Saving for College: How to make your plans

When you’ve got a kid or two, you’re going to have to start thinking about one of the inevitable problems of parenthood: saving for college. This is often the single biggest expense of having kids, and private schools can run forty thousand dollars per year or higher. Even state schools cost several thousand per year - parents need to plan ahead.

What should you be doing? When your kids are still young, you need to be socking some money away every year. This will probably need to be a good amount - at least a thousand or more per child. You’ve got roughly eighteen years, and if you save up a little bit each year, you can make sure that your child can at least attend a solid state school. Make a budget, and stick to it. You may have to make some cuts in what the family is spending, but it’s worth it in the long haul. Don’t touch the money you set aside, even in emergencies. You may think that your child can simply get a job or earn his or her way though college, but that often isn’t practical. Their grades will suffer, and that can mean a permanent black mark on their record that will hurt your child’s chances of getting into graduate school. A solid savings base will mean that your child can attend the best school possible - even an expensive private school, assuming you can get some scholarships. Financial aid will also give you another boost - you don’t have to save every penny. You just need to save enough so that your kid doesn’t come away with hundreds of thousands in student loans.