Saving for College: Ten Things to do Before Saving for Your Kids' Education

I've had numerous debates over the years about saving for college. Some people think their kids will value their education more if they earn it. Others plan to pay for their kids education, no matter what. The opinions vary widely, so this week I'm going to focus on things to consider in relation to saving for your kids' education.

Today is the first of a series of posts that will show up over the next several days.

• Ten Things to do Before Saving for Your Kids' Education
• Retire First, College Later
• Reasons to Save and Not to Save for College
• 529 Plans Debunked
• Five ways to pay for college if you haven't saved

Ten Things to do Before Saving for College

1. Pay for your own education, including paying off all student loans.
2. Get a handle on your cash flow, as we discussed in this earlier post.
3. Get your career established and stable.
4. Pay off all of your consumer debt and keep it paid off for two years.
5. Pay off your cars.
6. Consistently save 10% of your gross income in a retirement account for three years and be sure you can continue while you contribute to your kids' educations.
7. Have enough in your retirement account to fund a "get by" retirement (more detail on this will come on Tuesday)
8. Have an emergency fund with three months living expenses.
9. Own a home with at least 25% equity. You might even want to stretch to 50% equity before saving for college.
10. Figure out your college contribution goals.

Not all of these apply to everyone and some of us will need to focus on other things before saving for college. What are some of the things you advise to do before saving for college?