We live in Georgia so we are lucky there is the Georgia lottery with the hope Scholarship program to help pay college tuition costs. I am fairly sure that your child has to maintain a B average in order to keep Hope, pardon the pun.
I have been researching other avenues of ways to save for college expenses. I read about 529 plans, which grow tax free, and can be spent tax free, also something called a Coverdell plan although it sounds like you have to manage your own investment with a Coverdell.
There is some good information on 529′s at Clark Howard’s website here.
Also in my research I also found a really neat site site called UPromise.com where you can get back a percentage of your everyday purchases, at restaurants, department stores, online stores, and grocery items. Once you build up your rewards you can take the rewards and open a 529 plan, or pay off student loans, or get it back in the form of a check.
I will be opting for the check option, then I can place the savings directly into a 529 plan of my choice.
They have an example on their website, where you can open a 529 direct with their own investment company, although I am not sure this is the best option from what I have read about 529′s and how they are sponsored by individual States. I created a mind map of how I plan to use this site. A little different than the diagrahm on UPromise.com
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Take a look below, I created this little mind map as an example of how I plan to use UPromise.com
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You can move the mindmap around by clicking your mouse and dragging it to look, or increasing or decreasing the size of it.
Upromise – Turn your everyday spending into college savings
Posted under Education, Family, Favorite Websites, Finance, General interests, My Life
This post was written by Andrew on March 23, 2009
