What about a "College Fund?"

gwgrad
Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:32:07 +0000

Outside of these forums, most people don’t have 529s or other college savings.

In fact, many people don’t have any savings accounts… period.

“30% of workers in a 2012 study reported that they had less than $1,000 in savings and investments. (Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute)”

“21% of workers covered by 401(k) plans choose not to participate. (Source: Center for Retirement Research)”

“51% of workers over the age of 55 have less than $50,000 saved for retirement.” (Source: Good Financial Cents")

We’ve got people not even saving for their own retirement, let alone their kid’s college.

We’ve got people who simply haven’t thought about saving for anything, and who have poor financial educations and don’t know how to budget their lifelong income well.

A lot of people are paying debts (houses, cars, student loans, credit cards, healthcare bills, taxes), not saving. Others buy too-large houses, nice cars, international vacations, expensive kid sports clubs, too much overpriced coffee too often, plasma TVs, or too expensive colleges to have money leftover to save.

Oh, and this whole “the economy thing sucks” doesn’t help either. Some people don’t even have jobs, or don’t have well-paying jobs.

And, yes, people have choices, aside from-- say, dire unexpected health problems. People had life choices for education, career, family size, location, savings, debt, etc.