Cost Of College Education Essay

Topic: Saving for Your Child’s College Education

One of the hottest topics today in the financial media is the cost of college education. The average four-year university education can cost thousands of dollars a year when you add up the cost of tuition, books, and room and board. To add to that, many students leave college with huge sums of student loan debt that keeps them from pursuing life goals such as buying a home, getting married, or saving for retirement. According to the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., Americans now owe $1.4 trillion in outstanding student loans. All of this information can leave parents and children feeling very anxious and fearful about how they will pay for college. The good news is there are many options

High school students constantly hear from guidance counselors and other individuals that the best way to increase your lifetime earnings is by obtaining a college degree. While this is generally true, students who do not have the aptitude or desire to attend college classes, may be better off going to trade or technical school or seeking employment directly after high

While this is an admirable goal, many times it is done to the detriment of the parent’s retirement. Most individuals have thirty to forty working years to save for retirement. While this is a long time to save, many parents choose first to save for their child’s college education and only begin saving for retirement once their child has graduated from college. The earlier you can start saving for retirement, the more likely it is that you will have a sizeable nest egg at retirement. This is due to the power of compounding. The example below illustrates this