Part of a sound personal financial plan for couples with children is planning for your child’s college tuition. This is the single best thing you can do for your child financially speaking. If an 18 year old goes to college and pays tuition and lives off of student loans, he or she will face an enormous debt load when they leave for the real world. And as we all know, the real world is harsh enough without $50,000 in debt. Planning for your child’s college expenses can be relatively painless if you start early. The 529 College Savings Plan is a viable option and a smart financial choice for savings for a child’s college expenses. The contributions are tax deductible, and the child can use the money saved up for college related expense tax free!

This is a great article from Smartmoney.com about five of their best picks for a 529 savings plan. If you live in a state that has state income tax, then you may want to choose your own state’s 529 plan. However, if your state doesn’t have state income tax, then you may want to seek a plan outside of your state such as one of the plans suggested in the article I just referenced.

If there’s one thing that you do for your child, do this! They won’t thank you when they are ten years old for planning for their college, but they will when they are 22 and they can have a fresh start in life without such a heavy burden of debt.