Stocks to Get Your Kids Through College

Paying for college is expensive. It takes great investments to provide the growth and income you need to be able to afford it. As long as you make those investments and get started early, though, you can get your kids through college without ending up in the poorhouse. As with any investment goal, the best portfolio for college savings acknowledges the time frame you have to invest as well as the competing considerations of risk and reward that you have to weigh. If you start early, then you may have 15 to 20 years before you need to worry about exhausting your college fund, giving you maximum flexibility to invest.

More than anything, dividend-paying stocks do what other investments don't: show you the money, quarter in and quarter out. The best long-term plays combine a good yield with great ongoing dividend growth. Chevron is a great example of such a stock. Paying 3.5% now, Chevron has increased its dividend at a 10% clip over the past five years, and has a 19-year history of hiking its payouts every year. Procter & Gamble has an even more impressive track record, with 56 straight years of higher dividends and around 12% annual dividend growth since 2005 to go with its 3% yield. Alternatively, a dividend ETF can help with this part of your college savings. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation pursues stocks like Chevron and P&G among dozens of others. It's a simple way to get broad dividend stock exposure.

Source: MSNBC

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