On today’s Financial Impact Factor Radio with Paul Petillo, Dave Kittredge and Dave Ng we discuss the topic of saving for college. A bit of a misnomer, parents looking to put money away for college need to do more than just save; they need to invest. And like all investment options, it involves risk.
Plato once described experts as the keepers of the truth. In the “Noble Lie” he described the populace as being unable to look after their own and society’s best interests. He believed that there were just a few clever people in the world that because they were clever should lead the rest of the flock. From that thinking, the idea was born that only the elite should know the truth in its complete form and the rulers, Plato said, must tell the people of the city “The Noble Lie” to keep them passive and content, without the risk of upheaval and unrest.
While we never will attempt to pass ourselves off as experts, we’re never too proud to admit we don’t know everything there is to know about the world of finance. We have carved out careers in this arena, all three of us and they have been explorations, sometimes in places we are familiar with, other time in dark corners of this ever shifting world. It is curiosity that propels us forward not so much to be able to call ourselves experts but as to question the expertise and challenge the idea that we do not need to be told the Nobel Lie.
Today we are going to discuss the role of the experts. Are they leading us or are they simply suggesting that the path they have carved is the best. And what happens when the path turns rocky or downright impassable. In a democracy we are able to challenge the word of those in authority but to be heard, we need to embrace a field of knowledge that may be unknown, with terms that seem foreign. I have suggested over the years that the intermingling of certain terminology adds to the confusion. For instance, the difference between saving and investing are interchanged so often that the two words, both of which involve money, have become, at least in the verbiage of experts, intertwined. But they are very different.
The experts suggest all too often that we should save for college. But if you were to do that – save, a form of no risk handling of money akin to bank accounts, money market funds, certificates of deposit or under the mattress you would have little more to show for the effort in ten or fifteen years than the money you put away. You wouldn’t have beat inflation and you certainly wouldn’t have beat the inflation that is known as college tuition.
So we are forced to invest. We need that money to grow and grow quickly and do so in a relatively short time. The experts suggest we can’t possibly do this with our retirement accounts, yet many of those same experts suggest that it might be possible with the money we are putting away for college. The options to do so are not always, or should I say, haven’t lived up to those expectations.
But what are our options? You could tap your 401(k) – which puts you at odds with the retirement you may have planned. Or you could use a 529 plan. My cohosts deal with the world of just-out-of-college clients who have found that no matter what their parents did, the cost of college is going to follow them into their first foray into adulthood. Listen to the discussion about 529 plans on Financial Impact Factor Radio.
Listen to all of the episodes of Financial Impact Factor Radio with your hosts:
Paul Petillo of Target2025.com/BlueCollarDollar.com and Dave Kittredge and Dave Ng of FinancialFootprint.com
The show is broadcast daily, online at 6amPST/9amEST. Archives can be found here.
Related posts:
- Personal Finance: The Cost of College
- Retirement Planning and the Worth of a College Education
- The Savers 529 Plan: The Other Option to Pay for College
- Should You Invest in Individual Stocks?
- The Flip Side of Retirement Planning and Living Longer: Paying for College
The Cost of College: Save, Invest or Borrow?
On today’s Financial Impact Factor Radio with Paul Petillo, Dave Kittredge and Dave Ng we discuss the topic of saving for college. A bit of a misnomer, parents looking to put money away for college need to do more than just save; they need to invest. And like all investment options, it involves risk.
Plato once described experts as the keepers of the truth. In the “Noble Lie” he described the populace as being unable to look after their own and society’s best interests. He believed that there were just a few clever people in the world that because they were clever should lead the rest of the flock. From that thinking, the idea was born that only the elite should know the truth in its complete form and the rulers, Plato said, must tell the people of the city “The Noble Lie” to keep them passive and content, without the risk of upheaval and unrest.
While we never will attempt to pass ourselves off as experts, we’re never too proud to admit we don’t know everything there is to know about the world of finance. We have carved out careers in this arena, all three of us and they have been explorations, sometimes in places we are familiar with, other time in dark corners of this ever shifting world. It is curiosity that propels us forward not so much to be able to call ourselves experts but as to question the expertise and challenge the idea that we do not need to be told the Nobel Lie.
Today we are going to discuss the role of the experts. Are they leading us or are they simply suggesting that the path they have carved is the best. And what happens when the path turns rocky or downright impassable. In a democracy we are able to challenge the word of those in authority but to be heard, we need to embrace a field of knowledge that may be unknown, with terms that seem foreign. I have suggested over the years that the intermingling of certain terminology adds to the confusion. For instance, the difference between saving and investing are interchanged so often that the two words, both of which involve money, have become, at least in the verbiage of experts, intertwined. But they are very different.
The experts suggest all too often that we should save for college. But if you were to do that – save, a form of no risk handling of money akin to bank accounts, money market funds, certificates of deposit or under the mattress you would have little more to show for the effort in ten or fifteen years than the money you put away. You wouldn’t have beat inflation and you certainly wouldn’t have beat the inflation that is known as college tuition.
So we are forced to invest. We need that money to grow and grow quickly and do so in a relatively short time. The experts suggest we can’t possibly do this with our retirement accounts, yet many of those same experts suggest that it might be possible with the money we are putting away for college. The options to do so are not always, or should I say, haven’t lived up to those expectations.
But what are our options? You could tap your 401(k) – which puts you at odds with the retirement you may have planned. Or you could use a 529 plan. My cohosts deal with the world of just-out-of-college clients who have found that no matter what their parents did, the cost of college is going to follow them into their first foray into adulthood. Listen to the discussion about 529 plans on Financial Impact Factor Radio.
Listen to all of the episodes of Financial Impact Factor Radio with your hosts:
Paul Petillo of Target2025.com/BlueCollarDollar.com and Dave Kittredge and Dave Ng of FinancialFootprint.com
The show is broadcast daily, online at 6amPST/9amEST. Archives can be found here.
Related posts: