Start Now to Save for Your Child’s College Education and Ease the Long Term Pain.
Ready to start saving for college for your child? It's never too soon and every little cent counts down the line. The world of financial aid and FAFSAs, scholarships and EFC are crazy and confusing. So how do you know how and how much to start saving for college. What is an Education Savings Account? Every parent says they want to start a college fund for their child, but where to store it: under a mattress, in a Swiss bank account? You don't want to have tax penalties but you want to earn the maximum for your child, after all it is there future we are talking about here. There are so many options, as a parent, I can say that it is most confusing. A good investment from an early age is to think about study habits, this can be a good place to start to develop the habit of studying, everything you can do for your child in their developmental years, helps pave the way for their future.
An education 529 savings plan is probably one of the easiest routes and is most commonly chosen. Free grant money and scholarships are out there for your child's education, but it doesn't always foot the bill completely, unless your child is a genius. When I graduated High School many moons ago, I filed all my financial aid documents to the school of my choice, and I remember that I got some free grants, the majority of my package included $12,000 in loans between myself and my mother. For four years! With $12,000, needless to say, the choice was easy, I went to community college. But if my mom had known about an education 529 plan, maybe the loan burden would not have been so high. I mean can you imagine, 4 years of college, a Bachelors Degree and $48,000 in debt, oh yeah, and no job to speak of yet. That's a great way to start out.
