This week I've been going through books I checked out of the library. One that I found helpful was Launch - How to Get Your Kids through College Debt-free and Into Jobs They Love Afterward by Jeannie Burlowski. This would have been a great book to read about 4 or 5 years ago because there are suggestions for each grade level from middle school to high school.
Some things I found interesting or helpful from the book include:
- Before the age of 24, the prefrontal cortex of your child's brain is not sufficiently developed to be able to succeed at large-scale tasks that require high-level evaluation of risk and preparation for the future. College financing is an adult task, and doing it for your child will be one of the greatest gifts you can give her as she launches into adulthood.
- Dave Ramsey recommends not paying the highest interest debts first. Rather, knock off the easier debts. You'll start to see results and you will start to win in debt reduction.
- Save money until you have 3-6 months of expenses saved for unforeseen family emergencies.
- Provide for your retirement every month.
- Success in school and in life really has little to do with brains or luck and everything to do with organization, process management, and continuing to try hard every day.
- Encourage daughters to open a Roth IRA. Put a little money each year into a Roth IRA account. Any money put aside won't be counted on the financial aid forms. After five years go by, she'll be able to take up to $10,000 tax-free and penalty-free out of the account and use it toward a down payment on a house. She can also leave it in the account and use it for retirement.
- Brainstorm with your child about what she will do this year to help the humanitarian cause she's adopted as her own. Make a plan and schedule it. Add what she does on LinkedIn. Look at "Eagle Scout Service Projects" and modify one of those to fit her humanitarian cause.
- After December 31 of their sophomore year of high school, students should reduce their work time and instead do volunteer work and job shadowing. FAFSA will look at how much teens earn and will start reducing their potential to receive free money financial aid for college.
- Start a business with 100 or fewer employees and invest money in that. Do this by October 1st of your child's senior year of high school.
- Put extra money in retirement. They will never be counted as your asset on any financial aid form. Do this also by October 1st of your child's senior year of high school.
- Don't fill your bank accounts with a lot of extra income starting January 1st of your youngest child's sophomore year of college. You can also pay your child's future college bills in advance. See how much a college will allow.
- Child should continue with one special extracurricular activity she's planning to stick with throughout high school.
- Have your daughter look for a discounted community college class that she can take in the summer.
- Do these assessments: StrengthsFinder 2.0, Strong Interest Inventory, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
- Look at safety numbers for each college.
- Do college visits during sophomore and junior years of high school. Parents and students should make the visits together.
- Apply for ten private scholarships every summer and every summer through college and graduate school.
- Update LinkedIn profile regularly. Include work experiences, job-shadowing experiences, and volunteer and service hours. Link to more of her parents' friends, her employers, and others.
- Do job-shadowing in one or more of the career fields that look exciting to a student. Do this for a day, a week, a few hours a week, or for months.
- Write one good, strong, college application essay two months before the end of 11th grade.
- Write down the names of 3-4 adults she could ask to write letters of recommendation for the college and scholarship applications she'll be submitting in her senior year.
- Type a "dream sheet" of details she would love to have mentioned in each of her letters of recommendation.
- Send a handwritten thank-you note to all of her recommenders. Include a $10 gift card to a store that sells practical items.
- After the summer of 11th grade, she can earn a maximum of $6,000-7,000 without compromising her financial aid eligibility.
- In January of senior year, send an update letter to the admissions department of each college that she has applied to.
- Organize something big to serve the community in the summer before senior year and during senior year.
- On October 1st, fill out the FAFSA form. About a week before then get an FSA ID so you are ready on October 1st to fill out the form.
- Adjust things about your family finances so that you don't accidentally appear wealthier than you are on this year's FAFSA form.
- Be sure to preserve an emergency fund as a safety net just in case there are unexpected expenses over the next 3-6 months.
- Pay in advance for a needed home remodel (e.g., windows, appliances)
- Use your available extra cash to pay down high-interest consumer debt.
- Plan a special family vacation for the summer after your child graduates from high school. Close, family memories will give your high school graduate a stable platform from which to launch into adult life.
- Do not announce where your child is going until all the financial aid award letters have also arrived. Do not make any final college decisions until you've received financial aid award letters from all of your child's accepting colleges. Examine them individually and side by side.
- Confirm with colleges that if a student receives a scholarship that it doesn't reduce other college scholarships/financial aid. Confirm that awards are for all four years - not just the first year.
- Do not take out any Parent PLUS Loans. Ask what alternatives the student has.
- The Federal Direct Student Loan administered under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program allows the future possibility of public service loan forgiveness (PSLF). She can have all of her student loans forgiven just 10 years after college in exchange for making 120 on-time payments while working 30 hours a week or more in a profession that serves the community or the world (e.g., public librarian, tax-exempt charity).
- Squirrel extra cash away in retirement accounts.
- Make all your usual monthly purchases right before you fill out the FAFSA form. Make an extra payment on your home mortgage. Reduce the available cash sitting in your savings accounts, checking accounts, CDs, etc.
- See how much money your daughter has in her accounts in her name (not including the 529 and retirement plan). They will reduce her need-based financial aid by 20% of that amount.
- Get rid of student loans before the college graduation date by applying for more private scholarships.
- Have a thoughtful conversation with your child about what's going to happen with her high school graduation gift money.
- By May 1st tell the winning college yes.
- Parents need to take care of themselves, especially after their child's high school graduation.
- Create a printed thank-you letter with her picture on it and send it to people who've helped her get to college. Talk about the career she's aiming toward, list the colleges she got into and which one she picked, any scholarships she's received. Leave a blank space to handwrite an individual thank you to anyone who gave her a gift. Send this to any special teachers she has had, mentors, pastors, volunteer job supervisors, people she job shadowed, close relatives, people who wrote her letters of recommendation, and others who've helped her.
- Register for college courses at the earliest possible opportunity.
- Make sure that all college credits earned in high school have been officially transferred to her college.
- Double major for a student who wants to take college classes in a field with lower future income potential (e.g., art, music, humanities). Pair an art degree with a graphic design or web design credential to give more opportunities after college.
- Ask the financial aid office how soon she can apply for her work-study job.
- Every time you receive a bill from the college, check each individual line item. Especially watch for health insurance charges.
- Have your teen buy some nice new clothes for college. Go to upscale consignment stores.
- Talk to your teen about staying away from alcohol and drugs throughout college. It can prevent a career-destroying addiction, protect her from additional alcohol-related dangers e.g., date rape, assault, sexual assault, death by car crash, contracting an STD, unwanted pregnancy, death due to alcohol poisoning, depression and anxiety, academic failure, and unnecessary heartbreak, sadness, and regret as adults.
- Caution your teen not to post anything, anywhere, that she wouldn't be happy having broadcast in a national news conference.
- Once your daughter steps onto her college campus, she's going to be inundated with enticing credit card offers. It's not credit rating that matters in adult financial life, it's net worth. It's better to have a real job, pay bills on time, and be debt-free. Have her use a debit card instead.
- As your daughter is packing for college, encourage her to take only the basics to dorm move-in day.
