Parents Say They'd Sacrifice Retirement to Send Kids to College

Even the parents of kids as young as 8 are losing sleep over their future college costs.
Photographer: Getty Images
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College has gotten so expensive that it's weighing on even the parents of third-graders, threatening to leave them too debt-saddled to retire.

Tim Williams, a 62-year-old part-time mail carrier from Clearlake, Calif., has spent 12 years paying down a nearly $12,000 loan to help one of his sons pay for college. He now owes more than half that; his monthly payment is about $105. His children and his ex-wife have student debt of their own.