By Kamal K Sharma
Child Education is best investment to ensure the status & legacy you have managed so far is enhanced as well as carried forward in its true letter & spirit. Actual success of a family does not lie in the fact how big house you have built and what car you drive………rather the yardstick to measure ones success is how educated your children are and what profession they are heading for.
Every parent wants their children to do better than themselves, this is just possible with the quality of education you plan for your child from very early age. They say the strength of building lies in its base…here I mean decent schooling. Not every parent but majority of parents fail to achieve this very important aspect, not because they don’t think of it but actually for the simple reason that they cant afford it since they never planned it.
Few important aspects that are very crucial in Child Education process, we may call it PCS (Planning – Cost – Saving)
- Planning – This is a very advance step, where in you need to decide at an early age, what kind of schooling you want to give to your child, which city & so on.
- Cost – Understanding the cost of education at an initial stage for every parent is of utmost importance. Irony is only 12 out of 100 parents actually know for sure what would be actual cost they will have to pay over the years for Child Education. You need to keep in mind the inflation in education to reach on actual budget you require.
- Saving – Once you have understood the cost factor for next 20 years (This is the number of years your child will spend in Playway, High School, College, University). You can better design the modes of Saving for required budget.
Cost of Education is on rise in India, though higher education cost in our country is one among the lowest across the world but still many parents find it difficult to manage. Actually Education Planning comes as a 5th Priority for most of the families. First four being Building a House, Buying a Car, Vacations, Current Life Style etc. Where as Child Education should be first priority for every aspiring parent.
A family with a Child born in 1999 in a non metro city would have spent about 32 lakh by now ( Playway – Lkg, 1st – 12th, Coaching for a Professional Degree, 4 Years in college), I am not talking of very prestigious institutes here. This means if this family has 2 children, the education expanse they must have already spent by now is 64 lakh ……imagine if a child is born in 2020 and inflation in education is considered at just 5%, as a father how much will you need to spend in next 20 years
For 1 Child – You need an education fund of Rs. 72 Lakh
For 2 Children – You would need min 1.44 Crore as Education Fund
Dont feel surprised if you find even this amount to be not sufficient to meet education expanses at that time because it depends on the child’s Choice of Course as well as institution he/she prefers to get into.There is a new emerging trend these days to send children to Australia, Canada, US, Newzeland & many other countries where 4 years degree cost as of today also is in the range of 40-50 lakh plus many other expanses that are never kept in consideration.
Dont ignore this aspect, weather your child will go into Engineering, Defence, Medical, Law or Civil Services will depend on his/her choice but creating a fund has to be your duty as a father. Plan well, consider child education as an investment not an additional expanse. Even if you want to build an Education Fund of Rs. 75 lakh in next 18 years, all you need is a monthly discipline of Rs. 9800 in a Mutual Fund SIP. Your child certainly deserves this much of love & blessings to carry forward this family legacy. As a caring father you certainly owe it to your child, let him/her say it with pride….my father planned it for me.
Happy Investing
(Author is Founder & Director at http://www.savefirst.co.in, all views expressed here in or my personal views, all calculations are for illustration purpose only)
