College Savings for Kids: A Parent's Guide to Budgeting & Planning

As a parent, you need to start budgeting for your child's college education sooner rather than later. Children grow up quickly, and college will be here before you realize. Here are a few tips on how to start budgeting for your child's college education.

College Savings Options

In most cases, it will be to your advantage to set up a college savings account or use some other means of saving for college tuition. There are several products that you can use in order to gain tax advantages when it comes to saving for college. For example, you could set up an Education Savings Account or a college 529 plan that will allow the return from investments to grow without taxation. You can also put the money into savings bonds, and when you cash them out to pay for tuition, you will not have to pay taxes on the money. 

Saving 

Once you decide how you are going to save the money, you need to start allocating some money to it regularly. You need to decide on an amount each month that you can allocate to the account. By doing this, you will get in the habit of saving, and the account will soon start to grow.