Florida Prepaid 2018: Jump-Start Your College Savings!

This post is sponsored by the Florida Prepaid College Board, through my role as a Believer Blogger. All thoughts are my own. 

Oh, hi summer. Thank goodness. I thought you’d never get here.

Summer is always my favorite time of year. I mean, not the weather – we live in Florida, where it’s 90 degrees by 10 a.m. and storms every afternoon.

But the other stuff. Sleeping late (especially sleeping late). Spending lots of time with my girls. Pool parties and playdates and beach days. Long afternoons spent reading, watching movies, doing puzzles and crafts. Weekend road trips. And so much more.

I look forward to every summer. But this year – well, this year summer is especially welcome here in the Wilhelm household. We had a rough school year. Like, really rough. Like, counting-down-the-days-since-January rough.

For us, more than anything, this summer will be about hitting the reset button. Letting go of the past year. Learning from our mistakes. And looking ahead with clear eyes.

A Summer Jump-Start

Of course, preparation is key when making a fresh start. If you do what you always did, you’re going to get what you always got, right?

In our family, we’re big on setting goals – both as individuals and as a family. On January 1st, we write out a list of our goals on a dry erase board that hangs in our kitchen. And as the year progresses, we cross off the goals we’ve met and add new ones. Some of our goals are tangible, like visiting certain places, meeting career milestones, and making specific changes to our family budget. Others are trickier to measure, like being kind and worrying less. (And there’s the one about doing a back handspring, which is mostly just terrifying.)

We’re almost halfway through 2018, which makes it the perfect time to evaluate our progress so far, to make new goals where appropriate, and to jump-start anything that might have fallen off our radar.

Jump-Start Your College Savings

One of our permanent goals is saving for college. As I’ve shared here before, Vic and I purchased Florida Prepaid College Plans for both of our daughters when they were newborns. But that doesn’t mean that we’re off the hook when it comes to saving for their education. One thing that we’re considering right now is starting a Florida 529 Savings Plan. In addition to tuition and fees, a 529 Savings Plan can be used for extra costs, like housing, books, lab fees, and technology equipment.

Florida Prepaid is running a special promotion for just that reason this summer. If you enroll in a new Florida 529 Savings Plan by June 30, 2018, you will earn a $25 contribution into your new college savings account. Bonus: if you set up automatic monthly contributions for your new account (also by June 30, 2018) for a minimum of $25 per month, you will earn another $25 contribution into your account. That’s a $50 jump-start that can grow into more money over time!

There are a couple of things to note:

• This promotion is limited to the first 5,000 new accounts opened between May 29, 2018 and June 30, 2018.
• This offer only applies to new accounts opened between May 29, 2018 and June 30, 2018.
• Funds earned will be deposited directly into your Florida 529 Savings Plan account by August 30, 2018.

You can find complete details of Florida Prepaid’s 529 Summer Jump-Start Promotion at MyFloridaPrepaid.com/529JumpStart. Signing up is easy and should only take a few minutes. Remember, the promotion only lasts for a few weeks so don’t wait too long!

Have a great summer, friends!