Putting Your Kid Through College (graduate school)
No commentsBy Dorian Ramsey
Did you know that the cost of a 4 year degree program is around $20,000 dollars per year.
The cost of a college education is probably the most expensive item in bringing up children today. When you take into account tuition fees, exam fees, living expenses, accommodation, books and computers it’s not surprising that the average cost of college education is over $20,000 per year and that’s before the social side of college life.
Today we live in a world where only the best educated and most prepared can succeed. The Job market is probably the most crucial and competitive element of our society and having a college education and degree goes a long way towards succeeding in it.
When our children are ready to enter the world of work it will be even more difficult and a college education will be essential to succeed. Here are 5 ways to fund your child’s college education.
1. The usual method of parental funding of college education is out of current income, that is out of your weekly or monthly salary.
Whilst this is the most common method of funding college education it is one that only the very rich or highly paid can afford to do with ease. Even if there are 2 salaries most families find it difficult and will require sacrifices, even more so if you have more than 1 child. At best most parents can only afford to contribute part of the costs of college education out of current income. Additional sources of income will be required.
2. Your child can work his or her way through college.
Many students have to work whilst studying but many find the experience of juggling a job, lectures and a social life very difficult. Often the result is that students drop out of college education, fail their exams or don’t do as well as they could.
3. Your child may have the opportunity to take out student loans to fund their college education.
Today the vast majority of students are forced to take out student loans to fund all or part of their college education. Usually to subsidize parental contributions, student loans are the most common way of students funding their own college education. Many students however, leave college with substantial debt and even with interest rates at historically low levels today’s students can expect to have to pay substantial monthly repayments for many years.
4. Your child may obtain a scholarship or be entitled to grants from either federal or local funds towards the cost of their college education.
There are many sources of student scholarships or grants and with a bit of research most students today can find some grant funding. These sources however cannot be guaranteed for the future. Whilst scholarships and grants do not have to be repaid and as such are preferable to loans they are not guaranteed or predictable and therefore relying on them for our children is a risk.
5. Take out an education savings plan to fund college education.
An education savings plan is a regular saving plan into which you and your children can contribute. The plans are administered by colleges or state authorities and can be taken out for any child including a newborn babies. Because of the effects of long term compound interest the earlier you take out your plan the easier it will be and the lower your contributions will be. Because the funds are built up prior to going to college students do not have to rely on scholarships, grants or loans and they can concentrate on their studies.
There are a number of options to fund your child’s college education but the only way funds can be guaranteed is by you taking out an education savings plan. With the education savings plan you decide what you can invest and your child can also contribute to his or her college education. With luck scholarships and grants will still be available as will loans to top up if necessary. If your child does not go to college the fund can be cashed in.
Taking out an education savings plan early will give your child the real opportunity of a college education and the best prospects for a job when they leave college.
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How to Select a Baby Monitor
By Irvin Mcclain
A baby monitor is an essential purchase for expectant parents, as it will give you the peace of mind of being able to check on your sleeping baby wherever you are in your home. Unfortunately, these monitors are the kind of device which you are unlikely to have any experience of until the time comes when you need one, and it can be difficult to know which type to buy.
There are three basic kinds of monitor: audio, video, and movement or breathing.
The audio monitor is the most popular kind, and at its most basic consists of a transmitter that you place in your baby’s nursery, and a receiver that lets you ‘listen in’, alerting you if your baby starts to cry or otherwise shows signs of waking. The very cheapest modules will have a fixed receiver that needs to be plugged into a wall socket for power, but most models nowadays have a rechargable mobile receiver which you can carry from room to room, or even outside so long as you stay in range.
The range of your monitor system will depend on a number of factors, including the construction of your home - thicker walls will reduce the range - and any sources of interference such as neighbouring monitor systems, computer wireless networks, and even microwave ovens with some models.
Interference is less of a problem these days, as most models will now let you select from a range of channels to operate on, so if you do encounter interference problems, you can switch to a new channel to hopefully clear things up. Some units only feature two or four channels which you have to manually select, while the more advanced designs now have hundreds of channels which will be selected automatically to minimize interference in the current conditions.
The more modern monitors, like so much else these days, use digital technology. What this means in practice is a clearer signal, and an increased range of operation.
Those are the basics of audio monitors, but there are other features available depending on the model. A popular one is an intercom or talkback system where you can talk to your baby through the monitor, helping you to soothe her back to sleep without the disturbance of going into the nursery. Other models may have nightlights or lullabies which you can set to play either automatically or by hand, again without entering the room, while another common feature is temperature alerts where you can see how warm the nursery is, and be alerted if it falls outside a safe range.
For most people, an audio monitor is sufficient, but some people value the extra security of having a video monitor where you can actually see your baby on a TV screen built into the receiver. If you decide to get a video monitor, make sure it has night vision capability, or it won’t be much use when it’s dark!
For complete reassurance that your baby is slepping safely, you can also get a breathing and movement monitor. This consists of a pressure pad placed under the cot mattress, which will sense if your baby stops breathing or shows other signs of distress, and alert you immediately.
The final point to consider when choosing a monitor system is price. The range is enormous, from only a few dollars up to a few hundred. For something as essential as a monitor though, it’s worth getting the best model you can afford, as after all, if the system doesn’t work well and you can’t trust it, then it’s effectively a waste of time.
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Graduation Listings And Quotes For The New Graduate
Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
