Affording that future college bill

I am not sure if our son will ever want to go to college. He's a long way off from that day, and by the time he is old enough for higher learning, college may or may not still be seen as necessary for a successful career. Additionally, he has announced that he is building a transporter in our loft, and if that works out I see no reason why he should need college learning for a career. What I am saying is: You never know.

What I do know is that we still save funds as if he were going to college one day. Saving all that money now is (in theory) easier than getting hit with all those bills at once. And that avoidance of one lump sum is good advice whether you are the student or the parent footing the bill.

And because it usually is parents helping to foot the bill, GoBankingRates did some fancy math to determine how much a family would need to earn in order to afford college tuition bills on top of all their other expenses (groceries, cost of living and health care.)

The results can be found in this nifty chart that tells me that families with students wanting to go to college in Hawaii and California have got bad news, while parents of students attending midwest universities can celebrate. It's a little odd to think that the number one thing a family can do to help save for college is...move.

Do you have a college savings plan for your children? Tell me in the comments.