If you have been following me for almost a decade, you probably know we are homeschooling our kids. It has always been in our best interest to give them the best education to fit their needs. Our eldest, Kuya V, is already in his last year in elementary. And we have decided that he would be moving to a public school setting by high school. It was his choice to move out of homeschooling and we respect that. And in less than 7 years, he would be taking up college. From homeschooling, we are now entering preparation for college.
To Enter College or Not
We believe in continuous education and that it should not be confined to the four corners of a room. My husband and I would not push our children to enter college, but if they want to in the future, we will support them.
Going to college entails expenses beyond tuition fees. I took my undergraduate course at a state university and although a big chunk of my tuition fees was paid for by the government, my parents still had to spend a hefty amount on my board and other expenses. Despite the fact that we still have at least 6 years to prepare for the college expenses that our son might incur, it is prudent for parents to prepare early on.
Calculating How Much to Save
The pandemic hit us so hard that our savings, business, and investments suffered. If it was not for our savings and investments from years ago we would have had a hard time surviving the Covid-19 lockdown. We were fortunate enough to learn about financial literacy early on in our marriage and were able to somehow financially afloat in the last two years. Hence, we value and are very much willing to save for our child's college years.
Recently, I learned about Savingscalculator.org, an online calculator that is easy to use. The website has different calculators that can help you plan ahead your savings, goals, CDs, and retirements. The calculator uses a default US Dollars currency but the calculation is basically almost the same wherever you are in the world.
The education savings calculator will help parents figure out how much we need to set aside monthly to pay for school when Kuya V goes to college. Just enter the number of years before your child goes to college, your savings, gross annual income, the annual return on investments, the annual school cost inflation rate, and the estimated cost of school. Include in your estimate the tuition and fees, room and board, transportation, books, and other student expenses. The website then will auto-compute for you the monthly deposit you need to be able to fund the college expenses.
If the education savings calculator may be too much for you, you can also use the Savings Goal Calculator. In the form, type in the amount of money you would like to save, how much you currently have set aside, the anticipated rate of return, along with how many years you intend to save money for. The calculator will then compute for you the future value of your current savings, how much of the gap exists, and how much more money you will need to save each month to reach your goal by a specific date. You can also use this for calculating for a family trip or a shopping trip.
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Save Early and Invest
With the worldwide inflation rates that have been moving since the beginning of this year, it is wise for all families to look into and save for what's ahead. It is also important for parents to have financial literacy and be able to know the different ways we can make our money work for us. Saving is important but it is also equally important to invest our money in ways that can grow bigger someday. We owe it to our children to prepare for their future.
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