This is a sponsored post on behalf of Bloggin’ Mamas & the Florida Prepaid College Board. All opinions expressed are my own. #StartingIsBelieving
As we welcome a new year and start making resolutions it’s the perfect opportunity to start making financial resolutions that will help you get closer to your money goals. For parents saving for their child’s college is usually one of those financial goals and if you haven’t started yet this is a great time to start or to increase the amount you are saving for your child’s college!
Student loan debt has reached $1 trillion of debt among Americans and I want to make sure that my kids don’t have to start their lives with the weight of a hefty student debt on their shoulders. That is why I am doing everything I can to save for their college now, while they are still young.
Saving for college doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. Here are some tips for making things easier and also for lowering the cost of college!
Make saving for college easier by enrolling on Florida Prepaid College. At a time when so much in the world is uncertain, saving for college through Florida Prepaid College Plans is guaranteed and secure. It is certain – a way to ensure a child’s financial security. Florida Prepaid College Plans allow you to prepay the future cost of college at today’s plan prices. When it comes time for college, Florida Prepaid pays the actual price of costs covered by the plan. That means you don’t have to worry about how much costs go up in the future. Florida Prepaid has a variety of different plans from a 1-Year Florida University Plan and 2 -Year College Plan to a 4-Year Florida University Plan. There is a Prepaid Plan for any budget and every need. You can learn more on the Florida Prepaid website HERE. Remember that open enrollment ends on February 28th, 2018 so act fast as Open Enrollment is the only time of the year families can purchase a Florida Prepaid College Plan, so enroll now! To save $25 off the application fee (normally $50) use code Grow1718.
Start early. It can be much easier to save for college if you start early and set up a regular contribution schedule. When I talk to parents of older kids about saving for college many of them have mentioned that their greatest regret was not starting to save for college earlier. Additionally, when you save for college with Florida Prepaid you are also avoiding rising college costs and ensuring that your kids don’t have to get into debt to pay for their education. Did you know that the cost of college has increased 538% since 1985? That is more than twice as fast as medical costs (286%) or gasoline (200%).
Help your child figure out what he wants to study. It takes many college students 5 or 6 years to graduate because they keep changing their major. Even if your child is young encourage him to follow their interests and provide opportunities for them to discover new passions. Helping your child find out what he wants to do in life will increase the possibilities of him finding the right major and career path early on, saving college costs by ensuring a four-year college plan doesn’t become a 5 or 6 year one!
Don’t rely solely on grants and scholarships. Many of us, me included, have great expectations for our kids and hope that they will ear a scholarship but competition for scholarships is fierce. When it is time for college, applying for need-based, merit-based and other grants and scholarships is a great idea but make sure that you are saving now to help with your child’s college. It’s important to have savings to fall back on and Florida Prepaid is a great way to save for college!
It’s easier to make your child’s dreams of attending college a reality when you have a plan and you include college savings into your budget and with Florida Prepaid College Plans this is easy to do. Remember that open enrollment ends on February 28th, 2018 so act fast as Open Enrollment is the only time of the year families can purchase a Florida Prepaid College Plan, so enroll now! To save $25 off the application fee (normally $50) use code Grow1718.
Paula studied architecture and now makes a living as a freelance writer,traveler and amateur photographer.She started her writing & publishing career as the editor of Bebé y Mamá, the first parenting magazine in Guatemala.She is the founder of www.GrowingUpBilingual.com and www.365thingsswfl.com and writes articles in Spanish and English for both magazines and the web on travel,food and bicultural and bilingual parenting .
When she is not on a plane or road trip she likes to create recipes inspired in the flavors of her native Guatemala.
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My daughter is only three, but she is convinced that she wants to be a vet. Guess I need to start saving up now!
This is a great post. It’s cool that Florida Prepaid College Plans lets you pay ahead of time. It’s a good investment!
I appreciate these tips and agree that we need to start thinking about our children’s future early. My mom wasn’t able to do alot but she tried her best to prepare what she could for us.
It’s so important for parents to save for their children to attend college. It’s so expensive and if you start saving when they are young, it makes it so much more manageable!
This is so great! Saving for college is important. It’s so dang expensive! Right now my daughter is saying she wants to be a vet tech.
I feel it is so different in Europe where most of countries have free university. I know parents should still save money for flat and living costs but i realize how lucky i was to be in a country where education was free!
This is really good, it’s nice to start early because they do grow so fast and other things come up that may distract us from doing it. My son is four but I know I will start thinking of saving for college real soon.
These are some great tips, I can only imagine how hard it will be years to come for children to afford college or uni if it keeps growing in price as it has been.
Saving for college is practical. I don’t have children yet but when the time comes, it would be necessary for me to prepare for them.
I wish my parents had saved for my college to make it easier on me. It is important to save now for the kids’ college, it will get more expensive in the future!
I like the idea of a pre-paid college scheme and that would have come in very handy for my university studies. Sadly all I had was loans and I have to pay that back once I earn a certain amount of money, we need something like the pre paid scheme in the UK I think it will help a lot of students out!
I am hoping when the time comes I will be able to start saving money for my future baby’s future. Great post
We live in Arizona, pretty far from Florida, but saving for college is something very important that we should be getting to rather sooner than later. I never really thought about putting my kids in things that interest them in terms of a future career or anything.
To be able to graduate from a university debt free is a beautiful thing and we certainly want to give it to our children. I love this post it is a great reminder.
I completely agree that this is so important. I haven’t had any children yet, but when the time comes, that will be my top priority.
That is such a great thing you are giving your children, being able to go to college and being able to show them from a young age the importance of it, is great.
I’m sure this was an eye opener for all the parents out there.. All it takes is a bit of awareness and monthly savings to get it right! 🙂
My daughter is two, but we already started a savings account for her, and got the Gerber Grow up plan, because that can also be used to pay for college. I don’t want her to end up with all of the student loan debt I have, so we made a decision to set her up for a debt free future!
College fees are higher and it is wise to plan for future.a savings account for kids college expenses is a great way to save for their future.This post is a great advice for parents with kids…
Over here in the UK we have student finance which is a loan company the vast majority of students here use. I suppose if our parents had to save up from DAY 1 to send us to University a lot of us really wouldn’t have gone. It really makes you think…
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