Since my daughter’s May graduation and subsequent employment as a NICU nurse, both of my children are now college graduates and gainfully employed.  I had been saving money for that goal for years.
About a month later, my husband celebrated his 65 th birthday in mid-June.  Although he is still employed part-time, his milestone birthday is a reminder that retirement is getting closer year by year.  We’ve been saving for that goal for many years as well.

Saving for your own retirement and a child´s college education at the same time can be a challenge. You want to retire comfortably when the time comes, but you also want to help your child get a good education. How do you take steps now to accomplish both goals? Here are a few pointers from 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy, a website of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Estimate Your Financial Needs
The first step is to determine your financial needs for each goal. For example, how many years until retirement for you and college for your child(ren)? What do you expect to receive for retirement from your employer and/or Social Security? What standard of living do you want in retirement? What´s the expected cost of your child´s preferred college? Gather the facts and set goals now. Periodically meet with your company´s retirement representative and visit college websites to stay on track with your estimates.

Retirement Takes Priority
Although a child´s college education is certainly an important goal, you should probably focus on your own retirement first if funds are limited. With generous company pensions mostly a thing of the past and Social Security in a financial strain, the burden is primarily on you to fund your retirement. Make it automatic- enroll in your employer´s retirement savings plan and take advantage of matching funds, if offered. Or, set up your own automatic savings transfers from a checking account to a retirement savings or investment account.

If you wait until your children are educated to start saving for retirement, you´ll miss out on years of tax-deferred growth and compounding of your money. Remember that a child can get help to attend college by taking out loans (or maybe even receiving scholarships), but no one will give you a loan or a scholarship for your retirement years.

Saving Tips for Both Retirement and College
Ideally you’ll want to try to save for both retirement and college at the same time. Here are some tips to consider:

1.  Work longer.  The more years you work, the more money you´ll earn and the later you´ll need to dip into your retirement savings.

2.  Reduce your standard of living, now or later (or both.)  You might be able to adjust your spending habits now in order to save money for later. Or you may consider a more frugal lifestyle in retirement.

3.  Increase your earnings now.  Consider increasing your hours at your current job, finding a new job with better pay, taking a second job or having a stay-at-home spouse return to the workforce.  You can also earn extra money with seasonal or part-time opportunities like being a ball game referee, a tutor or a county fair judge, or selling products from home or at bazaars and farmers markets. Turn unwanted belongings into cash with garage sales or auctions.

4. Expect your children to contribute more to college expenses.  Encourage your children to work and save for future education needs.  Kids can start small with early money-makers like lawn mowing, babysitting or the sale of 4-H livestock and then move into part-time jobs as they get older. As they look toward college, help them find and apply for all scholarships for which they qualify. Expect them to work part-time while in college and explore student loans if funds are still short.

5. Send your child to a less-expensive school.  A pricey “brand-name” private school may be your child’s dream, but unless he receives generous scholarships, he may need to lower his expectations. A state university or a smaller liberal arts college might provide a similar education
for a far lower cost.

6.  Get creative to reduce education costs.  Encourage your student to take dual-credit classes at a local community college while in high school, attend a local college and live at home to save on room and board, enroll in an accelerated program to graduate in three years instead of four, take advantage of cooperative training where paid internships alternate with course work, or defer college for a year or two and work to earn college funds.

It’s not easy to save for college and retirement at the same time– but it can be done.  Set your goals and stay focused.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

Everything living thing has an internal clock of some sort that helps regulate its life.

My internal clock is very reliable as it relates to getting me up in the morning. I have an alarm clock by my bed like most everyone does, but I rarely have to use it. It seems I can just decide in my mind when I want to awaken and when that time rolls around, I awaken. We put our two little dogs to bed about ten PM every night and they also get a treat then. Their internal clock often tells them when it’s time for a snack, as they begin to stir and whine about that time every night.

Wildlife has different worries in life which are all about survival, like when to begin growing their heavy winter coats or when to begin breeding to sustain their species. All studies and research say that those things are dictated by the amount of daylight in a day, technically known as photo-period. So as the days get shorter and thus the amount of daylight becomes less, it triggers changes in wildlife.

In deer, shortening days and reduced amount of daylight triggers the breeding season known to us as “the rut.” I spoke with the Big Game Coordinator for the state of Kansas, Lloyd Fox who explained to me how increased amount of darkness each day causes increased production of certain hormones in a deer’s body and thus the bodies of both male and female deer prepare for the breeding season.

He also pointed out that moon signs and other factors may bring about increased deer activity and changes of behavior, but it is all ultimately controlled by the length of days (photo-period.) As a side note here, have you ever wondered why deer and all wildlife for that matter have their young in the spring and not fall, early winter or even year-round like some domestic livestock? God has programmed their bodies to react the way they do so all wildlife young are born in spring when everything in nature gives them the absolute best chance of survival.

Furbearers are also affected by decreased amount of daylight. Matt Peek, Furbearer Biologist for the state of Kansas explained to me how the photo period dictates when a fur bearer’s pelt becomes “prime.” Fur bearing animals grow an extra-thick, heavy coat to protect them from winter blasts, and when that coat is at its absolute fullest and best for fur harvesting it is called “prime.”

Decreasing amounts of daylight initiates that growth. It could be sixty-five degrees clear into December, but the animals’ fur still grows and becomes prime in anticipation of the cold, no matter when it comes, so that the critters are prepared. Fur from different parts of the country varies vastly in quality, as fur from Idaho for example will always be thicker and more luxurious than fur from Florida. But no matter where a fur bearing animal lives, their fur still becomes prime and the timing of that is dictated by the amount of daylight.

I hate the bi-annual time changes; I wish we would just choose one or the other (I really don’t care which one) and then just leave it alone! But this year as I’m scurrying around resetting the clocks on the microwave, etc. and knowing full well I’ll have to do it again come spring, I’ll stop for a moment and consider how the wild critters clocks just kinda’ reset themselves thanks to the wisdom of our Creator.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].