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School fees make a large part of one household expenses. If parents decide to send their offspring to private school, they are free of the long waiting lists, but they have to invest a lot more money into this. Financial advisors are even recommending that parents should start saving for tuition and additional expenses, as soon as the child is born. Since that is usually not the case, they are facing with a number of headaches when the bills arrive. There is no reason to panic, though. The truth is, as soon as you start thinking realistically and planning your budget, you are half way through. Read on to find out some useful tips on how to win the school fees race.
Think ahead
Paying school fees directly from monthly incomes can be quite an uphill struggle. If you’ve started thinking about these issues on time and you’re far away from the actual payments, consider using your equity allowance to save the necessary money. Stock market can be risky, but you are able to choose which route you’ll take. For those more prone to taking risks, the advice is to think about enterprise investment schemes or tax-efficient venture capital trusts. For those who like to play it safe, equity income funds, which look for shares with good yields, are a good idea.
Make it a part of your monthly budget
If you were not planning this soon enough, you’ll have to pay school fees monthly. Don’t leave this chore for the last day. As soon as your paycheck arrives, put some of that money aside just as you would for house bills, transport, etc. Include other related expenses, such as books, notebooks, school lunch, field trips, into that amount of money, so that they wouldn’t caught you by surprise later on. You might ask: “What will remain of my salary”, but you would have to pay for those things anyway, better to be one step ahead. To make things simpler, you can use services such as School Easy Pay, which will automatically process your payments, using your nominated card or bank account.
Have a separate bank account
The unpleasant truth is that the money on your savings account is steadily losing value. The reason is that the interest the bank gives you is often lower than inflation. If you are looking for a place where you’ll save spare money for school fees, try with fixed deposit accounts in bigger banks. They usually offer better interest rates than ordinary accounts in smaller banks. The only drawback, if we might call it like that, is that your money will be tied up for some period and, it will not be easy to collect it in cases of emergency.
Explore your options
Do your research about additional financial options. A large number of kids are receiving some form of help with school fees. The help can be manifested in scholarships or bursaries. Though scholarships make only small part of expenses, every help counts. Bursaries are dedicated for those kids whose parents are earning under a certain amount. If you’re considering applying for bursary, you have to know that all of your incomes and properties will be rigorously investigated.
As you see now, paying for your child’s education can be significantly less painful, if thoughtful planning is put into it.
About the Author:
Dan Radak is a web hosting security professional with ten years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of online security, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.
