by Jan Combs, former financial aid officer at Harvard Graduate School of Education

With 2021 just hours away, many will be contemplating their New Year’s resolutions. Eating healthier, carving out more “me time,” reading more, or restarting that favorite hobby… Those are all worthy resolutions for the new year, but can I add one more for your consideration? How about focusing on financial literacy in 2021? This is one of my favorite resolutions, and there is no better time to regroup and freshen up that financial plan than at the beginning of a new year!

Southern New Hampshire University President Dr. Paul LeBlanc joined the show this week to offer his thoughts on how SNHU is responding to COVID-19, tips for online learning, and what he sees as the overall disruption to higher ed and the potential positive outcomes to that disruption. For those with college savings plans, we’ll discuss how to maximize those plans to pay the college tuition bill when it arrives.

by Jan Combs, former financial aid officer at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Spending extra time at home with the kids? Use the current crisis to teach kids valuable money lessons!

During this unique time, many have children home from school for the foreseeable future. Whether they are preschoolers, middle schoolers, or in high school or college, now is a great time to speak with your children about money and impart valuable financial lessons. Times of economic uncertainty can provide teachable moments to children and adults alike, and what better time to learn than now? No matter their age, your children can grasp age-appropriate money milestones that will serve them well moving forward.

This episode is all for the underclassmen, from mapping out a plan for your high school coursework to understanding the what and why of participating in extracurricular activities throughout your secondary school years. Finally, we have some financial advice for parents of ninth and tenth graders to follow as they prepare to pay for college in a few years.

Families with college savings in the stock market are likely concerned after watching the recent dramatic fall in stock prices. Worry is understandable. Like a number of things in the college admissions process, the stock market is out of our immediate control. No matter how badly we want to push that line in an upward trajectory, the market does what the market does, and we need to accept and remember that this is the ebb and flow of investing. That reality does not mean, however, that we need to be passive observers of—or blind reactors to—what happens to our college savings. Tough economic times remind us more than ever that we need to take control of what we can in our finances, pay attention to our goals, and implement strategies most likely to make our goals a reality. As the stock market rises and falls, college savers should keep these points in mind:

Paying for college can be a monumental task, and often requires a team effort to pull it off, including significant contributions from the both the student and their parents. Lucky families may also receive help from outside their immediate household, most commonly from grandparents. But did you know that ill-timed tuition payments from grandma or grandpa could cost you substantial amounts of financial aid? Tune in to the latest installment of our video series, We Can Explain, to learn how grandparents can best help pay for college without costing the student financial aid. Click here to watch “College Finance Tips & How Grandparents Can Help.”

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law a government spending bill which included many provisions of the SECURE Act (short for Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act—quite a mouthful). As its extended name would imply, most of the provisions of the SECURE Act affect retirement accounts like IRAs and 401ks. One particular aspect of the new law that we thought may be of particular interest to Insider blog readers (all diligent college savers, I’m sure!) affects the use of 529 Plans.

Saving for college is always a good idea. While having significant money in the bank may reduce financial aid eligibility slightly, the amount you save will always help you pay for college much more than the small loss of financial aid will hurt you. But did you know that which family member’s name you save in can have a dramatic effect on the financial aid calculations?

The College Board made a splash a few months ago with its new Adversity Score. After some negative backlash and bad press, they scrapped the score and replaced it with their new Landscape tool. Tune in to find out what all the fuss is about and if the name is the only thing that’s really changing. Breaks from college can wind up being quite expensive for students depending on what they choose to do and how far they travel to do it. We have some thoughts on how not to break the bank during the upcoming winter break. Finally, in Office Hours, we’re breaking down the supplements for Virginia Tech and Santa Clara.

This is part four of an ongoing series we’ve launched on the Insider blog on “Kids and Money.” As you prepare to send your child off to college, you should also be thinking about how to foster in them the skills necessary to build financial independence. In this series, we’re discussing how students can earn, spend, save, borrow, and protect their money in a way that aligns with personal and family values. Type “Kids and Money” into our Search Box to find all installments of the series.

Ever feel like you are becoming a mobile cash machine for your children? Until now in our Kids and Money series, I’ve been talking about helping your kids dream and set SMAAHT financial goals; well, now it’s your turn to dream of what life could look like by helping your kids manage their own money (and leave yours alone!).