It seems like not that long ago, my main concerns for my son were potty training and preschool. Suddenly, he’s in middle school, and time is marching forward faster than I can say “SATs, anyone?”

College costs are marching along, too—upward. And parents need to be prepared, says Ron Goldner, a fee-based financial planner with Wealth Strategies Group, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee.

A 529 plan can help, he says. And while these are tough financial times, even a $25- or $50-per-month contribution can add up to a nice college nest egg over the years, thanks to compounding of interest.

Looking for an easy-to-understand guide to 529 plans? Check out my article over at MetroFamily magazine. To write this piece, I had to make sure I understood this whole thing myself. So I brought it down to the basics. It’s really not as intimidating as the boring term “529 Plan” would make it seem. Check it out, then pick the plan that’s right for your family. Happy saving!

"Let our advance worrying be our advance thinking and planning."
- Winston Churchill

I ran across this quote today and it made me think about how much time I spend — too often at 2 a. m. — worrying about something that seems like a huge task.

Take college savings, for instance. While my husband and I are saving for our son’s education, we’ve been meaning to (for years) seriously look into 529 college savings plans. I’ve clipped and filed a pile of articles on the subject, but that’s as far as we got.

Then there’s the question of balancing retirement savings and college savings… And pretty soon it’s 4 a.m. and I’m wondering if our retirement savings are in the right place!

And then the alarm clock goes off and I’m back in the world of minutia, so busy making sure the dog has been fed, the dishes have been done and my son has lunch money that I never get around to penciling in the big decisions that need to be made for our family.

So I’ve decided to break one this down into baby steps:

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