If you have kids and you know you want them to attend college someday, then you know all too well the importance behind starting to save early and keep at it. Setting up an account and knowing what to do with it can be daunting. One of the best vehicles for college savings is the 529, which is readily and easily available to setup, it’s getting the time to sit in front of the computer that sometimes makes it hard to complete.
Instead, try using U-Nest. It’s an app that is powered by Invesco experts to help you determine what you need to save, how often and how, based on what your goals are. Goals usually go hand in hand with the year you expect your child to start college. So, the app takes the information it needs to get an idea of your situation, and then goes to work figuring out a plan for you that you and your family can live with.
While an app is not going to make money magically appear, what it does provide a quick and easy way to set up accounts, manage the connection between these accounts and your bank account, and most importantly, a way to see how well your investments are doing so you can easily determine if you are moving towards your target at an expected rate.
Free to download, U-Nest gets its funding by charging you $3/month for each account. If you have 3 kids, you’ll be paying $9/month to manage 3 accounts using the app, which I think is a small price to pay to have the convenience of being able to manage these accounts from your mobile device.
This brings me to an important point, having mentioned working off a device – security. The app developers have built in stringent security and encryption so your personal and financial data are protected. So you know that everything you do in the app is safe.
The app itself is very easy to use. All you have to do once you’ve completed the download is setup 529 accounts for each child. You’ll need their name, social security numbers and ages. Next, you will enter information about yourself, as the guardian of the account. Once these steps are completed, you can setup your bank account information. This is necessary so you can create automatic deposits into each child’s account. Minimum investment is $25/month for each account.
For each account, you will select a plan based on the child’s age, so that the investment moves at a pace needed to reach your investment goals by the time the child reaches college entrance age.
As the accounts grow, you will be able to see how well it’s doing by viewing graphs and easy access to total account balances, changes and more. What could make this app even more valuable would be a monthly report sent to your email so you could see, at a glance, how each account is doing.
As a tool to help bring the 529 to you, U-Nest is an excellent app that makes it easy to open those accounts and manage them. If you think opening a 529 is difficult, think again.
