PenPenWrites

parenting blog, memoir notes, family punchlines & more

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© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

recent posts

© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

Category: college debt

  • Money Matters: Having less for the Little Ones (who are now big)

    I don't mean to be repetitious. It's just that the reality is all around us and everyone is feeling it: $3 trillion has seeped out and disappeared fromour 401ks and other savings or retirement accounts. For many of us, that loss wipes out money we had hoped would cover a downpayment for our kids' first house,…

  • Money Matters: Helping the kids till it hurts

    For many of us, gone are the days when we could open our wallets with ease and help our grown children when they were in need–paying off a college loan, helping with the down payment on a house or even defraying everyday living expenses. Now our 401ks are half of what they were, the value…

  • Money Matters: When the kids face foreclosure

    To lend or not to lend when your grown children face losing their home. Not an easy call–especially if your own fiscal well being is greatly diminished. Here's some general advice on the subject from a Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary. Singletary is answering a question posed by a sister about saving her brother's house…

  • College Bound: Our kids’ college plans are tied to our home ownership.

    Some of our grown kids take on college debt–and we may help them repay it. Some of us pay for their schooling outright. A recent study from the University of Michigan finds there is a clear connection between parents' home ownership and home equity, and adult their children's college attendance. The findings suggest, the economists…