I’m sorry, Salve, but are you sure about your computations about the U.P. tuition? My sister is studying at U.P. and her tuition is only 1,000 pesos a unit. The normal load for a U.P. student is 15-21 units a semester, meaning they pay 15,000-21,000 a sem, or 30,000-42,000 a year.

That will be around 168,000 for a 4-year course. If we add the 80% for miscellaneous expenses, that will be a total of 302,400 for a 4-year course.

Sorry to be so nitpicky. I do enjoy most of your articles and try to take your advice to heart. But the figures in this post should be verified.

Oh yes, I have to add that my computations are for the PRESENT U.P. tuition fee, without taking inflation into consideration.

But I do not believe U.P. tuition will be increased within the 3 years. I think all U.P. students (not just the activists) will block any more increases.

Hi writista, thanks for the clarifications. I used a P1,500 per unit computation because there’s talk it would be increased and would rather err on the “expensive” side. You know, just in case. Anyway, if the tuition is not increased, then I would have extra P500 per unit. For the final figures, I already inputted the 8% inflation rate per year.

me too… i am surprised at the price tag for up tuition….. anyway, dont’t look at the entire 4 years expense at once…..
it will come in piecemeal…. so, you have time to address them in smaller portion….

too late now for educational insurance….. plan b then, how bout opening a sideline, with your daughter helping you….. say cooking lunch for a whole department of people at a reasonable price…….

pretty soon, it may turn into something nice….. did anybody try to ask how much’s the earning per day of those jollijeep around makati? i have, you be surprise

Nagulat ako sa computations mo, sabi ko “Ha? Nung nasa UP ako P6,000 a sem lang nagagastos ko!” Forgetting that they’ve increased the tuition fees to almost private school rates.

Many personal finance bloggers I read start saving up for their kids’ college education as soon as they’re born. That’s something I’ll be doing, although it’s not really an option for you, is it?

Include the number of years she’ll be studying in college as part of the time where you’ll need to earn her tuition. Try to break down her expenses per year so it doesn’t look so daunting. It will be around, say, P100,000 per year, give or take, which will be around P50,000 per sem. Not too daunting now, is it?

Maybe it’s best to allocate your daughter’s tuition fund into a variety of savings/investments/businesses, but, as you said, you should probably lean towards more conservative ones. But by allocating your assets, you won’t have to worry so much about losing all her tuition money when one of your investments doesn’t do well.

Ma’am Salve,

Eto naman ayaw ko sa blog mo. It always makes me feel inadequate about my financial planning skills. LOL. Honestly, I hate to be reminded that I’ve yet to prepare for the child’s college education because everytime I see or hear a reminder I feel very irresponsible.

On the other hand, I should say Keep it up. Keep me on my toes. But honestly, for now, I’m still focused on acquiring that roof over our heads. Maybe after a year, I will have begin working on an educational fund.

@Writista,

Hi. I tend to agree with Ms Salve on the matter of erring on the safe/expensive side, knowing how inflation can be bad in the Philippines.

I’ve to add that I admire your transparency with regards the CAP blunder. I’ve blog-hopped for weeks now, looking at what personal finance bloggers are dishing out in the blogosphere and most of them really tend not to show any traces of mistakes they have personally committed in the past. It’s always suspect when you read these people presenting themselves as shining examples of financial literacy (really, it’s a lot of b.s.). My point is: In my perception, you’ve just raised your credibility ranking 10 notches higher.

Here in the Philippines, investment opportunities are quite slim. I would stick to time deposit instruments. Or if you are adventurous enough, you may try venturing outside.

In the US, there are exchange-traded funds (ETF) that pay monthly or quarterly dividends. Some of the high-yielding ETFs are invested in either emerging market sovereign bonds, preferred shares of US financial companies, or high-yield US corporate bonds. At current prices, the yield ranges from 7%-12% p.a. in USD. Those are good yields especially if you compare them to 10-year US treasuries that currently yield just 2.2%. The upside can be enhanced by peso depreciation. The downside is, since ETFs are traded, you expose yourself to the possibility of capital loss, more so if unusual volatility returns to the market.

Furthermore, tell your daughter to start reviewing for the UPCAT now. Focus on English language and math skills. If she places in the top 50, then she might get an Oblation scholarship, which covers full tuition for the entire duration of the course. I assume UP still offers the Oblation scholarship.

how shall i prepare for my daughter’s college education? i put my money under my mattress and wait for my daughter to enter college.

let me tell you a sad and stupid personal experience. i have written this blog before - maybe december last year.

like many parents i bought a pre need plan for my daughter. zero age is the best time according to a very insistent insurance marketing agent. i agreed inspite of my husband’s disapproval.

after full payment same agent advised me to convert the plan to a time deposit with rural bank of paranaque. i “gullibly” agreed.

rural bank of paranaque is now closed. phil. deposit insurance corp. (pdic) takes over. as of this blogging they are paying savings deposit. time deposit will be paid maybe march.

this make my stomach sick. i cannot complain so much. my husband isnt very sympathetic with his “i told you so”. i erred and i am to blame.

so now, i have to invest in a better mattress to put my money under.

I’m still single but I don’t know how I’ll be able to put my kids through college when I get married. Even getting married seems expensive. I wonder when will I be able to live comfortably and not by paycheck to paycheck. I save money but it’s depressing when you think of it in the long run as it seems you never have enough.

hi! i agree with the idea of saving for the child’s education as soon as they are born. my wife is set to deliver our first baby this coming April, and we decided to save a fixed portion of our monthly earnings to finance his education as early as now. i am a regular employee and i receive an average salary of 20K per month. how much of this should i save for his education and what is the best way to save it, hoping it would grow? honestly i am not financially literate, all i know is i have to save, save and save. any financial advice regarding on what to do with this figure would be a big help for us since we are just starting with our life as a family. thank you and more power!

@pbsans…..

regarding saving for your daughter…… do you have land in the province? or mabe nearby area….? might be a good time to raise some animals….. 1-3 pigs or 10-30 chicken at a time…. backyard style

consider this…. per head of piglet around 1600-1800….. around 100 days to grow them then sell them, around 6k per head…. then repeat, again and again for 15years….. pwede na ba pang tuition?

@ pbsans…

addendum…. some calculations….

say, for example you have 15years to time by your side and willing to raise piglets for 15 years ….. at 100 days cycle….that means you’ll have around 54 cycles…..

if you raise 3 piglets for 54 cycles and each piglet after 100 days can be sold for around 6k …… after 15 years…..that’s 972k pesos just like that…

that’s a very simple & straightforward calculation, if you consider putting those money into time deposits and rtb after a while and not expanding your operation….. if you expand…..

With the soaring cost of living versus meager minimum wage I wonder how the great majority of Filipinos will be able to send their children to good schools like Don Bosco, Ateneo and LaSalle.

However, here’s what we did when my wife I were raising our two sons thirty years ago here in Illinois. Foremost, we bought Term Life Insurance with policy coverage for thirty years with face value of gross annual salary times ten (example: 30k X 10). With our sons as rider on the policy for a minimal premium. ( “Buys term and invest the difference”) Started our respective company sponsored pension plan (IRA & 401k) similar to PERA. Contributions are automatically debited to our checking account for convenience. Then, in anticipation of our sons college expenditures we bought Illinois College Savings Bond. It’s a Zero Coupon Bond being sold on a discount with varying dates of maturity. When our eldest was eight years old we bought $11k worth of bonds with a par value of $25k after ten years. Eight thousand ($8k) for the youngest that matured after fifteen years for $25k. Our eldest went to University of Illinois in Cnicago (UIC) which by the time tuition fee were not as high compare today. My youngest went to a community college whereby the cost of tuition at time were not as expensive as at present. Cost of college education here in America is very expensive. Thanks to the availability of government grants and subsidized student loan from private banks, plus scholarship granted by different foundations. The availability of community colleges here in United States is the reason why generation after generation of Americans have become knowledge workers. My eldest brother and his son are both Respiratory Therapist, so with my wife, an RN (Regstered Nurse) graduated from Community colleges here in Chicago for minimal expenses far from the standard cost charge by Universities here and in the Philippines.

Re: Dividend, Non-resident alien are subject to 30% withholding tax for dividend paid by US corporations. Capital gain on US equity for non-resident aliens are not subject to withholding tax. Check with your broker before investing on foreign listed company. For young couple
with young children, start taking care of risk management first via insurance. Life, Health, Disability and Property and Casualty are a must protection for every family’s financial well being..

Get a college education plan from a reputable company, with a premium which you could finish to pay.

Put your child in a good elementary and secondary school. Give them the best basic education. College will not be a problem for you,because we have a several good State Universities that could help you.

Success of your child does not depend only from the school but from him too.

anybody ever thought of tuition fees and school expenses for preschool, basic and secondary education even before thinking of college?

How do you save/prepare for those 12 pre-college years?

by the way…anybody heard any update from CAP?

anybody heard of any CAP update?

@chris…

actually i have the same idea of raising livestock. we have a place in Nagcarlan Laguna that i intend to use to raise goats (i heard from a friend that they are less costly to rear) and the fact that i can start with such small capital, i think i might give it a go. i might also consider adding pigs and chicken as per your advice, thank you. considering that these are “consumables”, i may have to expand the operation in the future (even before reaching your 15 year projection) by adding other livestock such as cows. thanks for the “motivation” hehehe! i’ll be sure to follow this site for future references, gives me the jumpstart that i need! thanks a lot!!!

For our daughter’s education, we have invested in 2 instruments: COOP and UITF. The COOP dividend will pay for her nursery to high school education and it will give our UITF fund sometime to grow for her college education (around 15 years).

Send them to Philippine Merchant marine Academy. less tuition fee but guaranteed employment for your child, as shipping and offshore industries are booming. They have a wide variety of option on where to work, be it private or govt. As early as 1st year in PMMA you the cadets are already assured of employment as shipping companies are running after prospective cadets to work as officer onboard their ships after they graduate. a 21 year old graduate can earn as much as 3500 US dollars per months and if he becomes a captain onboard tanker ship average of 10,000 US dollars per months. Believe me, just go to Luneta seafarer center and you will see the the salary rates of the seamen

I’m an insurance agent from a top insurance company, and to finance our son’s college education, we got a fixed value educational plan (of course from our company) years ago. To augment the plan, we invested in blue-chip stocks in the mid-1990s & built up our savings in time deposits, which later we shifted to mutual funds since 2000.

Our son, hopefully, will be finishing college this year in La Salle-Taft. I thank God our planning for his education has worked. It really takes serious goal-setting, determination, financial discipline, careful monitoring & prayers to reach your financial goals.

This coming June my eldest son will go to college, he just passed UST entrance exam and waiting for UP result.
Presently working in yemen as supervisor but planning to transfer to abu dhabi in a lower position but higher benefits such as educational, housing, transpo, etc… even dollar earners feel the high cost of education in Phils, well as they say it is business..

I know how parents worry about the future of their children - believe me, I already think about which university I will send my kid to study and I am not even preggy yet.

But don’t stress yourself too much. Just continue saving… I’m sure your family income will increase as time goes by and you can ramp up your savings.

Hi, I am a parent myself…i have a kid in college and 2 still in the secondary level….

As soon as my kids reached 3rd year high school, i start checking on schools that offer scholarship grants…well, that is after i find out my kids interest for college…

Then i really check their tuition fee, although my highest consideration is always the quality of the school.

Next, please consider the distance of the school from your place…it will give you big savings if it is just a jeepney ride away…Maybe the school has a low tuition fee, but if your kid will spend almost a hundred a day for his/her fare, you are actually adding 2,000 pesos per month on fare alone…we are not considering the lunch meal yet…

The most important one, encourage the kids to study very well in high school, so that when they enter college, scholarship grants will be attainable…hope this helps…

i’m already thinking about this with my first son due in May this year. My condo payment will be finished this year and i intend to channel most of the funds for that…here’s hoping too my business will fly…

Going gaga over the tuition fee of ateneo and la salle is like anticipating a meteor to hit planet earth as an eventuality that cannot be avoided. Hello your child’s career is not dependent whether he or she will graduate from ateneo or la salle. I have personally seen many of those students end up jobless and worst bums after college. Many in fact just end up as call center agents with attitude problems. Hey there are state colleges out there who produce quality graduates better than those elitist univesities. Its not bad saving up for your kids future and education why not. But to actually lose sleep over their tuition fee is unwarranted anxiety and expensive as you might get hyper tension.

It is right to prepare for our children’s education as what I am doing now for my daughters. But it is not necessarilly important to send them to prestigious schools but for the quality of the school. I graduated from a technical state-run university in Manila, and observed that employment opportunity is high among technical courses/degrees graduates.

for cap educplan holder seeking updates maybe this link will help.

http://www.pinoymoneytalk.com/2009/03/06/college-assurance-plan-update/

note: i dont know if this is true or not