Financial Planning For Parents Of College Students

The second most damaging college planning mistake many parents make is using their existing retirement funds to pay for college.

Financial planning for parents of college students.

To add insult to injury many parents also fail to continue. College is an exciting and challenging undertaking for most students. Most full time students at four year colleges get financial aid to help them pay for college. The answer is yes but you need to carefully plan together how to pay for it.

Exploring majors and careers. Having a plan in place beforehand and sticking to that plan as closely as possible can help to ensure that you survive the transition. Can your child afford to go to college. High school focus areas.

Continue reading below. Student loans come at a high cost. College planning for high school students involves much more than filling out forms taking standardized tests and asking teachers for recommendation letters. The sticker price of a specific college is usually higher than what most students would actually pay thanks to financial aid.

It s important to understand that student loans are expensive to pay back and the unfortunate fact is most graduates struggle to pay off their student loan debts. The process also requires self reflection and spending time looking at public and private colleges online learning and other forms of higher education that you may not have considered. Financial aid and student discounts. Four years of college can cost tens of thousands of dollars the average annual cost tuition plus room and board at private u s.

Finding colleges that fit. 6 basic financial planning tips every college student should know 1. Colleges is now 35 636 and it s increasingly easy to break into the six figure range especially for advanced degrees source. 10 ways parents should plan for college financially around 40 percent of families say they have a plan for paying for college a recent survey found.

A website for parents guardians relatives and other adults helping students plan for college. Getting in to college. As you head into college it may be tempting to borrow extra money to pad. As the student loan debt crisis shows no signs of abating financial aid can be an important planning tool for families planning on sending their children off to college.

Planning for college expenses is one of the biggest financial projects that a family can undertake. In other words many parents take distributions or loans from their company s 401k or another retirement plan usually to avoid taking out student loans.