How to invest in your child's education wisely
Miscellaneous / / April 04, 2023
Consider his abilities and let him participate in planning his own future.
For the education of children, Russian families on average spendExperts told how much Russians spend on the education of children / RIA Novosti about 22% of the budget, but would like to invest more. Where to look for funds, how best to dispose of them and where they should be directed so that they bring maximum benefit to the child - experts discussed all these issues during the SmartFest online festival. And we have compiled a brief memo that will be useful to parents of schoolchildren of different ages.
Why is it important to invest in your child's education?
The school provides a set of basic knowledge. However, in order to feel confident in the modern world, it is necessary to more.
Julia Cherepanova
Director of Forbes Education, editor-in-chief of the ratings "Best Private Schools" and "100 Best Universities in Russia" according to Forbes.
If 50 years ago it was necessary to know the formula, because it was problematic to find it, now everything is on the Internet. And completely different things come to the fore: creative thinking, the ability to find and analyze information, the ability to learn quickly, because the world is changing rapidly and school knowledge is not enough.
The task of the family is to help children acquire the missing knowledge and master important skills. Therefore, many parents connect additional forces to the education of the child - tutors, creative circles, sports clubs. If you are thinking about this, you will need a clear plan.
How to draw up an investment strategy
1. Determine the direction of development
To do this, you will have to use the trial and error method and be sure to consult with the child. For example, take your son or daughter to free trial lessons in various disciplines, and then find out what exactly you liked or didnβt like and what you would like to do next.
At this stage, it is important to prioritize not only parentsbut also a child. He himself must actively participate in planning and determine the trajectory of his learning.
Forbes Education Director Yulia Cherepanova suggests breaking down all possible options into four categories: academic knowledge, creativity, volunteering and sports. Let's analyze each of them in more detail.
Academic knowledge
Two questions will help you find growth points in this category:
- What subjects do you consider essential to study and vital to your child's future success?
- What subjects does he want to study on his own?
Write down the answers and then compare them and try to sort out the points on which opinions differ. The next step is to understand the reason for the mismatch.
For example, you think that learning mathematics is mandatory, but the child is not at all interested in it. It is possible that during the discussion it will become clear that the problem is not in complex tasks and incomprehensible formulas, but in the teacher. In this case, you can hire a tutor and try to instill a love for the subject. Only important find a teacherwho will truly teach, and not just do homework with the student to correct bad grades.
If a son or daughter likes an item that isn't on your list, that's a great sign. It shows that the child has already learned to independently find something interesting for himself. It is worth listening to his wishes and including these classes in the schedule if they are not at school.
Creation
Creative circles often seem like a waste of time and money, especially in high school when on the nose of the exam. In fact, creativity provides skills that can be difficult to acquire when mastering a regular school curriculum, such as the skills of non-standard thinking.
Julia Cherepanova
Director of Forbes Education.
There is a strong belief that the creative industry of creative professions is the IT of the future. This is a direction that in 5β10 years will become the most demanded, and specialists the highest paid.
Volunteering
It can be difficult for teenagers to choose a direction and a university to continue their studies. They still do not understand how the profession they are interested in works and what their life will be like if they choose it.
Volunteering in high school makes it possible to decide. Internship or a part-time job in an attractive area will help the child understand whether it suits him or not.
If you canβt get a job as a volunteer in the chosen specialty, any activity will do, thanks to which the student will gain valuable experience and in practice will understand what work is, for example, helping a shelter with homeless animals.
Sport
In this case, we are talking not only about professional training. Playing sports in general instills a healthy lifestyle culture and reinforces the good habit of keeping fit. However, here, as in creativity, and in any other direction, it is important to find something that the child will really like.
The main thing is not to destroy the children's desire to learn. The child should go to classes with burning eyes, and not dream that all this will finally end. When children remain interested in learning new things, they are much more likely to succeed in the future.
When choosing directions, you need to remember two more important points. The first is the development of the child's personal qualities. Imagine that he is studying history. The teacher may require him to memorize names and dates from the textbook, or he may give several sources, discuss events with him from different points of view and thus develop the child's skills critical thinking.
The second point is the social circle. It is worth striving to ensure that at school or in additional classes the child can find friends who are close in spirit, and in his environment there are peers not only from the same environment with him. This broadens their horizons and teaches children to communicate with a variety of people.
2. Assemble a portfolio of investments
The composition of the "portfolio" largely depends on individual characteristics. In any case, it is important to take into account the abilities, desires and needs of the child. As a basis, we can take the division of the entire volume of proposed investments into four parts: in-depth study of individual school subjects, lessons foreign language, sports and creativity.
Your task is to distribute 100% of the investments into the selected categories. For example, allocate 25% for each direction. Or focus on the development of creative inclinations and allocate 40% of the budget to this, plan 25% each for in-depth study of school subjects and a foreign language, and leave only 10% for sports.
3. Find funding sources
Experts offer several working options.
Make a tax deduction
This is the money that you paid to the budget in the form of taxes and which you can return. You have such a right if you have invested in your own education, the education of your children, or even your brother and sister. The main thing is that the educational institution has a state license, and you officially received income and paid personal income tax on it.
The only catch is that the law allows you to return a maximum of 13% of 50,000 rubles, that is, no more than 6,500 per year. However, both parents can apply for a tax deduction, and then the family will already receive 13,000 rubles a year.
Get to grips with the detailsπ°
- Tax deductions: what are they and how to save on them
Get an education loan
Banks in Russia do not often offer such financial products, but there are still options. For example, "Sber" issuesEducation loan with state support / Sberbank loans with state support at only 3% per annum. Moreover, the student himself concludes the loan agreement, and the repayment of the principal debt begins after graduation. Until then, only interest has to be paid.
In other banks, you can take a non-purpose consumer loan to pay for tuition. Such offersEducation loan / Raiffeisenbanksuch as Raiffeisen. Any member of the family can apply for a loan.
Whichever option you choose, before entering into a contract, it is important to carefully study all details and find the best solution.
Find out moreπ©βππ¨βπ
- What is an educational loan and how to get it with state support
Save money
The sooner you start saving money for your kids' education, the better. If you are not saving yet, but are already thinking about it, then the moment has come - it's time to start a "piggy bank" right now.
First, figure out how much money you need to save and how much time you have for it. In order to increase savings, Andrey Ivanov, the head of the division at Tinkoff Investments Premium, recommends using the simplest investment instruments. For example, if less than 3 years are left before the child enters the university, it is better not to take risks and invest in bonds, and if more than 5 years, you can try to understand stocks and index funds.
Xenia Paderina
Financial blogger, TV presenter.
Here it is very important to understand whether you will not have high expectations in relation to the child. Perhaps you will now take out a loan or sell something very important in order to develop it. But will it become a burden for him later? Will it happen that you tell him: βBut we here, in general, sold the last socks in order for you to become an artist. And you decided that you would be a cook.
When parents begin to take additional steps, it is still important to remember that they themselves decided this in the first place. And this should not be the responsibility of the child in any way. He should be able to change his mind.
And this is absolutely normal, because your child is still growing up and looking for himself.
Read alsoπ§
- 16 useful and fun mobile apps for schoolchildren
- 10 things that are still not taught in schools, but in vain
- What the modern school lacks: a column of the managing partner of the Skysmart online school Alexander Laryanovskiy
- How to help your child learn a foreign language without cramming