Have you ever heard , “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”? Well Thomas Jefferson was a wise man. It turns out that I’m really good at putting things off. I’d like to ask him how he saved for his kids college education; I could probably google that if I wanted to—no, that would be procrastinating again. It turns out that I’m really good at procrastinating; but not so good at saving for college. Just ask my 21 year old who has put herself through college so far, thanks to the HOPE scholarship and grandparents who pay for good grades!
It just seemed like her college years were always so far away and that I had so much time ahead of me to save up and put money aside. But then life happens and cars break down, second babies are born, and roofs leak. Something always seems to absorb the money that you are going to put in the “official college account” that month and before you know it that 2- year-old that you had another 16 years to save for is now sending in applications to the University of “insert school of your choice” and you start having anxiety attacks on a regular basis because you don’t know how you are going to pay for it let alone how you are going to tell her you can’t pay for it and she’s crying and you’re crying and….now take a deep breath.
I have gotten lucky with my first born. She is a really good student and has qualified for the HOPE scholarship for as long as it is around. She chose to stay at home to get her education so we have had very little out of pocket expense so far. My second child, who is 4 now, may not have HOPE to depend on. I have to be more prepared for him so I’ve started looking around to see what I can do. I’ve listened to Clark Howard on so many other topics I thought I’d check into what he suggests on college saving. If you haven’t already checked out his site http://www.clarkhoward.com I recommend it. He’s so savvy on so many topics but in an effort not to procrastinate by reading off topic, I searched for “college saving” and found lots of articles and videos on the 529 Accounts. These are account that are State sponsored that you can put money into tax free and then spend it on qualified education expenses tax fee. Sounds like a winner to me. Check out this article and see for yourself. Whether you put money aside like this or use your payroll direct deposit to make a specific deposit to an account specified for little Susie’s college each week—we have to start doing something and we have to start now. Don’t put it off like I did, it’s hard enough to see your baby go off to school, don’t make it harder by not having the money to pay for it.
