For most parents, the moment your kids are born (or maybe even slightly before) you start to think about them attending college. Some parents even go as far as picking prospective schools for their toddler children and start dressing them up in that college’s apparel. (I can attest to seeing a few “Future Buckeye” shirts in our family!)

With all this thought being given to college attendance and selection at an early age, I think that it would only be natural that parents also start planning on how they are going to get their student to that school (from a financial perspective). Based upon this assumption, I have come up with the following tips to help guide parents through a painless approach to saving for college.

• Save Early: It is never too early to start saving for college. Ironically, it is never too late either. Some folks believe in starting a college savings fund by the time their child reaches Kindergarten. Others have started long before the birth of their first child. The earlier you start saving the better chances you have of securing a sizable college fund by the time your student is graduating from high school.
• Start Small: One of the main reasons people give for not establishing a college savings fund is that they don’t have the extra discretionary cash to put aside. This may be the case in many households but my guess is that $5 a week or maybe even $5 a month may not be too much of a stretch for families to put into a college savings fund. As time goes on, and hopefully as extra income is available, parents could increase their college fund contributions.
• Be Consistent: $5 a week does not seem like much but if you start saving when your child is born, you could have $4680 (18×52x$5) in the bank by the time they head off to college… and that doesn’t include any potential growth on the investment. $4680 could cover all of the book expenses incurred by the student during their 4 years of college. Being consistent in your contributions not only helps your college fund but it also establishes a healthy practice of saving.
• Earmark Windfalls For College: I am not referring to the lottery as a windfall on this one (although that would be nice). I am thinking more along the lines of Christmas money, Birthday cash, Bar mitzvah moolah, etc… Basically, anytime you have extra cash that is for benefit of your child, you automatically put a portion (or all) of it into the college savings fund. This usually works pretty smoothly when they are young and don’t understand how money works but as they get older and “appreciate” what they can do with their cash; you are going to have a hard time diverting some of it to a “not-so-fun” college fund. However, this will be a great opportunity to turn this into a learning moment for your child about the importance of saving.

Practicing What I Preach

I hope the above tips help to get you thinking about the different approaches you can take on starting that college savings fund for your child. I want to conclude this article by giving you a little insight to how our family has established college funds for each of our three children (Ages 4, 3, and 18 months).

In the weeks following each of their births (usually after I got the Social Security card in the mail), I went to our local bank and opened up a savings account for each of our children. We have a set amount of money that is pulled from our household operating account each month and automatically transferred into their college savings accounts. In addition, we have taken every dime of Christmas and birthday money that the kids have received and we put it into those savings accounts. With the exception of a $20 “ticket” (his word not mine) that my 4 year old utilized recently to get a tractor – I told you it gets harder as they get older! Surprisingly, their college funds are doing pretty decent. My next step in this plan is to transfer the funds to a 529 savings option once they accumulate some more growth. My goal is to keep contributing to the savings account and making periodic transfers to the 529 savings fund. Once they head off to college, I will drain the 529 account as quickly as possible so that I don’t have to report it on my FAFSA every year (but that is a different article)…

Hope you found this information useful. Happy Saving!

If you are already listed on your parents’ policy, ask to see a copy of the policy. Many policies allow a college student to stay on the family plan regardless of where they are attending school. In other cases, the student must attend school in the parents’ home state. Knowing this, you should ask Mom or Dad to call the insurance company to find out the details. You might be covered at no extra cost. Then again, you might be excluded from coverage. That would force you to buy your own policy.

An Individual Policy

While it is possible in most states for a college student to buy their own auto insurance as long as they are 18 or older, it is usually prohibitively expensive. While showing your independence is a good thing, it’s a little much to pay double what your parents pay for car insurance and still have enough money to live while at college. Go online and get some quotes just for the sake of comparison and you’ll see the difference. It will probably convince you that you can swallow your pride for now. It’s much cheaper to ride along with Mom and Dad.

Family Policy

Understand that staying on your parents’ policy comes with a few irritants. For instance, if you do anything that causes a spike in rates, your parents will know about it because it affects their insurance policy. You also might get an earful when they complain about the cost. A good compromise is to ask them to add you to their policy and you pay the difference in premium. It lets you both share the policy with dignity.

Driving Habits

Now that you are on Mom and Dad’s policy, you should be extra careful about your driving habits. There’s no hiding from the rate increase on your parents’ bill. Drive cautiously and safely, avoiding driving while intoxicated and only taking the car when absolutely necessary. By respecting the consequences of a mistake, you will be less likely to make one. You should care about this because a bad mark on your driving record can last until past your graduate from college.

Vehicle Ownership

Know that you may be fully responsible for everything that happens inside the car, as well as any and all traffic violations, parking tickets, or equipment failures. If you own the vehicle, you will be held responsible. Weigh these responsibilities carefully.

Going off to college is huge. The decisions you make now can affect the rest of your life. Be smart by making sure you are covered for the best rate possible, with the broadest coverage available. By driving responsibly now, you’ll be in a good position to find affordable car insurance after you graduate.

This was a guest post provided by CarInsuranceQuotesComparison.com. They offer a free car insurance quote tool that can help you price your policy, compare auto insurance companies, and decide if you should join your parents policy or take out one for yourself.

The following is a guest post by George Gallagher. He is a personal finance blogger and frugality coach that helps post-grad students manage their private student loans with CUStudentLoans.org

As a parent, saving for your child’s college education might seem to be a daunting task. College tuition is extremely expensive, no doubt. However, the payoff of seeing your child attend and graduate from college can hardly be matched.

So at what age should you start saving for your child’s college education? There really is no concrete answer to this question, however it makes sense to start saving for their college education as soon as possible. For instance, if you only invested $100 a month for 18 years, that will yield $48,000 assuming an 8% average annual return.

Most parents think that saving for college has to be some kind of enormous task, however just $100 a month can make such a huge difference. You can also look into different kinds of college savings plans such as the 529 which will allow you to really start a substantial savings plan in plenty of time for your child to go to college.

Another component of making sure that your child gets to attend a good college or university is pushing them in their academics through high school. By getting good grades and being a strong member of their school and community, kids are able to get very good scholarship opportunities. It can’t be understated that children need to work towards excelling in high school so that they can also apply for these opportunities. Of course, there are also grants and different programs in each state that may provide additional funds for a child to go to college.

Some experts believe that a portfolio which is heavily invested in stocks is the best way to build savings over the long term. As a child gets closer to college age, you can always move that money into bonds or even cash. Remember that you don’t have to save the entire four years of college all at once. There are federal, state and private grants and loans which can help to fill in the gaps between what you’ve saved and the tuition bill.

Mutual funds are another great way to save for college as they’re not quite as volatile as stocks. This means that you don’t have to watch the markets daily to see how your money is performing. As mentioned earlier, the 529 savings plan is also a good way to save for college because it offers tax breaks.

So how do you start saving for college right now? There are numerous ways to start saving for college including doing the simplest things such as garage sales, selling items in online auctions and even taking on part-time job. There is also something to be said for having your child work as soon as they’re able because they need to be contributing to their own future as well.

Remember that it’s also important for you to save for your own retirement even ahead of the child’s college fund. There are many kids who pay their own way through college by working hard and getting scholarships. Depending upon your child’s educational abilities, they should be striving towards getting these grants and scholarships to help offset as much of the college tuition costs as possible. By getting involved in different civic organizations, kids can also get specific scholarships associated with those groups.

If you have a full-time job, check with your employer to see if there are any educational benefits that might be useful for your child. Some offer tuition assistance programs based upon a child’s grades each quarter or semester. These are also great way for the parent to go back to college by using part of their employer’s tuition assistance program.

A few months ago I shared a new cost savings feature called Amazon Prime. This program is provided by Amazon.com and the main benefit is free 2-day shipping on all orders that you purchase online directly from Amazon.com. The regular price for this program is $79 a year but if you are a college student you can get it for free.

The only downside to Amazon Prime is that you had to have a “.edu” email address to qualify for the free service. Since many colleges and universities don’t provide email addresses with the “.edu” suffix, a lot of people were being excluded… until now…

If you are one of the unfortunate students that has a non “.edu” college email address, the instructions below provide all the steps required to get you Amazon Prime for free. Hope you find this helpful.

Free Amazon Prime Instructions For Non “.edu” Email Accounts

If you’re able to provide proof of enrollment in at least one course at a college or university located in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia, you may be eligible to enroll in Amazon Student through an alternative process.

To provide proof of enrollment, please send an e-mail to amazon-student-verification@amazon.com from the e-mail address associated with your Amazon.com account. In the message, include one of the following:

* A scan of your current student ID
* A transcript or class list for the current term
* A tuition bill for the current term

You must also include all of the following information:

* The state where you attend school
* The name of your college or university
* Your academic level
* Your major
* The e-mail address given to you by your College or University (if applicable)

Amazon.com will review your submission to determine your eligibility. If they determine you’re eligible, you’ll receive the Amazon Student enrollment confirmation e-mail.

Since starting CheapScholar.org, I have received a lot of questions from families and students that are trying to navigate the financial aspect of their college experience.  I individually respond to each and every question and sometimes I even include the question and answer in our Help A Reader series.  This interaction with my readers is very rewarding for me and I enjoy every moment of it.

In an effort to better support my mission of helping families and students, I have established the CheapScholar.org College Resource Center.  This tool provides great information and tips associated with Financial Aid/Scholarships, Paying for College, Saving for College, and choosing the right Education loans. In addition, I have created a new utility that allows you to type your questions into a search box and it expeditiously goes out and locates the best matching articles/answers on CheapScholar.org. Pretty neat huh?

If you would like to give the CheapScholar.org College Resource Center a spin, just click on the picture below.  Also, if you don’t mind, please feel free to share this great information with any friends or family members that you think may be able to benefit from this type of resource. Enjoy!