What follows is so simple you'll wonder why you never read this anywhere else. If they are not physically incapacitated, students can follow my easy 3-step formula:

(1) There are 15 weeks in a typical summer vacation. With a job your student can bring home $150 each week. Multiply $150 X 15 weeks = $2,250 X 4 years = $9,000. That's $9,000 that stays in the parent's pocket (read: retirement).

(2) Get your student into a work-study program every year. The minimum money earned will likely be $1,000 a year for 10-12 hours a week. That's $1,000 X 4 years = $4,000. So far, no loans, and your child has contributed $13,000 toward their own education. That's responsibility. Incidentally, students in work-study programs typically earn better grades because they're learning time-management skills.

(3) Have your student take out Stafford Loans through the school with no payments to make until 6 months after graduation. With only the student's signature, he or she is allowed $3,500 in the first year, $4,500 in the second, and $5,500 in each of the last 2 years. It amounts to $19,000. Here's the part that causes parents to party: there's no cosigning! Here's a little perspective for contrast: $32,000 at 7% over 20 years is more than $125,000 in your retirement.

These 3 elements are what keep at least $32,000 in your retirement account per student, not in the college's ATM machine. Let's fantasize for a moment: you're putting 2 children through college, and my 3-step formula will keep $64,000 in your retirement account. Three children = $96,000 in savings. Not bad.

If your child commutes to a state college whose cost is $8,000 a year, this formula pays for all 4 years of college. As a parent, you pay nothing. Double not bad.

What's wrong with your student taking on some debt?

As a parent, half of your life is already gone, but your student has a full life to pay off the debt. Debt is good when it affords them the opportunity to establish credit. Good living is viewing the glass as half-full.

The average sticker-price shock of a 4-year college education today, which includes room and board, is between $40,000 for state schools and $200,000 for private schools. Warning: only 37% of college students graduate in four years, less than two-thirds finish in six. Double Warning: Approximately 50% of entering freshmen won't even graduate.

Paying for a 4-year private school in the Northeast at a cost of, say, $52,000 a year, is like paying for one BMW each year that you cannot drive, keep, trade in, or sell used. Or, who would be crazy enough to pay $200,000 for a brand new house with a 4-year mortgage? These are novel ways to frame the cost of college, but as you've learned so far you don't have to pay so much. This is a game you can win.

For starters, cut the price of a college's cost of attendance by a minimum of 30%, and you have an idea of how this financial aid game plays and what you don't have to pay.

Another opportunity for savings is having your student become a resident assistant, commonly known as an RA.

Available to sophomores with good grades, RAs get 3 huge benefits: (1) a single room and a meal plan worth about $8,000 a year; (2) "it's a solid job," says Katie Callow-Wright, director of undergraduate housing at the University of Chicago, which "you're able to parlay into lots of transferable skills" after college; and (3) it's demonstrable evidence of your work ethic, which will factor strongly into getting that first post-college job.

Hint to high school seniors: study hard to get great grades in your first year of college.

When you can save at least $32,000 over 4 years, your student as an RA could save you an additional $25,000. Triple not bad.

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