Educational Savings for Your Child's Future

We have started a 529 plan through John Hancock and it seems to be going very well. I went through an investor at Redstone Federal Credit Union. You can talk with anyone and they will go over all the options with you. I hoped this helped. Good Luck.

We started a 529 savings account through a Virginia Plan that is similar to the Alabama PACT but it is not pre paid tuition. We set it up before my daughter was born but it could not start til we had the SSN. Now I direct deposit money every month. A friend who is a financial advisor set it up for us as well as retirement. He gave us a lot of options and we chose the 529 Virginia plan. Anyone can contribute to it so we ask for monetary gifts from family instead of toys since my daughter is still so young (15 months) to contribute to the college fund. Then my dad created another 529 account in her name to be able to pay the difference for out of state tution if she decides to do that for college.

I started a Upromise account for my daughters 6 years ago. What Upromise does is give you savings toward college when you buy items from participating companies. You do have to give them credit card information so they can track your spending with the companies. I have never in 6 years had any problems with this. You can also get family members to sign up so that their purchases give your children contributions. Once you get a certain amount in the account you can put the money in I believe it is called a 529 account to where it draws interest. Go to www.Upromise.com and check it out to see if it is for you. The state of Louisiana also has a 529 program. I am not sure where to get that information though. Hope this helps.

Last year I was faced with the same problem. Not sure which plan to go with, I spoke to some of the employees at my bank. I met with an investment specialist that is employed by my bank. He works for Hancock Investments which is a part of Hancock Bank. I chose to go with a 529 plan for each of them. I went with a less aggressive plan for the oldest and worked my way down to a more aggressive plan for the youngest. I have been very please with the returns I have seen so far on all three. Hope this helps you make your decision. If you have any questions, I would be happy to send you an answer.

We went with a friend of ours who is an Investment dealer. Her name is Lana K. Caldwell-Wargo and she works for PFS Investments ###-###-####.
We were looking into educational savings for our two girls, but decided to go with something called an UTMA, it is a trust fund. It has a better return rate (25% instead of 3%)than most educational savings and it can be applied to anything instead of having to just use it for schooling(for example if they decided to get married and wanted to use it for that instead of school). They're also able to use it sooner as far as age limit(18 years instead of 21 or 25 years old)and we are able to use it too if something ever happened to them.
Good things to ask when you're talking with a financial advisor. I hope this helped some.
N.

It is a very good idea to save for college now. We have 4 kids, ages 9,6,4,1 and each has a Coverdell account, you can put $2000 a year in and the kids withdraw it tas free. We use mutual fund companies of Columbia, Franklin Templeton, American Century and T. Rowe Price. We always pick aggressive growth as our fund of choice, very easy, just google them and look for Coverdell.

We began a 529 five years ago investing in American Funds through Edward Jones and have been so pleased with the results, we opened one for our new son. We also started Coverdell accounts, which can be used for private school tuition for both of our boys. We looked at the UTMA (UGMA) option but decided you can never be sure children will make wise decistions when they come into "cash" at such a young age. Whatever you do, just know you are taking a wonderful step towards making their life easier. We are praying the expectation of college beginning so early will embed in our children the importance of their education. I almost forgot to mention - we have 529s also through the Louisiana START savings program, but they are too new to evaluate the performance.

Look into a 529 College Savings Plan. In some states, you even get a tax deduction come "tax time" for making contributions. Also, you don't have to be living in the state that offers the 529 plan, in order to get it.

I'd suggest checking out Dave Ramsey's website (daveramsey.com), or calling him on his national radio show (contact details also at the website). I can't remember for sure, but I don't think he prefers the 529, but instead chooses the Education Savings Account, a.k.a., the Education "IRA" because it grows tax-free. We're not quite ready for that step yet, so I haven't looked too closely at it, so could be misremembering.

I had mutual funds through Edward Jones. I am not sure but don't think how much you put back by the time they get there, it is going to be sky high and you are going to need more and more. I did. But at least if you have something, the student loans won't be that much.
I was so so pleased with them. Some years they did quiet well and others so-so. I guess it was the same with any of them.

I work in higher education right now (BSC) and my husband works in admissions at MS State. We looked into the Alabama prepaid plan and I don't think it is worth it. I think you would make more in a ROTH IRA. We have "Child One" ROTH IRA set up and are hoping we can get a "Child TWO" ROTH IRA started. Make sure that these plans offer you the ability to invest in high growth mutual funds (Vanguard, American, etc.). We went through his family's investment broker in Tennessee and he is through Morgan Keegan. This kind of thing is so "online" now we really didn't care to need to have someone local. We look at everything online, manage our portfolios that way, and if we need to call our broker, we do but it is very rare.

I don't know if you or your husband have an investment ability through work but if you are in the medical or educational field, TIAA-CREF is a high yield performing 401K. I've been investing in that since I finished grad school in 1999. It would allow us to take it out early for first-time home purchase, emergency medical situations, dependent education, but it is mainly there for retirement.

We set up our 529 account with State Farm. Have you signed up for Upromise yet? Upromise sends money to your child's 529 account when you purchase certain brands. For us, It's only a few cents each month but it's FREE money.

I signed up for Upromise when my DD (now 5) was teeny but I do need to do more. I am also very fortunate that my parents put some money into a CD that will be for her when she goes to college. I'm still not sure about telling her about it when she gets older -- I want her to do her best and make good grades without thinking that she is automatically going to get a "free ride". Then, if she gets partial scholarships we could supplement it with the other money. If she got a full scholarship then the money could go toward grad school.

I have a 6 year old and we purchased a PACT plan for her. I have a 3 year old and we're contributing to a 529 Educational fund for her. I live in Alabama and this was purchased on the state treasury website. I went through a broker for the 529.

We are struggling now to get my 22 yr. old step-daughter out without huge debt for either of us and so far, so good! We are also trying to save some to be able to send two more girls to college (ages 9 and 12 now)if they want to go. I love Dave Ramsey and think you should check out his program or books if you have not. We also do 529 plans for our girls. They have these in almost every state now. We belong to the Utah one which consistently gets the best marks for low fees, etc. (When we joined, Alabama didn't have a plan yet - you might want to see if your state one gives you a tax break). Anybody can join any state and you can do it yourself, usually online. (www.UESP.com for the Utah one) Dave Ramsey likes the Roth IRAs and you can get info in brochure form at a bank or especially a credit union. Also check out Bankrate.com ...there is some very good info there to help you decide.
One other thing that is great for us is grandparents and older aunts and uncles. they want to do something for the kids at christmas or birthdays, so they contribute smaller or larger amounts. i let the kids deposit it so they see it. My dad gives them one toy or other present and puts $50 to $100 in an account for them. they are happy and it adds up. Cut back on toys by a 1/2 or 1/3 and put the rest in savings. It helps!

Not sure if you'd be interested in this or not but thought that I'd throw it out there.

I work at a bank in Louisiana and we have a "Just 4 Kids Savings Account".

www.peoplesstate.com

I use a Financial Advisor named Patrick Stites at Waddell & Reed in Nashville ###-###-####). However I noticed you are in Memphis and looked at Waddell & Reed's website and they do have a Memphis office. Their website is www.waddell.com

Discuss with your financial planner to decide whats best for you. We recently started an Education IRA for our son through the Virginia State Plan. You can start one in any state, it does not need to be the state you reside in, and your child can go to school pretty much anywhere in the US. Its set up like a Roth, our money grows tax free in the account (divided into mutual funds of varying risk/ror) and as long as he uses it in some way for school (tuition, books, supplies, room/board, fees etc) it will remain tax free. The account belongs to me, not him, so there is no way for him to "take the money and run." If he chooses not to go to college, or winds up not having any expenses for college, or if there is money left over when he's done, we can transfer the account to any family member, including me or my hubby if we choose to go back to school. Anyone who wishes to contribute to his education fund can do so easily. Since your kids are under 8, you could put in as little as 25/mo and see an enormous savings by the time they are ready for school.
This is important though - make sure that you are taking care of your retirement first. DH maximizes his retirement savings plan at work, and we contribute the maximum amounts in our IRAs before we put money in our kid(s) education plans. Your kids can earn scholarships, and you and they can always get tax deductible education loans, but there are no scholarships or loans to cover the cost for retirement.