Smart Kids need Smart Parents

Tertiary Education Funding on Prezi

Yes, indeed, smart kids need smart parents.

University Funding Analysis

The competition for places at institutions of higher learning has become more intense over the last decade. The costs have also gone up. Increasingly, the answer for many parents is to start saving and investing early so that they will be able to get the lump sum needed to finance their children's education. The benefits are clear. Saving early and often will help you to put aside less every month. Moreover by investing early, you will see your investments outpace inflation and increasing education costs, as illustrated above.

Saving part of our current income seems to be the only way to provide the education fund. The only problem is that we must have enough time to earn. Should our time run out earlier than expected, we can only count on whatever that's accumulated, plus some interests. Thankfully, we could use a "special account" that guantee the desired funds even if your time runs outs. All you need to do is to transfer your regular savings into our account, and see it grow.

Some useful references

Singapore to get its 5th and 6th universities

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/singapore-get-its-5th-and-6th-universities-20120826

"The schools were chosen because they work closely with industry and focus on applied degrees" - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced at the National Day Rally on Sunday night that both the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and UniSIM would become universities. SIT will expand places and begin awarding degrees while UniSIM will add full-time programmes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Room for more graduates

"By 2020, as much as 50 per cent of each cohort will enter university."

http://www.todayonline.com/Hotnews/EDC120829-0000061/Room-for-more-graduates

Helpful Financial Tools in our Resource Center

7CAPITAL Resource Center provides some useful spreadsheets to help you in understanding your personal finance. This mind map tool provide direction and could lead you to spreadsheets that might be applicable to your situation. Side by side, explanation notes & illustrations, which is linked within my blog, helps to explain certain financial planning concepts. Hence, this would lead you to understand your current personal financial situation so that you could arrive your ultimate financial destination "safe & sound'. The available tools would determine how you are going to achieve your financial goal. BTW, going through the financial planning process required your conscious discipline, as my coach once told me, "Hock Beng, we can't build muscles by lifting feathers."

Do come back for more as I would be updating this mind map as whenever new stuffs (tools, applications, illustrations, templates) are ready and available for your references.

I hope that this reference would truly be a helpful resource for your personal financial well-being.


Create your own mind maps at MindMeister

How much will a University education cost?

Do you know how much you need to set aside for your child's education and how you can achieve that goal?
To illustrate how much it will cost annually to send your child to a local university, we have the following:

Tuition fees: $6,000

Food: $3,000

Books/stationery: $1,000

Transport: $2,000

Personal expenses: $3,000

Total: $15,000

So a typical 4-year university education might cost $15,000 x 4 = $60,000 today.
Assumed that the inflation rate for education is 3%, that sum could grow to $108,367 in 20 years' time. Sometimes, the cost of education can rise faster than the inflation rate, which means you will require even more funds.
In order to accumulate $108,367 in 20 years' time, you need to set aside $294 per month now, assuming you invest in an instrument that gives you an annual rate of return of 4%.For 6% rate of return, your monthly saving is $233.
A financial instrument with a higher rate of return can help you to achieve the same goal with a smaller amount of savings every year. But note that any form of investment carries a certain degree of risk.
From the illustration, the earlier you start saving or investing, the more wealth you can accumulate.

Some of the options you can consider if you want to save for your child's education include saving through a bank deposit account, buying an endowment plan and investing in a long-term investment product. To achieve how best to find a suitable plan for your child’s education programme, it is always advisable to seek guidance from your financial adviser.





[Attached is the "funding through" concept for the projected university fee only]