Education Planning « Altfest Personal Wealth Management

Education Planning

If College Endowments are Down, Why is College Tuition Up Less?

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

By Jonathan Bernstein

A recent national survey[1] showed that the average tuition increase at private colleges for the 2009-2010 school year was 4.3%, the lowest in 37 years. There are various reasons for this drop, including cost-cutting at universities, slowing inflation and concern for students’ and parents’ ability to pay in these tough economic times. However, what’s most surprising is that after years of large increases, this small tuition increase follows negative investment performance of school endowments over 2008-2009.

Funding the Education of a Loved One

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

By By Paul Palazzo, CFP®, COA

With tough times come tough decisions. For some, then, the decision of whether to pay for private educations for their children or grandchildren is more difficult than it was a couple of years ago, before the financial markets, home values and salaries went down, and unemployment went up. For many, it was never an easy decision.

Private education can be dauntingly expensive, particularly in New York City, where some top schools are now charging well over $30,000 a year for K-12. Add in the estimated $30,000-per- year premium that elite private universities get above and beyond state schools, and you can see that we’re talking real money here, even for professional couples who are great savers.

For perspective, if you invested those payments – $30,000-plus for 12 years and $30,000 for four – at a reasonable real return (after inflation) of 4 percent, you could wind up with close to three quarters of a million in today’s dollars.