As parents, you want to make sure your children have the best education possible, yet the cost of schooling and university can be extremely high. The money that you spend on your children’s education can be one of your largest lifetime expenses, so saving early is key.
Starting to save early will enable you and your child to select an excellent school or university based on the programme and their academic ability, rather than your financial situation. (more…)
Good news is that college expenses show signs of leveling off but that’s hardly a reason to hold off on planning for the inevitable costs down the road
Your kid’s college may be years away but the old adage of “They grow up so fast!” holds especially true when planning for the event in the context of your retirement goals. Here is a list of 7 tips that can lessen to the blow:
Get your retirement in order first – Your kids will have access to more sources of college money than you will once you stop working, so make sure you’re on the right path for your own retirement before you set aside money for college. (more…)
College students and recent graduates face particular challenges in saving and planning for retirement. Daunting student loans, a still-uncertain job market and competition for jobs among fellow graduates may all seem far more pressing than a retirement decades down the line, but that doesn’t mean post-career planning should be put to the wayside. Here’s what college students should know about retirement:
Start saving young. Saving early and capitalizing on years of compounding interest is key to retiring comfortably. “[The] most important thing to remember is that [students] will, in fact, retire someday,” says Mark Helm, a certified financial planner in Falls Church, Va. “They can either get one of the great forces of nature – compound interest – to work for them, or they can get started late and fight that beast for 30 years.”
One of the initial steps toward a successful retirement is one many students feel they’ve had enough of: education. Most students haven’t learned to deal with their finances properly, according to Robert Fragasso, CEO of Fragasso Financial Advisors in Pittsburgh, and that’s the first hurdle to a healthy retirement.
