Education

Future of Education

I had an interesting conversation with another financial planner about the future of education.  He had sent out a message to his clients and friends on strategies to make college affordable.  The following are excerpts from messages I sent to him trying to explain why I think the educational [...]

2009 College Costs

With the CPI needle barely moving over the last year, the Washington Post reports that college tuitions continue their relentless march upwards growing 3% or more faster than inflation. The published prices at private four-year colleges in the U.S. rose by an average of 4.4 percent. Tuition [...]

Feynman and Other Lectures

Microsoft has put Richard Feynman‘s physics lectures online. Yale has partnered with iTunes U to put up 13 complete course lectures. The amount of high quality material online is becoming truly staggering.  With education costs continuing to grow much faster than incomes, I truly believe there is [...]

Harvard Doesn’t Create Winners, It Identifies Them

Many studies have shown that Harvard graduates go on to have more successful careers (on average) than their state university counterparts, even when you control for SAT scores and high school academic success. This has led many a family to believe that going to Harvard is a golden ticket. [...]

Unsustainable Tuition Growth

Donald Heller, the director for the Center for the Study of Higher Education, has been studying college affordability and presented the following slide. It is obvious this divergence is unsustainable.  On its current path most graduates will effectively become indentured servants.  This leads to [...]

Which College Savings to Tap First

You haved saved for college using 529 plans and other accounts.  You have heard about the Lifetime learning credit and the Hope credit.  Kimberly Lankford lays out which accounts to use first to maximize your tax benefits.

Kiddie Tax Age Limit Raised

Effective Jan 1, 2008 the kiddie tax will apply to children age 18 and younger as well as college students under the age of 24. Troy Onink of Forbes provides some strategies to deal with the new law.

Last Minute College Funding using Independent 529 Plan

The Independent 529 Plan is a prepaid tuition 529 plan. The list of participating colleges is getting quite large, but many people may not feel comfortable making the gamble that their kid will attend a member college. However, if a child does end up getting accepted to a member college and [...]
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