Slightly different from your typical savings account or online savings option, FreshmanFund.com makes it easy to set up gift registries for your children’s college savings. Just as newlyweds or moms-to-be can create gift registries of items they need or want for their big day; you can set up registries for your children and prepare for their higher education expenses while you still have time to take advantage of compounding interest!

Money held in a FreshmanFund.com registry itself will not earn interest – however, the idea is you create the registry through FreshmanFund to enable easy contributions of gifts to the child’s educational savings plan, and then you connect the FreshmanFund registry with a 529 Savings Plan. When a FreshmanFund gift registry is connected with the child’s 529 plan; contributions made to their FreshmanFund registry will automatically transfer to the 529 plan in order to benefit from the interest earnings of the 529 plan. If you don’t already have a 529 Savings Plan, you can open one in a matter of minutes with SavingForCollege.com; or check with your trusted financial advisor for advice. The 529 Savings Plans are managed by the state you live in, so the requirements and specifics will vary slightly from one state to another. Most states have very low minimum deposit requirements (as low as $25) which makes it very easy to set up and start saving for your children’s future!

Gifts to a FreshmanFund.com registry can be made through bank deposits. credit cards, or through special gift certificates. A gift certificate from FreshmanFund is a great way to encourage someone to start a college savings plan for their children since it can only be redeemed through opening a gift registry account with FreshmanFund. The money can then be transferred to a 529 plan whenever the recipient opens one.

One of the most difficult aspects for graduating college students isn’t passing an mensa test and being smart enough for your first job, but instead entering the “real” world burdened by debt. From student loans to credit cards, students graduate with their degrees in hand and the weight of excessive monthly payments on their shoulders – and often the income earned in the first few years out of school will not match the amount of their debt repayments and living expenses. You can help a child graduate with less debt simply by contributing to their college fund while they’re still young children. Taking advantage of compounding interest over time, a young child who reaches their college years with a 529 savings will require far less in loans than a child who did not have a 529 plan.

Tags: 529 plans, freshmanfund, saving for college

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 10:02 am and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

• Money Saving Tips For College Students With summer winding to a close many families are beginning the annual back-to-school trek with cars loaded down with dorm room goodies and eager college-bound students. College is one of the more exciting phases of young adulthood, but unfortunately it...
• 25 Realistic Ways to Spend Less and Save Money in College. If there’s ever one point in one’s life where they learn the most about money, it certainly has to be college. Most college students have and earn next to nothing, so they have to make the most of what they...
• Five Key Steps to Managing College Loan Debt College loan debt is a huge problem for many people. The following guest post by TJ Hanson of GoCollege.com provides some ideas on how to manage college loan debt. A college degree is a very admirable goal. But in recent...
• Pass on giving gift cards and give cash instead In what seems to be an annual holiday event, Liz Pulliam Weston expresses her dislike of gift cards.  This year though, there's cause for her celebration, as one study predicts that consumers will purchase $4 billion less in gift cards...
• Should You Pay for Your Child's College Education? Paying for college for yourself or for a child can drop you into debt faster than many other things. Aside from huge disasters like medical emergencies or a home fire, more people get into higher debt by paying for college...