Sponsored Links


Other Topics
Sponsored Links



Quote of the Day

"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap."

Barbara Jordan

FEATURED
FINANCE
PRODUCTS
 
Ultraforex Trading : Automated Forex
 
123 Trading Secrets For Stocks, Futures...
 
Trend Zone - Forex Trading System Guide...
 
The Day Trade Forex Trading And Information...
 
Prophet1 Automated Forex Trading System...
 




 


Google


Warning: fopen(stopka/index.php) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /stopka.php on line 117

Warning: fopen(stopka/6655d922aa2c1bbb44b556c10262be35.txt) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /stopka.php on line 117


 
Featured Investing Articles

First Steps In Real Estate Investing
With so many people making tremendous amounts of money in property or real estate it's no wonder so many are looking at real estate as an investment. It offers more security than the stock market, provides great potential returns, offers tax benefits and ...

Investing in Forex
Investing in foreign currencies is a relatively new avenue of investing. There are considerably fewer people are aware of this market than there are people aware of several other avenues of investing. Trading foreign currency, also known as forex, is the ...

Stock Market Investment Advice: Part 1
Stock Market Investment Advice: "The Two Most Profitable Secrets of the World's Greatest Investors"Investing today is not for the faint of heart. Finding the right stock has never been harder, much less getting truly helpful stock market investment ...





3 Alternatives For Investing For Your Child's Higher Education Costs
 
With higher education tuition increasing at double digit year over year percentages an effective saving plan for your kid's education is becoming much more important than it has been before. Most families will discover that their future higher education costs will be much more than they have saved for their kid's education. This leaves many kids to be faced with obtaining financial aid to pay for a portion of their college education. The goal of this article is to explore the pros and cons of 4 common investment options when saving for college. This article will also explore why some of these options are better than other when considering a portion of your kid's education may be funded by financial aid.
529 College Savings Plan: - A 529 college savings plan is a fairly new investment option for college saving. It allows just about anyone to save for college. There is a long list of benefits of a 529 college savings plan, but perhaps the most important is that your earnings grow tax free if you use it for qualified education expenses. Additionally, the maximum amount you can contribute to a 529 plan can go as high as several hundred thousand dollars depending on your State. In the event you do not use the funds for college, you can still withdrawal your earnings, but you will have to pay taxes and a 10% penalty. The penalty will be waived if your child receives a scholarship, or your child becomes disable or dies.
529 plans can typically be purchased through a broker or mutual fund company, but a disadvantage is that investment choices can sometimes be limited. Since qualifying for financial aid is based on a calculation that considers your kids assets, another big benefit of a 529 college savings plan is that the money in the plan is classified as a parents assets so less that 6% of the value counts against your kid's financial aid eligibility.
Uniform Gifts to Minors Act/Uniform Transfers to Minors Act
(UGMA/UTA Custodial Account): - The benefit of a UMGA/UTA Custodial Account is that there is no limit on the contribution and it is easy to set up at most financial institutions. However, the limitations far outweigh the benefits. The first limitation of a UMGA/UTA Custodial Account is that these types of accounts offer very little tax advantage. If your child is under 14, only the first $800 of income is tax free, the next $800 is taxed at your child's tax rate and after that there is no tax benefit at all. The other big limitation is that the account has to be set up in your child's name. As a result, if your child needs financial aid all of the assets will be reviewed at a 35% rate. Therefore, this type of account is not advisable for those who may need financial aid.
Coverdell Education Savings Account (CESA): - A Coverdell Education Savings Account is very similar to a 529 college savings plan. The main difference is that with a Coverdell Education Savings Account you can only contribute $2000 per child and to qualify your adjusted gross income must be less than $110,000 if single and less than $220,000 if married filing jointly. The account is classified as a parent's asset so less that 6% of the value counts against your kid's financial aid eligibility.
In the end, parents should consider planning for college to be a highly important process. The above 3 alternatives can make this process much more easy and financially sound.
Copyright (c) 2005, by Jay Fran. This article may be freely distributed as long as the copyright, author's information and the below active live link is published with the article.
About the Author
http://www.motorcycle-financing-guide.com/directory/directory.php Jay Fran is a successful author and publisher at Motorcycle-Financing-Guide.com, a website that offers a wide selection of online motorcycle lenders providing online application facilities for motorbike - motorcycle loans or motorcycle refinancing.

Investing News



Bay Area investment group connects socially responsible lenders, local farmers
San Jose Mercury News
By Angela Woodall It was 2010, and Catherine Sutton, having lost faith in the viability of the stock market, pulled out her money from investments that she suspected weren't as socially responsible as brokers were making them out to be.

and more »

Kansas City Star

U.S., money funds are clashing
Philadelphia Inquirer
The Securities and Exchange Commission staff is drafting proposals Chairman Mary Schapiro says are needed to safeguard the industry and the investing public in another financial crisis. It's an attempt to fix weaknesses exposed when a large money ...
Ill-timed fight over money-market fundsSpringfield News-Leader

all 49 news articles »

Investing in Mom Power
New York Times
After a year, I left for SoundView Technology, a technology-focused investment firm. Four years later, I took some time off and backpacked in Central America, Southeast Asia and then on to Japan and Europe. In the fall of 2004, I entered Harvard's MBA ...

and more »

UAE investment and trade with Pakistan stands out
Khaleej Times
While world is beset with financial and business crisis, the UAE investment and trade with Pakistan stand out. Their relations are booming. Investors and businessmen of the UAE have just unveiled plans to invest more in Pakistan, and enlarge the ...


10-Year Freedom Investing Returns
Forbes
In Freedom Investing 2012 I analyzed the latest Index of Economic Freedom from The Heritage Foundation. Here I present some of the analysis for returns over the past 10-years. I took 13 of the developed countries with the largest investable markets and ...

and more »