College Planning Considerations

This presentation conveys four ways to pay for college and covers key considerations.

When thinking about how best to plan for college, it’s important to consider all four types of money. Free money will often depend on either merit scholarships, or need based financial aid. The 7 factors should be reviewed to see if you may qualify for need based financial aid. Parent Income, Student Income, Parent Assets, Student Assets, Parent Ages, # of Children in Household, # of Children in College. Found money should be addressed as early as possible. Wealth transfers should be reduced or eliminated, and cash flows made efficient. Consider all borrowing sources, understand the plan to borrow, and consider borrowing early for the best loan terms. If all sources of funds will not cover the total cost of college, be extremely careful before reaching into retirement savings. Solving a short term college funding issue by damaging you long term retirement plans could be the wrong tradeoff.

No math presented on this screen.