My daughter will be a high school senior, which means we have been visiting a lot of colleges this summer as she prepares to apply to universities in the fall.
This has given us a lot of quality, dad-daughter time together. It’s sad to think about the day I will drop her off at college, but I prefer to focus on and enjoy the time I have with her now.
I have really enjoyed our campus visits because of great conversations about what she is looking for in a college experience and an eventual career. I’m not too worried because she has given a lot of thought to where she will end up. She asked good questions of the university staff, and she planned many of our visits herself.
That doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot of stress about college applications. She has set high standards for herself, but admission to her school of choice is far from guaranteed.
Kids understandably have stress about the whole process. Parents understandably have stress about how they are going to pay for it.
Fortunately for us, we started saving in a Bright Start 529 college savings account soon after she was born. I have been a consistent saver through automatic payroll deduction. If you have yet to start saving for your child, it is never too late.
All parents can open an account with no minimum contribution or annual fee and take advantage of the Illinois tax benefit for yearly contributions. You have the choice of setting up recurring contributions, or you can give when you want. Your family also can help on this journey with gifting for birthdays and holidays.
Since taking office, we have made it easier for busy families to open an account. And through Illinois First Steps, we also added a $50 incentive for parents of children born or adopted on January 1, 2023, or later.
We have worked to reduce fees, putting Bright Start 529 among the lowest-cost college savings plans in the country. We’ve been helping families save more than $16.5 billion for over 378,000 students. Bright Start also is highly rated. We’ve put all the benefits of Bright Start in one place.
In addition, you have options with Bright Start. If your child doesn’t go to college or trade school, or if they graduate with money left over in the account, you can roll over up to $35,000 into a Roth IRA to jump start their retirement savings. Either way, you are setting them up for a better future.
And as a fellow parent, I can tell you that’s something we all want for our children.
Sincerely,
Michael