25 Rules to Grow Rich By | 25 | Money Magazine
Rule #14 from Money suggests accumulating 1/3 of college costs in money.
This may be wise because the more you accumulate and save, the more likely you will be penalized and not qualify for financial aid.
My accountant, who is also a CFP, while not really doing a financial plan for me. .. just kabitzing with me, has suggested locking your wealth up in your house as I beleive it doesn't count towards the amount of wealth you have when you fill out the FASFA form or whatever it is.
Like Money suggests, you can then pull it out if you need to or maybe financial aid will pick up the 1/3 to 2/3rds in the air.
It's another reason I prefer "debt reducation" vs. "bond accumulation" when making a portfolio when aiming for the debt sector investments - the bonds can and will be held against you in a court of law. Your house won't.
It's a tough decision - what you do now affects what you get down the road and the stakes are high.
I guess I"ve decided I'm uncomfortable depending on the gov't one way or the other to provide and thus am aiming for 2/3rds cost.
BTW, DisneySteve, with summer jobs and not paying for winter semester, this often means a 4 year education ='s a 5 year time to complete. I can recall when I majored in biology at the U of D, it was practically impossible to squeeze in 15 credits per semester with labs. So I ended up with 14 most of the time. I worked on winter breaks and summer. It took me basically an extra semester and one semester part-time to graduate.