You love your child and want to offer them the best education possible.
HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST? AND HOW WILL YOU BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT?
These are essential questions – yet difficult to answer.
Children and money. I love my child just like you do yours, but goodness they can be expensive, can’t they? There are all kinds of information you can read in magazines and on the internet that will tell you how expensive having a child is. The vast majority of it will explain the costs of raising children up to and including a university or college education. Beyond that, the only thing that usually gets a mention is the cost of a daughter getting married. Luckily, I have a son!
The future of your child?
Whether my son wishes to go to university or not in the future is impossible for me to know now, but it doesn’t stop me from planning ahead for this.
Before my family and I moved to Johannesburg we lived and worked in Shanghai and Beijing, China. Now the cost of education at a private school here in Johannesburg can be seen as expensive, but compared to international schools in China it is very low cost. Luke’s school fees in Beijing came out to be more than £30,000 GBP per year!
University fees and extras
Let’s just use the scenario that he wants to go to university in the UK. According to the Oxford Students website, university fees for an undergraduate course in engineering science are £44,240 GBP per year, but what most people forget to factor in are the costs of study material and the huge costs involved with accommodation. After adding monthly spending money (because your young adult also needs to eat!) then the total will be approaching £60,000 GBP each year.
A 4-year university course in the UK becomes easily over £176,960 GBP and with the other mentioned costs then the total can easily spiral to £240,000 GBP! You also must factor in inflation over the 4 years albeit at the level of 6.9% p.a. currently.
Cater for your future needs.
It is therefore very important to think about what you will spend on your children’s education – and to prepare for it.
To cater for the future needs of families, I recommend sourcing investments in secure and highly regulated international jurisdictions to have the benefit of saving in a global denomination.
Austen Morris Associates specialises in helping individuals reach their personal financial wealth targets. There is no one investment that fits everyone, which is why we like to sit down and talk to our potential clients about their own personal situations and to see if we can be of benefit.
If you would like an introduction to Austen Morris Associates and how we can help with education planning, then please do contact us, at https://austenmorris.com/contact-us/
From the desk of: Kirk Mcardle, Austen Morris Associates Associate Partner
