I know from personal experience just how much it costs to go to college these days. Now that I have a child, I sometimes find myself wondering what the cost of a higher education will be by the time that my son is old enough to attend. He is just about eighteen months old right now, so I have a while to plan for it but that does not make me worry any less.
When I attended college as an undergraduate, I was extremely lucky in that my parents had made saving for college a priority and they paid for my sister and I to get our bachelors’ degrees. I know that my dad worked his tail off in order to be able to do that, and I will always be thankful for it. When I went to law school, I graduated with two degrees and educational debt equivalent to that of a mortgage. It is going to take a while to pay those loans off, and it certainly opened my eyes to just how much higher education costs.
All reports that I have seen indicate that the cost of higher education continues to rise, as it has been rising for years. With the economy the way it is and household budgets stretched very thin, it is difficult to sock away college savings especially when your little genius is still in diapers. However, even though the astronomical estimates of future college costs are enough to scare anyone into thinking “why bother trying to save, what we can put aside won’t even make a dent in it”, there are reasons why you should do whatever you can to start saving for your children’s education right now.
Perhaps the most important reason to save what you can for your children’s education now is that any savings reduces the amount that you have to borrow later. Also, if your children are still young, even if you are putting aside only a little each month it has time to grow if you invest it in a 529 college savings plan or other type of investment. While it seems like I am not able to save much for my son’s college right now, I am not letting that deter me from trying. Whether my husband and I are able to pay for all of his expenses or not, I know that he will appreciate whatever we are able to do for him and that is all I need to help me stay committed to saving.
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