Friday, December 23, 2011

Happy Holidays

May the Holiday Season bring only happiness and joy to you and your loved ones! 


Love, 
Jenn, Atom, Fletch & Baby-to-Be

Thursday, December 15, 2011

College - Now and Later

It's been a while since we posted. Life's been hectic with me starting a new job and Jennifer student teaching and finishing up her final semester at Marymount University and being pregnant. Not to mention raising a two year old! As Jennifer is closing one big chapter of her life, we start another with Fletch. Although he's still a long way from attending college, in terms of financing we as parents need to start planning for that sooner rather than later. I'm not wishing his life away or anything. It's just I don't want him to finish school in a heap of student loan debt like both his parents did. So we opened a 529 college savings plan for him. We chose to invest in the age-based evolving portfolio. They are designed to take into account the beneficiary's current age and the number of years before the beneficiary is expected to need funds from the account for higher education expenses. The asset allocations of the age-based portfolios shift every three years toward more stable, low risk investments, which is designed to help reduce the risk of principal loss. I set up a modest monthly direct deposit. I know parents have good intentions of consistently contributing to a college savings account over the course of their child's adolescent life, but a lot don't end up sticking with it for various reasons. I hope that we can keep it up for the next 16 years and increase it when finances allow. That, along with contributions from family, should provide a substantial amount to cover the high cost of secondary education. We have plans to set up a 529 plan for kid two after he's born.

I'll send details of how family can contribute to Fletch's college savings account after I get all the details. It makes a great Christmas present. ;) Happy Holidays!