Cut Costs with a 529 Prepaid College Plan

When your family is looking for ways to invest in your student's education, the optimum outcome is to find investment/savings tools to help make educational costs more affordable.

Prepaid 529 plans, in which you purchase tomorrow's tuition at today's prices, are among the ways to achieve this.  And also you have no need for lots of cash to begin.

“We wanted the security of knowing we're able to afford at least two years of school for every in our children,” says Katie G., a Midwestern mom, who contributed funds into Private College 529 Plan accounts for all of her children. “With guaranteed future tuition rates, we knew we're able to do so when we stuck to the savings plan of using bonuses and extra money when available.”

Katie's children were between the ages of 8 and 12 at the time they started saving towards their advanced schooling tuition costs and it definitely paid off on her family and provided all of them with peace of mind.

Here's what you ought to know when considering saving inside a Prepaid Tuition Plan:

How Prepaid Tuition Plans Work

There are presently around twelve states that are accepting new makes up about their prepaid plans. State plans generally offer differently priced tiers where you can purchase tuition in a community college or four-year state university.

Another choice is Private College 529 Plan, a prepaid tuition plan where your contributions purchase tuition at any one of their nearly 300 participating private universites and colleges nationwide.

The main idea behind prepaid tuition plans is that you're buying tuition for future years at today's prices, regardless if you are buying $100 or $10,000 of future tuition. If tuition that you bought at $10,000 may be worth $15,000 if you use it, you simply saved $5,000 in tuition.

Both their state prepaid plans and Private College 529 Plan offer you choices to select from it doesn't matter what state you live in.

If you do not use the state's prepaid arrange for the type of school you purchased, state plans will frequently provide you with the dollar worth of the tuition in the school you selected to make use of towards another school.

For instance, if the state school in the category you bought tuition for was worth $12,000 during the time of redemption, you would likely have $12,000 you could utilize in a private school or out-of-state school.

With Private College 529 Plan you should use your prepaid tuition at any one of their nearly 300 participating schools so long as your son or daughter is admitted and enrolls at one of them. The best part is you do not have to invest in a particular school inside the list. You should use your prepaid tuition with the member schools.

For any plan, enrollment is easy and merely requires a couple of minutes online. State plans may have enrollment windows. However, Private College 529 Plan offers year round enrollment.

How to Get a Better Prepaid Tuition Deal

Tuition prices can go up annually.

For instance, participating colleges in Private College 529 update their tuition rates for that upcoming academic year each July 1st.

So your account contributions made on or before June 30th purchase tuition only at that year's rates (2023) compared to waiting until July or after when you would be buying tuition in the next year's rates (2023).

This is one thing to consider especially if you know your student will attend one of Private College 529 Plan's participating schools, and you also have money saved elsewhere. Transferring those savings into a Private College 529 account on or before June 30th is another method to purchase tuition at this 2023 prices before rates change.

Why You Should Save inside a Prepaid Plan

Prepaid 529 plans allow you to save money on the cost of college. 

Below is definitely an example of how you can save with Private College 529 Plan.

Let's say you have a three-year-old child. You open a merchant account today with $10,000 (you don't have to contribute that much) which equals one semester at College A, where tuition is $20,000.  

If tuition rises 4 % annually for Fifteen years, College A's tuition would increase from $10,000 per semester to over $18,000 by the time your child enrolls in college. By prepaying through Private College 529, you'd save $8,000 dollars for that semester. Tax-free.

Prepaid Plan Flexibility

Just like every 529 plan, with prepaid plans, the account owner controls the assets within the account, and may rename a beneficiary, which provides the choice to use prepaid tuition for other family members. 

Prepaid plans also partner well with traditional 529 savings plans. For example, you might have obtained a prepaid plan to cover tuition and mandatory fees. As the prepaid 529 plan might help cover those costs, you can use your 529 savings plan to cover room and board, books and supplies along with a whole host of other qualified advanced schooling expenses.

Prepaid plans permit you to buy tomorrow's tuition today, but let's say tomorrow is next year for top school seniors?

Vesting periods (or how far in advance you have to purchase tuition before you can use it) vary from 2 years to Four years.

Thus, you are able to prepay tuition at today's rates for any child's junior and/or senior years of college. Katie G. stopped saving on her youngest child recently, using this strategy because graduation can come before the next vesting period is over and she has already saved enough for expected higher education costs.

Biggest Myth About Prepaid Plans

One of the most popular misconceptions about prepaid plans is you need to prepay all many years of college in advance in order to use them. This simply isn't true. The truth is, most families don't save 100% of tuition costs, however the money they are doing save helps defray the need for loans (money that you will find paid back with interest).

“Prepaid plans are not just for families who can manage to pay for college simply by writing a cheque,” says Bob Cole, President of Private College 529 Plan.  “We have families who save diligently and frequently for several years and are in a position to guarantee 1000s of dollars in tuition.”

Over the course of approximately 10 years, Katie G. and her husband could purchase greater than they expected which allowed them to send all of their children to school without resorting to student loan borrowing. They even had their government chip in. For that years these were able to max out their states' tax break, they paid $720 less each year in taxes.

That is a great accomplishment that would not have been possible without sticking to their 529 investing strategy and educating on their own the benefits of leveraging prepaid 529 plans. 

Checklist:

  • You've checked the CSPN comparison tool, something that lists all 529 plans, to ascertain if you've got a state plan for prepaid tuition you qualify for.
  • You've looked over the college list on Private College 529 Plan's website to find out if your student's potential schools are on their email list.
  • You've checked on enrollment dates if choosing a state plan.
  • You've marked your calendar, if considering choosing Private College 529 Plan, to purchase tuition only at that year's tuition rate before June 30th when tuition rates update towards the upcoming academic year.
  • You're paying attention to vesting time periods, so you can prepay final many years of college in case your student is really a senior high school junior or senior who has already chosen a university option.
  •  

This article is sponsored by Private College 529 Plan, which provides families with an choice to buy tomorrow's tuition at today's prices – guaranteed. With Private College 529, you are able to give your children the training they deserve at a price you can afford, potentially saving 1000s of dollars in the process. With nearly 300 participating colleges and universities, there is a private college you heard right for pretty much every budding scholar.