529 Plans: How Do you Choose?
[Happy May 29th... or 5/29... or 529 Day! Get it? I originally wrote this article in 2007 after days of reading about to best gift money for my nephew's college. Eight years later, the specifics of the...
View ArticleRhode Island’s New CollegeBound Saver is Great!
Editor's Note: While I usually try to write for a national audience, today's topic is more fitting for residents of my state, Rhode Island. However if you stick around until the end, you might have a...
View ArticleCollege Planning is Impossible (But Do It Anyway!)
I'm often writing about frugality. Today, I'm writing about futility. Over the last week, I've focused a lot of my attention on estimating college expenses. We have two young boys, ages 2 and 4 years...
View ArticleCollege Funding: FAFSA, Financial Independence, and Real Estate
I recently wrote that college planning is impossible (but that you should do it anyway). The impossibility comes from having a 2 and a (newly) 4 year old boy. It's so far away, the best we can do is...
View ArticleWhat If Advanced Degrees Were a Tenth the Cost?
Everyone wants their children to have the best education possible, right? I saw an article about advanced degrees and it got me thinking about my 2 and 4 year old. (I look a lot further forward than...
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The Value of a Graduate Education
My wife was having a work meeting and they mentioned the value of The Yellow Ribbon program. That’s a military GI Bill benefit that can be used to pay for a child’s college education. Just when I think...
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Rhode Island Promises Free College – Let’s Discuss
I live in Rhode Island. It’s no secret that it’s the smallest state. The population isn’t much bigger at around a million people. Compared to Massachusetts and California where I’ve lived before, not...
View ArticlePast, Present, and Future
I’ve never liked click-bait titles. You know, those kind of titles that end with, “… and you won’t believe what happened!” I am almost always disappointed because the “unbelievable thing”, wasn’t so...
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This is How Bad the Student Loan Epidemic Is
Every few months I feel the need to share another story about how bad student loans have gotten. I find it interesting because for the first 5-7 years of writing this blog, the topic didn’t even occur...
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Hacking College Costs Through Adoption
Today’s article is inspired by an email conversation with a complete stranger. This needs a little explaining. I have a personal email account with the form of first letter, last name at a very large...
View ArticleMy Great 529 Plan Motivation Experiment
Happy 529 Day! Today, 5/29, is often cited as a day to look into and donate to 529 college saving plans. (Are we all too Foolish to associate 4/01 with 401K plans?) I’ll get to all the exciting stuff...
View ArticleWhy is College in America So Expensive?
I’m going to be at FinCon this week. For those who don’t know, FinCon is when many of the personal finance bloggers get together to network, learn, and just be around their own people. It’s always the...
View ArticleCollege Costs: What We Owe Each Other
I read a very thought-provoking article the other day from Early Retirement Dude: I don’t think we owe college to our kids. Does that make me a bad father?. (Hat tip to Justin of Root of Good for...
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How Much Do I Need to Save for College?
A little over 6 years ago, I became a dad. Less than a month later, I wrote an article about saving for college. Yes, I’m weird. I thought I’d do something I call “Then and Now.” The idea is to look at...
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529 Plans: 29 Thoughts for 5/29
Happy 529 Day! You probably already know that’s a college savings plan. I first started looking into college savings plans in 2007, when my nephew was being born. I wanted to give him a little head...
View ArticleOne Solution to Planning College Expenses?
Nearly three years ago, I wrote, College Planning is Impossible (But Do It Anyway!). At the time My kids were just 2 and 3. The idea behind the article is that college costs vary so much, that there’s...
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Now Can We Talk About Free College?
I have been planning to write this article for over a year after this Twitter discussion. Well, I had hoped to write about it before then, but that discussion renewed my interest. The idea of “free...
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Ask the Readers: Retirement Fund Or College Fund?
Today I’m looking for your opinions on one question. Please leave a comment with your thoughts. David Spigarelli, The 529 Guy sent me a copy of his book: The 529 Handbook (affiliate link)....
View ArticleHappy 529 (and Memorial) Day!
Does everyone have fun Memorial Day plans? I’m taking care of dogs, but I don’t mind. They are a terrific group and the holiday pay is very good. My wife got up at 3 AM to fly to New Mexico. That’s...
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Preparing for college
I’ve been away on vacation for the last week. I decided that you didn’t need to read a “giving thanks” article for the dozenth time (either on my site over the years or through other bloggers that you...
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