Planning college savings is not an easy job. Many factors come into play: such as the cost of college education (tuition, room and board, other mandatory fees, books and computers), the award of scholarships, the financial aid, and so on. CollegeFund app is trying to help the parents (sometimes grandparents, and/or other family members if they are willing to chip in) to plan their kids college savings account.
Given a set of input: current annual college cost, current savings, how much you plan to save annually, your kids current age, the age starting college, the age of graduating, the calculator will return how much the annual income you can expect from the college saving account vs. the future annual college cost (Coverage Ratio), and how much you have saved toward achieving the goal (Saving progress).
In an ideal world, 50% or above "Coverage Ratio" is considered to be good if we consider the availability of scholarships and financial aid. It is also good in the sense that parents and their kids share the cost of college education so that the students have a sense of ownership. Obviously we understand each family and each kid are unique, and the parents and their kids together make the best decisions.
Other features include:
1) The option to set investment return rate, and college cost (tuition) inflation rate;
2) Saving your input data to your device locally when a valid calculation is performed;
3) Email results to your self;
4) Usage of local currency.
Last but not least, happy saving and investing for your children, niece nephew, or grandchildrens college education! Give them a unique and long lasting holiday gift by opening a college savings account.