The One Thing You Should Do for Your Child that You Could

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Bloggin’ Mamas & the Florida Prepaid College Board. All opinions expressed are my own.

I recently had a conversation with my son. He wants an $800 cellphone because his “starter” cellphone isn’t good enough. I wonder did I buy him a cellphone to let me know he was on the bus and for him to call me when he was done with soccer or did I buy him a cellphone to keep up with the Jones? If you know me you know, I bought him the cheapest phone I could find that worked. You know why?

He doesn’t have a job. His phone doesn’t earn money, and I wanted to pay cash, and it would be a cold day in Hawaii before I would spend $800 on a phone for a kid. Why is it that this same mom wrote a check for thousands of dollars for something he will not even use for 18 years?

You see I like to spend money on things that matter. We live our lives with the big goals in mind. If I spend money on all the little things that do not matter the thing that matters most will be out of my grasp.

What matters most to me?

College.

Yes, college. I wanted to make sure my children have the ability to attend college and to graduate college debt free. We chose Florida Prepaid College. We were able to pay all three plans off before our oldest attended high school. We said “no” to many things along the way so we could say “yes” to the one thing that will never break, that will never get old, that will never lose value. We gave them the gift of an education.

We wanted to make sure they weren’t saddled in debt. We wanted them to graduate college debt free. We know that student loan debt has reached $1 trillion in debt among Americans. If we didn’t take advantage of this program we feared that our children would:

1) Not attend college thus limiting their future earnings.
2) Not enter college because it would be difficult to obtain loans.
3) Leave college with debt.
4) Have to select majors based on the cost to obtain the degree.
5) Leave college and have so much debt that they had to take any job to begin to repay loans.
6) Have so much debt that they experienced anxiety.

The biggest personal reason why we bought into the (Florida Prepaid college) program is my husband, and I plan to retire early. We do not want to have to worry about paying for college. We understood the value of locking in today’s rates. We know college isn’t going to get cheaper over time and we didn’t want to work to pay for it when we could be sitting on the beach. I will be reading books, and my husband will be cleaning something. I believe that over the 14 years that we have had the plan, the cost of college has almost doubled. We couldn’t have invested the money we paid and made enough to cover the cost of college.

In the next couple of years, my son will ask us for expensive items, and our answer will be the same. Do you need it? Will it benefit your future? Can you use something that is cheaper and will it get you the same results? Those are the questions you should ask yourself.

What am I doing as a parent to prepare my child for the future? We forget that just like it is important to plan for our retirement, it is equally important to anticipate upcoming costs and try to get the best deal you can.

If you have 10 minutes invest that time in your child’s future. You know what it feels like to be covered in debt. It is like a wet blanket on a cold day. You can receive $25 off the application fee with my exclusive code Deals1718.

Florida Prepaid Plans include tuition and other specified fees. A family can purchase Plans all at once, over five years or in monthly installments. Prepaid Plans are available for purchase during Open Enrollment, which is open only until February 28, 2017. Use my exclusive code Deals1718 to save $25 off the application fee (normally $50). Apply here!