Education Planning

Whether it’s saving for your children, grandchildren or other family member, education planning is important. The gift of higher education can impact generations to come. We’ll work with you early on to address the needs of the future for those you hold dear.

The value of education is unchallenged. Very few things in life will allow an individual to reap the rewards of opportunity than that of an education. However, without proper planning, the ability to afford a quality education can often be limited. Whether the goal is to continue your own education or provide for your children or grandchildren, we will work with you to put an education plan in place. 

At Hughes Financial Services, we review the following topics with our clients when discussing education planning:

  • Gifting
  • College cost projection analysis
  • 529 Plans

Here are some websites and articles worth reviewing when putting together your education plan:

The Three Phases of Strategic College Planning “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” While its author, Benjamin Franklin, most likely was not thinking about how to pay for college, its message can be applied to the way many of today’s families handle this task.

Revisiting the Value of Elite Colleges Plenty of well­-off parents believe that the most elite schools are worth committing financial suicide for. This excellent article in The New York Times examines the myth that children need to get into an Ivy League school to be successful.

The Fundamental Way That Universities are an Allusion This is an insightful article by Kevin Carey, an astute higher­ed observer, who makes a powerful argument that picking universities by brand name isn’t smart.

What's Wrong with Research Universities? An exploration by Lynn O'Shaughnessy, one of the nation's leading experts in the field of college planning, about what a research university is and why they aren't always the best choice for undergraduates.

Educate to Career ETC has created a college ranking system that enables families to identify schools that provide quality education with proven career placement records at the lowest cost possible. ETC defines a quality education as teaching students a skill set that is marketable and that leads to a real career with stable earnings. 

Payscale College Salary Report For years the only easily accessible source of salary statistics for individual schools was the annual PayScale College Salary Report, which relies on workers voluntarily sharing their wages if they want to use its salary comp.

College Completion An excellent way to reduce the cost of college is to make sure a child earns a bachelor’s degree in four years or less. Most students, however, take more than four years to graduate. The four­year graduation rate at public schools is just 33.3% and it’s 52.8% at private colleges and universities. College Completion provides you with the four-year graduation rates for any higher educational institution.

College Victory Laps Can Cost an Extra $300K Not graduating college on time can cost parents and students more than you think. Read about the impact of how taking longer to graduate can have long-term implications.