By Betty Lochner
Director of the WA Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) and Chair of the College Savings Plans Network
December 4,2015

One of the biggest obstacles to parents starting or increasing their college savings contributions is the anxiety over whether they’ll be able to save enough to enable their children to attend college. CSPN strives to ease this anxiety, offering objective information on 529 plans and assisting families in achieving their higher education goals.

We are constantly thinking of ways to be a valuable college savings resource to you and your families. With that, we are very excited to be featured in Reyna Gobel’s new book “CliffsNotes Parents’ Guide to Paying for College and Repaying Student Loans.” An expert on student loans and paying for college, Gobel is a journalist and has written for U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, among others.  Her book tackles the anxiety issue of saving for college and helps families save what they can without impacting their own financial futures. CollegeSavings.org is referred to as a helpful resource for comparing and contrasting 529 plans to find the best savings option.

Here are some components to the book that will help ease parents’ anxiety about college savings:

1. Learn how to save without hurting their own financial futures
Chapter one provides a savings plan by which parents can save up to $10,000 without affecting their lifestyle in the slightest. The plan is achieved by saving pennies from purchases, accumulating tax savings, and slightly adjusting daily budgets.

2. Gifting
Provides detailed instructions on how gifting works and provides case studies of families who’ve saved thousands through gifting.

3. Last minute help
Families with high schoolers and college aged students often feel their college savings days are over, even though they can save until the last day they make their final college bill. This section goes over the full plan including how to find grants, scholarships, and a few more dollars to save.

4. Budgeting advice
Budgeting advice is offered throughout the book such as comparing home, auto and rental insurance to trim hundreds to thousands off of household budgets without impacting lifestyle.

Congratulations to Reyna on the book. We are so grateful to be included as a resource as we continue our mission to help families save for college. For more information about Reyna’s book, visit:  http://graduationdebt.org/.

About the Author:
Betty Lochner is the Director of Washington’s Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program. Under her leadership, the GET program has grown from 7,900 to over 130,000 accounts, with a fund valued at over $2.66 billion. Washington is unique in that their only 529 plan offered is a prepaid tuition plan. Lochner currently serves as Chair of the College Savings Plans Network (CSPN).