How to Pay for College/University...

I just read an article about how expensive children are to a family. Recent estimates indicate that it costs $204,060 to raise a child through the age of 18. This doesn't even include college. Rather expensive little buggers, aren't they? If this isn't enough, college could add another $100,000 to $200,000. Yikes... In today's blog post, I'll share what I believe is the best way to pay for college/university. The answer might surprise you. The drum roll please... The best way to pay for college education is to not pay for it at all. Yep. Well, a better answer would be - to have someone else pay for it on your behalf. And I'm not talking about scholarships or grants either. Let's say that you believe college will cost you $100,000. To save $100,000 for your child's education, you would need to save around $210 a month and earn around 8% a year on your savings. This effort would result in $100,818 twenty years from now. Couldn't you simply buy a nice single-family home with a monthly positive cash-flow of $210 a month? You could then invest this monthly cash-flow into a low cost index fund and bingo, your child's college education is paid for - by someone else! You simply buy the rental property and use the rental income to save for your child's college education. Now, the key to this strategy is that you must setup auto-withdrawal for your $210 a month college savings. Have this money automatically sucked out of your bank account each and every month. At the end of 18 years, you keep the single family home and your kid goes to college. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Or you could go the traditional route and scrap together $210 from your paycheck each month. This strategy gets harder and harder as the cost of living increases. I used this simple strategy with my two kids and each year their college savings continues to grow. The best part is that it is being paid for by my rental properties. In the past, it was a little challenging to find properties that generated $200 a month cash-flows. This challenge has all but eliminated in the States with the soft real estate market. In fact, if interest rates go down any further, it would be fairly easy to generate this monthly cash-flow on multiple properties. To get started, apply for membership in Income for Life at http://www.IFLApplication.com As a member, you'll have access to the absolute best investment properties in your area. You'll also learn how to collect higher monthly rents, which will help you reach your college savings goals faster. Remember the old saying: Work smarter, not harder? Well, this saying can be applied to saving for college too. Rob Minton P.S. The photo used in this post was captured from an online calculator at www.math.com.