College plan Blog

This investment retirement account (IRA) is useful to you as an investor to understand because it may be a good way for you to save for your kid’s education AND save on taxes. These plans are now called Coverdell Education Savings Accounts in honor of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell. Individuals can make annual contributions of up to $2,000 per child into an account that’s exclusively for helping to pay higher education costs. The money contributed to a Coverdell account doesn’t count against the $3,000 ($3,500 if 50 and older) annual total individuals may contribute to their combined personal individual IRAs.

The earnings and withdrawals from a Coverdell account are tax-free, but you can’t deduct the contributions from your income tax because the account is for the benefit of the child, not the contributor. This is great for parents who are good savers and investors who want to make an annual tax-saving contribution that they can invest in the stock market toward the education of a studious and responsible child. In addition, if your child received a Coverdell ESA distribution, you now can also claim Hope Scholarship or Lifetime Learning credits. Just make sure you don’t use Coverdell money to pay for the same expenses you use to claim an education credit.

The beneficiary (your child) of the education IRA must withdraw the funds by age 30 if they don’t go to college and pay taxes and penalties on it. However, the account can be transferred to a sibling or the beneficiary’s child if they don’t pursue a higher academic degree or use it all.

Once you have the account open you can use the stock market to help finance your child’s education selling the stock at a high price after you have bought it at a low price using techniques such as I teach.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Scott Brown, Ph.D., a.k.a. “The Wallet Doctor”, is a successful futures trader, real estate investor, and stock investor. Dr. Brown holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of South Carolina. His 1998 articles in Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities were prophetic in predicting an impending stock market crash. He has helped many people become profitable investors by teaching them to look out over many years to spot stocks that are low and primed for rise in the new bull market. His second article met with approval by Dr. Bob Shiller of Yale University. Dr. Shiller is the economist that Alan Greenspan most highly regards who coined the term “Irrational Exuberance.” In 1998 he shouted to the world to “get out” of the stock market but now he is shouting to everyone that it is time to “get in!” The Wallet Doctor is not only sought after for investment advice and coaching in stock investing but also in futures trading and real estate investing.

Visit Dr. Brown’s site at http://www.BonanzaBase.com or sign up for his investment tips at http://www.WalletDoctor.com

Tags: 401(k), Education IRA, IRA, Retirement Planning, Retirement Plans, Simple IRA, Traditional IRA401(k), Education IRA, IRA, Retirement Planning, Retirement Plans, Simple IRA, Traditional IRA

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College tips that no one will tell you, but that are critical to your college success are the essence of my guides for college students, including my book “College Success Your Way” What Your Professors Won’t Tell You and Your Friends Don’t Know.” Some college students haven’t quite thought through some of the things they say on the spur of the moment. Here is one off-handed comment I’ve seen tighten the jaw of many professors. Be socially savvy and spare yourself (and your professor) this much ‘honesty.’ Never, ever admit that you hate the class. I do not care if you consider the admission, as one misinformed student said, “just being honest.” While just being honest is normally a noble trait, there’s no need to have full disclosure about something that might offend the person with the power to flunk you, or to make the semester very unpleasant.

Think for a moment about how many brain cells your professor has sacrificed on the academic alter to get her PhD (or Master’s, for that matter) in her chosen field.

Quite a bit, thanks for asking.

For years, she gave up watching television, spending time with friends, and reading books with no social redeeming value so that she could devote her time to study, write and research, days, months, and years on end to immerse herself in this particular subject.

Now, you’re going to moan and groan about how this course has nothing to do with your chosen career field, and you can’t for the life of you understand why anyone in her right mind would make her life’s work in this silly subject for Pete’s sake, and why, oh why, couldn’t you just take only those classes which have real appeal for you?

Let me give you some tough love here. A college education purposefully exposes

you to a well-rounded education. If you only want to study one topic, see if you can get into a trade school somewhere.

A balanced curriculum is one of the great benefits of advanced education. To complain about a class and go on about how you don’t see its value not only insults the person who has made it the nucleus of her work, it also makes it look like you don’t “get” the concept of higher ed. Such is not a great way to impress your teacher.

Raise your awareness about how your professor feels about her chosen career field. Too many clueless students have innocently stated that they can’t stand the class they’re in, nor can they fathom why they have to be subjected to the torture of taking the class when they can see no value to it.

What in the world would possess them to say such a thing right in front of the teacher? Not only right in front of her, but sometimes, right to her face? Who knows? Just don’t you be one of those clueless college kids who runs like a bulldozer over the teacher by going on about how stupid and useless the class is. It will only reflect poorly on you.

Your professor’s impression of you, like it or not, will be consciously or subconsciously in her mind every single time she grades one of your assignments or tests. Give her the opportunity to think the best of you.

So, if you don’t like the class, you’re probably not the only one, just keep it to yourself.

Tags: college expert, college speaker, college survival, college survival books, college tips, guidescollege expert, college speaker, college survival, college survival books, college tips, guides

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How would you like to achieve more success at work in a faster amount of time than anyone with whom you graduate?

It’s really quite simple. Have a plan. Have a career plan.

So many people approach the job search as a “somebody take me please” endeavor as opposed to planning their job search, focusing on the employers where you want to work and setting goals and deadlines for career achievements. Most people just happen along with no focus, goals or deadlines at all.

Life just happens. Jobs just happen.

The reason for making decisions today about where you want to be tomorrow is so that you have the ability to actually get there.

If you don’t know exactly where you want to be, you will be wandering aimlessly from position to position hoping that somehow it will all work out. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it works.

When you left for college, you probably spent a lot of time figuring out where you wanted to go, applied to the school(s), then when you were accepted, you formulated a plan to enroll in classes, find a place to live and budget your finances so that you could afford to eat and buy necessities.

If you applied that same amount of time and effort into setting out a career plan and the goals involved in achieving professional success, you would be much more successful and you’d blow past your competition easily. No one in your graduating class at college would even come close to achieving what you would achieve.

Plan to achieve. Plan to succeed.

The great news is that Career Planning isn’t some magical experience. Just give yourself a little time and ask yourself a few questions and you’ll be on the right track.

What questions?

How about some of those familiar job questions, such as “Where do you want to be five years from now?” Or, “Do you expect to go back to school to further your education?”

As you have more time in the months and years to come, revisit your Career Plan and determine if it still makes sense for you or if you need to tweak it.

You are the only one who can create your destiny. You choose.

Take the time NOW to set the course for your future.

If you take the time to set your career goals, you will be ahead of 90% of the rest of the people out there who don’t bother to plan ahead. You will be more successful than your peers in the same field because you know where you are going and how you intend to get there. You will make more money and you will be much happier. Why? Because you didn’t wait for destiny to step in. You took control of your life and made things happen.

Tags: career, career goals, career planning, career success, employment goals, job planning, job successcareer, career goals, career planning, career success, employment goals, job planning, job success

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