One of the greatest gifts a parent can give to their child is sound education.
Good education equips your child with not only the professional skills but the social skills and grooming necessary to survive in life and be successful. However, to make this a reality, parents are often tasked with making a lot of sacrifices in order to get their child the quality education they need.
Many parents start investing into their child’s education as they grow older, in some cases, at high school or even college level. This can be a dire mistake; in order to invest into your child’s future success and security, you need to start investing in their education as early as possible.
Education is important for a lot of reasons, and a lack of it is linked to several issues. According to reports, those who do not graduate from high school tend to earn around half of the average wage. Also, around 68% of prisoners are those who never graduated from high school. This is why it is important to plan for your kids’ future today and begin to invest. Let’s have a look at some more reasons why:
1. Cost of Education Continues to Rise
Unfortunately, education costs a lot. The cost of college tuition has gone from around $17,000 to around $21,000 in the last decade. Sadly, our incomes are not increasing at the same rate, making it difficult to fund education. The government seems to be doing its part by offering scholarships and other such programs to promote education. But sadly, 15% of the US population has no high school diploma, and only 17% of the total population has earned an undergraduate degree.
One of the main reasons for this is the fast growing cost of education. However, since education is directly linked to more pay, there’s no reason why it should be neglected. You need to come up with a saving plan today to brighten your kid’s future tomorrow. There are a number of education saving plan such as the 529 education saving plan that aims to make it easy for you to fund your kid’s education. It is important that you study about all of them and finalize a program that meets your requirements the most.
2. Planning and Investing Early Can Make Your Kid’s Dreams Come True
As individuals, we all have our dreams and aspirations, and your kid is no different. However, not many kids are able to live their dreams, largely due to a lack of resources. The cost of college is increasing at a rate of 7%, and salaries do not increase at the same rate. With families having more mouths to feed, it becomes difficult to save and as a result children often have to give up on their dreams, even if they have potential.
If you want your kids to live their dreams, you need to provide them with a platform. And the good thing is that the money you invest today eventually comes back to you. A 4-year graduate earns around $55,000 and people with master’s or higher degree earn around $65,000 and beyond, per year.
The good news is that test scores are not impacted by income, but the amount of money you make is indeed affected by your education degree. If you wish to change your kid’s future, education may be the only solution that you have.
3. Give Your Kids a Financial Security and Safety Net
When your kids are growing up, they need all the security they can get. Even though kids are encouraged to move out of their homes as they reach maturity, in order to be more responsible and make their own money, nothing makes your kid more secure knowing that there’s a financial safety net they can tap into, in case they can’t contribute to their college education fund in a major way.
While some kids do work very hard to afford almost all of their college tuition on their own, many just don’t have the time or energy to study and work at the same time.
You’re not just your kid’s parent but also their guardian and you need to be “there for them” when they need it the most. Kids who generally feel more secure in their pre-teen and teen years are known to perform far better when it’s time to venture out into the real world.
4. Raising a Kid is No Laughing Matter
During a child’s infancy, you might end up spending almost $200 on monthly diaper supplies alone. And the older they get, the more food and clothing they’ll need.
As your kids get older, you may have less disposable income in hand, so this is especially a really good reason to start investing early into your child’s future by having a long-term savings plan. As your family grows and kids grow older, it becomes more and more difficult to save. Hence, this is a decision you should take early in life.
Conclusion
A good financial investment plan into your child’s education can greatly influence how things shape up for them later on in life. Your kid’s future starts now and the earlier you invest into it, the better.