Saving for college? Put
all your tools to work.
 |
Four
years at a good school will take more than a 529 plan. Consider all your
options: gifts, loans, scholarships, grants -- and don't forget to take
care of your retirement at the same time.
By
Philipp Harper
Next to
their own retirement, a college education is potentially the
biggest-ticket item parents will ever have to fund. And if the current
trends continue, who's to say that four years at an elite private
university eventually won't cost more -- at least nominally -- than a
couple's golden years?
Consider: For the 2003-2004 school year, tuition and fees alone
averaged $19,710 at four-year private schools and $4,694 at four-year
public institutions. The figures, which don't take into account the cost
of room and board, represent increases of 6% and 14% from just the
preceding year.
Those growth rates leave in the dust increases in the Consumer Price
Index and in the personal income of Americans. It all makes for an
affordability gap that is particularly troublesome to baby boomers.
Because boomers have tended to start families later in life than
preceding generations, it's not unusual to find them trying to juggle
assets to cover both their own retirements and their children's college
educations. Throw in the possibility that an aging parent will also
require assistance, and the squeeze is on.
The good news, at least where college costs are concerned, is that there
are several ways to defray them. By doing some homework, parents can
learn how to save dollars for higher education in tax-advantaged ways,
where to find low-cost educational loans and, perhaps most enticing, how
to let someone else pay the college tab through scholarships.
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