These days helping your kids finance their college education is just one of many items on parents’ plates, like funding retirement and having to support their own parents as well as younger children. This article by George Schofield in Yahoo Finance has a list of ideas to help with the college funding problems:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dont-broke-paying-kids-college-163007050.html

One thing mentioned in this article is that a 529 plan is a win-win; this may not necessarily be true. Some college financial advisers I have talked to say a 529 as it is being distributed is treated as income for the student for financial aid purposes, which can cut down on other financial aid items they might be entitled to. They say either spend right away on tuition (a hit in one year) or wait until the very end of college to use it. This is a reason for having a college adviser helping you to find the most college savings – the savings should more than offset the adviser fees, making it worthwhile to explore. Also remember that any gifts of tuition paid directly to a college for the benefit of the student by ANYONE is exempt from gift taxes, so those wealthy relatives can get the money out of their estate as well as helping get your kids an education.

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