Balancing education savings with retirement

A mother and child exercising together.

When it comes to balancing multiple financial goals, like retirement and education, your Edward Jones advisor can work with you to create a personalized strategy to help you prioritize and understand the key considerations and tradeoffs. Your Edward Jones advisor works with you by understanding what's important to you, creating a personalized strategy to help you reach your goals, and partnering with you, and your tax and legal professionals, throughout your life to help keep you on track.

Your Edward Jones advisor can help you through the process by:

  • Discussing how much of the post-secondary expenses the family will cover and how this impacts other financial goals like retirement.
  • Estimating the savings needed to fund the goal and identifying the monthly contribution needed to get there.
  • Illustrating how time, return, and systematic investments can impact the savings strategy.
  • Demonstrating the effect of higher-than-expected education costs due to inflation by the time the child attends school.
  • Though the future of financial aid is unknown, providing an overview of the current landscape and how different savings strategies can impact aid eligibility.
  • Discussing "what if" scenarios that may derail the savings strategy such as premature death or unexpected job loss and strategizing how to plan for the unpredictable.
  • Discussing the different investment vehicles the family could potentially use to save for education expenses.
  • Determining the appropriate investment allocation based on the child’s age and account owner’s risk tolerance(s).
  • Discussing different investment options based on level of engagement or portfolio objective.
  • Setting up an appropriate review frequency to help you stay on track.

Saving for one goal doesn't have to mean sacrificing the other. There is, of course, no single strategy that will work best for every family. As you evaluate your investing options, it’s important to understand the effects of the trade-offs you make and prioritize accordingly.