“What people do with the […] funding and financing decision on college and where they send kids – you know those financial effects just reverberate for decades both for the students as well as the parents.”
-David Flores Wilson
Feeling perplexed by all the higher education financing options available to both you and your child? My recent Art of Allowance Podcast guest, David Flores Wilson, can walk you through all the particulars. David helps Gen X and Gen Y professionals as well as business owners in New York City achieve financial freedom. Named one of Investopedia’s 100 Top Financial Advisors of 2019, he is a Senior Wealth Manager for Watts Capital and Writer/Editor for Planning to Wealth. David holds the Certified College Financial Consultant (CCFC), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) designations. His financial guidance has appeared on Yahoo!Finance, MSN News, CNBC and InvestmentNews. And if these accolades weren’t enough, David had the privilege of representing Guam in the 1996 Atlanta Games. (Pretty neat, huh? I can now check Olympian off my podcast guest list!) Our conversation covers many college search hot topics, including researching schools, identifying types of aid and deciphering those pesky acronyms (such as CSS, EFC, and FAFSA).
SHOW NOTES (Find what’s most interesting to you!)
- How 1.5 trillion (Yes, that’s trillion with a “t”!) dollars of student loan debt influenced David’s transition from an investment banker for colleges and universities to a financial planner [3:11]
- Turning the college conversation framework on its head [5:19]
- The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) concept and its relationship to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) [7:18]
- The motherload of campus tour preparation resources: The College Board, CollegeData, a Stanford study on rankings and post-college success, PayScale’s College ROI Report and net price calculators [10:21]
- Automatic contributions’ and matching programs’ impacts on the EFC [16:03]
- Types of aid [18:48]
- What an EFC of zero really means [22:39]
- Ways for grandparents to contribute to higher education [26:05]
- Having the financial literacy conversation with family members [29:53]
- Introducing kids to investing [32:00]
- FAFSA schools versus CSS profile schools [35:13]
- Using money from a values perspective [36:18]
- The lifelong pursuit of learning [38:22]
- Investing in time [40:06]
- David’s money-smart book recommendations: my own The Art of Allowance (And no, I didn’t pay him off for this endorsement!), Joline Godfrey’s Raising Financially Fit Kids, Margot Machol Bisnow’s Raising an Entrepreneur as well as Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko’s The Millionaire Next Door [40:29]
- Finding David on the Planning to Wealth blog [43:12]
- From my wrap-up at the end: Julie Lythcott-Haims’ How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success and her TED Talk.
On the hunt for more actionable information regarding the college admissions process? My conversation with college admissions coach and scholarship strategist Pam Andrews (AKA The Scholarship Shark) is a great jumping-off point.
Still curious about the matching Roth IRA concept David and I discuss? Be sure to tune in to FamZoo founder Bill Dwight’s episode for more details.
If you like this podcast, then please give us a review and subscribe to the show. The Art of Allowance Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Radio Public. Subscribing is free, and it will help me produce more enriching content for you to enjoy. Thanks!
You might also want to check out The Money Mammals, our program to get your children excited about money smarts when they’re young. Until next time, I wish you and your family well as you journey forth. Thanks for listening.
