In April 2015, CollegeAdvantage celebrated its 25th anniversary. In honor of this milestone, many longtime account owners shared their Saving Stories and how using CollegeAdvantage helped them achieve their goals. We are fortunate to have these encouraging stories of how families prioritized their children’s higher education and are sharing them.
We had a very good experience with CollegeAdvantage. I believe I owe our success with saving for college to the example set by my parents. When I was growing up, they started a savings account for my education when I was very young, so that is what I did for my children.
I was fortunate that CollegeAdvantage was just starting out, and I heard about it from a friend. We had started savings accounts for both children shortly after they were born. Any monetary gifts they received when they were born, or for birthdays and holidays, had gone into those savings accounts. So, we had nest eggs to start their CollegeAdvantage accounts.
My best advice to save for college is to start very early when they are babes in arms and to add to it on a regular basis. It was so nice not to have to worry about how we were going to pay the next tuition bill.
Our daughter, Katie, went out of state at first for college. She attended The Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and Boston University. She completed her education at The Ohio State University and majored in Fine Arts and Psychology. She then went back to Boston University and completed a program to become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM. She currently is employed by The Wealth Conservancy in Boulder, Colorado.
Our son, Ben, graduated from The Ohio State University. He majored in Environmental Science and currently lives in Bowling Green, Ohio, and works for UPS.
If you make it a practice to set aside so much per paycheck, it becomes a habit. I remember taking the tour of the main campus at Ohio State with my daughter. At the end of the tour, they ushered us directly into a financial aid cubicle. After about a minute, we were told we did not need to be there. What a great thing to hear. Our plan worked and was well worth it. Our son had the same advantage a few years later!
I hope that others hear about CollegeAdvantage, too, so that they can save for their children’s education like we did.
Shirley Wolf
Lima, Ohio
