Prepaid Tuition Plans Smart Investments For Young Families

A story in today's Highlands Today shows an example of local parents doing an extremely smart thing: investing early in their children's college education. We hope all Floridians find someway to save for such expenses.

Andrew and Susan Bible made college funding for their four children a priority. They couldn't sink a lot of cash up front into a plan that locks in tuition rates at Florida public universities for their children, ages 3 through 9, but they could do it in installments. For $200 per month, they are putting money away to help ensure a bright future for their children. And if their children go to colleges or universities outside the state, although the tuition won't be locked in, the money still is available.

Other tuition plans exist as well. In the same plan, the Bibles could have paid $50 per month for a much longer time, but a five-year plan seemed better. Other plans work as a Roth IRA and do not lock in tuition rates, but set aside money for college tuition and earn interest and dividends.

Whatever the plan, and whatever a family can afford, saving today for a child's college tuition is a great idea. The idea of $200 per month payments might seem like a lot, but how many of us have credit card payments, or even cable bills, that rival that amount? And what's more important? That's an easy one.

College tuition continues to rise, and the need for higher education for any young person entering the workforce also rises. College might not be what's best for some students, but some kind of specialized training is necessary for just about any kind of quality job. Finding a family wage job on only a high school diploma is next to impossible these days.

We hope others heed the example set by the Bibles and many others in our community and state. Setting family priorities for higher education is a necessity. The good news is that there are plans available to help make it happen.