Discover Our Services

At Virtus Wealth Management, your Southlake independent financial advisors, we help our clients prepare for a financially-secure future by developing long-term strategies that focus on the “big picture” versus short-term gain, thereby managing risk.

Connect With Us

Today’s economic conditions and uncertain financial markets require the savvy investor to go beyond traditional boundaries.

Resources

Our mission is to provide innovative, sophisticated and highly customized wealth management solutions and financial advice that address all facets of your finances.

Connect With Us

We tailor everything to each of our clients’ specific needs so that each client can pursue his or her different goals.

Virtus Wealth Management

Virtus Wealth Management is the product of a 2016 merger between two well-established Texas wealth management firms.

Connect With Us

Wealth management is more than just investment advice – it includes all aspects of a client’s financial life.

Latest Post

Get in touch

Wealth management is more than just investment advice – it includes all aspects of a client’s financial life.

Who We Help

At Virtus Wealth Management, we believe we can help you no matter what age you are, what life stage you are in, or how much money you are working with. We want you to feel educated, empowered, and involved in the planning of your financial future.

College Planning – Let’s Do This (Part 2)

  • $
  • College Planning – Let’s Do This (Part 2)

by | Oct 26, 2022

It’s me again. Your friendly financial advisor and parent of 2 kids in college. I feel your pain and/or your stress of preparing for the inevitable. This is Part 2 of our 2 Part Series on College Planning. The first part illustrated the importance of college, projected cost, and the reality (or lack thereof) of financial aid. This part will explain the “Expected Family Contribution” at a high level and illustrate how planning ahead (even if starting late) can help you get through it. There is power in college planning; it makes a difference.

First, let’s review the “Expected Family Contribution” (EFC). I’m not going to get into the details too much here, but the EFC is basically the minimal amount the government expects you to be able to pay each year for college. It determines the amount that you may or may not be eligible to receive in financial aid, and it is largely based on your annual income. Here’s a chart. Feel free to dig into the details. It’s complicated.

I like the chart below better because it attempts to help you estimate your EFC. Let me guess … your EFC is larger than you thought, right!?!? Remember, this is an annual number that you are expected to be able to contribute to your child’s education year, after year, after year.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that college debit is rising.

So, what are we going to do about it? We are going to develop a college plan.

  • Families with a plan are better prepared for college costs than those without a plan.
  • They have 2x more saved for college. They are 2x more likely to start investing for college by age 6. They have 47% less expected in student loan debt.1
  • Saving is not enough. The power and benefits of compounding are necessary to get the rest of the way there, and the sooner, the better.
  • Take heart … catching up on college funding is possible too!

 1 Sallie Mae, Higher Ambitions: How America Plans for Post-secondary Education, 2020.

Wow! Just like Part 1, Part 2 also has a lot of charts. A picture is worth 1,000 words. Seeing is believing. It’s not too late to develop a plan to save college. It’s also not an “all or nothing” deal. Saving to fund part of college along the way is better than taking loans for all of it. Maybe you have enough income to pay as you go and supplement with savings? Maybe you save enough to only take government loans which are at more favorable rates than private loans? Maybe you use a combination of strategies? Planning is the key. We are here to help you understand your options, face the issues, and empower you to get there.

Let’s Connect

Contact Us
Would you like to subscribe to The Virtus View, our twice monthly e-newsletter?
advanced-floating-content-close-btn