Put aside the large sums that are bandied about in the media and take a realistic look at the cost of educating your child. More importantly, how you can plan for it and invest wisely. With some professional advice and guidance, you can afford it.

What’s the plan?

As the education your children receive impacts the lives they lead, the sooner you start planning for it the better. When your education fund is healthy, the more choices you might have of where to send them. But regardless of where they go, let’s get things started now by examining your options.

What are your current commitments? Where do you want to be?

Often it’s when the financial demands of a growing household are at their peak that the costs of educating your children need to be slotted in. The budget might already be stretched, but slotted it must be. We start by examining where you sit personally, what your financial commitments currently are and where your financial plan must be designed to take you. And we generally approach it in a number of ways.

Capital investment

If you are in a position to set aside a capital amount specified to fund future education expenses, that’s great. We would discuss with you when you might like to access the funds as well as the amount you forecast needing. Then we’re able to consider the most suitable asset allocation approach. We’d also look at investing the funds to support future expense requirements.

Regular investment

Not unusually, the capital investment is not enough on its own or there isn’t the ability to commit to a capital investment up front. If that were the case, we’d look at your cash flow and identify funds to commit to a regular contribution to the investment strategy. Having a longer time frame allows you to build more value in your investment, which is why it’s better to start sooner rather than later.

Combination investment

You don’t need a very large amount of capital to begin with – anywhere up to $10,000 say, to start a combination investment. With regular contributions you can then build the investment over the long term. If you start with $10,000 when your child is born and commit to $5,200 pa ($100 a week) to an investment with a balanced return of 7%, your investment would increase to approximately $118,000 by the time your child is 12 and entering secondary school (year 7).

Many parents are also helping to finance university educations as well, and it’s a good discussion to have as part of your planning strategy.

Funding your children’s education is one of the most important contributions you can make as a parent, to build a pathway to the future and give your child the tools to find their way in the world. At Elston, we will work with you to tailor a plan to your circumstances and requirements, professionally and expertly from the start.

If you would like more information please call 1300 ELSTON or contact us to speak to one of our advisers.