Education Calculator

How much do you need to save for your children’s education?

A good education is one of the most important things that we can do for our children. A good education provides the foundation for their future success in today’s world.

Based on university surveys estimated costs are:

• • Tuition $6,500 to $8,600pa (first year now free up to $12,000)
  • Books $1,000
  • Living expenses, if living away from home, $12,000pa based on $300 per week for 40 weeks
  • Other course related costs, $500

Total approximately $51,500 for a three year course. The cheapest option is to assume that they will live at home. Allowing $80 per week spending money this will reduce costs to $19,000 for a three year course.

If you want your child to do dental, or medical studies, the cost could be up to $130,000 or more.  It’s a lot better to have budgeted some of this cost than to have your child graduate with such a high level of debt from Student Loans.

For education savings we recommend ‘aggressive’ to ‘highly aggressive’ risk-return profile investments. The return possible from this type of investment over the long term is 6% as the net of tax paid.