Tips for saving for college

It's no secret that our children are the future of our world. We want our own kids to be the best and the brightest of course, and that often means thinking well ahead to their college days. Even if your child is just months old, saving for their college is sound thinking.

The average cost for four years of private college is $50,490---and the price is only going up. In today's uncertain economy, a college education is becoming a requirement in order to be successful in life.

Unfortunately, even if you start saving at birth, $50,000 is a princely sum. You'll need to be socking away $231 a month in order to be able to pay for that, and that's not including dorms, textbooks, and incidentals such as food.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can help make saving for college easier.

Choose investments

With years still to come between your child and going to college, there's plenty you can do to make the most of the money you put away. Investments are a great long term solution to help make it a little bit easier.

By investing in bonds or long term stocks, you can help your cash earn money over time. By socking way a few hundred at a time in a mutual fund where the risk is spread over many different investments. It can mean thousands of dollars you didn't have to save simply by investing. Always speak to a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

 There are even bank accounts designed to help with savings that give you a little tax relief, but they also have a drawback, there's a 10% penalty plus taxes if you decide to use it for anything besides secondary education.

Help your child look for scholarships

If you tell your older kid to look for scholarships, don't count on it being done. Most teens don't know how to go about getting scholarships, and fear of the unknown can be greater than fear of not going to college. 

Instead of telling your kid to do it and leaving it at that, help your child look for scholarships, fill out forms, and make sure any tasks such as essays or testing gets done. A full ride scholarship will make it so that your kid can put that college savings to other uses—such as the down payment on a home.

Start as early as possible

The longer you wait to save, the harder it's going to be. It's true that your child can probably get loans to cover college and pay them off over time, but if there big dream is to become a doctor, they can struggle with poverty for years even while making a great deal of money. Saving them this heartache, or at least helping them reduce it, is well worth a little saving.

College is important, and having a little money in the bank even should it not play out can be very beneficial to your child. Give them all the financial benefits you can manage by saving early, and putting aside as much as you can to reach that $50,000 goal.