6 Things You Need to Know About Child Education Planning
Like
most Indian parents with young kids, you most likely aspire to provide your
child with a top-quality education. However, being able to successfully fund a
great education for your kid requires advance planning, and the determination
to stick to a long-term plan resolutely. Here are five important things for you
to keep in mind.
Inflation
While
most goods and services are inflating at 6-7% per annum, the recent inflation
trends in tuition costs has been closer to 9% per annum. What costs 5 Lacs
today is likely to cost 20 Lacs or so after 15 years. Make sure you plan for
the correct amount, while keeping inflation in mind. Consult a professional Financial Advisor if you’re confused about how to factor inflation into your
long-term savings calculations.
Education = Earning Potential
Studies
have shown that the quality of education received by your child will impact her
lifetime earnings by 25-50%. Over the course of one’s career, that’s a very
large amount. As time goes on, it’s quite likely that the job environment will
continue to become more hypercompetitive, with only the best educated students
securing high quality placements. This makes it all the more important for you,
as a responsible parent, to plan for your child’s education well in advance.
Student Loans = Bad Idea!
While
sometimes it’s the only option, it’s not necessarily the best one. A thumb rule
is that you or your child will need to repay one and a half times the loan
amount over time. A debt-ridden career start could drive your child to take
unwise and short term financial decisions.
Goal Protection
Just
as Life doesn’t come with guarantees - death doesn’t come announced; and the
departure of the primary breadwinner means a grinding halt to the education
savings pool being created for your child. Goal Protection involves taking
enough life insurance to suffice for your Child’s education even in the event
of your death. A professional Financial Advisor can guide you on how best to
adequately protect your Child Education Planning goal.
Retirement first!
Your
child could get through college using loans and grants, but you will never get
your prime earning years back. Neither will anyone easily extend you a loan
after you stop earning. Make sure you don’t lose sight of your ow retirement,
in the pursuit of creating a sufficient education fund for your child. Save for
your Retirement first and your Child’s Education later.
Mutual Funds Sahi Hai!
Mutual
Funds offer a variety of products and solutions that could enable you to build
a large enough corpus for your child’s education. You can run a long-term SIP
Investment in an aggressive mutual fund during the initial years of your
planning, and de-risk the corpus systematically using STP’s (Systematic
Transfer Plans) a year or two prior to the goal date. In comparison,
traditional savings plans such as fixed deposits and life insurance are
inflexible, and also usually do not provide high real returns. Your Mutual Fund Advisor can help you with
the best solutions and funds to help build a corpus for your child’s education,
in light of your unique circumstances.
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