I like to divide things into what I call early stage planning and late stage planning. So early stage planning is college is someday, I've got a four-year-old, we've got some extra cash flow, maybe we should save it and invest for college. Okay. You know, whether you do it or not, that's great.

But then we get to what I call late stage college planning. Now you've got a high school, sophomore, junior, senior, and you're there. And you may have done a great job of saving a big pile of money, but that you're still not done, right? You've got a lot of work to do around visiting colleges, figuring out just because I have it, do I have to spend it?

Should I spend it? How much is a reasonable amount to spend for college? Are the privates worth it? Are the public's worth it? All that work that needs to be done. Using loans to fill the gaps, filling out financial aid, all that stuff. That should start, in my opinion, freshman, sophomore year, especially for your first.

Because it's a learning curve of, well, I need to understand, will we qualify for need-based aid? Will we qualify for merit aid?