AMBITION, are you prepared to make it REAL?

A few days ago as I was eating my meal inside Mcdo, a family sat in a table beside me. 

I did not have the intention to eavesdrop but I heard their son say, "Pa, I want to become a doctor!"

The dad replied, "Of course anak, you can become a doctor!"

It made me smile and think of the future that I want to give to my son/daughter once I already have my own family.

Have you ever thought about it too?

I remembered one of my business mentor's story about how he and his wife would always tell their son that he can be anything he wanted to become simply because his college education is already secured. Isn't that amazing? I actually felt a bit envious about it because I did not come from a rich family who can afford to let me study abroad or even in the top universities here in the Philippines for it was a time where we underwent financial crisis and I had no choice but to go into a state university and even had to work part-time and earn a scholarship just to get myself through college. 

Nothing against my parents who had little savings but there had been a time in my life where I wished I was taking up business in Harvard and even studying in an Art School abroad but we cannot afford it during that time. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for what we went through for it made me into the person that I am today. 

The point I want to drive here is that, five to ten years from now, I am certain that education will become even more expensive due to the rising interest rates caused by inflation. The question here is not about the school where they will study, the question is, if that time comes in your life that your child will ask you that kind of question, will you be able to AFFORD IT? If you want your child to get the BEST education, how do you plan to prepare?

If the cost of education remains the same, perhaps your current income can support quality education for your children as they grow.

But the challenge for most parents is not having enough savings to keep up with the rising cost of quality education, like what happened in my case. 

Consider the cost of college education by taking a look at some schools in the country today with 12.25% yearly increase based on CHED:

Aside from the regular tuition fee hikes, we must also consider the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) Program which is now in effect.

As you can see, your child now enters college at age 18, instead of 16.  These extra years equate to higher and additional education costs, which requires us to set aside more funds in order to ensure the best future for our children. 

I had a client who said that it's too early to plan for his daughter's college education because she is still in Nursery pre-school. I told him that it is best to start as early as now while he is still capable of preparing for her educational fund. 

The secret to building funds for the future rests on 3 factors: TIME, MONEY and INTEREST. When it comes to TIME – we must start saving as early as we can.  When it comes to MONEY, we must save as much as we can, as regularly as possible.  And when it comes to INTEREST, we should find interest rates that better-than-inflation. 

Maximize your time, money and interest, and you can build that education fund for your son/ daughter.

To give you an idea about educational planning, in this example, the client's child is at age 1 and has 17 years to go before college. The parents estimate the current annual tuition fee to be 100k in their chosen university.  And we also followed CHED’s annual rate of increase of 12.25%. This is what we will use to project the future value of college tuition. 

Client: Emmanuel Espiritu 

Age: 35 

Child: Anton Espiritu

Age: 1 

Assumed Annual Tuition Fee: 100,000 

Projected Target Education Fund: 3,400,000

Production Solution: Sun MaxiLink Prime providing life insurance coverage plus fund accumulation for education 

Life Insurance Coverage: 1,000,000

Annual Premium: 151,440 for 10 years** 

So, how much are you willing to set aside to allocate for your son's/daughter's educational fund?

Make a BRIGHT Choice today by: 

1. Meet up with me for educational planning so we can develop a financial plan.

2. Change your spending and saving habits to achieve a Brighter Financial Goal. 

3. Commit to the plan. 

Let's make it happen! 

Cheers to a brighter life!