“D” Is for “Deferred Interest”

A new campaign aims to help parents of young children prepare for the “sticker shock” of college costs, and start them early on the road to saving for college.

Investment management firm T. Rowe Price said that it created its new CollegeSavingsChillout.com campaign as a stress-reducing way to prepare parents for the enormous task of saving for college.

The firm said that the campaign features “easy-to-digest content” and offers six simple steps to help parents create a workable plan for meeting the skyrocketing cost of their children’s college education.

T. Rowe Price said the campaign captures real parents’ “freak out” moments, but also offers a series of videos that chronicles how these parents get started saving for college.

A “lighthearted book” titled Everybody Freaks Out is available as a free, digital download on CollegeSavingsChillout.com or on Amazon.com for $5 in hard copy. T. Rowe Price said the proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to Junior Achievement USA.

Among the tips offered by this campaign is a call for parents to set up and manage a “529 Plan” for college savings. These are tax-advantaged investment vehicles designed specifically for higher education savings. Parents designate a beneficiary (which can be themselves, even), and come in two flavors: Prepaid and Savings.

Of course, investment firms like T. Rowe Price offer helpful tips like this because they can benefit from earning parents’ business. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but we would encourage parents to shop around for their best investment options before committing to a final savings plan.