Summer is over! Fall is here! Children are back in school and some are attending college. Education funding is a part of financial planning. An analysis can help project future costs and help determine which education savings plans, investments, and planning strategies may help address your funding goals.
But for some families, funding college is not the concern. Too many of our children are not able to read at grade level. Illiteracy and semi-illiteracy are plaguing our communities with a higher propensity for those affected to commit crime and/or be impoverished. Illiteracy has been shown to be a culprit in high rates of poverty. I recently heard that the number of beds that will be needed in prison can be determined by the rate of illiteracy in our third-grade children. There is a direct correlation of illiteracy and crime.
Reading to children helps children learn to read. Listening to children read and encouraging good reading skills is a gift of time money cannot buy. Volunteering at a before- or after-school reading program, donating books, offering to tutor, or befriending an illiterate family are ways to bless and affect positive change. If a third-grade child is reading at or above their grade level, they have a much greater success rate of not only completing school, but of going on to trade school, community college, or university.
Gafcp.org is the link for Georgia Family Connection. Every county in Georgia has a Director to help connect resources for families. If you are looking for purpose, consider contacting your local collaborative. As an LPL Financial Advisor, I help clients plan and invest for their financial future. But I also know life is more than investing. We should also be giving and receiving, planting and growing, sowing and reaping immaterial, eternal rewards.
“And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:12-14 KJV
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 KJV
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