Yes, you can use funds in your 529 account to pay for off campus housing, but it’s not as simple as just adding up rent, utilities and food bills each month and withdrawing that amount. Instead, you need to check with your school’s financial aid office to determine what the off campus room and board figure is for your school….
So it’s come to this: Your student is in college. Hooray! You’ve got some savings to pay for some of it. Hooray again! You’ll pay for some with cash flow and borrow for some of the rest. How do you manage and prioritize that? Brent Hunsberger’s column from this weekend has some great information.
Using other people’s money to pay for your child’s college may seem too good to be true. But there are some ways to do this, besides scholarships. One is rewards credit cards that contribute cash back to a 529 account. If you are accruing frequent flyer miles or another reward and not using it, it may be worth looking at…
The crazy number of pictures on Facebook of my friends’ kids graduating from high school means it’s time to talk about how you get money out of the 529 plan to which you’ve been diligently (or otherwise) contributing. First of all, a 529 plan isn’t like an HSA or medical savings account where you get a debit card to use…
Regardless of who is going to be paying back the loan, it’s worth looking at both parent and student loans when you consider borrowing for college. Each has its pros and cons and depending on your situation, one may be better than the other. In general, interest paid on student loan debt—federal or private loans—is tax-deductible to the named borrower,…