You want to give your kids a college education. College has gotten expensive enough that paying for it takes real planning, especially if you earn too much for need-based aid but not enough to write the check without noticing.
I’ll walk you through the whole thing: how much to save and where, how the aid formulas treat your income and assets, how to compare schools by what you’d actually pay, where the good scholarships are, and how to borrow if you have to. The goal isn’t just getting your kids through school. It’s getting them through school and still retiring on time.
Step one is a budget. If your kids are young, we'll figure out how much to save each month and which account to use. If you've got a high schooler, we'll look at how your income and assets show up on the aid forms and how to avoid the mistakes that quietly raise your cost.
Where your kid goes is the biggest cost decision you'll make. We'll compare schools by net price to your family, not sticker price, alongside fit, major, and size, so the short list is one you can afford.
Scholarships are the best aid there is, because you don't pay them back. We'll target the ones worth chasing: large, renewable all four years, and ideally awarded automatically for grades and test scores.
How you pay matters as much as how much. Once the school is picked, you'll know the four-year cost. We'll build a payment plan that uses your 529, your cash flow, and loans (only if needed) in the right order.
If you have to borrow, borrow well. We'll compare the options and steer toward favorable rates and terms, including income-driven repayment, forgiveness programs where they apply, and cosigner release.
After graduation, if there are loans left, we'll plan the smartest way to pay them down. And because for most parents retirement is next, we'll start on that while the kids are finishing up.
Starting early and having a plan makes the whole thing calmer, cheaper, and more likely to end well. Here are the four steps.