Rebate Deals Make It Easier to Save for College

Get 10 percent of your grocery spending back in your 529.

October 19, 2010 RSS Feed Print

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Alternatively, some parents prefer to put the bulk of their college and retirement savings in Roth IRAs, since that money can be withdrawn without penalty or either retirement or education expenses.

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Given those caveats, Joe Hurley, founder of savingforcollege.com, says parents may as well try as many of the free rebate programs as they can.

Parents who don't mind the hassle, and are really disciplined, can take the rebates in cash and deposit them into their preferred college savings or Roth IRA accounts. Otherwise, to make sure the money is saved, parents can have the money automatically funneled into lower-cost fund options that Fidelity and Upromise offer.

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Updated on 10/20/2010: An earlier version of this story omitted some details about the rebate programs.

Tags:: rebates,; colleges,; credit cards,; savings

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Scholarships and grants are an excellent source of money to pay for college. However, most people don't have the time or energy to do exhaustive scholarship searches. And even if they have the time, there is so much information out there that it can be totally overwhelming! I spent my son's entire senior year searching for scholarships (six days a week, two to four hours per day!) and yes, it paid off! As a result of all my hard work and the experience I gained, I founded Scholar Dollars, and I provide personalized scholarship searches for students. I focus on finding more obscure and local and regional scholarships that are not well known and harder to find, which means that my clients have a better chance of winning! You can find more information at www (dot) Scholar-Dollars (dot) com. Of course, the ultimate result and money won depends on the student's motivation, determination, and commitment. You certainly won’t win any scholarships if you don’t apply for them. But the money is definitely there if you are willing to work for it!

Tracie Joyner of GA 12:51PM February 12, 2011

I read all that you there have good oportunity and good thing that you do for students i am hana amd i am from etiopia and am glad happy by having contact with you.am student of addis abeba universty.so if you intersting to understund my thing in here and try to help me please add me as soon us you can.

hana amdetsion of NY 2:14PM October 25, 2010

If your student attends a community college, this strategy may work. But many other colleges employ "enrollment management" strategies that can negate all of these plans based on other factors. Wise consumbers will research prospective colleges to see how "net price" of attendance is actually determined, rather than blindly following such a savings strategy.

Budgeteer of MD 2:35PM October 22, 2010