“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”. This is how important education is to our children. Hence many parents would want to provide their children with good education. Although tertiary education is affordable, you need to have a big lump sum of fund when the time comes. Parents need to start preparing the tertiary education funds years before their children need them. Unless you have a big windfall such as winning a lottery or receiving an inheritance, you must accumulate the funds over the years. The following are important factors to consider when you are planning for child education fund:

• Tuition fees
• Living expenses
• The duration of study
• Number of years before the education fund is needed
• Projected inflation rate of tuition fees and living expenses
• Currency risk if studying abroad
• Contingency plan if unexpected situation arises
• Liquidity and type of asset classes being used to accumulate the funds

By knowing the current cost of education in today’s value, we can project what the cost will be when your children are going to universities. From there, we are able to figure out the shortfall of fund, and can plan out the amount of savings you need to put aside regularly to cover for the shortfall. This process of education fund planning requires regular assessments and reviews to ensure that you are on track to provide the needed funds for your children education.