Last week, we talked about ways to reduce your dependency on student loans. One of the single best ways to avoid costly loans is to plan ahead with a college savings plan. Known as a 529 Plan – after the federal tax code that allows you to save money on your taxes when you invest [...]
A recent article from the Dallas News alerted me to a problem with the Prepaid Tuition 529 Plan in Texas. Originally, the plan let investors withdraw their funds, plus earnings, even if the designated beneficiary wasn’t going to college in Texas. Now, however, the state of Texas is amending that benefit: If investors don’t use [...]
The Obama Administration is proposing a series of changes to 529 Plans, reports the LA Times, in order to encourage more middle class Americans to save money for college. 529 Plans allow you to contribute after-tax dollars, which then grow tax-free until withdrawal, as long as they are used for qualified education purposes. (To learn [...]
Consumer Reports recently published its May edition of Consumer Reports Money in which it ranked the 88 different 529 College Savings Plans. If you aren’t familiar with College Savings Plans, I recently reviewed them in our “Best Ways to Save for College” series — check it out here. Or you can read a more in-depth [...]
On Monday, I launched a new series on the best ways to save for college. We explored 529 college savings plans, concluding that when you carefully compare fees and state benefits, you can really score with a college savings plan. Today we are looking at the other type of 529 Plan — the prepaid tuition [...]
Conventional wisdom tells us that it’s never too late to start saving. But is that necessarily true when it comes to college costs? If you are a parent, how much do you need to save in order to pay (or even help to pay) for your child’s undergraduate education? Let’s say you are have a [...]
Warning: This turned into a bit of a personal rant! If you have 50 minutes to spare, let me recommend that you track down an interview with Alan Michael Collinge, author of The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History — and How We Can Fight Back. Collinge is angry about his [...]
If you are a parent who has diligently socked away funds in a 529 Plan for your children’s college education, you have probably lost a bundle in the last year. Seeing your kids’ nest egg dip down is scary, no doubt about it. When the panic starts to set in, some of you are probably [...]
