September is College Savings Month – A Look Back at Education Planning

September – the month when summer gives way to fall, when we’re all supposed to stop wearing white, and when the NFL gets back underway. September also marks National College Savings month. As schools from Kindergarten through College begin their fall terms, now is as good a time as any to highlight the importance of preparing for college – both academically and financially.

College is a time of robust learning in all facets of life. This education spans far beyond the breadth of any curriculum and encompasses lessons learned about life, love, responsibility, and self-discovery. All of these lessons are almost impossible to put a price tag to. We can, however, put a price tag to the financial benefits of a college degree. According to collegeboard.org, the median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients age 25 and older with no advanced degree working full time were $24,600 (67%) higher than those of high school graduates [1]. Of course, that boon to future earnings comes at a large upfront cost. In 2017-2018, the average annual cost of tuition and fees spanned from about $10,000 for in-state public college to almost $35,000 for a private school [2]! Given these astronomical (and always rising) sticker prices, the importance of saving for college cannot be stressed enough.

In honor of College Savings month, we’ve compiled a list of previous articles that we’ve published about education savings and other related topics – we hope you find these resources helpful.

For Parents

• To start off, Yusuf wrote an excellent piece explaining 529 plans in 2017. He also touched on Yeske Buie’s preferred 529 plan, Utah’s my529 (formerly known as UESP). Read on to learn more about pre-paid tuition plans, 529 savings plans, and our investment strategy for education savings accounts.
• Next, we share a piece that examines the balance of saving for both your child’s education and your own retirement. As the saying goes, there are no scholarships for retirement! For this reason and others, it is important to maintain a strategic balance between your retirement savings and your education savings. Read on for our full thoughts.
• Yeske Buie held a Q&A session with Tony Sutphin of YesToCollege.org. In this piece, Tony shares why you should complete the FAFSA even if you don’t think you qualify for financial aid.

For Students

• In this article, the Yeske Buie team provides advice for incoming college freshmen. As mentioned before, there’s a lot more to learn in college than the curriculum. The piece shares some words of wisdom that the team has gleaned over the years.
• Yeske Buie knows that financial planning is not just for boomers. Do you? Here, we share our original announcement of Senior Financial Planner, Yusuf Abugideiri’s and former Yeske Buie resident Russell Kroeger’s article on a Financial Planning Framework for the Millennial Generation. Read on to learn about how this framework addresses generational worldviews, the balance between instant and delayed gratification, and collaborating authentically with millennials.
• Lastly, Ryan Klemm wrote an article about post-college challenges. No, not jobs and apartment hunting, but student loan repayment. While this topic can be daunting, Ryan’s piece does an excellent job at explaining the ins and outs of student loans.

For Everyone

Inspired by the back-to-school season, we hosted a webinar where we shared our thoughts on some of the most common questions related to the education planning journey. You can watch the recording of the webinar below.