How To Save For College: The Order Of Operations Parents Should Follow

If you're looking for the best ways to save for college, I'm a huge fan of developing an "order of operations" for different financial activities. You may remember last year I highlighted an order of operations for saving for retirement. Basically, start here and work your way down. It's just an easy way to remember the order you should do things. And it works for how to save for college as well!

Saving for your kid's college can be tough, and there are a lot of schools of thought. But they all boil down to something pretty basic. And I created an order of operations for you to remember for it: YES! Yes, it's that simple, but I'm actually talking about Y.E.S.

Okay, enough with the play on words, here's the order of operations for saving for kid's college:

(Y) - You

(E) - Education Savings Accounts

(S) - Savings

Let's break it down a little bit further and explain what I mean.

Note: How to save for college and how to pay for college are two very different conversations. This conversation is about saving for college and the best way to approach it. If you're getting close to needing to pay for college, read our full guide (and order of operations) on how to pay for college here.