Getting Started
A college degree provides tons of benefits that extend well beyond the classroom learning. But you don’t have to spend $80,000 per year to get those benefits.
Where to Start
Every journey has a starting point, so here’s where to jumpstart your college planning process. I’ve structured each topic area of the site in the same way with the goal of concentrating the information to make the info easy to find.
So where to start? Learn about:
“Why College Matters," will help deepen your understanding of why getting a college education can open your student up to so many opportunities and how which college they go to matters a lot less. This may seem like heresy with how much focus the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings gets every year, but it’s important to remember that college is a business.
“What Does College Cost” which is intended to arm you with more insights around how to estimate costs and plan accordingly.
And when you’re ready to start building your custom plan, the College Financial Plan Masterclass. The class costs $299 and provides over 30 lessons and supporting planning worksheets to help you build your own custom college plan with your student(s).
Below are more insights about what you’ll get out of each section:
Why College Matters
It’s not just about where the student spends the next four years, but how this education will prepare them for a better future.
There is a lot of data showing that for the vast majority of students, the choice of school is less impactful on their adult lives than are the choices around whether and how much to borrow for college. I’m hoping to shift your thinking from “which” college to “why” college so you can better partner with your student to help them make a financially informed decision about where they go to college.
Learn more about:
Economic benefits of a degree
Noneconomic benefits of a degree
College outcomes—positive and negative
Does it matter where you go to school?
What Does College Cost
What drives college costs, both at the college level (why list prices are so high) and what might make college more or less expensive for a family or student. Many families despair at the prospect of planning for college because the range of potential costs is so vast.
Rather than focusing on the range of prices, my goal is to help parents to define a college budget to provide some guardrails for their students’ planning. I’ll cover:
Net Cost versus list price
Trends in college costs and what drives them
What makes college expensive
Building a College Plan
Planning puts you in control. It helps you achieve your goals, and gives you framework to guide your student. The earlier you plan, the greater the range of future choices you will afford for your student.
If you’re ready to build your plan, signup for my College Financial Plan Masterclass. The online self-paced e-course provides all the insights, tools, and resources required to successfully build your college plan.
In this section, I’ll cover the following key topics to help you develop a realistic and actionable plan:
Talking with your student about college
Where college fits in your overall financial picture
Establishing a draft college budget—savings, cash flow, borrowing.
How my family approached this.
