Money Mondays: Saving for College
The video to your left is a Brady Bunch parody about a family who needs help with their college fund for their nine children. If you watch, at the end, you will see the Upromise logo. What the heck is Upromise? Glad you asked, because that’s what will help you in your quest to save money for college for your children. The program allows you to save money for college through your everyday spending.
Here’s How It Works
By registering your debit/credit cards, along with any local store savings cards (stores must be participants in the Upromise program, and you will be provided with a list of participants in your local area during sign up) and shopping as usual, a percentage of your purchase will go into an account to use for college related expenses later. This percentage will vary depending on the merchant, and sometimes the product you purchase. Certain purchases will be a percentage of the entire amount, and others will be a percentage of the price of the qualifying product. I know this sounds confusing, but if you check out the site and look at the details, you’ll understand. It is more difficult to explain than it is to demonstrate.
When you sign up, you will be prompted to list the name of the children you wish to save for, along with their birth date, and the percentage of total savings to allocate for this person. These percentages can be altered at any time, and are meant to serve as a mechanism to divide your savings evenly amongst all your children.
Another awesome feature is that you can invite your family and friends to sign up and designate all, or a portion of their savings to your child. This means that aunts and uncles, grandparents, and friends can support your child, too. Refer to the web site for details on how to use this feature.
So, what are you waiting for? Go sign up now at: http://upromise.com.
If you already use this program, tell us how it’s working for you.
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I’m the founder of Freshman Fund. It’s like a registry for college savings. Parents go to the site, attach their 529, create a public profile and email friends and family a link where they can contribute directly into the child’s 529 account in lieu of or in addition to the usual birthday/holiday gifts. Great for parents and great for gift givers and it’s environmentally friendly gifting.
I was at my niece’s birthday party watching her tear through a pile of gifts taller than she was. At the end of the melee my gift was tossed aside into a pile of other forgotten gifts. I spent a-lot of time and money selecting her gift and I though it was a waste. I told her parents that from now on I was just going to contribute to her college savings. I asked them what website to go to in order to that and none existed. So I started Freshman Fund.
My problem with Upromise is that I can’t link my rebates to my particular 529 plan, they force you to link to one of the few 529 plans that they manage. The Upromise credit card also has a limit to the amount of rebates that can be earned, which I don’t think they disclose very well. Anyway, Im on the lookout for special Back to School Savings, and I found this shopping site that gives you up to 30% Cash Back every time you shop online plus the additional savings you would get by using exclusive coupons. I have earned over $210 total since I have joined them.Thats a pretty good haul,isnt it? So next time you shop online, consider doing it through http://www.savingswatch.com and have yourself a pretty good deal.