Читать книгу Investing All-in-One For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 65

Do you have little ones or plan to have them in your future? You probably know that rearing a child (or two or more) costs really big bucks. But the biggest potential expense awaits when they reach young adulthood and consider heading off to college, so your instincts may be to try to save money to accomplish and afford that goal.

The college financial-aid system effectively penalizes you for saving money outside tax-sheltered retirement accounts and penalizes you even more if the money is invested in the child’s name. Wanting to provide for your children’s future is perfectly natural, but doing so before you’ve saved adequately toward your own goals can be a major financial mistake.

This concept may sound selfish, but the reality is that you need to take care of your future first. Take advantage of saving through your tax-sheltered retirement accounts before you set aside money in custodial savings accounts for your kids.

There are numerous higher education options besides costly four-year colleges and universities. The traditional college path isn’t right for everyone. Consider alternatives to traditional college (and whether they are right for your child). While college is a traditional path that many high-school seniors follow, there are increasing numbers of attractive, low-cost, and faster alternatives to consider. For example:

 Last-mile boot camps: Last-mile programs teach students technical skills and clear the pathways to jobs in growing industries like technology, biotech, fintech, and healthcare.

 College minimum viable products (MVPs): These programs combine the technical skill training and placement of traditional last-mile programs with significant cognitive and noncognitive skill development that students get from a good college.

 Apprenticeships: Emerging apprenticeships provide pathways for jobs in the manufacturing, healthcare, pharmacy, information technology (IT), insurance, financial services, and software development industries.

 Staffing firms: These companies hire workers and staff them out to clients. For example, Revature, an IT staffing company, hires experienced software developers. Also, Avenica places students from many colleges and offers last-mile training across many industries.

 Vocational and trade schools: Also known as career and technical education (CTE), these schools provide gateways to a wide range of jobs in the automotive industry, culinary arts, emergency services, healthcare, and more.