
Loan, SIP, or assets? The best way to fund higher education
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Most Indian parents dream of sending their child to top-tier institutions like IIT or ISB, but few plan for the staggering costs. When the admission letter arrives, panic often follows.
Should you take a loan, sell assets, or start investing early? Here’s how to navigate the financial maze of higher education smartly. You must start planning as soon as your child is born. Take a typical graduation in a premier IIT and then a post-graduation at ISB.
The 4-year IIT course would cost you around ₹30 lakh, including boarding and lodging. In addition, the ISB-PG will cost you another ₹55-60 lakh. Effectively, you are looking at around ₹1 crore of which ₹30 lakh will be needed when your child reaches 17 and another ₹60 lakh when your child reaches 21.
If you start when your daughter is 2 years of age, you have sufficient leeway to reach your goals. Also read: IIT graduates flock to edtech: A new career frontier with high salaries For the IIT goal, you need an equity fund SIP of just ₹5,350 for 15 years, with compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14%. Of the ₹30 lakh you get at the end of 15 years, you contribute just one-third and the rest comes from the SIP (systematic investment plan).
For the ISB-PG course, you need ₹60 lakh when your daughter turns 21, which is 19 years away. At 14% returns over 19 years, you need a monthly SIP of ₹5,900 to reach ₹60 lakh. Here, you contribute less than one-fourth the corpus and the rest come from the SIP.
So, starting early with a total SIP allocation of ₹11,250, spread across two SIPs takes total care. Note, the above examples don't factor in the how the costs might change in future due to inflationary impact. Also read: SBI's move to up
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