Investing on our Child's Education

There are several factors which you should consider in your child's education; in fact it is one of the most comprehensive matters that a parent should prepare for.  As a new parent, my concern is as serious as other parents do.  Do I have enough financial savings for it?  Can I come up with the right budget before hand? Or is it late to invest on it?  What school would be more feasible for my child?  All this questions are right for the picking.  When I was boy, I remember my mom and dad was as excited as I am entering into school.  It was an experience worthwhile for both the child and the parents to hurdle the obstacles and rewards during the child first years in school.  My dad, a police officer was really up on his toes in providing us the best education that is available for low income earner in this country.  It was a roller coaster, especially during our college years.  There were times that I went to school just having my transportation allowance; it was a disaster for a student like me dealing with such consequences.  However, its a matter that I deeply understand, specially with my dad’s work and financial capability.  But in end, with my family's help, I was able to finish my education in a state run University in Manila.  Sadly, my dad died a year before my graduation.  I wish he was there to see everything, perhaps all his work to provide us our educational needs had soften his body.

Going back to the questions I plotted, does we have enough financial savings for our child's education?  If your answer is yes, good for you, but if not, I believe you should start re-focusing your standards.  In our country, a minimal earner up to a middle class earner earns Php 10,000 to 20,000 pesos a month.  If you will allocate the wage you get per month you will come up with this computation;

    OLD WAYS                                         NEW WAY

salary:               20,000                                       20,000

 

tax:                     2,000                                         2,000

rent:                    5,000                                         4,000

food:                   5,000                                         5,000

transpo:               3,500                                         3,000

bills:                    2,500                                          2,500

others:                2,500                                           1,500

cash at hand:       - 500    over                                2,000  excess

(less expenses)

Wow, were do we save from there?  We are even far below than our estimated monthly budget.  This is reality, if we are to consider such accounting of our budget and if we want to overcome such predicament, we should start re-organizing our budget.  In doing so, you will see how we can come up with the right solution to this problem.  "Remember" be ahead of your plan!  I am giving these pointers, because I for the fact was not able to accomplish such things.  Have you noticed the “new way” to budget our finances?  Dramatically, the figure gone down, that is because we have now decided to re-structure our way of living from our present standard.

Reducing the amount on several items gives way to an excess budget.  This excess budget will now become your Savings.  This savings represents 10% of your monthly income which will now become your buffer on preparing for your child’s education. Investment requires several factors, one of which should answer the question; is it feasible? If you will be saving for 5 years and is expected to get at least .05% increase for every year in your company, then you are expected to save at least 240,000 pesos.  Options to save; in a Bank you get to have at least .002% on interest rate, in an insurance plan 3% to 10% estimated interest but lock-in, In a Business, at least 25% to 50% revenue, but risky.  So, where do you want to put our money then? You have all the time in this world to think for the right answer, choose wisely. 

Now, came the time to choose the right school for your child, another peculiar situation for a parent to dwell with.  There are only 2 option on this; one is Public Education, another is Private Education, so which one would you prefer between the two?  Public education is cheap, but there are public school that are often consider as non performing schools which may then lead to misguidance on your child education.  Although there are cases like this in a public institution, however there are Public Schools which you may consider, provided that this school are really producing well endowed students.  There are a lot!  If you’re living in a City, most probably they have their so called Science Integrated Schools, this school offer high standard school curriculum, which enable their students to compete with their Private school counterparts. Such of which are Philippine Science, Quezon City Science and even Science Section on some selected local School in your community.  These are opportunities that you may consider.  However, as parent, you are inclined to prepare your child on this type of Schools, so that you are assure that his or her quality as student is suitable for this type of Schools.  

Of course there is what we call Private School, this schools offers high quality of education in terms of facility and access to up-to-date instructional materials which can be utilized by your children for their future.  But, again there are also private schools which do not perform to the standard that a student should undertake.  This private schools offers curriculum that is not properly prepared, thus make it more difficult for a child to absorb education subjects.  Not so good School!  However, there are Private schools that you might consider in terms of student output and quality.  This school are always at the top in terms of expertise and reliability. Such as Ateneo de Manila, International Schools etc.  School of this quality are a much logical choice for high earning family as it offers excellent curriculum with better facilities and Social environment.  

Although the task of choosing is left in the parents hands, it is also important that we let our child choose on schools which we are considering for his or her education.  This way our child tends to become more responsible on his choices and let them know that you are there to guide them and not there to dictate scenario on their future.  A good parent should always consider their children’s idea, such as a good manager always find way to work along with the ideas of his or her subordinate.  

I hope these pointers will help you overcome such situation and make good out of it in the coming future.  So join me in preparing our children’s future in entering the world of reality.