Colleges and universities believe that higher education is an investment in your child's future earning potential. As a result, they expect that you and your child will begin saving for college as early as possible. In fact, some experts recommend you start saving before your child is even born by opening a 529 account, a tax advantaged college savings account. you can begin saving even before your child is born. You'll hear about 529s a lot as you research the cost of college as they're one of the most popular vehicles for saving. Of course, perhaps the most important piece of information you'll need is how much college will actually cost. To get a sense of how much college will actually cost, and therefore how much you should be trying to save you should use net price calculators or collegeabacus.org. All colleges and universities are required to post net price calculators on their websites. A net price calculator is a piece of software that is customized to each school's financial aid formula. By entering in your personal financial information and your child's grants, the school will generate for you an individualized estimate of your families cost of attendance at that particular school. You can also use collegeabacus.org to avoid repetitive data entry and save your data all in one place to search across more than 4,000 schools.
To learn more: When Should a Child Start Saving for College? about money
