A recent Sallie Mae study shows that on average, parents begin saving for college when their child is 7 years old. This makes sense: it’s right around when a child transitions from preschool or full-time daycare to full-time school, so for many families it’s the first time that they have any financial breathing room. Continue reading Why Saving Early for College is So Important
Category Archives: 529 Plans
OR 529 Part 2: Which is Better?
The follow-up question to the Oregon College Savings Plan tax change is: Am I better off with the 2020 tax benefit or the 2019 one? The answer, as is so often the case, is “it depends.” Continue reading OR 529 Part 2: Which is Better?
Changes to OR 529 Plan Tax Benefits
Fellow Oregonians may have received an email today from the Oregon College Savings Plan about changes in the state tax benefit beginning in 2020. These changes create some opportunities for increased tax savings over the next several years. Continue reading Changes to OR 529 Plan Tax Benefits
FAFSA vs Profile
The FAFSA gets a lot of attention right around now, but it’s only one of two financial aid forms. The other is the CSS Profile, used primarily by private colleges and universities.
The Profile differs from the FAFSA in several major respects: Continue reading FAFSA vs Profile
FAFSA Basics: Parent Assets
Parent assets seem to be the area that most families and planners focus on, despite the fact that they typically have the smallest impact on the formula of each of the components. Strategies and tactics to minimize parent assets abound, but for most families these result more in nibbling around the edges than actually making a significant dent in EFC. Continue reading FAFSA Basics: Parent Assets
Late-Stage College Savings Strategies
One of the bigger frustrations about 529 plans that I hear from parents is their reliance on investments to fund college. In the early accumulation years, parents don’t like the seemingly large allocations to fixed income that many plans have. As college nears, parents’ fears tend to group around two risk factors: market risk, whereby you might lose some or all of your savings in a poorly-timed market downturn; and inflation risk, where a conservative investment allocation means your savings are losing purchasing power due to inflation. Continue reading Late-Stage College Savings Strategies
529 Withdrawals
529 withdrawals are always pro-rata contributions and earnings. That means that if you contributed $30,000 to your account over the years and it’s now worth $40,000, then your withdrawal will be 75% contributions and 25% earnings. That’s moot in the case of a qualified withdrawal, but it matters for a non-qualified one: tax and penalties will apply to the earnings portion. On the federal side, it’s taxed at the marginal rate of the person Continue reading 529 Withdrawals
Why 529s Always Make Sense
It’s easy to explain to parents of younger children why 529s make sense: Contribute now and your account grows tax-free for 18 years until college. If you live in one of the more than 30 states that offers a tax deduction, that’s an even bigger incentive. Here in Oregon, for example, we get a tax deduction for the first $4,865 in contributions to the Oregon College Savings Plan. If I contributed that much for my newborn (well, they act like newborns sometimes) I’d get an immediate return of 9% (state tax rate) or $437.85. Suppose that my account then grows for 18 years at 5% (I’m drastically simplifying the math here), I’d have almost $12,000 when my child was ready to start college, and no tax bill to access it. Added bonus: the FAFSA and Profile don’t count that gain as income in their formulas, unlike how it would be treated if it were in a taxable account. Continue reading Why 529s Always Make Sense
College Prep by Grade
I gave a financial aid talk to college and career center volunteers at our high school recently. One question stood out: “This is a lot of information to absorb at once. Can you break it down into some specific suggestions by grade?” Two ideas are important here: College planning is a process that should start well before senior year, and there are things that can be done at any point to make things go more smoothly when the time comes to start applying. So here goes. Continue reading College Prep by Grade
FAFSA Questions
I get a lot of good questions sent via comments or email and thought they might be of interest to others besides just the person who asked. So here goes: Continue reading FAFSA Questions