Recently, I posted a simple question on Facebook: “What’s the biggest personal finance struggle you have currently?” My goal was to check the pulse of what real people were dealing with when it comes to important decisions about money. Thankfully, I received many good responses that may be the inspiration for future posts, but one [...]
Paying for College from 529 Plans? Not so Fast…
September 29, 2015 By
It’s the summer before your rising college freshman leaves home for his or her college adventure, and you’ve just received the first bill. Thankfully, you’ve been diligent to sock away funds for your child’s tuition in a tax-advantaged college savings account, such as a 529 plan. Years before, you thought ahead to this day, and set aside [...]
Avoid These College Savings Plan Withdrawal Traps
February 23, 2015 By
If you have a soon-to-be high school graduate for whom you’ve been diligently stashing cash in a college savings plan for, you might be wondering the best way to start withdrawing funds. Class enrollment is only a few months away, and now is the time to have a plan in place. Unfortunately, because of the [...]
Clark Howard Says Beware of Private Student Loans
April 28, 2014 By
Last week, Clark Howard reported a scary potential “gotcha” with a private student loans: “Picture this: You’re paying on your student loan as agreed and suddenly your grandparent or parent who co-signed the loan dies. Do you get a temporary forbearance or a note of condolence from the lender? No. According to the Consumer Financial Protection [...]
College Aid for the Affluent
March 10, 2014 By
The article below appeared in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend. It provides several strategies for higher income individuals to put themselves in a position for need based financial aid. While the article is quite informative and outlays several strategies that I encourage our clients to use, in reality, the most effective strategy for [...]
Where is Your Tuition Money Going?
January 22, 2014 By
As someone who has three kids in college, articles like the one below are quick to catch my attention. It is a very interesting piece from the Wall Street Journal about how affluent students subsidize less affluent students, even at state schools. It is quite an interesting read, and I think you will find it informative. [...]
Is College Worth It?
January 20, 2014 By
The cost of a college education continues to increase faster than just about anything else these days, and a generation of college graduates are still having trouble finding jobs in their chosen fields. Many of them are still working multiple part-time jobs or moving back in with mom and dad just to make ends meet. [...]
How to Graduate Debt Free
August 20, 2013 By
As we have conversations with clients about the high cost of sending their kids to college, one of the things we try to point out is that if you are willing to work at it, there are ways to drastically cut the “ticker price” of a college education. If you are willing to go in-state, [...]
What’s Really Immoral About Student Loans
July 1, 2013 By
As someone that will have three children in college in the fall, I am, as you can imagine, quite sensitive to the rising cost of higher education. In the news today, Congress is debating whether to allow interest rates on student loans to go up, but I would argue that is not the real issue–the [...]
Should Your Teenager Get a Summer Job?
June 13, 2013 By
source: SATprepaventura.com Recently, Jon Houk had a discussion with a client about planning for college for high school age teenagers, and since Jon has three college age kids of his own, you might say he speaks from some personal experience. One of the things he suggested was to look at doing SAT prep work in the summers. [...]
