Tuesday's Tip (Saving for College)

Today's tip is how to save money for your child's college education. Brian and I have been doing this since 2003 before we even got pregnant and had kids. It was that important for us to start saving before they came along. The program is called Upromise. It's a free way to save. There are 4 ways to save through this program and I will go over each step with you.

Step 1- Go to http://www.upromise.com/ and sign up. You can enter your shopping cards, i.e. Kroger, Publix, CVS, etc and on select items that you buy a percentage will go into your upromise account. So you save money as you buy the items you normally would buy.

Step 2- Go to www.upromise.com/shop before buying anything online. For example, when I buy anything online from Target I find their website by going to upromise.com first. Then I find the merchant, which is Target, and click on it and bam I just saved 3% of my purchase for my girls college fund. Every merchant has a different %. I have saved up to 9% before. It is so easy. You save money just buying go to www.upromise.com/shop first. It's a no brainer.

Step 3- Your parents and grandparents can save for your kids. They can link their shopping cards to your account and save that way too.

Step 4- I saved the best for last. The Upromise credit card. Now before I go further I will say that if you can't pay this card off IN FULL every month then please don't get a credit card. If you can than go for it. This is how we have saved the most for the girls. We've had the card for 6 years. We pay it off in full every month. No Exceptions! Otherwise you defeat the purpose of saving. We get 1% back for every dollar you spend. There are also certain restaurants that are partners that can give you up to 3 or 4% of your bill. Very cool. Since 2003 we have saved over $1600. If on average you save $300 a year (that's about what we're getting) over 18 years at say 10% (which is what the experts say Mutual Funds bring in) the grand total would be just over $15,000. Not to bad for doing nothing, but making purchases you normally would make. The other great thing is that you link your Upromise account to your 529 college account and they automatically roll it over into your 529 where it starts making interest.

I hope you have enjoyed this tip. If you have any questions or need help saving for your childs future, please email me. I would love to help you out.