Ramit SethiRamit Sethi: The No-BS Guide to Living a Rich Life

Would You Ever Spend Your Kids’ College Money?

23 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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1:07

In this segment of the YouTube conversation led by Ramit Sethi, the participants discuss how couples talk about money, especially budgeting, and the emotional reactions that surface. Speaker B describes feeling anxiety and anger when the word “budget” is introduced, noting difficulty in categorizing expenses and the stress it creates for both partners. The dialogue then shifts to the treatment of money earmarked for their children’s college education. Speaker B reveals a default mindset that this money is “sacred” and essentially non‑existent in the household budget, treating it as a non‑negotiable reserve. Ramit probes whether they would be open to changing that perception, setting up a deeper exploration of how families can re‑evaluate the rigidity around kids’ college funds.

How do the conversations about money and kids typically go?
I usually say something like, we have to do the budget.
And what is your reaction to that, Jake?
Just anxiety and anger, probably.
I feel anger too when I hear that word. Yes, yes.
My anxiety increases because to be completely honest, like a budget has always been really hard for me. Like it's hard for me to like wrap my head around Like, what are the right buckets to think about? And then Jake's like, well, but what about this? And then, which is usually a super reasonable question, and I'm like, I don't know, you know? And so then I get stressed and then he gets stressed, and then—
Where do the kids come into this?
My default is to treat that money as if it doesn't exist. Maybe like where the kids come in is if we, it's like, well, what if we spent a little more money here? And then my response to that is like, we don't have that.
Got it. So the, the kids' money is sacred, like it does not exist. It's a non-negotiable. Got it. Yes. Are you open to changing that?
I'm open to it.