The College Crunch, Save Now or You'll Pay For It Later

By Jef Feeley. The phrase advance planning is sure to elicit groans in those looking for an easy way to shoulder the burden of their children’s college costs. But with experts predicting $40,000-a-year (that’s right, a year) tuition bills at top-flight private universities by 2025, planning ahead is imperative. . The good news is that if you start early enough, compound interest can make your money do most of the work for you, says Paul Naden, a Baltimore financial advisor who runs "About Money" workshops. Socking away $10 a day beginning on your child’s first birthday for 10 years --$3,650 a year -- gives you an educational nest egg of $36,500. Investing that in a mutual fund or bond portfolio with a 10 percent annual return will add another $18,300 to the bottom line.. If you don’t add another penny, by the time your Ivy League-bound progeny is 18 compound interest will have transformed your $54,800 into $109,600. That covers two-thirds of that $160,000 final college bill.. "Treat it as a yearly gift or get the child’s grandparents to give it as a gift," Naden says. Failing that, "there are also a whole range of programs out there designed to help parents save for their children's future educational needs.". Educational IRA. The newest of those programs is the educational IRA created by Congress last ...

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