It’s Never Too Early to Save for College

Sending a child off to college is one of the proudest moments in a parent’s life. It can also be a source of stress, especially when it comes time to figure out how to pay for your child’s higher education. Even if your child is years away from moving into their first dorm room, it is never too early to start saving for their college education.

While most colleges provide some type of financial aid for students, most of the time it is not enough to cover all the costs of schooling. With tuition prices increasing rapidly, over 50 percent in the past 10 years, there is no way to know exactly how much a college education is going to cost. Checking with different college cost projectors can provide a guideline of how much money you should be saving.

Once you find out a general estimation of how much college is going to cost, it is time to start saving. Experts agree that you should try to save at least one-third of your child’s college cost. This will allow you to pay one-third out of savings, one-third out of pocket, and borrow the rest. The best way to do this is to start putting away 10 percent of your salary starting the day your child is born. The earlier you start saving for your child’s college, the more money you will have put away. Opening a 529 plan allows you to put away part of your income into a savings account, without it being taxed for income taxes, as long as the money is eventually used for qualified educational expenses.

Life insurance with a cash value option is a great tool to help with college education, as you can borrow from your cash value to pay for that expense. For instance. If you have $100,000 in cash value and your life policy is for $500,000 and you borrow that $100,000 cash from your cash value and never pay it back when you die your life policy will pay out $400,000 as they had to minus that $100,000 that you took.

When it comes to finding the right insurance plan for your child to help you save money, contact Access First Insurance. As an independent insurance agent, they will work with their affiliates to ensure you get the right insurance policy at the right price.