It may not be possible for every parent to do that and even those who manage should not expect to save all the money their children need, but they can certainly help reduce the amount their children need to borrow by learning to balance their savings.
Start by Maxing Out Your 401(k)
Borrowing from a 401(k) to fund college costs is a plan that can quickly backfire. With early withdrawal penalties and taxes, it’s an expensive option that should probably be avoided. But a saver can make sure to max out their employer matching contribution to increase the amount that’s saved toward retiring and reduce their personal savings burden.
Check Out Your State’s 529 Plan Options
Planning for college is hard when tuition costs keep rising but in some states, a 529 plan can help by allowing you to prepay tuition costs, locking in today’s prices. However, not every state sets up their 529 plans that way. In some states, the plan acts as a normal savings account.
Get Help with Financial Aid
Taking on the entire burden of school costs without looking into financial aid is a huge mistake, especially since about 66 percent of full-time students in the 2014-2015 school year qualified for some financial aid. Have your child work with the school’s financial aid counselors to determine which programs, grants and scholarships they might qualify for.
Automate Savings Deposits
Planning to save money and really saving it are two different things. One way to ensure you actually save for both your retirement and your kids’ tuition is by automating your savings deposits. In addition to automating your 401(k) through work, you can automate transfers from your checking account to your kids’ tuition funds and your IRAs every week or month. There are also some bank programs and apps that can allow you to regularly save $1 with every debit card purchase or save the change difference between your sales totals and the next rounded up dollar.
Open an IRA
Every year, you can deposit a good chunk into an individual (non-employer) retirement account called an IRA. You can choose between a tax-deferred Traditional IRA or a tax-free Roth IRA. (Roth IRA distributions tax-free if made 5 years after the initial contribution to the plan and you are over 59 1/2.) If you’re in a high tax-bracket now, the Traditional IRA can help you reduce your tax burden, which may leave you with more cash to save toward your dual goals. Choosing a Roth means you can take tax-free distributions later on which reduces the amount you need to have saved.
Even if you can’t fully fund your kids’ tuition costs, the savings you amass can reduce the number of loans they need, putting both you and your child in a much more secure and comfortable financial position during your future golden years.
Add Traveling Expenses to Your Budget
The first step to take when planning for trips is to properly fund them. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to incorporate traveling expenses into your regular budget. Many retirees create an annual budget and they break this down into a monthly budget. Even when retirees incorporate a line item for traveling expenses into their budget, they often fail to budget enough money for these experiences. Depending on your plans for various trips, a single trip may easily cost you several thousand dollars or more. If you plan to travel at least a few times per year, your budget will need to be adjusted accordingly.
Prioritize Your Trips
If you are like most retirees, you may have a lengthy list of desirable amazing destinations. However, you may only be able to visit a few destinations each year. Prioritize the trips that you want to take so that you can cross those off your list first. Remember to factor in costs for your trips to visit family with your recreational trips. Determine which trips you want or need to take each year. This is essential if you want to properly allocate funds in your budget for all of your planned trips.
Research Expenses
The expenses for each of your planned trips will vary substantially. For example, you may have plans to drive to a few national parks and to take a trip to Europe a few months later. The Europe trip will be much more expensive. With both types of trips, you need to essentially create a detailed itinerary. Research accurate costs for each aspect of your trip so that your budget is realistic. Remember to factor in funds for food and gas.
Look for Savings
Seniors often qualify for special savings at restaurants, theaters, stores, hotels and more. When you begin planning each of your trips seriously, spend time analyzing all discounts available. Look for alternatives, such as staying at a different hotel that may offer a senior discount. Take advantage of senior discounts and be aware that other discounts and savings may also be available. For example, you can travel during a non-peak season to save a substantial amount of money. You can buy plane tickets on non-peak days or in the very early or late hours of the day. These are only some of the many ways that you can potentially save hundreds or thousands of dollars on your trips.
Traveling may be one of your primary goals in retirement but your dreams of taking amazing trips will not happen if you do not have money available. As you can see, you will need to budget properly for them in various ways in order to have funds available for your trips. You can get started today by adjusting your budget and researching desirable destinations that you want to visit within the next year. By doing this, you can get the wheels in motion for taking exciting trips to amazing locations.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/05/retirement/budget-travel/index.html
Legally speaking, stepchildren are not entitled to any inheritance unless they are specifically named on the will. This fact can be traced back to the colonial days when America was under the British common law. Due to the prevalence of negative stepparent stereotypes at the time, the centuries old legal system did not encourage strong legal relationships between stepchildren and stepparents.
Blended Families and Estate Planning
What are blended families? The term blended families refers to a family situation where either the husband or the wife has kids from a previous marriage. Blended families can take any of the following forms:
- Families where both spouses have children from a previous marriage.
- A family where both husband and wife have children from previous marriages in addition to their own biological kids as a couple.
- Married couples where either the husband or the wife has kids from a previous marriage.
Blended families often have to deal with complex issues when it comes to estate planning. Problems can arise between the parents or the children and their spouses. Some of the challenges individuals from these families face include:
- Scuffles over the division of responsibilities or authority.
- The need to protect their estate from previous spouses.
- Potential delaying of the stepchildren’s assets perhaps until the death of the parent’s spouse.
- The possibility of stepchildren being disinherited by the living spouse.
Estate Planning Asset Protection Strategies to Protect Stepchildren
The number of blended families continues to rise as divorce rates in first marriages and remarriages rise. On average, about 50 percent of marriages and 60 percent of remarriages always end up in divorce in the US. With the help of an estate planning attorney, these families can come up with some form of asset protection to make sure that the surviving offspring remain a part of their estate.
Stepparent Will
The stepparent should make sure they have a will which specifically names the stepchild/children as a beneficiary. If a stepparent dies without a will, his/her estate will be inherited by the legal spouse or the closest living relative but not the stepchild.
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)
ILITs allow stepparents to provide for their children through life insurance and use the remainder to provide for their spouse. The parent purchases a life insurance policy using the name of the child and pays the premium for the rest of his/her life. The child will receive the inheritance upon the death of the parent. An irrevocable life insurance trust is a good way to ensure that stepchildren are not disinherited.
Bloodline Trusts
A bloodline trust is intended to benefit your child and his/her offspring. The trust protects a child from creditors and former spouses by keeping the money in the family. The child is the trustee.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/us-divorce-rate/
http://www.n-klaw.com/the-blended-family-dilema/
http://www.kwgd.com/estate-planning-for-blended-families
