More parents are saving regularly for their children’s college education, and half of them are using the expertise of a financial advisor according to a new survey from the College Savings Foundation (CSF), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
Among all parents responding to the foundation’s 11th Annual State of College Savings survey, 83 percent are saving for their children’s college education—an all-time high in the history of the survey. Furthermore, 75 percent of respondents are saving systematically, 38 percent have saved more this year than last year, and 57 percent started saving by the time their child turned 5 years old.
“Overall, we’re encouraged that more people are saving than ever, they’re saving more than ever and they’re doing it systematically,” says Richard Polimeni, chair of the College Savings Foundation.
A big savings motivator, he says, is that many respondents are still grappling with their own student loan debt and don’t want their children to be similarly saddled. Nearly half of the parents who are saving for their children’s education (46 percent) are still paying off their own student loans. It’s made 90 percent of them consider other ways to finance their children’s education—namely through savings.
Among parents with their own college debt, 53 percent owe more than $20,000 and 31 percent owe between $20,001 and $30,000. U.S. student loan debt ballooned to $1.4 trillion in 2017, according to Experian, a global information services company.
The CSF survey found 71 percent of the savers have amassed more than $5,000 per child; 19.7 percent had saved $5,001 to $10,000; 17.29 percent had saved $10,001 to $25,000; 16.84 percent had saved $25,001 to $50,000; 11.88 percent had saved $50,001 to $100,000; and 5.41 percent had saved more than $100,000.