College (in the US) is practically free as long as you go to school locally. Living expenses is where most of your financial issues come from. When in elementary, middle and high school, your parents pay for your living expenses. Sometimes, parents can't or won't do that after you turn 18. If you have a nice college near you like I did, tuition and books are not that hard to cover. Community college starts are cheap. Then you have programs like Florida Bright Futures (yes, that requires good grades) that pay for tuition. If you didn't have good grades in school, you can always get loans that you don't pay while in college. If your parents don't make much or if you support yourself, you can get government grants. Also, even if you have to pay for school with loans, you can get almost all of the money back on your tax return as I did. This requires that you work while in school, but I did it for awhile on a job with McDonalds. Later, I got a paid internship through the school that was more money than fast food. The part of my loans that I did not cover is an interest rate of only 2.25% (requires consolidation) and repayment is income based. If I can't pay it off in 25 years, it is written off. It's different for every situation, but I started out as lower middle class (family of 5 living off of $30k/yr) and paid my own way through college. That's actually more difficult than someone from below the poverty level because they qualify for more government help.