College

Saving Money for College The Basics

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Saving money for college has always been an important financial goal for many parents. It is only becoming more important as college tuition continues to skyrocket, and stories of people buried under huge student loan burdens become more common. Before we jump into the nuances of the many different ways to save for college, let’s start with the basics. How Much To Save For College I’ve talked before about how hard it is to make a financial plan for retirement because of how many variables there are. You don’t know when you will start retirement, you don’t know how long you will live once you do retire, and you don’t really know how much money you will spend each year during retirement. Add it all up, and any retirement plan is a lot of guesswork.Fortunately, making a financial plan for education comes with a little more certainty to work with. For starters, you have a pretty good idea of when your children will start college. Take the grade they are in now, and count until you get to their senior year. The next year, is the first year of college. Granted, there are always exceptions, and your child may take …

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Complete Definitive Guide to 529 Plans

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For some reason, I thought I had written about 529 plans to death. After all, figuring out a way to pay for a child’s college education is a top priority for many people, and something I worked on a lot when I was a financial planner. More than that, I’m also a dad with a couple of rug rats that I’ll want to send off to get a great education, and then on to a wonderful life in the real world unencumbered by the all too common, crushing student loan debt. So, naturally, I think a lot about how education planning and college savings fit into a person’s personal financial plan. And, usually when something money related stays on my mind, I write about it a lot. Then, a family member shot me a message asking a question about paying for college for her growing sons. I figured I’d send her a dozen links to all my best college saving advice and 529 plan information. Only, it turns out, I haven’t covered near as much over the years as I thought I had. So, starting Wednesday, I’ll be cranking out the Complete Definitive Guide to 529 Plans and College Savings …

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Cost of Raising a Child

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Every year, the United States Department of Agriculture publishes a report about how much it costs to raise a child until age 18 in America. Of course, the information is only an average, and even then, to make any sort of calculation, a lot of assumptions have to be made. After all, raising a child is a very personal experience and the cost varies a lot based on the choices you make, not to mention variations based on where you live. It obviously takes a lot of time to compile all the necessary data, so the report with numbers for 2013, was just released here in fall of 2014. You can find the full-report, or cute graphics containing the official report’s details at the USDA’s website. Raising A Child Costs Money It’s no surprise to any parent that kids can be expensive. Of course, there is food and clothing. Then, there is education, insurance, school supplies, birthday parties, and so on and so on. So, how much does it cost to raise a child from birth to 18? The report breaks out various categories, but the quick version is this: Urban West $261,330 Urban Midwest $240,570 Urban Northeast $282,480 Urban …

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Are You Paying for College Wrong?

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There is an article floating around on Marketwatch titled Parents You’re Paying for College Wrong. This kind of article is one of the reasons I write Finance Gourmet. After being a Financial Planner in Denver for several years (and, yes, I was a Certified Financial Planner), I saw a lot of different financial situations from a lot of different people. I realized two things: Too often useful information gets bogged down and confusing because it spends so much time covering small, infrequent, exceptions to the rule. On the other hand, useful information is often harmful because it glosses over all of the possibilities in favor of hard and fast statements that aren’t necessarily accurate for everyone. If those to reasons seem a bit contradictory, then you understand why writing personal financial advice can be tricky. How To Pay for College The Wrong Way According to the article on Marketwatch, a lot of parents are “paying for college in ways that experts say aren’t smart.” Fair enough, that’s probably true. However, the way the article goes on to explain what is “smart,” makes it sound like you are a fool for doing certain things that are not foolish whatsoever. The important thing …

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How People Pay for College

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Here is an interesting infographic from Sallie Mae, the quasi-government entity that handles most federal student loans today. It goes with an upcoming post about financial articles and how people are supposedly paying for college “the wrong way.” While you’re at it, check out our article about opening a 529 plan account online to save for your child’s college education.