Right from the time your child steps into this new world of learning through formal education, saving funds becomes an integral part of everyday living. Yet, saving for college for students is another ballgame and comes with a hefty price in terms of crunching numbers, cutting down on certain expenditures, and planning within the budget. Herein, we discuss a few ideas when it comes to saving for college for students.

Saving early
Saving for college for students must start early as the amount can be quite a thing to ponder about with other priorities on the table such as paying off credit card bills, debts, planning for retirement, and miscellaneous investments.

Accounts with tax benefits
When you decide to save, it’s important to look for all possible investment schemes and methods and strive hard for the one that gives tax benefits or comes with a tax-free advantage. To start with, as a parent or a guardian, you must have a savings account that gets a decent amount of your paycheck in the funds. You can indeed look for banks that specifically offer savings account for students with no hassle of paying maintenance fees and relaxed balance requirements feature.

Kinds of savings accounts
Since these savings accounts are a great way of managing funds, you can keep adding extra allowance such as birthday money, bonus or gifts in the form of cash. This could be an Education Savings Account or an IRA that can help you to save a good $2000 per year with a high return of investment. The 529 plan is another great way to save for college education as it offers the flexibility to choose funds that you wish to invest in. You can also opt for mutual funds as it offers the flexibility to invest as much one wish to. Savings bonds are another good option for its tax-deferred and state tax-free feature. This is instrumental in saving for college for students.

The 2k Method
Another strategy to save for college for students is the 2K method wherein you simply multiply the child’s current age by $2000 and save accordingly. Indeed, you can club this strategy with the 529 plan to perk up the savings.

Staying realistic and saving more
The most fundamental way of saving for college for students is to borrow less credit and keep any loans out of the picture. This is where one needs to zero down on a realistic budget that would include other expenditures and investments including retirement plans. Any form of tax refunds and bonus is always a good thing, yet this find can be redirected toward the 529 education savings plan.

Other financial saviors
You may also want to look for financial accounts such as UGMA and UTMA to save for your child’s college education. To ease college education, look for scholarships and if not, do look for ways to get your child listed for the same. Community colleges are a great option for all the good reasons as it offers tuition at a lower cost.

Eventually, the bottom line is to balance college education and retirement in the longer run. To keep it simple, you can try saving at least one-third of the college education fees for a period of 18 years. Ideally, saving a quarter of the education cost can make things much easier and simple.