The Value of a College Education
Sending children to college continues to be one of the most important financial goals for families in America. There are good reasons for that. Statistics show that college graduates earn nearly twice the income of high school graduates and experience greater job satisfaction, longer lives, lower divorce rates and higher levels of overall happiness.
The Reality of Paying for It
Unfortunately, college inflation that continues to rise at rates double to quadruple general inflation and a financial aid system that intimidates and confuses have discouraged families from saving.
This year, as they have for decades, families of high school seniors will make some very important financial decisions related to college. A small percentage of them will have thought about the tax ramifications of liquidating their college nest egg, the impact of distributions from EE bonds and 529 plans on financial aid and tax credits, how the interest rates on student loans are determined, the advantages of lowering adjusted gross income in the year before college, how a college budget relates to a family budget, need-based aid versus merit-based aid, parent debt versus student debt, private college versus public, or the true value of a college education and reality of paying for it.
Despite monumental changes to the tax and financial aid systems two important facts remain:
1. College prices rise too rapidly
2. Families don't save enough money.
How can College Planning University help?
We can't control the cost of college, but we can help families develop hopeful and realistic solutions for saving and paying for it. We do this through college planning seminars for parents and training for financial planners.
We've trained thousands of financial planning professionals and have spoken to more than 40,000 families in over 30 states on the topic of financial planning for college. While we are well-versed in all six components of the college planning process, we have few peers in our primary focus areas of Education and Clarification.
At CPU we educate families and the professionals that serve them through our college planning bootcamps, workshops and seminars. We then help families clarify what's most important and align their finances through our Values-Based College PlanningSM tools and inventories.