More parents cut into retirement funds to pay for child's education
10/19/2010
By Credit.com Staff
About 60 percent of Americans are now saving for their child's college education and average over $48,000 in funds by the time their kid turns 18, according to Sallie Mae and Gallup's How America Saves For College 2010 poll. In fact, 23 percent of all money parents use to help pay for their children's college education is currently in their retirement accounts. Another 21 percent are held in investments, and 14 percent are in generic savings accounts.
This comes even as utilization of loans for education has increased thanks to greater flexibility for government-issued loans. While the average cost of one year of college education has crept to more than $24,000, a relatively small portion of that - about $5,000 - is thanks to parents and young adults taking out student loans, the report said.
There are a number of options for students and parents who want to obtain money for a college education, including federal and private loan programs.
