Importance of your Child’s Education plan in coming times !

POSTED BY Jagoinvestor ON February 27, 2011 COMMENTS (111)

So, what’s your biggest financial goal in life? Your Child’s education?  Their marriages? Planning your own retirement? What is the strategy you’ll follow to reach these goals? What if I tell you that in the coming times, your way of looking at these goals needs to change?

You can’t look at goals the same way as your parents did! The lives & times of our parents, ourselves and our children will have lots of differences; difference arising because of the way our society and economy changes from year to year, decade to decade.

Let’s question the beliefs we have about some financial goals in our lives, how we should change our way of looking at them and planning for them. I believe this is really important; important enough to cover this over a series of articles. This is the first of a 3 part series and we will cover Child Education in this series.

Child's education

 

Let me start from basics. Here’s how typical financial planning works in India. A financial planner captures your situation, helps you define your goals and then he plans for how those financial goals should be achieved. Take any financial plan and topmost goals are

For years, traditional financial planning has been going on like this, & no one questions the way we plan for these goals and how much importance we give to these goals in our life. Note that these goals take up a good amount of your monthly investments and you end up with less money each month!

How will you feel if after 2-3 decades you realize that you shouldn’t have worked so hard on these goals?

How is Child’s Education Planning done in India?

Right now, almost every average India plans for their child’s education in an unstructured way. They just put some random amount in some generic financial product, without understanding how much would they require at the end, when the goal actually arrives.

The amount of investment done is guided by the potential of a person or some whole number like 5,000 per month or 10,0000 per month.

Normally Financial Planners will take a better and more structured approach to plan for your child’s education. They would first take the amount required for funding education in today’s world (this is often given by you).

They then, take the target date of the goal (for example, 25 years), assume an “education Inflation” to figure roughly how much education could cost in the future, plug-in other important factors like “regular inflation”, “Your earning potential”, “Increase in your investments each year”, “you risk appetite” and some more factors to figure out the amount of money you need to invest monthly or yearly to reach that goal.

There can be many variations to plan, but this is how most of the financial planners plan for the child’s education goal.

Watch this video to know the best investment for newborn child’s education:

What’s the problem in child education planning?

The problem is that we have taken into consideration changes like inflation, costs, etc., but not considered other factors like how these goals will look like in the future. Whose responsibilities will be it seen as? Who will be responsible for taking care of funding the education costs?

Will it be the parents, the child, or both – the parents and the child?

Planning for child education is not just dependent on the numbers, rather it’s a combination of a number of factors; social, personal beliefs, religious, your way of approaching & looking at life…

In the image given below, you will see the steps of a child’s education planning:

Steps of child's education planning

If you are a person who has seen enough hardships in life and have taken care of yourself right from the beginning, you may believe that your duty as a parent is to provide minimum support to your child, up to a certain basic level and they should become independent, sooner or later and that their life is their headache, not yours.

As far as our society goes, earlier providing a great education to children was seen as a passport to a good retirement, because you do your duty of providing support to your child, and in turn, he completes his responsibility of taking care of you in your old age.

But friends, the times are a-changing! Gone are those days and people and relations are going farther and farther. Even in Health Insurance, family means immediate family (spouse and children), not parents.

We are entering (or have already entered) an era where parents will provide for their child all the necessities up to the age of 18, then consider him or her, “self-dependent” , and then expect him/her to make their own path in life.

So the question which we are trying to answer here is, Is “Child Education” so important in today’s life? Or more, will it be so important after 2-3 decades? I don’t think so.

Change in social trend and our thinking

For years, it has been the parent’s responsibility to save money for their child’s education. His grandfather saved for his father, his father saved for him and now he saves for his children.

But will this chain of “responsibility” be the same always? Will, it always be the sole responsibility of the parent to save for his child’s education and in case he fails, is he or she a bad parent?

In 70s and 80s , it would be a really, deadly shock for a child if his parents told him,Listen, we as Indian parents know that we should help you with your education, but sorry old chap! We can’t! We would rather prefer to keep the money we saved, for our retirement. You go right ahead please, & find some alternatives to fund your education. You can live in this house till you find another one.”

The child would have gone straight into a coma after hearing this! You would also be shunned by friends, relatives & society at large and labeled as an unsupportive and bad parent because you didn’t do your duty!

Education Loan is the new tool for self-funding

In the new India, it’s not a big thing to hear that someone is doing his studies with the help of an education loan. The trend is not really new, but it has started gaining popularity only recently in the last 10 years or so. SBI was the first bank to start giving Education loans in 1995, but it was not really sought after much in those times.

Only now, do we see increased awareness and a shift in parents’ mindset that “It’s fine to take education loan.”

Even so, taking an “Education Loan” is the last option for most people, rather than the default choice of parents and children. Parents do everything they can do to fund education and only if they fail, do they opt for a loan. It’s still not seen as the best option to fund education by the majority of the population. (though this is changing)

More and more people are opting for higher education after a first job, It’s not uncommon to hear people pay back an education loan EMI while they’re working, so you can see the trend emerging now. It’s only going to grow bigger and bigger and take a big shape.

Some Stats

There is a steadily growing market for education loans and govt is also encouraging and setting better targets. Banks had given Rs. 35,000 crore in education loans last year. The government has set a target to increase the amount in education loans to Rs122,838 crores in 2017 and Rs1,66,541 crores in 2020.

This would help increase the enrolment ratio from the present 12% to 30% by 2020. (source) .

Here is the chart which shows you the relative size of education loan disbursed by banks and you will be able to see the fast growth. Given the number of youth our country has, there is a huge demand as well as supply for loans.

eduation loan in india

As per a survey, 81% students would like to go for education loans if they are eligible for it. Only 2-3% of Indians apply for education loans compared to 85% in the UK and 50% in the US (2005 data).

Don’t stress a lot on Child Education

The motive of this article is to give you some idea about future and how child education will look like. This article is not discouraging you to save for your child education. The only point is that you can take some of your tension away from it, atleast partially. In the coming times, there can be more important goals in life, which needs more priority.

If you are an earning member of your family and feeling the pressure of creating a corpus of several lacs for your child after 20-25 yrs, I would suggest lower your tension! 🙂

While you can still save and plan for that goal to fulfil your “kartavya” as Indian parent, I say, don’t worry so much. Your target amount might be correct,  but don’t worry, the India of 2040 will not ask you to fund 100% of your child’s education. If you even save for 50% of what you have planned, rest would be funded by education loan.

Don’t become slaves to numbers! Understand and be with the changing India! Focus on some things more important in your life! We will talk about these in the last article of this series.

Please share your thoughts about this topic? How much do you agree with this way of thinking about a Child’s education?

Disclaimer : All the thoughts are purely authors opinion and does not reflect the opinion
of financial planners.

111 replies on this article “Importance of your Child’s Education plan in coming times !”

  1. Rachana Meher says:

    Thanks Manish !!

    I have RDs and Balanced funds investment setup done.

  2. Rachana meher says:

    Hello,

    Looking at all these postings made it clear that it might be a better world for new parents or rather yet to have kids…

    What is the investment strategy for parents like us whose kids will need money after 7-8 yrs . Also every year the so called good schools are costing us around 175000/- every year per kid..how to cope up with this?

    1. I think now as the time is just near by, you do not have option to put very small amount . Its more of nominal returns you will get like 9-10% on your invested money . I can see RD / Balanced funds as a good option to you now !

  3. Pavan says:

    Manish,

    Very good article. Your article reinforced my thought process vis-à-vis role of child education in retirement planning.

    Without belittling child education loan difficulties people have now, we did face similar problems 25 years back getting a house loan. Things have changed, and I believe, similar changes will happen with respect to child education loan in the coming 5-10 years.

    Very practical and futurist article!

    – Pavan

    1. Pavan

      yes , I am of same thoughts 🙂

      Manish

  4. Amitav says:

    Very well articulated . . . . thanks a lot for the “New kind” if idea

    Regds
    Amitava
    Navi mumbai.

    1. Amitav

      Thanks , keep reading and share it with more people

      Manish

  5. jitesh says:

    Manish,

    I do not agree with this article 100%

    education is the best gift parents can give to their children. this article is trying to prove benefits of education loan for child as it work in western countries education system but please understand india is far different that that. Our political, cultural, social env. is totally different. There are not many graduate or post graduate people in country like USA. There are plenty of people in US i know who like the concept of education loan and give examples of india where parents support major part of child’s higher education.
    many of them work in McDonald or dunkin-donuts shop and forget the education.

    we need to think many times before copying something from western culture. first understand weather its really proven method or not and then copy.

    lets not just blindly copy whatever western world does…respect and feel proud of what we have

    thanks
    jitesh

    1. jitesh says:

      correcting one mistake
      “There are plenty of people in US i know who DO NOT like the concept of education loan and give examples of india where parents support major part of child’s higher education.

      1. Jitesh

        Thanks for your comment . Not agreeing is fine . Its the way we think about certain things . Also note that you have not taken the message from the article , which is not “Stop saving for child educaiton” , Its more about “Think about how it would look in future and if you see logic in it, partially fund your child education and start investments for other important goals in life which we will talk in 3rd series of article” .

        There are many who agree to the concept and you can read them above in comments section and there are equally lot of people who disagree and both feel they are right .

        So I would consider it as a personal beleif and how you take it . If you dont , thats fine . After all you have to be happy with what ever you are doing .

        If you talk of examples , there are enough stories discussed about to talk on both sides of the coin .

        What’s your take on that ?

        Manish

  6. herge says:

    Here is an article about the subject from someone more experienced:

    http://www.subramoney.com/2011/03/finished-education-no-job/

    1. Herge

      I read that one actually . Is it not a different topic ?

      1. Herge says:

        Its related in the sense that education loans are not for every child. Its for strong-minded independent enterprising kid who has even if jobless after graduation and a debt already to boot still keeps his/her nerve and gets out of it.

        This requires pretty good parenting! This is why I keep saying this is an extremely complicated issue.

  7. Praveen says:

    I am seeing many guys who don’t save a penny upto their marriage & calls their parents to buy essentials/minimum req’s for a house after getting married. But here u r talking about funding education from own pocket/loan. Hilarious 🙂

    1. Praveen

      my god , thats extreme .. After a job , if they ask I can still imagine , but after a marriage if they ask , I am just wondering how irritated their wives would be on them ! . However this is extreme cases and I can tell you exactly opposite cases aslo .

      manish

  8. kumar says:

    My specific objection is to statements like this

    “What if I tell you that in the coming times, your way of looking at these goals needs to change?”

    This is a fantastic statement made without proof.
    If you are only giving your opinion then I feel the tone of the statement is incorrect. Your blog is one of the most popular and is well-read. You don’t need to make a special effort to sell your article. All your articles written with facts are informative enough and sell on their own even with dull English.

    The only statistic in the article is increase in student loans. As someone above pointed out this can simply be because current parents haven’t saved enough to tackle inflation.

    There seems to many who think that Manish can so no wrong and what he says is right. A stronger disclaimer must be provided for these guys when you make such statements.

    1. Kumar

      Ok , I take that . I might have to think again while giving statement like that . Btw, there are enough critics on the blog who dont agree with me , and I encourage that should happen . Even with this blog , one has to come , read and then take the best out of it , something which adds more value to them .

      I personally think, that people of this generation are becoming more and more dependent and think that they should start supporting themselves after a certain age itself . And higher education will be on those lines .

      I also wrote at the end that its my personal view and not a general view , Are you saying a seperate disclaimer page has to be there of this statement?

      Let me know . Also share your views how do you personally see this goal after 20-25 yrs and what expectations parents , children and society in general will have regarding children education ?

      Dont you think that dependence on parents for funding higher education will much more than today or past ?

      Also do you think that in future instead of funding all money for higher education , its better for a parent to give a loan to children , You can read Sundar’s comment above to see an example why this is becoming more important in some cases .

      Manish

  9. S S says:

    Its difficutl to strike balance between theory and practical. Colleges are cgarging fees like anything and that too without reputation. What if child is not able to secure job after degree or satisfactroy job after degree? loan will kill him and his parents. very few educational institutes are there which guarantee job after completion of course, rest we all know too well. I would not suggest completely bankfinanced education.

    1. SS

      thats fine , its more of what beleifs you have about this area . There are many who think it is the right way , so its a personal choice

      Manish

      1. kumar says:

        “so its a personal choice”

        If you argue like that then everything is a personal choice. One can say I wont plan for retirement because its my choice and I will somehow manage.

        Many come to jago investor for facts and figures. That is missing in this article. Your own opinion may change after you become a father.
        Speculative guesswork for such a complicated problem is dangerous.

        1. Kumar

          There are facts and figures in the article . All anyone can do is to give one facts and figures and what one feels about it . Not everything can have a “right” or “wrong” answer and this is the same kind of topic. If you look at the article it clearly shows you that. The reason I said its a personal choice because you read the rest of the comments ,there are two class of poeple who think completely opposite about this topic , now who is right and who is wrong ?

          So As a blogger I am just trying to initiate the conversation and how I feel about the topic based on my understanding , If one sees some login in it and feels that its worth taking . One can go ahead , else he/she has go as per their beliefs and how they feels about a particular thing .

          This is not a topic like “Asset allocation controls portfolio risk” which can be proved with numbers and same conclusion everytime .

          I would suggest you concentrate on the gist of the article and what its trying to convey , If you feel that the article is conveying “stop saving for child education” , its not the case. I would suggest re-read the article and read the conclusion part again .

          Manish

  10. T K VANI says:

    Hi Manish,
    Was under the impression that financial planners as a rule, love to create a fear psychosis in the minds of investors by putting huge numbers to be acheived as targets for child’s education, marriage etc and benefit from it by asking them to subscribe to schemes particularly by appealing to sentiments than rationale.First time I am seeing a article that says something different.Keep up the good work.

  11. Santosh Navlani says:

    Hi Manish,

    Great post. i appreciate your effort in writing this “controversial” post. and i completely agree with you on this.

    however, there are some aspects which one needs to think about before turning slightly carefree about not planning “completely till last detail” for child education. one needs to really think if s/he as a parent will be economically well-off to guarantee the child’s education. i can tell you from my own example – “myself & my father failed to secure an educational loan for my MBA”. i had to borrow money at 12% from one of my relatives & paid him back in cash. the point i’m trying to make here is its the parent who needs to be clever enough about whether the parent would be in a position to secure a loan. s/he may not be able to say this with 100% probability. but s/he can always secure the education by term insurance & plan it well enough that the child reaches a state where child him/herself can take it further from there. and for this to happen, the “upbringing” has to have lots of non-monetary aspects to take care of. these days parents really feel that their “children are not capable of anything & take toooo much care”. they forget that most children & atmosphere around them makes them smarter rather than dependent beyond a point.

    planning minutely is going to have only incremental benefits. its more about “being responsible with money & investments” that is needed.

    Santosh

    1. Santosh

      You have echoed the same thougts which I had in mind , may be I was not able to put in properly as many have taken it in negative sense . A lot depends on that way of your thinking .

      Manish

  12. herge says:

    increasing education loan takers may simply mean the present parents did not save enough to match increasing education costs. Also students have to study more these days to get a good job. This cannot be taken as evidence that students want to decrease the burden of parents.

    An educational loan may save your retirement corpus. It will however affect the retirement plans of your children. When they start earning they need to pay an emi for a few years which will cut into their nestegg plans.

    As a parent I would either save separately or even use part of my nest egg rather than let my boy start his life in debt.

    Speculation can never be good advice.

    1. Herge

      “Also students have to study more these days to get a good job.” thats partially true . Times are changing , more than college degree or educaiton one has to concentrate more and more on his ability to talk , communication and concentrate on his soft skill these days and will it be true in coming times . http://www.subramoney.com/2011/03/times-are-changing-your-thinking-has-to-change-too/

      Manish

      1. herge says:

        Precisely. Which means you need to take courses for that too, which means more fees.

        Today loans are offered @ ~ 12% which will take anything between 5-10 years to clean up. Unless the child earns significantly this will be difficult. Standard undergraduate courses do not offer that kind of salaries. It is a vicious cycle. More salary require more education. More education require more loan. More loan means longer to settle. Longer to settle means less savings for the child.

        Unless loan rates drop by half to about 5-6% the scenario you have talked about is shortsighted.
        The Indian economy is not an independent economy. No one can predict loan rates will fall that much.

        In the last 10-15 years rates have only increased. So it will take a long while for a significant fall to occur. So I am not convinced.

        1. Herge

          ok , Agreed with you , so what according would be the scene in coming years , say 25 yrs from today , what are your thoughts , Cant parents atleast part rely on education loans in future ? Or do you suggest one has to save all the money themselves ?

          Manish

          1. herge says:

            As you once pointed out education is becoming costlier @ 10 per annum. So unless the right kind of investment is done a parent will be forced to take an education loan.

            Loans will become easier to get only when they are re-payed regularly. Most industries and individuals are still recovering from massive layoffs in 2008. If this repeats every 10 years (and such a scenario is indeed possible) then banks will find it difficult to make norms easier for getting loans and decrease interest rates.

            My point is its an extremely complex problem depending on several factors.

            Hoping to get a loan for partially funding education 2/3 years away from entering colleges is okay because you an make a good estimate of fees how much one cane spend from pocket etc. If the goals is several years away I think hoping to get a loan for more than 50% of education cost is dangerous. If one cannot qualify for the loan then one will be forced to take a personal loan which is financial suicide.

            It is not a good idea to start a child’s salaried life in debt.
            People who say we should follow the American system are again short-sighted. The average American spends more than he earns. He has all sorts of debt. This culture is on an absolute scale bad.

            The bottom line is parents should actively think about child education even before they are born. In fact it is important to become parents only after a certain level of financial independence. They should actively change their lifestyle and perhaps their job to ensure they at least partially fund the education.

            personally with a frugal but satisfying lifestyle I save 50% of my gross pay: 30% goes to retirement and 20% towards child education. As of now according to my calculations I will be able to fully fund my childs education (two degrees) and have a little extra which will be diverted to my retirement corpus. But thats todays estimate. Who knows what will happen tomorrow.
            Constant state of alert, thought and use of commonsense. That’s the key in my view

            1. Herge

              Its good that you are not compromising on your retirement and able to save both for retirement + educaiton of child , my point is the same , you have to first concentrate more on retirement , and then other goals .

              Manish

  13. Arudra Kumar says:

    Hi Manish,

    Thought provoking article. However, on a lighter note –
    Looking at the money schools are charging for primary education these days, I dont think we might have to wait until the child finishes his 10+2 or graduation for taking a loan. For only one year of primary education, some schools in Hyd are charging more than what I spent for my entire education up to PG . In the near future, one might have to start looking out for a educational loan as soon as the child is born to pay their primary school fees. 😉

    Regards,
    Arudra.

    1. Arudra

      I am still not there 🙂 , You know better how much schools are charging .. Better i stop this blog and open up a school ! 😉

      manish

  14. Dominic says:

    Many comments were in disagreement to this topic. But things are changing and this will be the norm in 5 to 10 years or little later. Say, how many college students were working part time 5 years back? Now not all of them but many of them are. Dating, living together etc.

    Kids wanted to be independent in everything even at the age of 10. Our kids copy everything from the US. So let them do the same in funding education too 🙂

    1. Dominic

      Exactly , thats my point !

      Manish

  15. Smart Singh says:

    Hi Manish,
    A bold article that might invade in the personal space of few. Our generation is carrying the twin burden of our own retirement planning and fully funding the child’s education.

    1. Smart

      thats a good point , our generation is carrying the twin burden. so true !

      Manish

  16. Atul says:

    Hi Manish,

    A different theme from the articles you had written earlier.

    Still feel that under pressure and targets you can achieve lot. Target for child education and you can use the same for other emergencies if required.

    Regards

    Atul

    1. Atul

      In that case one can always save for emergencies as such . Agree with you that ultimately it can be used later

      Manish

  17. Vinay says:

    @ Manish,

    By this theory of taking Education loan then there is no need for Retirement planning also coz at that time the Reverse Mortgage System will be common thing.
    And if i take a Flat of Rs. 60 Lacs then it will be Rs. 6 Crores at that time (say after 30 years). Taking retierement around 65 years or so.

    And also there is no need for Child Marriage Funds or Plans coz at that time say 25 years from now our Childs will marry according to their Choice and may end up marrying in Courts. So no Expenses like it is in today sceneriao.

    That’s why people live in today and forget about future life.
    I rememeber this Song from all this Article I read,

    “Kal kya Hoga kisne dekha abhi Zindagi ka lelo Mazzza”

    And people are foolish investing in SIP’s and all other investment products

    -Vinay

    1. Vinay

      No , Retirement will be very different , it will have to be taken more seriously , There has to be some trend of reverse mortgage getting popular or a common way of funding retirement . Also just reverse mortgage wont be able to funds the whole retirement . unlike child education (Masters) retirement is a long term goal which takes another 20-30 yrs .

      Also Child marriage , what you have mentioned has become the trend even these days and in future it would not get worse or better , depending on how you feel about it . For me its better .

      At the end , the motive of article was just to communicate that people should shift some of their tension on education loan . It does not suggest that you just forget about the goal .

      Manish

      1. Vinay Sarda says:

        @ Manish,

        I made comments on the Future and Consistency of One’s life. You raised the issue correctly when cheaper and tax benefits Eductaion Loans are available then why thinking of the Child Education Plaaning.

        But one must consider the other TWO Goals which I raised seems also useless in future. The reason for the same are mentioned. And in INDIA 99 % people will follow that coz they are not planning now for future goals.

        Only the goal one must set is the Emergency funds should be enough to cater the problems arise due to unseen circumstances that cum in one’s LIFE. Because we can think and evaluate for next 3-4 years only beyond that its not possible.

        1. Not exactly useless , Retirement I think will have to be funded in a better way that today , shifting of focus from education of children to reitrement is suggested

          manish

  18. CT says:

    Hi Manish
    Eye opener article.
    What we have to focus is for a safe retirement life with out depending your children.
    Reason: Culture is slowly chancing in India too and we may see our childern are NOT going to support in our old age life.

    Also I think that marriage corpus should not be in our high priority as Rakesh mentioned “I have seen people getting married on a Friday and coming to work on a Monday.” Soon in India also this will be common and marriage corpus importance will go down.

    I guess the Marriage Survey is your ground work for your next article and we are eagerly waiting for it !!!

    CT

    1. CT

      Yes, I agree with you . Thanks for comment 🙂

      Will be publishing the article on marriage soon

      Manish

  19. Vanga Rajendra Prasad says:

    Manish
    Thanks for your bold views. Because you have not used SOFT words, it attracted. For prudent saving person, your words will relieve tension. For any parent with kids, child education is the most attractive thing for saving. Let that MANTHRA force him to reduce his expenditure, forcibly and save for his kids. If the reader is not prudent, your article may spoil the future of the child. It is not the fault of your article.It is excellent. If you permit me, I will quote you and your blog in my second book( Money purse 2- Sramaleni Aadayam) on personal finance in Telugu. We must give equal importance to child education and retirement planning. House with rental value is best retirement plan, I wrote in my book. This will solve child eduction need also. If required we can mortgage house and take education loan. Let that loan be repaid by child and leave the house which gives rent to the father.

    1. Vanga

      In todays time, parents who are “over enthusiastic” about saving all their savings for children education will cry blood in their retirement years incase their children dont support them .

      Giving child education a high priority over own’s retirement is recipe of disaster in future India . There is nothing wrong in funding child educaiton , but there has to be balance .

      I would be happy to get quoted in your next book , It would be honour 🙂

      Manish

      1. Sundar says:

        Manish:
        I fully agree with your views. I have a live example in front of me. Retired father spent about 33 lakhs for his Son’s education in India and in USA. Son, sensing easy money, did not care to get a bank loan. He got a job in US and with starting salary of USD 80,000 p.a. After that he forgot his obligation to return back the loan saying he did not sign any papers. Father is now crying foul as he has retirement saving of only 25 lakhs and he is 65. He is going to court against his son. But his Lawyers told him, sorry you do not have any evidence that the money you provided to your son was a loan and not voluntary. His son is making several excuses. Unfortunately even legal notice he managed to send his son in US was not acknowledged and returned “addresse not responded”. My sincere advise to all readers is be careful. Draw a proper loan agreement if you want to fund your ward’s higher education. If not you will be in a fix. Your bank transfer documents is not enough. You should have proper loan agreement.

        1. Sundar

          Thanks for giving that example ,while that example does not reflect the general trend, still I am in agreement with you.

          These days as you said one should be lending the money to children rather than just showering it on them . this was a great point .

          Manish

  20. Rakesh says:

    Manish,

    Very informative article.
    My take is that more stress to Child Education & Marriage is give in our country only. In most of the western countries children are given basic education by their parents and they themselves fund their post-graduation courses.
    Marriage is mostly a low-key affair there too. I have seen people getting married on a Friday and coming to work on a Monday.

    Rakesh

    1. Rakesh

      Yes , thats what I am trying to put in the article , that our culture is also on the way to be same as west , atleast in how education is funded .

      I like your point ”
      I have seen people getting married on a Friday and coming to work on a Monday.” .

      I have heard worse , people taking half day for marriage , can be beleive that ..

      Manish

  21. pravin says:

    with education loans, a govt backed GSE like a Sallie Mae will not be too far.we’ll end up like the US students. just out of college, humungous debt,useless degree in art history and no jobs. wonderful. i’d prefer the conservative,savings path to education. for secondary education like masters or something further,the child will no be an adult and fund it on scholarships -if not work for some years and fund it thethemselves. this is still what sensible people in america do.you are only indicating that we will imbibe the worst aspects of american education system

    1. Pravin

      Its your personal views . Most of the people are in agreement here and a lot of them also disagreee, so at the end it turns out to be how you feel about it . Nothing wrong in it .

      Manish

  22. Deepak Mohan says:

    Manish,

    I funded my MBA 10 years ago with an education loan – but trust me it wasnt an easy task getting one – I had 6 offers from IIM’s, a rank holder through my life and both my parents had been bank employees – after all this and post offering our house which at that time must have been 20 times the value of loan sought – I had 3 rejections – reason my mother was close to retirement and she was the only earning member – a rental income well accounted and tax paid was also not sufficient. one horrible experience. 5 years later my brother was in the same situation – my guarantee was accepted alongwith the house again which was now 5 times the amount required. Trust me, I dont ever want to be in that situation again.

    I agree with the view that if we can plan for it, whether to take a loan or not is a decision for later at that time – you might even use the corpus as a guarantee to help the kid get a better deal but left to me – retirement planning, kids education, their other related expenses all need to be planned for – and if my current savings dont match it – I either improve my income or cut my expenses or take a serious hard look at the objectives.

    What you need to emphasize is that people need to plan and be scientific and not get put off by the large numbers they see due to the power of compounding which is working on their expenses as well without realizing the same power works for them on their savings as well. In corporate finance we say the funding decision needs to be separate from the investment decision – it holds true for this case as well

    1. Deepak

      Thats what I am trying to communicate in the article , It has been very hard getting education loans earliar and even these days , but the scenario is changing and it will get better in coming years /decades. Note that we are talking about distant future here .

      While the thoughts in article are my personal , its here for everyone to ponder and dicuss, if you feel that its not right and will not work , thats great , lets dicuss the reasons and all can benefit from the discussion and take their own decisions based on that 🙂

      Manish

  23. Srikanth Achanta says:

    5-7yrs from now primary education would be cheaper than what it is now. There will be increasing pressure on Govts to provide proper primary education for free. If they succeed our kids will be studying in govt schools like our parents did.

    And i will not fund for my kids after they turn 18 so no point saving huge sum for their education. I rather save money for their hobbies.

    1. Srikanth

      I am not sure if primary education can be for free in coming 5-10 yrs , atleast never in non-rural areas .

  24. Jason says:

    Simple, yet mind boggling! Amazing insight! And yea good foresight too 🙂

    As someone who is about to start a family in the next few years, this was definitely a big worry for me 🙂

    Thank you for lifting a load off my mind!

    1. Jason

      Thanks , the next article would be on marriages .

      Manish

      1. Jason says:

        Aah! Even better. That – I’m doing this year 😀

  25. It seems to be like that most of the folks failed to understand the crux of the article.

    In simple words, “Worry less about meeting the future education expenses of your child/unborn child.”

    1. Mithun

      Seems like you are the only one who got the gist 🙂

      Manish

  26. Srinivas says:

    Good points and counter points on a subject close to the heart of everyone.

    Like many other subjects, this subject is also multi dimensional. Any one can view from his point of view. True that the Manish viewed it from his perspective and highlighted his views. So did others. As Manish put it “There is no single Yes / No answer”.

    Crux of the discussion will be to get sensitized about the priorities in life(may not be defining them as every one has his own different needs and ideas), learn the alternatives(use them or not is an individual decision again) and plan efficiently(again various ways). To that end i feel this discussion forum serves its purpose well.

    Quiet possible that a view is not all encomapsing. Counter arguments and personal accounts will make the discussion rich in content and help the participants to view the topic in a better light and take a much better view of the situation.

    Good going Manish. Keep up the good work.

    1. Srinivas

      Thanks for understanding the crux of the article .

      Manish

  27. Manish Awasthi says:

    Nice Article … I agree with you .. You have taken a big tension from my mind.

    1. Manish

      Note that the motive of article is not to discourage from saving for child educaiton . Its all about taking some less tension on that goal

      Manish

  28. Sumant says:

    good post. keep it up.

  29. pattu says:

    Also your comment “So I think its a bad call if you don’t save for the child’s education especially if you can.-” . I never said that . May be the article gave that essence , but then its my writing style issue 🙂 .

    Unfortunately it did give that essence.

    However education loans are not the answer to all problems. Its a complicated product. Agreed its a better solution than using retirement funds but there are other issues. I can think of two:

    1) If I get education loan I will get term insurance and disability insurance for my kid for obvious reasons. How many recommend that it get it done?
    Inability by the child to pay the loan will also affect my retirement savings!

    2) Someone I know is forcing their child to stop after undergraduate degree because they need to pay up the loan. The child wants to do a PG degree but is depressed and doesn’t want to work. What does one do! Life is tough!

    I seriously think you should rewrite this article giving concrete numerical examples of how it is better to get loan than to stop the compounding of retirement savings.

    Talking about future parent-child relationships etc.
    (a) obscures what you want to say
    (b) is worse than predicting stock market
    (c) makes it easy for someone to point out that have no idea what it is to be a parent!

    Taling about numbers dont have these problems.

    1. Pattu

      I would change some of the wordings in the article which can change the essence in that case .

      I dont think it would be fruitful to give numerical examples to compare education loan with other ways of funding it , because thats not the article all about , It was more of the changes which are happening in society and how our country will shape itself . As you said I am rather inexperienced in predicting it , so the post was just my personal views and how I think about it .

      Lets take this whole article as a platform to showcase what everyone feels about the subject and then come to a conclusion .so take article as purely my views , which many might not agree with . Please share your views about the topic and how do you feel it will shape up in coming 20-25 yrs . It would help in concluding things .

      Manish

      1. pattu says:

        Agreed.

        The example I have in mind is say I save regularly for retirment and not for child education. If my child is 17 and I dip into my retirement fund I will disrupt the 17 years compounding of my retirement nest egg.
        If instead I take an education loan and start paying EMI immediatly (not wait for my child to pay a few years later) it would be better than dipping into savings. Just to drive home the message.

        1. Pattu

          Ok , the assumptions here are a little different .

          The education loan EMI has to be paid by the child after he starts earning ,thats the whole point here , to shift the responsibility on the child itself .

          Manish

          1. pattu says:

            I know about that. However education loans are complicated products.
            See for example what is offered by Allahabad Bank
            http://www.allahabadbank.com/education.asp

            Shifting responsibility to the child is hardly straightforward if you look at the conditions. Legally you are the co-borrower anyway and in some case 3rd party guarantee is reqd.

            While I understand what you are trying to convey its not as straightforward as saying I don’t have enough to save for my child now but I will take a loan when he becomes big and all my troubles will be solved!
            Rs. 10 lakhs is just about enough to do BE in a second rate Engg college. As of today most of them go to software and with interest rates hovering in double digits the parents will have to shave the burden.

            people who think they don’t have to worry about this for the next 15-17 years until their child finishes 12th are being foolish.
            For people who claim to have become relieved after reading this article, my prayers are with them.

            If you don’t have a child now and realize that if you have one now you cannot save at least a small amt towards education you should have a child later! This to me is commonsense.
            Personally this is what I did and am saving enough to fund to degrees.

  30. pattu says:

    Interesting! But disagree.
    Only agree that retirement planning is more important as a priority and that one should not dip into that for funding education.

    I cannot make an assumption that I will be able to get an education loan. There is no guarantee that after I get him the loan my child will pay for it.
    Lack of job; unwillingness to pay; doesn’t complete course; God forbid disability and the other d-word which I will not utter.
    In such a case I will be the guarantor and then I have to pay for it right? Simple common sense suggests that if I can spare to save now I am better off saving for it now, provided I save enough for retirement.
    If not at least a small amount towards education. I consider this as my duty towards my son.

    Manish I assume you don’t have kids yet. I think you should look back at this article after you do and then perhaps your outlook will change. For this reason I think you are inexperienced in defining what duties are of a parent etc.

    My neighbor wanted a loan to send his son abroad. They wanted his house as collateral. He couldnt do it for various reasons. He had no savings. He could not fulfill his childs dreams. He was shattered.

    I think this article touches upon the personal part of personal finance and generic advice is impossible except as written earlier:
    “retirement planning is more important as a priority and that one should not dip into that for funding education.”

    Education loans are not guaranteed; paying them back are not guaranteed. So I think its a bad call if you don’t save for the child’s education especially if you can.

    1. Pattu

      “Only agree that retirement planning is more important as a priority and that one should not dip into that for funding education.”

      Thats what the whole idea of the article is , That we are having more important goals these days and we should be concentrating more one those and less on others .

      If you see the last section of the article , It concludes that the whole idea of article is not to say “Dont Plan for Kids higher education , just discard it” .

      no , All it says is that factor in whats in store after 20-25 yrs (not 5-10 yrs) , and see how relevent your current hard work will be that time , Will their be alternative to help you share that responsibility ?

      Also your comment “So I think its a bad call if you don’t save for the child’s education especially if you can.-” . I never said that . May be the article gave that essence , but then its my writing style issue 🙂 .

      Incase one can save one can go ahead, But there are many parents who are having nightmares because of this goal , It was to ease out their feelings that incase they cant save 75 lacs, better save for 30 lacs or 40 lacs, dont loose your current life for future which might take care of itself tommorrow .

      At the end , this whole thing also depends on how you look at it , what do you consider your duties in life as, as i am not yet having kids , I might not feel the way parents feel , but this is how I feel at the moment .

      Thanks for the comment .

      Manish

  31. Ankur Lakhia says:

    Manish,

    Quite provocative article. I think it depends on individual circumstances.

    If parents are sruggling to earn dignified living, it makes sense for child to take education loan rather than adding burden on parents.

    If parents can fund education of child by forgoing some of their own luxuries, I believe parents need to fund child’s education rather than making child start life with debt.

    In general, it is responsibility of parents to equip child with all required skills to face the world on their own. This certainly includes education.

    Best way, according to me, is that parents need to be able to fund the child’s education. However, they should ask child to take education loan and repay it from child’s own income. This teaches child to be responsible with money and prevent the child getting carried away and spend money for worthless things. Mean time, whatever parents have accumulated for child’s education should go towards child’s retirement plan to allow the child financial frredom at relatively early stage.

    1. Ankur

      Agree with you . As you said , parents should ask children to take up eductions loan and pay it off themselves , after all I see it as giving your children some sense of responsibility and also using the money to your benefit .

      The idea is to not become a villian for your children , but rather change the way world is turning out to be and will become in future

      Manish

  32. srinivasu says:

    dear all,
    Happy to be here once again.
    When parents can be easily and EMOTIONALLY fooled by the word kids education, marriage or setteling for a business.so financial products with such names flooded the markets.
    yes, fully agree that educational loans are the right way of financing the need.
    like westeren countries earn while you learn concept is not found in our country due to false prestige or ego.
    thanks for this service

    1. Srinivasu

      Are you saying that even today educaiton loan is the only way one should finance one’s kids higher educaiton ? I dont think so .

      The article talks about distant future .

      Manish

  33. S Ramadoss says:

    Dear Sh Manish
    Nice article . But , I am tempted to disagree . Children Education is still uppermost in the mind as of today . Contrary to Statistical data, getting Educational loan for children , in the light of my own experience, is still a difficult proposition ,unless one is able to pull string at right places . I had to run from one nationalised bank to another to get a loan inspite of myself offering a landed property thrice the value of loan in a prime location in a metro as collateral security . The bank which boasts of introducing Educational loan concept, refused stating that I as Central Govt servant was posted elsewhere ( Station A) . The other bank at my place of posting said that my property was in Station B. The most important point in educational loan is the time factor and unfortunately banks gloss over this and parents have to run to get a sanction letter in time to apply for a visa . There is always the Statistics to take refuge that there is high defaulter rate in Educational loan .

    1. Randoss

      The example gave by you surely shows that it was not easy to get education loan in your case . But this article is mainly to give an insight on what can happen in near future which is atleast 2 decades later , if you are targeting after some year , may be you can continue , Also this article does not say that you just stop saving, but suggests that you can reduce your tension for the goal to some extent .

      What part of the article do you disagree with , give me the line .

      I am clear that this is not an easy topic and definately the answer is not a “YES” or “NO” .

      The whole point is to discuss things and open up some ideas . We are talking about 20-25 yrs from now and we cant be sure what will happen that time, but we are just trying to project thing based on our understanding .

      Its purely a person decision and my own personal thought when I said that you should not be worried “too much” on this goal . Rather one has to give more focus on Retirement planning as it would be more serious thing in coming times . we will discuss more in coming series . I can see your comment on blog , I will reply it there .

      At the end, it was my personal thought and does not give any opinion in general . At the end it depends on how you take up these responsibilities in life .

      Keep reading , thanks for disagreement, it opens up conversations 🙂

      Manish

      1. Nehal Kanani says:

        Ramadoss, Thanks for sharing your personal experience. This helps us to analyse the issue, considering other factors which come into play when we actually need the loan! Probably, Manish also may not have considered this as a possibility, that the Loan itself can get rejected! Even some of us started thinking in terms of getting the loan _after_ 12th std… taking the ‘Education loan’ for granted! Well, this means, there is a factor of uncertainty we need to consider while planning for child education: even though loans are available to all, it may not be available to your child!

        This puts in a dangerous situation: you cannot now go back 15 years and invest for child education – time is lost… you are then left at mercy of, what some might call, fate…(or fight against fate – of loan rejection!)

        1. Nehal

          Another point you have to note here is that we are talking about education laons after 20 yrs , not today . Compare education loans of 2000 and 2010 , you will see big difference . Things are changing and will take time . I am personally optimistic in this area , but incase a person can save for this goal without compromising much on other goals in life , better to save for it then .

          Manish

  34. satheesh says:

    Hi Manish !!

    I live in Bangalore . Could you please give me your contact details.

    Thanks
    satheesh

    1. Sateesh

      I mailed you that i am now in Pune 🙂

  35. JayaprakashReddy says:

    Hey Manish,

    This is a well thought post and I think you created a controversial or may be argumentative post this time. Want to see the ratio of people for and against this article.

    I completely agree with the way you thought and I second you as I did my financial planning based on several factors and especially my child education planning was in similar lines. Someone mentioned that job situation is not that good to make children work and study same time. But, one should admit that situation has changed a lot since last 10yrs and people mindset has changed from not only looking for job instead try business and part time work and this is gaining momentum. How many new small startups have we seen 10yrs back? and now?

    I suggest make your kid get knowledge through education not ranks. Ranks make our current youth lose their common sense and they cant survive on their own after they complete their education. Make them understand what education gives them and how they have to use it in future. Make them understand how they have to balance their life. There are many other points like this, which will make them earn and study when their professional education time comes and this will definitely reduce your burden as well as your kids. I feel that this thinking should be included in your financial planning for child education that will give good results to you as well as your kids.

    1. Jayaprakash

      Agree with you . Lot of readers have taken this post as negative , they are not understanding that its not talking about discarding the goal of child education . . All it says is that the goal of child education might look very different in coming times , and the amount of stress we put on ourself today might not be fruit ful in future .

      Incase a person has money and can save , he can go ahead with it ,but one has to explore the options which might be thier in future , which can relieve parents in current times .

      I think we can better educate children about life and how they can create a better life and be self – dependent after they are above age 21 , which is when they complete their bachelors .

      The idea of post is a positive one , asking your child to be self sependent is a positve move , No one is asking for supporting him in life .

      Manish

  36. Nivedita says:

    HI Manish,
    This is a good news for my hubby and little not so good news for my brother.
    This was the subject for me and my brother since two days. We met after few months and were discussing the same thing. He was explaining me about the way to save every month for both the kids. We were calculating the money I need to invest every month for their education.
    Thank you so much for the information. Very truly said not to worry much but Manish, again it depends on the age of the parent and his savings for his children and his pension. The more aged father or mother will have to save more on monthly basis at least for the basic lifestyle and the normal education for the kids.

    1. Nivedita

      This article is targetted on young couples or unmarried individuals . who have 20-25 yrs in their hand for saving for their goals .

      Manish

      1. Nivedita says:

        what about those who are already in the middle of their married life with kids?

        1. Nivedita

          What are you learnings you get from the article , day by day and each passing year is making education loans more famous and available to all ..

          So see how many years are there in the target datae and see how much pressure you want to put on yourself thinking that you will have to fund all 100% money

          Manish

      2. Ashwin says:

        Hey Manish,

        Full points for a bold article on a emotionally loaded topic such as child education 🙂

        My initial impression was that the article was targeted at cash crunched parents with kids entering college. Any such advice to unmarried or just married couples is counter productive right? I mean they have all the time and bandwidth to invest for their child, that early in their life, so why not.

        Personally, I feel parents should plan for major events in their childs’ life, in the initial years. Any shortcoming due to unpredictability and long term nature of this goal could be financed with edu. loan. It’s (morally) criminal to plan for a 100% edu. loan 20 years in advance. If you consider the costs of higher edu with a realistic inflation factor (10 – 12% for higher edu.), the financing of this loan would shackle the child for another 5-8 years or more, after graduation! Ofcourse, self-retirement funding should get the highest priority and children education and marriage subsequent rungs in the priority ladder.

        If one has the time bandwidth to invest ones way to child education, then one must. Besides how much does it take to keep aside a lakh or two in good equity-growth fund at child birth an let compounding take its due course. 2 lakhs set aside at child birth should give roughly 25 lakhs when the child is 20, when left untouched.

        All said, this is a very personal decision heavily influenced by an individuals cultural and financial background. What say Manish?

        1. Ashwin

          Yes . mainly it was for cash crunched ones . But the whole idea is to just communicate that Child education will come down on goals with time in India as their would be other means of funding it .

          If some one has all the money to save for it . Go for it 🙂

          Manish

          1. Ashwin says:

            Ahh! thought so. But my comment was triggered by one of your replies upstream 🙂

            There’s one more thing I would like to add to the mix. The decision to finance or self-fund a child education also needs careful consideration of the childs’ aspirations. If one feels that the child is going to take the popular path of Engineering/Medical/MBA/courses abroad etc, where the career prospects and good and chances of landing a good job straight out of college is high, then financing (a significant portion) of the needs might be a good idea.

            Besides one also has to consider a risk of ones loan application being turned down by banks, if the parents financial standing is not sound and the course opted is very obscure and niche.

            OTOH if one thinks the child is going to be entrepreneurial or creative, where the initial 4-5 years are going to be a struggle, then one does not want to burden the child with education loan. This will simply stifle opportunities and inhibit freedom to try untested things, which is most essential in creative and entrepreneurial paths.

            The biggest worry is of moral hazard. One has to raise the child in such a way so that it doesn’t question what the parents have done for it in later future. This is a very high risk, atleast in later stages, particularly if the child is not well settled in life. This is where it gets into the parent-child relationship realm, and all then all bets are off.

            1. Ashwim

              hmm.. Some nice points there .

              I agree with you . Again coming to the gist of the article . It just said that “reduce your stress as a parent for goal of child education,. If a person is taking 10 units of tension about saving for child education, he should reduce it to 5 or 6 atleast , I would say 3-4 “.

              There is no need to stop saving for it, if one can !

              Also, I think we are moving towards the era where children will be move creative , more entreupreunial aspirations will come in and child will start thinking about taking his own responsibility sooner in life . Adding all of it, Child education as a goal should become a lighter thing in future . That was all I wanted to communicate .

              Manish

            2. Ashwin says:

              Chill, I got the point. It’s all about prioritization of ones goals.
              Retirement has to be the most important (and the trickiest) long term goal for a salaried person. Almost everything comes next.

              Even then I expect many in the current generation to end up in old age care homes, as their children will be busy chasing their career aspirations in the highly competitive and globalized world. I am not saying old age homes are in anyway cheap and affordable! Seeing the way things are headed, running an old age home will soon be the next big business opportunity for the Indian hospitality industry 😀 [tongue-in-cheek]

              It’s just the title of the article which is nerve wracking for conservative people like me 🙂

            3. Ashwin

              Title of the article is like a sexy lady standing on the door of not so sexy house .

              You need to get attention of people and seduce them to read the article till end 🙂 . Its part of blogging

              Manish

  37. srinivas says:

    Good article. The article and the above comments are to be seen in context.

    Yes it is true that the awareness is increasing and more and more parents are willing to go for an educational loan. However as pointed out by Ankur, it is after some graduation(not even +2). Hence children education needs to be planned till graduation. Due to inflation and competetion(and madness of parents), the amount being charged for even below graduation courses is increasing at an alarming rate. Hence planning is required to take care of this need.

    Now comming to Manish’s point, it is required to take care of yourself instead of going above board for happiness of children. As was rightly pointed out, more and more families are getting nuclear and old parents will have to fend for themselves in their old age(at least for day to day things). In this context it is required that parents plan to take care of their future along with childrens future. Also here it is pertinent to note that making children independent from the beginning is a better way getting them prepared for the uncwertain future.

    Thus the article and the comments help understand various facets of a complex issue.

    Thanks

    1. Srinivas

      Yes , I agree that it was only after the graduation degree and not starting from school 🙂

      Also the topic is tough to be accepted as we are not yet there and its tough for everyone to accept and look at what might be coming on the way in near future

      Manish

  38. KM says:

    Isn’t it better to have a corpus of 15-20 lakhs rather than relying on the education loan? If you have the corpus you can still take education loan and use that money for some other purpose for the child. The inherent assumption in your argument is that job security will be same as today and the salary rise will continue to beat inflation/cost of living.

    I agree with your conclusion that a person need not worry so much and get under pressure due to numbers but I feel saving money and diversifying your skill sets are key for India of 2040.

    1. KM

      “Isint is better to have a corpus of 15-20 lacs rather than relying on Education loan” ?

      I would say its a personal matter , I am personally fine with the idea of not saving of education loan incase I dont have money left after planning for other aspects of my life .

      Depending on what beleifs you have as parents , you can save or not save for education of your child

      Manish

      1. KM says:

        I understood your opinion that child education may look very different in coming years, which I also tend to partially agree. My point is that having child education as a goal allows to make a disciplined investment and lead to substantial savings for future. You should not fret too much about the numbers but this provides a means to saving.

        If you really think about it, the same argument applies to every kind of investment (why stop at child education?). If I stretch the argument a bit, the India of 2040 may provide for a decent retirement scheme from government [for e.g. Japan have some schemes for their elderly funded by government taxes] so no need to think too much about retirement corpus OR for e.g. what ever saving you do for medical needs may not be enough during 2040. For e.g today if a diagnostic test requires 500Rs, in 2040 it may be 5 lakhs which can not be covered in future by any insurance taken today.

        Any investment goal should be taken just as a means to creating saving for a uncertain future.

        1. KM

          I dont agree totally . Retirement is very differnet , one has to actually focus more on it , and reduce attention to child marriage and education goal . thats going to be the next series of articles .

          Manish

          1. KM says:

            Thank Manish for giving me some food for thought. Eagerly waiting for your next series of articles.

            BTW off-topic: When I submit the comment, I do not get any indication whether the comment is submitted or not (unless are re-submit and it gives an error). Can their be any kind of message indicating “You comment is awaiting moderation”. It will be helpful.

            1. KM

              Ahh does it not say that it went for moderation , will fix it asap . Note that any comment with a link will go to moderation 🙂

  39. Rohan Bagad says:

    Hello, Manish
    its really very interesting thing that everyone should know about it & even understand it.. But its a long way for this…
    One question I am having that childrens may want to finance their higher education- loan is good option but in foreign countries we all know that childrens are earning at very young age & they can finance from that also, but do you think that this is Possible in India.. as we even dont have job for degree holders how we can hope for the young college going students…
    big cities are ok but wat abt small cities & villages..
    The thing I just want to say is that we 1st have to develop jobs than only we can hope for the things you mentioned above….

    1. Rohan

      Your point is valid , But we are not saying that just discard the goal of child education . Its all above lowering down its priority with one level in case one can becasue there are much bigger issues in life these days like House at the moment or retirement .

      Incase you have money , go ahead and save . no issues .

      As you said small cities and villages are not considered in this article . I am only talking about bigger cities

      Manish

  40. Ravi Maity says:

    Eagerly awaiting for other articles of this series….

    1. Ravi

      Yes .. will come soon .

  41. Ankur says:

    Hi Manish,
    When you mention kids education, it is after kid pass out 10+2 standard. right? Because till 10+2, you need to take care of your kid’s education from your pocket. As a parent, you will not be comfortable to take loan you are sure your child has bright future. After 10+2, of course you can rely on education loans once kid got comfortably admission in his choice of university/college.
    Now thing even education till 10+2 is also in lacs per kid. So anyhow you need to plan your funds towards child education. I guess one corpus of earning should be till 5th standard, then second till 10th standard and finally for 11th , 12th and college entrance fees. What do you say?

    1. Ankur

      Definately 🙂 . Its only about their post graduation or the main studies , not even junior college (bachelors) .After all , why do you we take education loan for 🙂

      Regarding your comment on saving and making corpus in parts is a good idea . Generally you can plan for 2 things , One is regular cash flow for yearly expenses till 12th , And then a final corpus for bachelors and masters .

      Manish

  42. Hemant says:

    Hi Manish,

    There is no simple answer to title of this post but this thought of not funding kids education is started building in parents.

    Even people who can easily afford this (even without giving it a second thought) are taking loans so that kids become more responsible. This is a big social change & in next 10-15 years your argument will be more acceptable.

    1. Hemant

      yes .. I think it would change sooner or later , but children education will take a step down in priority .

      Manish

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