Here’s How You Can Save and Invest for Your Child’s Education

It’s an open secret that education is preposterously expensive and parents are drained of all their savings getting the child educated in the higher realms of education. For the bright future of your child, you do as much hardship and perseverance as you may humanly do. The toughest part is getting the fees to pay to the foreign or Indian universities that charge an exorbitant amount of money and more than often you are not prepared for the shock.

It’s now common knowledge that education supersedes all other sectors in spending. Parents go broke and misfortune befalls them once they pay through their nose to the colleges and universities for their children’s bright future. Their future is brightened but the pockets of the parents get lightened. Higher education is beyond the reach of millions, so they keep biting their nails and wait till they break down in dejection and despair just worrying about how to pay for the education that is so easy for the opulent section.

How to Save for Children’s Education Wisely?

You will do well if you begin planning for the expense and begin saving your earnings. You should consider investing also so that your corpus grows to your satisfaction and need. If good sense prevails, you do begin when your child is young because it takes years before the fund is ready to be disbursed for paying the fees.

Investment Instruments

For instance, you can start SIP online for convenience and start investing in mutual funds for your child’s education. SIP is a Systematic Investment Plan. A SIP allows you to keep putting small sachets of finance in a pocket specially designed for your kid's higher education. It's one of the smartest ways as it troubles you little and gives you at the end of a term what you want. You want peace and freedom from anxiety about your child’s future. There, in the SIPs, is the magic of compounding that does the trick and before you know, the fund is ready.

SIP works by way of small investments that you make every month that accumulate into a corpus over some time. This way you dodge the rough onslaught of negative market forces during their dips because of the law of average that works in your favour. You win some and you lose some, but on balance, you are a gainer and a handsome gainer. You are not given the tough and humiliating choice of falling back on loans from friends and associates and living a life of ignominy lest you should hide in shame failing to pay them back.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

You should also invest in a Government-backed scheme like the Sukanya Smridhi Yojana especially if you are a parent of a girl child. Sukanya Smridhi Yojana details is a scheme that has the support of the government under the banner of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana. This scheme was brought in to benefit the daughters of a family who are an oft-neglected lot in a family. All the favours go to the boy but a girl is supposed to do the household chores and get ready for the marriage. This yojana has a lifespan of 21 years. It ends when the girl marries. The interest rate of this scheme is 7.6%. The interest is compounded every year and the investment gets exponentially increased. As a parent, you can get two Sukanya accounts. The account can be opened while the child is below 10 years old. The interest rate for the scheme has been decided and fixed by the government. The following table is quite revealing about the historical growth of the scheme

Salient Features of SSY

● The minimum amount is Rs. 250 to start the scheme.

● If you cannot deposit even Rs 250 in the account in a year, the account turns into a default one.

● The money that is there will go on getting interest compounded.

● You may opt for premature closure if the situation demands. It can be closed if there is a fatal disease inflicting the child that requires prolonged medical care. In the case of the death of parents the scheme might be closed.

● Once the girl child becomes more than 18 years, she can operate her account because now she's said to have become an adult or a mature person. In this case, the girl has to produce some necessary and relevant documents. These documents shall be submitted to the bank or the post office.

● There are certain eligibility requirements to become a member of the scheme. The Sukanya account can be opened in the name of the child by the parents or the guardians who have been acknowledged as such.

● You can open only one account for one child. There is a provision and limitation of only two such accounts in a single family.

Conclusion

You must save and secure the future of your child. You can make use of mutual fund SIPs or government-supported or sponsored schemes like the Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme. You should get into the habit of investing in regular investment in the systematic investment plan or SIP. It builds a handsome financial corpus for the child's higher education which is getting dearer by the day.