Saving Money Into 529 Plan

OK, if you have already opened a 529 plan, and you have chosen which investments to use in your 529 plan, then the next step is to actually start getting money into your college savings account. And, it is here where the most important thing about saving money for college comes into play. The most important thing, more important than choosing the right college savings plan, more important than choosing which investments to use in your college savings plan, and more important that updating your higher education financial plan, is consistently automatically investing money in your college savings accounts. Let me go into a little more detail, it’s that important. We get caught up in the notion that what matters when saving or investing money are things like investment returns, taxes, using the right account, or getting the right financial advice. None of those things matters nearly as much as consistently investing more money. When I was a financial advisor some of the biggest 401k accounts, or 457 plans, I ever saw were from people who didn’t know a thing about them. These people opened the account when they were hired, set some sort of amount to contribute, picked an investment, or …

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Saving Money for College The Basics

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

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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