Jordan Edwards, LPL Financial Advisor

Financial planning for new parents Part 3: Education Planning

This is one of the more commonly discussed topics for new parents but I wanted to take a deep dive into the two most commonly discussed ways to save for your kid's education.

The full video will be up soon on my Youtube channel!

Had a friendly reminder from my friend Jack Merrill that now that I’m having a daughter I get to start saving for a wedding sooner than I frankly ever thought I would.

It was a nice reminder of all the fun things but also costly and stressful things that a new baby can bring!

I’ll be posting a video on YouTube as part of my series for new parents with ideas to help with saving for things like a wedding or a car but I just wanted to share the thoughts today.

Consistency and effort are easy when things are going well.

It’s January 31st which means, unfortunately a lot of New Year’s resolutions are starting to fall off the wagon.

Whether it’s going to the gym or following your financial plan, something is going to get in the way and make consistency difficult.

A string of birthday parties leads to late nights and missed workouts. Your air conditioner for your house goes out and now you can’t save for the month.

Make sure you’re getting back up and getting yourself back on track. That resolve will lead to success.

What’s the #1 problem I see from small business owners?

Not being properly capitalized.

When you don’t have your capital appropriately portioned out and in the right spot, you can easily feel like your business is successful but you’re still strapped for cash.

Think about your personal money. You have your checking account, your savings account, and then investment accounts.

Business is the same way they just get fancier names (I mean reserve capital sounds awesome doesn’t it?) but that’s just code for a savings account.

Being appropriately capitalized gives business owners more flexibility and can help improve liquidity.

For part 2 of my series for new parents, I wanted to get the not fun side of the process out of the way: Estate planning.

Specifically, the process and things new parents should think about doing as they get ready for their baby to make sure they know their child is taken care of if something happens to them.

It sucks to talk about but if you don't, it could lead to an outcome you absolutely want to avoid.



https://youtu.be/tH5PmYusw_M

Here's my first video for my new series for people who are going to be parents!

Today I wanted to start with Cash Flow since that's the baseline for any Financial Plan. Understanding how to begin changing your cash flow to reflect your spending once your baby is here.

My wife and I took a look at our spending to find where we could get rid of some spending or lower it in certain categories and now we've been able to feel what our spending should look like once our little girl is here.

This change has also allowed us to begin saving a good chunk of money each month to prepare for her!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDjqDlQvuSU&t=2s

In the day and age where information is super readily available about basically everything, checking your sources is a majorly big deal!

One of my least favorite things is random TikToks or Reels with investment advice from people who aren’t licensed nor do they have any credentials that give them authority.

Make sure if you see a video online of someone seeming to give advice, check on their registration or make sure they actually have the authority to do so.

Shoot check me out if you’re worried about it!

*this is not meant to be investment advice in any way*

Here's my first video for my new series for people who are going to be parents!

Today I wanted to start with Cash Flow since that's the baseline for any Financial Plan. Understanding how to begin changing your cash flow to reflect your spending once your baby is here.

My wife and I took a look at our spending to find where we could get rid of some spending or lower it in certain categories and now we've been able to feel what our spending should look like once our little girl is here.

This change has also allowed us to begin saving a good chunk of money each month to prepare for her!

I know I’ve been absent for a while on here but I’m planning on getting back to consistent videos (hopefully 2 per week).

I have some really exciting news to start the new year: I’m becoming a dad this year!!

I’m incredibly excited to meet my little girl in May but obviously a new baby brings big changes to our financial plan. I’ve noticed that there isn’t a good place (that I can find) that talks about all the tools available to parents or new parents and how they fit together.

So, I’m going to start a series on this in order to hopefully help someone sort this stuff out!

The first step is always the hardest. Just getting started makes all the difference.

Think about going to Kindergarten for the first time. Or starting to play a sport or instrument for the first time.

Did your coach/teacher/instructor not work with you just because you didn’t have enough skill or knowledge to be a pro?

Of course they didn’t! Financial advisors (good ones) are the same way. We will meet you where you’re at!

So if you have questions, feel free to reach to me or any other financial professional you know!

How do your investment accounts get taxed?

There's really only two types of accounts in the IRS's eyes. There are non-qualified accounts and qualified accounts. There are numerous variations of each one but the main difference is that qualified accounts get special tax treatment as compared to non-qualified.

Here's a short breakdown of how non-qualified accounts are taxed. Check out the full video on my new Youtube page (This is a first video so hopefully the next ones will be better lol). The link is below!



https://youtu.be/mNV6KYaree8