A good plan for paying for college is about more than starting to save early. It’s also about creating a strategy to pay less for attending college. If you have college-bound children and plan to help pay for school, this information can help you prepare and pay for college costs.
Create a plan to pay for college… now!
Aside from your home, college may be the most expensive thing you ever purchase. The average cost of a four-year college education is $80,000– $180,000 per child. And that number is increasing each year.
For any large expenditure, you’d probably look for ways to pay less money (home, car, vacations, etc.). And the same approach SHOULD be applied to college costs. Yes, you want your child to go to their dream school, but you don’t want to pay more than you have to.
Planning for the cost of college doesn’t translate to immediate savings. But it does give you a plan of attack.
And while it’s tempting to put off college planning, don’t. It will just increase your college costs later. And that has the potential to diminish funds set aside for retirement and wealth accumulation.
Planning for college costs is not just for middle-income earners. The higher your income, the more important effective college planning might be since college is often paid for with after-tax dollars.
What makes our approach different?
Beyond just savings strategies, we focus on identifying strategies that leverage your unique situation to help you save on college costs. We help you become an informed buyer of a college education:
- Implement strategic and cash flow planning
- Maximize opportunities for financial aid
- Leverage financial aid awards — both current and future ones
The practical benefits to you and your future college-bound student include:
- Limiting parent and student debt
- Redirecting money that would have been spent on college toward retirement or other financial goals
- Helping to ensure that your student attends the right college for the right reasons
Today, you should expect more than just simplistic, one-size-fits-all savings strategies from advisors not focused on college planning. No matter, if your children are Pre-K, entering high school, or even post-graduation with student loan debt, we have cost-saving strategies. Contact us to see if our save-on-the-cost approach is right for you.
