Save on your Childrens Education Expenses

This is a guest post from Fox Symes, Australia's largest provider of debt solutions.

School is an exciting prospect for many children, as they enter those first independent years and start testing the boundaries of your authority. It may be a bit heart-wrenching, to watch them patter up the path and out of the realm of kindy-hood forever; it will be predictably quite expensive, the sudden influx of school fees and demands, from books, to time, to lamington drives, there’s a ream of hidden extras associated with schooling, even the cost effective public system hide a caveat of unexpected outlays – Excursions, anyone? Though it might sound a bit extreme, readying yourself for your child’s education through the different age groups will allow you an insight into what you have to save, what is achievable and if you should look around now for a better price, before they become too invested. Being new with thirty other students is a giddy experience; being the new kid half way through term is incredibly difficult!

Primary School: Shop Around

© Photographer: Johanna Goodyear | Agency: Dreamstime.com

How much will be due and when? Even if your child has yet to start school, asking around to potential campuses will assist you in matching the right institution to your means, without sacrificing other fundamentals, like small classes, religion (if applicable) and engaged teachers. Take the collated numbers chart and work it against your current income, allowing for inflation and fee increases over the set number of years until your child starts school. Do you have another little one coming up the ranks? Is it important that your kids attend the same campus? Do they have different talents and focuses that will be better served by different schools? Be honest about your income and only enrol when you’re certain you can meet the financial outcomes of the institution, even if your debts require consolidation and the expert eye of a company like Fox Symes.

Secondary Education: Be Prepared

Though primary education is highly important and essentially formative, high school gears budding students achieving an optimal University entrance score, securing their future livelihoods and building their self-confidence to handle real world situations. You want to invest in their schooling. Creating a savings plan now, even if they've only just entered second form, will open up a range of closed doors, as your frugality and perseverance pays off and admission into a highly sort after grammar school is well within your reach. The benefits of saving are unimaginable, as a positive management practice facilitates discussions between child and parent, emphasising the importance and value of a dollar earned. They will be grateful, when they mature and their lives are just that little bit easier thanks to your influence and sacrifice.

Create a Trust: University Daze

University can be an expensive jaunt, even with the added bonus of FEE-HELP and other assistance schemes; though financial pressures are alleviated now, they will come back to haunt your child after they make over a certain amount. If you want your kids to be free from the debilitating effects of student loans and subsequent repayments, setting up a trust will allow you to deposit and manage funds for the purposes of education, while still granting access to your child. Trusts are fantastic when it comes to crunch time and union fees roll in on top of new text books and costly accommodation.

Do you need advice? Who doesn’t? While nobody has all of the answers, and no, not even Google, financial bodies like the FSA Group can be a guiding light when planning for the future.