Cedar Ed Lending Shares Pre-College Student Saving Tips for Your Education Fund

Many new parents hope to start immediately putting money away for their child’s college fund, whether it’s dollars in a jar or a slice of savings put into a 529 Plan. Even if they plan far ahead, however, that doesn’t always mean that they’ll be able to cover the full cost of a college education.

In many cases, the kids themselves will pay for most college expenses in the form of student loans taken out each year. These loans go to cover the cost of tuition, as well as room and board, books, health insurance, and other living expense costs that tally up quickly.

However, there are ways that you can save up money ahead of time in order to reduce the amount of loans you have to take out. With these easy saving tips for your education fund, you’ll be able to take some of the stress of your financial needs and be prepared to take full advantage of the college experience.

Don’t wait until the last few months of your senior year in high school to start your college fund. You definitely won’t be able to save enough to make a dent on the daily costs of college life. Start your college fund as soon as you can, once you’ve made the decision to attend college or even know which school you want to attend.

You can establish a savings account that will gather interest. As an added bonus, your family members will see how serious you are about saving for college and may shoot you a twenty every once in a while.

The hardest part of saving money is giving up the things you really want. While you’re young you want to have fun by going out at night, but that can be very costly. Sometimes you need to just say no to the expensive nights out or find ways to have fun for free. You’ll be surprised how much money you can save in the long run by renting a movie instead of going out to the theaters. These little sacrifices will add up.

Over the years you are bound to accumulate tons of junk that you don’t need or use. It’s not going to do you any good piled up in the closet. Instead you can have a yard sale to get rid of all that extra stuff while gaining cash to put towards your college fund. You can also sell items on eBay, Craigslist, or any other online bidding site.

Another one of the great student saving tips is to pack your lunch every day for school. School lunches might not seem that expensive, but it adds up when you’re paying for lunch 5 times a week. Instead you could put a sandwich and snack in a brown paper back in the morning. Over time you’ll save a lot of dough.

Some people have the bad habit of impulse shopping. When they see a cute bag or awesome pair of jeans, they take out their credit card without really thinking about it. Once in awhile isn’t bad but eventually it can cost you hundreds of dollars because of bad shopping judgment. Instead you can think about the purchase overnight. A good night’s sleep might change your mind.

Although getting a car is important for many high school students, it’s also a huge financial responsibility. You have to pay car payments, auto insurance, and gas costs. That’s thousands of dollars that you can put towards college

Saving money for college is one of the most important things you can do. The money that you save, plus your private student loans, will make your college experience so much easier.