How to save for your child’s education

Our children are growing up in a very different time than we did. They are exposed to more opportunities than there ever were for us with “traditional” roles and positions no longer belonging to only female or male. Technology has changed the way that we do business in every sphere and people who are not “techno-savvy” or entrepreneurial run the risk of missing out on employment opportunities. Take Mark Zuckerberg as an example, using free web development tools, he created a social media platform that has become a household name. Today, any industry that you can imagine makes use of technologies like the internet, and computers.

According to recent studies, skills development in the 21st century will be aimed at developing;

• • digital age literacy
• • inventive thinking
• • effective communication
• • high productivity and efficiency

With the rise of Artificial intelligence and Digital Technology, a lot of manual work has been taken over by computers. This means that our children will have more freedom to pursue their passions, making innovation, problem solving, creativity and efficiency the top skills in high demand in the future. But how can you as a parent prepare them for this financially, and how much do you need to plan for?

How much student loan debt do you think the average college student racks up by the time they graduate? According to the wall street journal, the average college student loan debt is at a whopping 30,672.48 GBP. You can start saving for college now, by opening a college fund. It's not easy but with focused, dedication, hard work and careful planning it's possible to save enough so your child can go through college debt free!

If you want to see how much you should have saved based on your child's age, multiply the child's current age by 2,474.19GBP for an in-state public 4-year college, 4,123.65GBP for an out-of-state public 4-year college and 5,772.20 for a private non-profit 4-year college.

The first step to start saving money is to figure out how much you spend.

• • Record your expenses.
• • Budget for savings.
• • Find ways you can cut your spending
• • Decide on your priorities
• • Pick the right tools.
• • Make saving automatic.
• • Watch your savings grow.