Excerpt

Whether you are a parent focused on the education of your children, a grandparent interested in helping your grandchildren, a student taking accountability for your life, or an adult desiring to pursue an education, nothing you do will ever be as valuable as acquiring and implementing knowledge through education. It positions you to take action with what you learn. Knowledge may not be power, but the implementation of knowledge is.

As a society we are being thrust headfirst into a new era. This is a new global economy; a world of accelerated change, competition and complexity. Knowledge is the central source of todays new economy. Moving forward, most jobs and innovations will be based on the creation of intangibles. Talent is defined in this new economy as knowledge; the ability to think creatively and having the perseverance in undertaking a task. Talent will be at a premium.

No matter your perspective, whether as a parent, grandparent or student, you need goals. Goals are dreams with a plan. Take action on your goals! A top college education can be worth millions. Is college expensive? It can be. However, as Benjamin Franklin stated, If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

Average annual college costs at a four-year public college are $21,000, $37,000 at a four year private college and $49,000 at an Ivy League college. In 10-years the cost of a four-year Ivy League education will be $345,200 and the true earnings required in paying this after tax cost will be a staggering $580,000 (assumes 35% federal and 5% state tax bracket).

Fortunately, strategies exists that can save almost anyone, including the affluent and late stage parents who have done little college planning, significant money. College Money Planning shows you academic, scholarship, financial and tax strategies that save you real money right now!

College Money Planning will introduce you to academic scholarship strategies that take real money off the cost of college. We address both needs-based and merit scholarships. We will show you how to find and organize thousands of these scholarships and we will illustrate planning and introduce resources that can improve the likelihood of success in obtaining scholarships.

We break down the FAFSA government scholarship, grant and loan process for all families, which explains multiple exclusions of certain assets common among upper-middle class and affluent individuals. Additionally, many beneficial programs provided for through FAFSA, including Parent Federal PLUS loans, are not needs-based.

Competitive loan strategies are discussed in detail, including loans from traditional lending institutions and from qualified plan balances, home equity and even those that are investment portfolio based.

Even families with significant liquid assets may desire to at least consider loan based strategies for some college costs, in that often times an investment portfolio upon liquidation to fund college costs may be subject to capital gains taxes and additionally valuable assets are now out of the investment market. If loans are very competitive then, for some, there can be logic to reviewing alternatives to liquidating assets.

Various tax strategies, including the Above-the-Line Tax Deduction for Education Tuition and Qualifying Fees, the Hope Scholarship Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit are valuable in reducing the true net cost of college. For some families with students who earn income, consideration may need to be given to the student filing as an independent, which in the right situation can provide powerful tax leverage. Business tax strategies also abound for those who own a closely held business. This includes Section 127 Tuition Reimbursement Plans, which, when combined with the prior tax strategy for independent student tax filers, can provide powerful planning opportunities.

Parent and/or grandparent gifting strategies, including arranging for UGMA/UTMA accounts, which provide potential for shifting the income/assets of those who are highly taxed to children/grandchildren, can be very powerful, particularly for the affluent. Charitable planning opportunities for such families also warrant consideration and may include charitable remainder trusts and charitable gift annuities.

Core savings strategies, including UGMA/UTMA and 529 plans include additional benefits for certain families, including (where applicable) asset repositioning and estate-planning benefits. Even late stage college planning families can still benefit from such strategies.

For families with time on their side, 529 plans can be a powerful, tax favored college savings strategy, especially in conjunction with Coverdell ESA plans. One simple five minute 529 plan related strategy can provide anyone over time with thousands of dollars in free college money.

If all this sounds like a lot of information, it is. You cannot be casual about planning for college. College Money planning helps your break it all down and provides you with powerful and useful strategies that can help any individual and/or family pay for college as beneficially as possible.