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While many retired clergy choose to enjoy their well-deserved season of rest, some seek ways to continue nurturing their spiritual calling.
College is expensive and it seems to get pricier and pricier every year. In the 2021 Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid Report, the College Board reported that from 1991 to 1992 and 2021 to 2022, the average four-year public college’s tuition and fees more than doubled, and private institutions almost doubled in price.
From 2022 to 2023, average estimated budgets (tuition and fees, room and board, and allowances for books and supplies, transportation and other personal expenses) for full-time undergraduate students are:
Most parents aim to help their children with the cost of an education, so they can graduate from college debt free. There are several vehicles you can choose to invest for college savings. In the first of a two-part series, we share best practices to consider and the first of three college saving options. Let’s start with some saving guidelines.
College Savings Options
There are several options to choose from when saving for college. CDs, regular savings accounts and money market funds can be a good place to park your short-term savings. However, they may not be a suitable long-term strategy for college savings because their rates of return won’t help with college inflation, and they don’t offer any tax advantages for college savers. Please consult with your financial planner to assess your personal financial portfolio.
To get ahead in the college savings game, you should consider using strategies that offer some type of federal tax advantage if they are used to save for college: 529 plans, Coverdell Education Savings accounts and Roth IRAs.
The first option we will discuss is a 529 Savings Plan, an investment account that offers tax benefits when used to pay for qualified education expenses for a designed beneficiary.
There are two types of 529 plans: college savings plans and prepaid tuition plans.
Some characteristics of a 529 College Savings Plan include:
Watch for part two in this series next month. We'll share information about Coverdell Education Savings Accounts and Roth IRAs.
1. https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing
2. These numbers are presented for illustrative purposes only.
3. https://www.savingforcollege.com/
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Translations of any materials into languages other than English are intended solely as a convenience to the non-English-reading public. We have attempted to provide an accurate translation of the original material in English, but due to the nuances in translating to a foreign language, slight differences may exist.
Las traducciones de cualquier material a idiomas que no sean el inglés son para la conveniencia de aquellos que no leen inglés. Hemos intentado proporcionar una traducción precisa del material original en inglés, pero debido a las diferencias de la traducción a un idioma extranjero, pueden existir ligeras diferencias.
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