Much of the prevailing advice about financial planning for college is easy to follow…provided you’re affluent. Deferring holiday bonuses, redirecting a portion of discretionary spending into savings, or even committing to saving “just $250 a month” is easy to do if you have that money. But it’s a lot harder for families who don’t have those resources and are facing financial pressures far more immediate or even concerning than accumulating college savings for the future.
It would be of little comfort to many families to learn that “Almost 1 in 10 working Americans earning $100,000 or more live paycheck to paycheck,” as referenced in this article, “How to Save for College When You’re Living Paycheck to Paycheck.” But you don’t need to make nearly that much to utilize the article’s tips or to benefit from the encouragement to save, no matter how small the amount.
The encouragement is important, because what’s meager to one person is too much for another. I’ve seen plenty of articles that point out how much you’ll have saved for college by setting aside “just $250 a month.” But this is the first one that lauds efforts to save just $25—or even less—per month. And the action of saving adds up no matter the amount saved.