Financial Check-Up: Tuition Bills Begin

As high-school seniors’ college search kicks into high gear, many parents are fretting about how to pay.
While an ideal college savings plan would have started years ago, it’s not too late to catch up. Here are some moves families can make during the next few months to boost savings in the right accounts and ease [...]

New Ways Parents Can Save for College

The State of College Savings National Survey finds 44 percent of parents are not very confident they will reach their savings goals this year, compared to 31 percent last year. 41 percent of parents have saved nothing at all, and 28 percent have saved less than $5,000.
According to the survey, the most successful savers, parents [...]

College saving: How to avoid losses, save on taxes

As parents of young children see teenagers head off to college for the fall semester, they may be fretting about how they’ll be able to meet the rising cost of tuition when their time comes.
That includes looking at 529 plans that offer special tax benefits on college savings and are named after the Internal Revenue [...]

College Finance 101: Beware of Toxic Debt

College students appear to be frighteningly ignorant about one of the biggest risks they’re likely to face in higher education: Toxic debt.
An analysis released today found that nearly two-thirds of the undergraduate students who borrowed for school took out something called “private” student loans before they had exhausted their borrowing power with federally-guaranteed student loans. [...]

Rent Or Buy Textbooks Online To Save Money

Textbooks are necessary for your educational success, but they are lousy purchases. They cost a lot to buy, lose value quickly, and worth little when you sell them. Instead of buying your textbooks from college campus store this semester, you could try renting them from online bookstores. If you still want to own them, you [...]

Financial Planning : College Funding

The first thing to remember about college planning is TAKE CARE OF THE PARENTS FIRST. Too often money gets deposited into UTMAs or UGMAs or 529 Plans for the kids and then the parents encounter financial problems like loss of work or medical emergencies. These are IRREVOCABLE deposits.
Sacrificing the parent’s retirement for the kids education [...]

Students Get Squeezed between Credit Card Companies and Colleges

College students beware: School is back in session in a few short weeks, and that also means credit card companies are gearing up to tempt you with as many offers as possible. Often, you’ll see their tables set up in student common areas, laden with enticing gimmicks – from baseball hats to MP3 players.
Selling student [...]

Personal finance: College vs. retirement

Sven Eklof, 32, says he and his wife, Irma, 31, have a pretty good handle on their retirement savings, but planning for the skyrocketing costs of education are something he has questions about. Upon the advice of a local financial adviser, he is interested in opening a 529 account to help address his family’s financial [...]

Investment Rules for 529 College Savings Plans

Saving for college is always hard and is even more so during the current economic downturn. One of the most popular college savings plans is the “529 plans.” Recently, the IRS announced that participants in 529 plans will be able to change their investments more often in 2009 than in past years. The IRS will [...]

Taxes and Your Investments

Ordinary income taxes on short-term capital gains and interest income can go as high as 35%, while long-term capital gains and qualified dividend income are taxed at rates not exceeding 15% (0% if you are in the 10% or 15% tax bracket). One way to help maintain your portfolio’s growth potential is to invest in [...]

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