Last week I spoke to a group of financial advisors about college planning. Like most speakers, I try to prioritize the most important things when I speak to a group. And after spending a bit of time thinking about the most important things, I realized I should share them here as well. So here are my Most Important Things to…

Changes to student loan programs are one part of budget proposals aiming to cut $330 billion to fund the extension of 2018’s tax cuts. The proposal includes changes to both available loans and repayment programs. While none of this is final, it is part of House Republicans’ plan for reconciliation, a legislative process that allows a bill to be passed…

Qualified expenses are expenses that are eligible for tax- and penalty-free distributions from your 529. A subset of qualified expenses is also eligible for the American Opportunity Tax Credit, but only if you don’t use your 529 to pay them. 529s can be used for most college expenses: Of course, that’s far from all the college expenses. Some that are…

April is Financial Literacy Month and you probably just did your taxes, so now seems like a good time to talk about the tax benefits of 529 plans– and there are lots! These tax benefits add up to significant additional dollars available for college, so much so that it’s surprising that only about 1/3 of families saving for college use…

If I had a Top 10 list of frequently-asked questions, this would be on it. When are college costs actually due, and how do you pay them? Is that actually two questions? Your first college payment is the deposit which is paid when you accept admission, normally on or before May 1. Usually this is a nominal (relative to college…