How to Plan for your Child’s Future

As my husband and I added each of our 5 children into our lives throughout the last 10 years, many people have said to us, “Wow… can you imagine how much you’re going to be paying in college tuition?” It’s one of those things that we’ve always known about and (yes) always thought about, but we truly haven’t done the best (yet) in terms of saving up for their college educations. Five kids? Yes, it’s going to cost a ton, especially with 4 of them in college at the same time together. To be honest, we’ve always responded back to people’s remarks about how much college will cost us someday with something funny, like, “Yeah… we hope they all swim fast and get scholarships!” But truth be told, we want to be ready, we want to be prepared and we want to be smart with money for them and for their futures.

FutureAdvisor

Even with children as young as mine are now – 10, 9, 8, 6 and 1 – it’s important for me and my husband to start thinking NOW about their college educations and how much it will cost to put them through school. I don’t want them strapped with tons of student loans and payments long after they’ve graduated. I don’t want them in debt after college and feeling tons of pressure and stress to get everything paid off. When I graduated from college, I had a good chunk to pay off and it’s something that I really had to work hard at for years to pay off. I’ll never forget turning in that last payment to the loan office, it felt good. I felt relieved.

Audrey McClelland Brown University

If I can do anything to prevent the stress that I felt for my own children, I want to do it and I can start NOW with the help of FutureAdvisor. I can financially plan effectively, intelligently and easily right now, in present time for the future for each of my children.

I mean, the statistics are incredible and mind-boggling to see…

–In 2014, the average college graduate owed $33,000 in student loans
–70 percent of all students carry some debt when they graduate. 

–Among graduate-school students (Masters and PhDs), 15 percent come away with more than $100,000 worth of student loans.
–These debts have a negative impact on career choices, quality of life, and graduates’ ability to own a home.
–Young adults in America (aged 39 and under) now have a collective student loan balance of more than $700 billion.
–More than half of all student-loan borrowers are now delinquent in their payments, and borrowers who left school in 2005 have paid down just 38 percent of their debt.
–Most people DO NOT KNOW how to save and invest for their own future, or for their children’s education.
–Combine that with student debt, and many families are financially crippled, unable to reach their goals.
–57 percent of employees have saved less than $25,000 for their retirement, not including homes and pensions.
–28 percent have saved less than $1,000.

I’m stressed just reading these for my kids! I don’t want them to feel this financial burden. I guess my biggest fear has always been that me and my husband don’t make millions of dollars, so how can we possibly save for 5 kids?

Well, it is possible.

FutureAdvisor

FutureAdvisor manages your college savings plan for free. You don’t have to worry about spending out of pocket for it and anyone can easily do it. They help people save and invest in special, tax-advantaged college savings accounts to give your children a headstart. Amazingly, they don’t charge a management fee, and they don’t make a profit. The only fees investors pay are to the underlying funds, and they automatically help you find the best prices.

How do you start?

You head over to the site and start by answering a few simple questions. This way they’ll be able to help you estimate the cost of college and truly design a plan that matches your goals for your children and fits within your budget. This is the most important for me to see because it’s truly a personalized and customized plan.

Then FutureAdvisor literally analyzes your personal situation. They look at the laws specific to your state and your specific situation and identify the education-investment accounts that provide an exceptionally tax-efficient way for you to save (e.g. 529s, Coverdell ESA, UGMA, etc). This helps them find the best options for you and your family and then from there, they recommend accounts and manage your investments (again, all for free!).

The best part for me is that they manage the accounts and automatically invest contributions from you, adjusting the investments with your child’s age and changing tax laws. By using a tax-advantaged college savings account, we can grow wealth faster and ease the burden of student debt for our children.

FutureAdvisor does ALL this because they believe that every kid in America deserves a shot at higher education, without being financially crippled for decades.

How incredible is that?

You’re a true lifesaver FutureAdvisor… for me, but mostly for my children.

Thank you.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post with CafeMom and FutureAdvisor. All opinions are 100% my own.

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

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