In this episode of The Financially Mindful Podcast, Todd Weaver of Strategies for College, Inc. shares his advice on the complex and sometimes overwhelming process of college planning. Todd covers financial aspects of getting ready for college, such as Expected Family Contributions and 529s, as well as the myriad of other factors that go into choosing the right college. If you have school-aged children of any age, get the maximum return on your investment into education with tips from this episode of The Financially Mindful Podcast.
Daniel James
Dan is Founder and CEO of CanopyLife, a platform committed to building families’ financial resilience to deal with major life events. Dan founded CanopyLife after experiencing the financial and emotional cost of losing his dad to cancer, and wanting to help families avoid the same pitfalls. A Kellogg School of Management grad, Dan previously led new product development at Capital One and has nearly a decade of experience working in product development at startups focused on consumer, fintech and insurtech. In a prior life, Dan was a consultant at BCG and worked in Equities for Goldman Sachs and ABNAMRO.
James V. Grace
Jim Grace is the Director of Wealth Management at Silver Pine Capital in Medfield, Massachusetts. Jim has more than a decade of experience in the financial services industry, leading Silver Pine’s financial planning and broader wealth management service offering. He has worked for MetLife and has managed for First Niagara (LPL Financial) and United Northeast Financial Advisors (Infinex Investments). He is father to two children.
About our Guest:
Todd Weaver is an Advisor and the Vice President of Business Development at Strategies for College, Inc., where he helps families discover where they are unknowingly and unnecessarily leaking money. Their goal is to provide structure and guidance by creating a “game plan” for students and families from getting into college, to paying for it and getting out on time!
Insight from this episode:
Advice on how to best plan, save, and start the right conversations early.
How to know if a 529 is the best option for your family and how to best leverage this investment and avoid downfalls.
Tools to help you estimate costs of college.
Details about the changing market of education.
Benefits of taking a holistic view on your student’s college education and rethinking “name brand” tunnel vision.
Quotes from the show:
“Families just don’t know what’s out there. They don’t understand how the system works-- typically against them, sometimes for them-- but how to take advantage of all the rules and regulations that are right there.” –Todd Weaver The Financially Mindful Podcast Ep. #6 (6:45)
“It’s better to save for perhaps a year of college, or year and half or two, and then work with the system to build the scholarships, build the other options that families might have access to, so that they can still live their lives.” –Todd Weaver The Financially Mindful Podcast Ep. #6 (9:25)
“The formulas are expecting the families to go into debt, but the families can choose how much they want to go into debt. –Todd Weaver The Financially Mindful Podcast Ep. #6 (14:50)
“The challenge, of course, is this is such an emotional decision for so many students and families… Things are not actually the way they present in the marketing material.” –Todd Weaver The Financially Mindful Podcast Ep. #6 (21:28)
“You’ve got to look at education as an on-going process and part of your on-going career development.” –Dan James The Financially Mindful Podcast Ep. #6 (23:02)
“Most admissions people that I speak with today are looking for students who are really passionate about the things they want to do and love.” –Todd Weaver The Financially Mindful Podcast Ep. #6 (28:23)
“Who’s fully funded for retirement? Nobody. So you got to take care of yourselves first. You don’t want to become a financial burden on your children later in life.” –Todd Weave