Paul Roldán spends his days advising his clients about making smart financial decisions for their families.
One of the most-discussed topics is college savings. His guidance is typically influenced by a few factors, including the age of the children in question, the client’s aversion to risk, and their current capacity to save and invest.
But one program Roldán says he consistently stands behind is Florida Prepaid College Savings Plans. The longest-running and largest prepaid college program in the nation, Florida Prepaid offers five 529 Prepaid Plans, a Prepaid Dormitory Plan and a 529 Savings Plan.
“They offer families the ability to budget and control how you are saving, and all the plans offer choices and flexibility,” says Roldán, CFP®, CEO and co-founder of AllGen Financial Advisors, Inc., a financial planning and investment management firm.
Roldán also has firsthand experience with the value and flexibility of Florida Prepaid. He has two boys, Jeremy, 21, and Jesse, 19. Both boys are currently attending Florida State University using 4-Year University Plans purchased when the boys were young. Fast-forward to today, and Roldán and his wife are deep in the toddler phase all over again with daughter Sofia, 2 1/2.
As soon as she was born, having seen how helpful it was financially to have Prepaid Plans for their sons, the Roldáns purchased Sofia a 4-Year University Plan to cover her future tuition costs, and started a 529 Savings Plan to cover other expenses like books and housing.
Roldán says that in recent years, Florida Prepaid made significant changes to its 529 Savings Plan, including offering lower fees and “very competitive investment choices.”
He has no idea how much postsecondary tuition and other living expenses will go up by the time Sofia graduates from high school, but Roldán says he is not worried about it because he is following his own professional advice about saving for college.
“From a financial standpoint, we know the price of education is always going to go up. So, the ability to lock in what you are almost certainly going to eventually spend money on, that just makes financial sense. It’s just a beautiful thing. Especially when you consider the state has so many great public universities in Florida.”
His advice to anyone who hasn’t yet started saving for a child’s postsecondary education is simple: “Time is either your ally or your enemy. The earlier you start, the better.”
Visit myfloridaprepaid.com to learn more about our college savings options.