With all the posts I have added about Upromise lately, I know I am constantly touching on saving for college. And, although I don't talk about investing and finances on my blog, I do love this aspect of saving. I just don't feel I am personally comfortable, at this point, in advising others on investing. It is one thing for me to post about what I personally did to make money and the steps I took, but when it comes to investing....well, I don't want to feel responsible if others lose money.
BUT, with that said, I believe saving and investing is IMPERATIVE to the well being of a family. If you are saving and working toward something, your personal life will become more relaxed and happy. If you aren't worrying about how you will pay your next bill, or if you will EVER be able to retire, etc, you can devote your time to more important things....like family, friends, and life.
So, what are you working towards today? When I first got married, my husband and I were starting our retirement savings, building our "nest" egg so I could quit when we had kids someday, etc. Now that I do stay home and we have 3 kids, we are on track with our retirement and our nest egg is established. But, with kids, a whole new goal comes into focus. We would love for them to go to college someday. So, thus began college savings! And, as I reminded my husband....wedding savings! I would like to be able to pay for our daughter's wedding, like my parents did for me. So, we are beginning to save for that now, too.
If you have small kids and also have a hope they will attend college someday, begin saving NOW, if possible. Why? Because, the amount you need to save is amazing! Unbelievable! Currently, we are saving $500 per child a month. Yes, $1,500 a MONTH! And, when I do my college calculator, we should actually be saving more like $708 a month for my eldest, since we weren't putting as much as we should have back when he was first born.
If you are interested in knowing how much you need to save for your kids college, click here. This will take you to a site where you can get various calculators. You do need to register for free, but it is well worth it. They have many more calculators available besides just the College Savings. It is a very useful tool for you to see where you are currently and how far you need to go.
Are you not sure where to go to figure out what to invest in for your child? Go to Collegesavings.org. It is a decent starting point.
Finally, interested in what programs your state offers in regards to saving for college? Click here to go to Saving for College. Go to the Plans by State section to look up your home state.
And, a big thanks to Working Mother magazine for all these great sites and the wonderful article. They were very helpful to my family, and I hope you find them helpful as well!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Saving for College...how much???
Posted by Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com at 12:10 AM
Labels: Home Finances
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2 comments:
The trick that I'm using for savings for my kids has to do with the dropping cost of daycare. With daycare, the first year is the most expensive (at least for the daycares that we looked at) with a student/teacher ratio that only allows 4 infants per teacher. After that first year, the cost of daycare has gone down for my daughter to the point where it has gone down about 350 from that first payment. The trick is to pretend that your costs for daycare are NOT going down and stuff all the extra money into your child's 529 account.
Obviously this is only a trick for those of us who have our kids in daycare. However, the nice thing about it is that you are already used to paying the high payment per month, so your budget is already tuned towards the savings. And by the time the kid is in public school (this is our plan at least), you are saving quite a bit per month.
Of course, for me, this does fall apart a bit when we have our second kid this summer. Cost for daycare for two kids is a bit outside our budget, but I'll be making up that savings as soon as possible!
Caro,
This is such a good point. It is easier to stomach this way. Thanks for this tip for all the readers!
Carrie
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