insisting that university in the same city is ‘too far’ to commute to.
A mother asked Scott if it was reasonable to not want to support her daughter at university after her and her husband paid $40,000 a year on private school tuition (pictured stock photo of a classroom)
Scott Pape (pictured) didn’t mince his words and said their 18-year-old daughter must go to university in the city if she insists – but at her own expense
‘She says she is desperate to leave home, and will move to the city with or without our help,’ she wrote.
‘She has no idea of how to be financially independent! Is this ‘normal’ privileged teenage behaviour or have we bred a monster?’
Mr Pape didn’t pull any punches and responded with: ‘You’ve bred a monster.’
The financial guru went on to explain that the couple have spent a large amount already on their daughter’s education and it was now their time.
‘Explain that you have already spent upwards of $500,000 (pre-tax) on her education … and now you have to focus on saving for your retirement,’ he wrote.
The Barefoot Investor thought their daughter should still leave home and experience life – as it would be a great learning opportunity.
‘Part of that experience should involve working a minimum-wage job, occasionally drinking from a goon bag, and sometimes dining on two-minute noodles to make her money stretch,’ he wrote.
The Barefoot Investor said it was time to save for their retirement after spending $500,000 pre-tax on their daughter’s education (pictured stock photo of a middle-aged couple looking at their finances)
The financial guru said it is an opportunity for their daughter to become financially independent – which also comes with the added benefit of making her more grounded (pictured stock photo of university students on campus)
He urged the parents to give their daughter a chance to become financially independent – and a better person.
‘I’d not only encourage her to move to the city, I’d help pack her bags,’ he joked.
‘The education she’ll receive will make her a much more grounded human being. (And if she can’t hack it, then she can always go to the local uni!).’
Patty’s question comes at at time when private school fees have increased substantially – leaving many parents out of pocket.
In NSW, the fee increases have outpaced the rate of inflation with the top Sydney schools now charging up to three times higher over the previous 25 years.
In 1999, Kambala School for girls was just under $10,400 per year in tuition – but climbed an astonishing 352 per cent to $46,950 in 2024.
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