That title was a trick. I’m actually going to write about how much you should contribute to a 529 first. Lately I’ve heard versions of the same question again and again: After a year of no travel, eating out or other activities, people are sitting on extra cash that they want to direct towards college. Many are wondering what’s the…
Browsing Category
Tax Credits and Deductions
There’s been a great deal of chatter around the topic of free college recently. Because a lot of that chatter is along the lines of, “Why save for college? It’s going to be free!” I think it’s worth a quick review of the content of actual free college proposals. This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced the…
May 1 is looming, so many families are facing some big decisions. I’m trying to centralize tools for the key parts of acceptance in a single post. Below are a set of links to the key financial issues involved. First, though, I want to talk about cash flow planning: how much can you spend out of pocket every year? Most…
Good news: This time around, if you get the stimulus payment and you claim your college student as a dependent on your taxes, you will get a stimulus payment for them as well. The just-passed American Rescue Plan includes $1,400 payments to people in the following income bands, by tax filing status: Single: AGI up to $75,000; phased out at…
It’s back-to-basics week for me and time to talk about getting started saving for college. If you want your children to go to college, you need to save. Period. That’s the easy part. Harder is where and how much. People worry that they’re going to lose out on financial aid if they save. Yes, your savings will add a small…