The Promise of a New Day

"All that glistens is not gold"

A penny saved, is a penny earned. A free penny is both and tastes sweeter. A while ago, I advised prospective fathers to start early. That includes the college savings. One great way to save some extra money and not necessarily change your spending habits is to set up a Upromise account (www.upromise.com). What is Upromise? What if I told you, you could get some of your money back on purchases that goes directly to an account designed to feed a college savings fund? No mail in rebates. Nothing to fill out or track down. Sound to good to be true? It's not. All you have to do is log on to the website, follow the sign up instructions and start savings. Now it's true you have to give some personal information, including credit cards, but they do not charge your cards. They just track your purchases on your cards, and if you make a purchase from a contributing company, that company gives a certain percentage to your Upromise account (usually 1-4% of your purchase). Former US Senator and NBA star, Bill Bradley, in conjunction with others, came up with a way to help the common man save for college. You get some built in college savings, the contributing companies get some advertising and good press. Not only do you log in your credit cards, but grocery cards too. If you buys Keebler cookies for instances, your grocery cards tracks that, feeds it to Upromise. Upromise works with the company to get that percentage back to your Upromise account. You just spend as normal. Can you change your habits to buy from participating companies? Sure. You you have to? No. But you will find that many companies participate: LL Bean, Target, Flowers.com, Mobil/Exxon, Eddie Bauer, Toys R Us, Restaurants. I find myself getting restaurant monies back all the time without realizing it.
If you have multiple kids, you can direct certain percentages of your account to each child. I split mine 50/50 with both boys. You can have your friends and family sign up and they can contribute to your children, or split it with lots of children (nephews, nieces, grandchildren, etc). This money in your Upromise account is then eligible to be transfer to a 529 College Savings plan for you child (529 plans will be a whole separate post). Don't take my word for it, check out the website when you get a chance. I have had saved a substantial amount for the boys this way.