Table Talk: How clear financial boundaries can empower your teen's college path

Let's face it, parents start worrying about paying for college as soon as they know they are going to be parents. But it often feels so far away, they defer investing or planning until suddenly...bam...you have a highschooler and the clock in ticking. The stress builds as cost of college has skyrocketed and parents are caught between supporting their kiddos dreams, goals and education, and having to consider extreme measures like refinaning a house, not investing in retirment or depleting savings to figure out how to pay for it. Parents, with good intentions often revert to "see what happens" encouraging their student to apply to dream schools and figure it out later.

Applying to college is stressful in everyway for both students, and parents who are anxiously awaiting and wondering how its all going to get paid for. In doing what we think is right for our kid, we actually…