Giving back to school savings new meaning!

Financial EducationJohn PerdueSMART529
Aug 16 2019

Dropping your pre-school or kindergarten child off at school for the first time can be emotional. You may feel sad, anxious, excited…or a little of all three. Another emotion you may be feeling, but may not want to admit, is a little relief. I’m talking about the financial relief you may be feeling now that you won’t have to pay for daycare or summer childcare programs.

There is no doubt that the high price of child care can take a strain on your finances. As a parent, the stress of our financial burden is one of the many things in life we try to shield our children from, so it stands to reason we’d like to do all we can to keep them from ever enduring such a burden. But with the rising costs of higher education, it may be just a matter of time before our children are saddled with the same financial worries.

But when you plan NOW for your child’s future education, you are lessening that burden with each dollar saved. SMART529, West Virginia’s official college savings plan, makes saving for your child’s future easy. And with a child just starting their primary education, this is the perfect time to start or increase your savings.

You’ve already been living on a budget with that money earmarked for your child, why not just shift that money into a different type of care for your child—a college savings plan. Yes, it would be nice to take all the money you are now saving on childcare and splurge a little on other things, but it is also a great time to take at least a portion of that money you’ve been using on childcare costs and roll it into a SMART529 savings plan instead.

If you already have a SMART529 plan, great! Simply log into your account and increase or set up your automatic contributions. If you don’t have a plan, starting is simple. You can open a SMART529 WV Direct plan on the website for as little as one dollar. For other SMART529 accounts, contact your financial advisor.  

A little savings now may go a long way in years to come. So make an investment in your child’s future today, with SMART529.

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