A vast majority of father’s across America want what is best for their kids. For most kids, that will be a good education that sets them up to have a good job and allows them to successfully parent their own family someday. If you are considering options to help your children, consider hiring here this a-level physics tutor online service. You might also be interested in proofreading training from Capstone Editing if you’re looking to explore a different career. 

Wanting something doesn’t make it easy, however. And one of the scariest parts about being a dad is often have primary responsibility over the financial well-being of a child. A recent report came out that shows the current average cost of going to college sitting at over $30,000 a year. Multiply that by a few kids in college, and it is no wonder many father’s are feeling the stress.

It doesn’t have to be  that way, and indeed isn’t that way for many fathers who have taken the steps early to prepare their kids financially for college. There are multiple ways to start saving and getting your child prepared, but all of them require starting years down the road, as close to the child’s birth as possible in fact. Here are a few.

A 529 Plan

This is a college specific plan that you can start putting money into as soon as the child is born. There are a lot of tax benefits to using this type of plan because the IRS actually came out with the idea. The plan can be sponsored by specific colleges or states. The thing about these plans, and most other plans, is that they grow over time. Similar to retirement, if you put money away when your child is 1, then $100 can easily become $300. If you wait until your child is 10, that $100 suddenly only becomes $200. If you are putting away $100 each month, the difference by the time your kid starts college can be huge.

Do it Yourself

If you have a base understanding of financial markets you can probably start your own account through an online stock broker and then run it yourself. This is how my dad did it and there were a number of great benefits. One benefit was that he started teaching me financial prowess at 13. He taught me how to run the account and taught wise investing rules as well. He also recommended checking out The Investors Centre UK. I made some mistakes, but he made sure I didn’t make any that were too big. This meant that when I graduated and started college not only did I have a good amount of money, I had an understanding of financial principles that most of my peers could only dream of.

Real Estate

My uncle did this with each of his kids. When they turn 12 he helped them purchase a rental property (meaning he bought the property). They had to help manage the property as much as they could and do maintenance, mow the lawn, etc. By the time the kids were 18, they had enough equity to either sell out and pay for a large amount of college, or continue to rent the home for some cash flow. Do a West Virginia background check to ensure you rent out to a model tenant. Once again this gave the kid responsibility and taught them a lot, while allowing money to be saved for college. He included all of this in his estate planning with his financial advisor; every detail including the California estate tax which is where they lived. 

It’s also worth using a letting agent if you are looking to let student accommodation as they will have access to many students who are looking for quality accommodation. We used the best-rated student lettings agents Bristol has when we were letting some student flats there and they were just incredible, we could not have done it without them so if you are letting student accommodation then definitely get a good agent. Tenant screening questions are part of the screening process for property rentals.

There are plenty of other ways to save for a child’s education. Use your own expertise and knowledge to make it happen. If you are handyman, then the real estate route might be better. If you understand very little of finance, then maybe the 529 plan is for you. The key to succeeding with any plan is starting early and involving the child.