Summer Baby Boom Reminder: Start saving for college early

Summer is the season to welcome new babies! Statistics show that birth rates hit the highest levels in June, July and August. If you are a new parent or grandparent – or you’re expecting to be – summer is the time for you to begin saving for college.

College savings for newborns? Yes! Starting early will put the science of savings to work for you. Not only will you have more time to contribute funds before high school graduation, but the earnings from your investment will also have more years to compound.

It’s one of the many ways South Carolina’s Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan works hard for you. That’s why no matter your child’s age, getting started saving for college with Future Scholar is a smart decision!

You don’t even need to wait for the child

Parents who are eager to get started don’t have to wait for their child to be born. A parent-to-be can open an account, list his or her own name as the beneficiary and get started saving. Once the baby is born and has a social security number, the parent simply transfers the account to the child. 

When expectant parents open an account, they have a big advantage. They can encourage friends and family to make contributions as baby gifts. Those gifts, by the way, have a nice benefit for the giver. Just like any other contribution to a 529 plan, gifts can be deducted on state income tax returns.

Know how to get started

Any adult can open a Future Scholar account and designate a child as the beneficiary. While parents are usually the ones to open an account, grandparents or other friends and family can be Future Scholar account owners as well - as long as the overall contributions to accounts for one child don’t exceed $540,000.

In order to open a Future Scholar account and make the child the beneficiary, the account owner will need the child’s birth date and social security number. That’s it!

Continue making it a friends and family affair

Parents can continue to make Future Scholar a top gift option for children as they grow.

Future Scholar eGift is an online tool that helps parents create and send emails inviting friends and family to celebrate special occasions by contributing to a child’s Future Scholar account.

Parents can choose to send an eGift as a reminder for birthdays, holidays – or any time. eGift will link directly to the child’s Future Scholar account, making giving that much easier.

Keep baby’s options open

New parents may wonder how they can save for higher education when a child is so young. After all, plans for college and future career goals are completely unknown and seem so far away. Future Scholar understands you can’t know the future. That’s why funds are flexible, giving parents the peace of mind to save now knowing their child will have a wide array of choices.

You can use 529 savings to pay for tuition as well as expenses at eligible two- or four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. and around the world. Savings can also be used for a technical college, a trade school, or a registered apprenticeship.

If your brilliant baby grows up to land a full scholarship to college, congratulations! Future Scholar savings can be used for graduate school, law school or medical school. Or you can transfer savings for one family member to another beneficiary in the same family.

Find free planning tools at Future Scholar

Along with making it easy to open an account online, Future Scholar offers free tools to help parents budget for college. You can even calculate the cost of procrastinating! Hint: it’s high, so get started today. After all, there’s no minimum required to open an account, and in about 18 years, you’ll be glad you did!

Find those calculators here and start planning for a child’s bright future today.