James McCombs was 13 years old in 2008 when he found out the money set aside for his college tuition was gone.
“I was old enough to know what was going on, and old enough to hear my parents’ conversations,” he remembers. “Old enough for them to tell me that the college fund was gone.”
The fund had been tied up in the stock market, and it didn’t survive the market crash sparked by the global financial crisis.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media