College Funds

If you have not looked into it, not started, or you are not a numbers person, it would be best for you to speak with your professional financial advisor. Many people here will give advice but you need to speak with a professional when it comes to financial, medical, and legal.

That said, many places offer ways tostart college funds. We personally started when our daughter was born almost 16 yrs ago. We do have a traditional 529 plan but we also have general savings, savings bonds, numismatics, etc. Our anticipation is that our daughter's college will be in the neighborhood of $60,000 per year so that is the target we have saved for 4 yrs of college.

There are also many scholarships and financial aid options available.

Please speak with your financial advisor or banker so you can make the best decisions for your family. We are very much numbers people and we still utilize a financial advisor.

Best wishes.

Check out Dave Ramsey's website. He has great suggestions for things like this. He also has a book called the "The Total Money Makeover" and it tells you why or why not to invest in certain college funds that are out there and gives his recommendations for what's beneficial.

His website is www.DaveRamsey.com

I second the DaveRamsey book "The Total Money Makeover". I picked mine up from the library and literally haven't been able to put it down! He has a complete section talking ALL about this the Do's and Don'ts.

None of them. Invest their "college fund" in the same place you invest all of your other savings/retirement - this will give you the most flexibility for your future. And take care of your retirement first, prior to allocating for their "college fund" - if they need money for college you can be there to help but do not promise to foot the bill. Paying for college themselves (or partially by themselves) will motivate them to become better students, to choose a degree that actually pays well and to motivate them to apply for scholarships and live frugally during college. It can work - I got scholarships, low-interest and no-interests student loans (that you have to maintain an A average for and my parents helped out with some tuition, gas and spending money, but still graduated with $125k in student loan debt (law degree), but it motivated me to work hard and live frugally to pay it off asap.