Most families (being human, of course) wait until absolutely the last minute to do everything.That's why very few people end up financially prepared to pay for weddings, homes, retirement, and college educations for their children.

Our focus today is college funding - so let's discuss the little-known reasons why you'd be much better off planning your child's college education in his or her JUNIOR year of high school (if not earlier!).

Reason #1: Money Saved In The Wrong Places Could Cost You A Fortune In Lost Financial Aid.

Did you know that money saved in the wrong places could count as much as 7 times more heavily than money saved in the right places? If it counts "more," you will receive LESS aid.

It is important that you determine which assets you have accumulated in the "wrong" places so you can either gift, transfer or reposition them before you have to apply for financial aid.

If you wait until the last minute to do this (your child's senior year), it will be too late to change the mix of your financial picture, and you will end up losing thousands of dollars in financial aid that you would have been eligible for.

Reason #2: You Must Know How Much Your Family Will Be Expected To Contribute Towards College Costs.

No matter which schools your child ends up applying to, the government will expect you to pay your fair share towards the cost of college. They call this your "Expected Family Contribution" and this is the minimum amount of money any school will expect you to pay towards your child's education.

The sooner you know what this number is, the sooner you can start saving to accumulate at least enough to cover this minimum amount.

If you wait until your child's senior year of high school to find out what your family contribution is, you will have no time to do any saving - and this means borrowing more money to cover the costs of your child's college education!

Reason #3: You Want Your Child To Pick Schools Based On The Schools Ability To Give You Money.

Most students and parents pick schools whimsically without giving any consideration to which schools have the best ability to meet their financial needs.

What happens is that most students start picking schools towards the end of their junior year, visit them during the summer, and then start applying to them in their senior year of high school.

The entire process is very costly between travel and application expenses, and most students and parents are stunned at the end of their senior year when they find out there is no way they can afford most of the schools they applied to!

This scenario can easily be avoided by finding out which schools have the best histories of giving good financial aid packages - more FREE money, fewer loans!

By finding out this information in your child's JUNIOR year of high school, you can avoid spending time and money traveling and applying to schools that will never be able to give you the money you need.

Reason #4: You Must Start, At Least, One Year In Advance If You Want To Apply For Private Scholarships.

Although private scholarships only make up 1% of all the money that exists for college funding, it still can be worth looking for some of these funding sources.

Private Scholarships are sources of FREE money that never have to be re-paid.

Private foundations and organizations offer them to students based on their ethnic background, religious affiliation, talents, hobbies, skills, interests, athletic abilities, etc.

You can only get these sources of funding if you apply for them, and you can only locate and apply for them if you start looking in your child's JUNIOR year of high school. Since most parents procrastinate, you will be competing for these dollars against a smaller playing field!

These four little-known reasons could mean the difference between your obtaining thousands of dollars in college funding or not being able to afford to send your child to the college or university of his/her choice. It's that simple!



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Chrobak