{"id":12354,"date":"2020-06-23T02:38:02","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T02:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fatherville.com\/?p=12354"},"modified":"2020-06-23T03:27:46","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T03:27:46","slug":"5-tips-to-begin-saving-for-your-kids-college-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/23\/5-tips-to-begin-saving-for-your-kids-college-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips to Begin Saving for Your Kid’s College Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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(Image credit: Pixabay)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

College education has an extremely high price tag. In fact, the tuition fee for public colleges in the US averages at $10,116. While that still seems a little reasonable, it can easily balloon to $36,801 if your child decides to pursue their degree in a private institution. What\u2019s worse, most college graduates leave school with a loan debt amounting to $27,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As parents, we only want our kids to have the very best. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to start early with saving for their college fund. With that said, we\u2019ve listed five tips below to help you start preparing for your kid\u2019s college life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Save consistently<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saving up for your child’s education can be tough, but you have to do it consistently in order to secure their education. You can do this by treating your savings as if it\u2019s a monthly incurred bill<\/a>. Try enlisting your child’s college fund as an automatically incurred payment every month. This way, you won\u2019t miss a chance to save for your child\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choose the right college savings plan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve got a ton of options when it comes to college savings accounts, but the most popular ones might be 529 plans. There are two types of 529 plans, and both of these have financial aid and tax benefits to help protect your college fund. First is the \u201csavings\u201d 529 plan, where you can invest after-tax money into bonds and stocks, and then withdraw it tax-free for your child’s college expenses. On the other hand, there is the \u201cprepaid\u201d 529 plan, where you can pay some or all of the costs of your child\u2019s college education at a predetermined price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both have their own drawbacks and benefits, which is why experts recommend employing both prepaid and savings 529 plans<\/a>. But if you\u2019re not financially capable of doing that, it\u2019s perfectly fine to stick to one 529 plan \u2060\u2014 just make sure to do your due diligence to find one that fits your lifestyle and goals the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use financial tools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it\u2019s crucial to have an estimate of how much you need to save before you start depositing in your kid\u2019s college savings account. Thankfully, there are financial tools like calculators to help you map out the total costs of public, private, and vocational colleges \u2060\u2014 and some can even help you draw up how much financial aid your child will receive in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

College cost calculators vary depending on their purpose<\/a> \u2014 some are wired to give you an accurate estimate if you know which college your kid wants to attend, and some can give you a more general evaluation. However, to ensure that you get a precise estimation, it\u2019s best to have your documents ready, including your income, tax returns, savings, your kid\u2019s SAT\/ACT scores, and tax returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re not exactly well-versed in financial literacy, it might be a good idea to go see a professional. After all, professionals with degrees in finance and management<\/a> have been trained to apply financial theory to real-life markets, and their financial planning skills can certainly come in handy when you are planning out family savings, investments, and budgets for the next decade or so. This valuable skill is one of the reasons why demand for financial planners is expected to grow steadily until 2024, as more and more people become more conscious of the need to be financially independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently it’s been noted that colleges have been investing more in their financial planning programs<\/a>, so finding an adept and reasonably affordable financial advisor shouldn’t be that hard of a task for you. So if you\u2019re easily confused on the topic of college funds and investments, try consulting with a trusted financial planner in your area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be smart with your purchases<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you decide to build up your kid\u2019s college fund, strap yourself in for the long haul. Every purchase should be highly calculated and unnecessary spending must be kept to a minimum. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to learn how to craft a monthly budget that covers your purchases, bills, and savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One tip to help ease monthly costs is by signing up for a credit card that has a good rewards system. As you use your credit card, you accumulate points that can be redeemed through other expenses \u2060\u2014 and some can even be deposited into your child\u2019s college fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article intended only for the use of fatherville.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article by: JBloomfield<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Image credit: Pixabay) College education has an extremely high price tag. In fact, the tuition fee for public colleges in the US averages at $10,116. While that still seems a little reasonable, it can easily balloon to $36,801 if your child decides to pursue their degree in a private institution. What\u2019s worse, most college graduates leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-for-dads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12354"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12360,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12354\/revisions\/12360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}