As college gets closer for your child or your kids, even if you’re planning way ahead, it can suddenly complicate your finances and your personal financial goals.
When your kids were younger or you were just getting started, life was probably simpler. But now you’re trying to plan, save, and invest for college while you manage your income, your monthly budget and expenses, and hopefully your retirement and other goals. College is suddenly this big new piece of the financial puzzle, and somehow you have to fit it into the overall picture.
Things can get even more complicated if you’re divorced, own a business, invest in real estate, or have an inheritance. Now, economic uncertainties are further complicating things, and a lot of families are worried about possible rising inflation again, the impact on their retirement or other financial goals, and how this might affect college.
This is why college planning is often a turning point for families in their overall financial planning. As you deal with college, you start taking a much closer look at the rest of your finances and your long-term goals.
Of course, if you’re like most families, you probably want to help your kids pay for all of college without student loans or student debt. You’d probably like to send them to the best school for their goals and needs too, without financial limitations that can get in the way of their dreams.
But those are big goals that require a lot of planning, saving and potentially investing, and you have to balance them against your retirement, your monthly budget, and your other financial needs and goals. It can seem pretty overwhelming.
This is why college planning often leads many parents and families to consider hiring a professional financial advisor or switching to one who can help them with college and specializes in all aspects of financial planning.
Advantages of Working with a Professional Financial Advisor
Professional financial advisors can help you plan, save, invest, and manage money for all of your life goals. This includes retirement, investing, estate planning, long-term care, running a business or real estate, and planning for college. Advisors don’t just help you with saving and investing. They can also help with cash flow, debt management, tax planning, insurance planning, and every aspect of your financial life.
When you’re facing college, this can be a crucial lifeline, and it’s the smartest strategy for anyone who wants to make the most of their financial future. You could try doing it all on your own, but most people don’t have the time, resources, or professional expertise to do that—especially when there are a lot of financial areas and complexities involved.
This is why we have professionals who are trained, certified, and experienced in every area of financial planning and advising. It’s also why I ended up becoming a financial advisor.
How Long-Term Financial Planning Leads to Good College Planning
I’ve been advising clients as a Certified Financial Planner® for over 25 years, but, originally, I began my career as an engineer right out of college. Early in my career, I wanted start turning my income into an advantage, and I wanted to start planning my finances to reach my long-term goals. But there was a lot to learn, and, as I started investing, saving money, and looking at opportunities in real estate, tax savings, and other financial planning, I found my passion.
I wasn’t thrilled with the corporate world, and I loved financial planning and wanted to keep learning more about it, as much as possible. So, I started training to become a professional financial advisor, and that led me to get certified and leave my engineering career to start working as a financial planner. As I did that and started working with clients, college consistently became a huge part of the financial process.
To help my clients with college and help them maximize their college savings, investing, financial aid, and scholarships, I had to become an expert in college and not just in retirement, investing, business ownership, real estate, and all those other areas.
So, that’s what led me here, and, after more than 25 years of working with hundreds of clients and connecting with thousands of readers, listeners, and viewers, I can tell you that college is a big turning point for most individuals and families.
They reach that point where life isn’t so simple anymore, and they feel like they’re getting in over their head. Or they’re just not really prepared to do this on their own. So, they start thinking about hiring a professional financial planner and advisor, and college adds another huge layer to the equation.
If you’re in that situation now, you’re not alone, and it’s definitely time to act. Chances are, you’re already missing out on opportunities to plan, save, invest, and manage your money more efficiently and effectively, so you can make college dreams come true and do what’s best for you, your family, and your long-term goals.
However, before you evaluate or choose a potential advisor, there’s a key consideration you need to take in mind.
Before You Hire an Advisor: Ensuring College Expertise
Before you start searching for a financial advisor or evaluating one who’s currently helping you, there’s a crucial consideration you need to keep in mind. Very few financial advisors are also experts in college financial planning.
Most just rely on a software program to enter your financial info and the price of a college you’re considering, and it will calculate a monthly amount that you need to save in order to pay those costs. Some might also encourage you to apply for financial aid and open up a 529 college savings plan, if you don’t already have one.
But this ignores almost everything about good college financial planning, which includes calculating your financial aid eligibility and your true net college costs. If you find need-based and merit scholarships, select the right schools, and apply smart college investment and tax strategies, you can potentially grow and maximize your college savings, dramatically reduce your costs, and avoid or minimize student loans and debt.
However, most financial advisors don’t have any knowledge or experience in these college strategies. In fact, many reach out to me for insight and advice, and, sometimes, I work together with them to help their clients.
However, in most cases, the best strategy is to work with an advisor who can handle everything for you, including retirement, saving, investing, money management, and college. This way, you can do it all through a single advisor. This helps simplify your overall financial and college planning, and it can potentially save you time and thousands of dollars in the process.
How to Start Working with a Financial Advisor Who’s a College Expert
To get started, you can reach out to me. As a Certified Financial Planner® and one of the nation’s leading experts in college planning, I can help you assess your financial situation, provide insights and guidance, and work with you to determine your best path forward. I can help you figure the best ways to fit college into your overall financial planning and really pursue your life-long financial and personal goals.
We can start with a free College Planning Checkup, where we’ll take a look at where you are in the process, your best next steps, and strategies to help you start fitting college into a larger financial plan for your family.
Typically, here is what we’ll do during your College Planning Checkup:
- Review your college financial plan, savings, and investments
- Assess your student’s and family’s college situation
- Review the schools on your list and your potential net costs
- Determine which schools are the right fit for your goals
- Assess your college funding goals and whether you’re on track
- Review opportunities for need-based aid and merit aid
- Look for opportunities to help you save on college costs
- Review potential financial changes before you apply for financial aid
- Determine if there are potential tax breaks to help you save for college
This is just part of what we can do to help you develop a comprehensive college financial plan for your family and build it together with the rest of your retirement, saving, investing, and overall financial plan.
To get started, schedule your College Planning Checkup now, and let’s get to work on your financial future.
Disclosures
Always remember that investments, assets and how you manage them involve risk. Please carefully consider your investments and assets and any risks, charges and expenses.
In addition to working with a Certified Financial Planner® to help manage your assets appropriately, it’s also a good idea to consult a tax professional, to make sure you understand the state and federal tax rules around how you make withdrawals on inherited assets and how you manage them.
Brad Baldridge is a Registered Representative, Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA / SIPC. Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Fixed insurance services offered through Baldridge Wealth Management. Cambridge’s Form CRS (Customer Relationship Summary). Taming the High Cost of College, Baldridge College Solutions, and Cambridge are not affiliated. Cambridge does not provide tax or legal advice.
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