Learn How to Secure a Child's Education through a College Tuition Fund
5 September 2022
For Filipinos, an important thing that a family's financial situation must prepare for is their child's college education expenses. That's why parents gear up on the best ways how to save and prepare for the said college costs as early as possible. After all, it's not only college education expenses that they need to start saving for. There are also secondary education expenses, elementary, and higher education expenses, and even primary school as well.
Hence, most new parents now ask, how do we prepare for a child's college education costs (let alone, two or more?) To assist you in looking for the answer to this question, here are some smart ways to make savings for your child's college fund.
Short-Term Ways to Cover Your Child's College Tuition Fees
Let's admit it, not everyone will have the foresight to prepare for the tuition fees, premiums, and other costs that entail attending school and getting a degree. Other parents may have been wary of the then scandal with regards to prepaid tuition plans that were policyholders were unable to reimburse for a reason or two. Hence, some parents prefer to have short-term plans for them to afford the cost of college.
1. Retirement Funds
Most Filipinos have close family ties that sometimes spell the difference between a child starts college or just head straight to work. Sometimes, the aunts, uncles, and even grandparents shoulder the majority of qualifying education expenses, using the pension or retirement fund that minors act as their own financial responsibility. While this may not be a sustainable way to consider especially if your child is still far away from college age, then.
2. Financial aid
Most grants of financial aid come from the government, but there are also selected organizations that give enrollment fees to families who do not have the paying capacity for college. However, these are just limited and cannot be guaranteed to pay all the fees from the schools your child will be enrolled in.
3. Scholarships
While earning scholarships also takes time, this method to secure your child's college savings plans will not yet be possible until they are in their elementary level or higher education, thus we consider this short-term. This is because scholarships are often merit-based, and can only be earned once sponsors of said scholarship grants see that you are a good example to others by being a model student and you value your education; it's just that your parents, don't have the means to complete, or even secure payment for their kids' course.
Many companies and even governments offer scholarships. Sometimes it would be to a public college, but as they say, college cost a lot that many parents and their kids choose public colleges rather than private colleges, despite earning a scholarship. This is because they also need money for room and board, and additional funds for extracurricular activities in school.
4. Loans
There are two types of loans can consider when they have a child and yet they don't have enough for a college fund. Either you take a personal loan, or you apply for a home equity loan.
A. Personal Loans
The most common way to borrow money from the bank in order to augment your income, at least once. While there are qualifications in determining whether you are eligible for a personal loan, once all documents needed are submitted, you can just easily wait for your loans for as little as 10 days.
B. Home Equity Loan
A home equity loan is a loan from banks; its amount can be determined using the current value of a selected property you want to use for this loan. and In this case, banks who you can consult may have lots of restrictions and can incur penalties should you miss your deadline of payments. However, if you want to maximize the opportunity to make your child graduate and achieve his diploma, then probably home equity is the answer. Just like a personal loan, this transaction, should there be no problems, can be granted one.
Long-Term Ways to Prepare For Your Child's College Expenses
When you have a good head start investing for the long-term, then you have more room for your family to have a better future. The following are ways you can use to pursue savings plans for your child's education.
1. Open a Savings Account
One of the straightforward ways to save for college is to open a savings plan account right away, perhaps as soon as your child is born. While it is a good practice to save on your existing savings account, creating a separate education savings account intended for your child's future educational expenses allows you to set aside the money you will exclusively use for college expenses. An example of this is the use of the MP2 Savings plan offered by PAG-IBIG, wherein you can only receive it every year or after five years.
A. Custodial Account
These savings accounts may be in a form of a custodial account. With this form of savings account, the college savings plans to be opened in a bank are commonly named for the designated beneficiary, which is the child. The assigned custodian can withdraw money to pay for the child's financial needs until the child reaches legal age.
With more flexibility in terms of withdrawals and uniform transfers, this is a good way to prepare for your child's college fund if you're a parent who is an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), because you can start putting money directly into the account, instead of getting allocated to other expenses related to your family's needs.
2. Unit Investment Trust Funds (UITFs) and Mutual Funds
These two are usually interchanged with one another but have distinct attributes as well. Mutual funds are owning shares of private companies. On the contrary, Unit Investment Trust Funds are owned by banks. When you buy into a UITF, you own units of this fund managed by banks. However, if you choose a mutual fund, you own shares and become a shareholder in a mutually-funded company.
If you're asking why these two forms of investments can be a good way to cover college costs for your children's education, it's because these funds take time to mature and the yield could take some time. When you invest at an early age, by the time you need it for your children's college expenses, then you can redeem your share or dividends from the bank or company you invested in.
3. Life Insurance Policy
This term may ring a bell to you, especially because the financial literacy of most Filipino professionals is slowly improving. Hence, you may already have an idea why this form of investment is wise, especially if you want to prepare for your family's future cost of living.
But in case you don't know yet, let us explain. A life insurance policy is a route to sort the personal finance in the future, should there be any permanent disability to your health, or worse when death occurs to the policyholder. In the event that any of the previously unfortunate circumstance happens, you now have the means to support your children financially especially in terms of continuing their education, at least until they can have other forms or sources of income.
4. Stock Market
Investing in stocks is not just an investment of money, but also of time. If you start early investing your earnings, then you can also have a chance to get the most out of the interest rates on the stocks you've invested in. Even if this is a high-risk type of saving, if you have the aptitude to gauge when to sell or buy stocks, then you will have higher returns. Your income from these investments can contribute to the expected student expenses of your children.
5. Business Investments
Another surefire yet long-term way to earn tuition for your child is to diversify your investments into different businesses. If you want an investment in which you can get long-term benefits, then you can purchase a house and lot, a condo unit, or even a commercial building, or any other form of real estate. Because real estate does not depreciate as easily as other forms of property, then you're assured that your assets can have a return on investment in time for your kids' college tuition.
Most families need an affordable house and lot in the Philippines either for rent or for sale, hence a person can take advantage of the unique aspect of real estate: As time passes by, it becomes more valuable. That's why when you want to be a business owner because you believe that it can improve your family's finances; choose a small business that can be hardly affected by inflation and fluctuation of supplies. You can even rent your properties out so you don't have to do anything to earn an income but ensure the safety and security of a family's basic need: shelter.
Lumina Homes: Your Family's Shelter in Need
While there are diverse means on how you can secure your child's college savings fund, one thing is for sure. We Filipinos treat education as a gift, that's why our parents really work hard to give it.
Congratulations, if as early as now, you're starting to gear up! With Lumina Homes, you can choose from the different adjacent universities, schools, and colleges to send your children from your house in Lumina Homes. Ready to prepare for your family? Trust Lumina Homes and don't hesitate to send us a message today!

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