Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 294: How to Pay for College—Without the Panic with Shellee Howard

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 1 • Episode 294

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How do you help your kids get into the right college—without sacrificing your financial future?


 Melissa Joy, CFP®, sits down with Shellee Howard, Founder and CEO of College Ready, to talk about smart, stress-free strategies for college admissions and funding.

A certified college admissions strategist, Shellee turned her own experience guiding four very different kids through the college process into a mission: helping families nationwide find the best academic, social, and financial fit. From creating a standout student profile to uncovering hidden scholarship opportunities, Shellee shares how to approach college planning with clarity, confidence, and strategy.

💡 Key Takeaways:

  • Why college admissions should be approached like a business decision.
  • The three funding mindsets: writing the check, earning scholarships, or finding schools that pay for your student.
  • What FAFSA actually looks at—and why timing matters.
  • How to find real, essay-based scholarships (and avoid scams).
  • The “Millionaire Game” exercise to help your teen discover what drives them.
  • Why the right fit school is more valuable than a “dream” school with a big price tag.

Shellee’s insights from College Ready help parents and students reduce stress, minimize debt, and make informed, values-based decisions about higher education.

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence, and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money, and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Women's Money Wisdom podcast. Today we're going to be talking about college and how to avoid mistakes, how to pay for college, and how to get into the colleges that your kids dream of. I'm so pleased to be joined by Shelly Howard. She is the owner and president of College Ready. And she got started in this game probably a lot like you sitting in your car listening, maybe taking a kid around to activities because she was trying to get her kids through school. So, Shelly, I can't wait for this conversation. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much, Melissa. Thank you for having me. Well, you entered the world of getting kids into college and figuring out how to pay for it because you had that need yourself and you turned that into a career. Um, tell us a little bit about how you got started and and the need you saw that you're now filling.

SPEAKER_02:

So important. So I I like to first lean in and say, parents, I have walked in your shoes four times. So I don't come at this from just an academia perspective or I'm not a financial advisor. I am a college admission strategist. So please know I am here just to give you the strategies so you don't go into debt. But how this started? Great question. I will give you the brief rendition of it, and you can always call me and we can talk about it. But it happened, honestly, when my son was in middle school. He came home spring of eighth grade and he says, Mom, I know exactly what I want to do, exactly where I want to go. And I'm like, what happened at school today? I'm like, what? He goes, Yeah, the high school counselor came and said, We need to pick our classes for our freshman year, and I need to know what I'm gonna do. And I'm like, Okay, so what are you gonna do? And he says, I want to be a brain surgeon, I want to go to one of those ivy things. And I was like, Okay, of course you do. That's great. And I'm thinking, he knows I changed my major five times. He knows that I was the first to go to college. He knows we have no medicine in our family. Like, is he really messing with me? And he walks out of the room and he looks back and he goes, Mom, can you help me? And I'm like, wow, this kid is serious. And that's when it all got started. So do you want me to keep going with the story?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I want you to fast forward. What is he doing today? And then we can revert back to what I'm saying. I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

So that young man applied to 12 colleges, got into 11, had seven full ride offers, full ride at USC, which was my dream because I'm in Southern California. But yet, Harvard was came a knock-in and they matched USC. So he got to go to Harvard Pre-Med for free, and I didn't pay a dime. And now, so he went Harvard Pre-Med, then he went UC San Diego Medical School, and now he is chief resident at UCLA Orthopedic Surgery.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. Okay, he's not a brain surgeon, but we'll forgive him. And it sounds like you figured some amazing things out.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, what I did is I approached it as a business. I am an entrepreneur at heart, and I approached it just like I would a business plan. What is the problem? What is the solution? Let's reverse engineer it and let's get down to what we really need to understand about paying for college. Because even if he got into one of his dream schools, I was thinking, I don't have an extra$75,000 a year that I want to pay for, right? That could go to travel, retirement, a new car, lots of things. So I looked at it and I started with being a little bit selfish of I'm not going to use my retirement to put him through college. And he understood, which was really huge. I got to give him kudos because he did what I suggested. He didn't fight, he didn't groan, he didn't complain. I have three others, remember? So I know that's not how it always goes. But that's what we did. And that's how he was able to be so successful.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. Um, I hope that this discussion, just selfishly, I have kids younger, one younger and one older than eighth grade, but I don't think either of my kids is gonna walk into the room and say, I want to go to that Ivy League school and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. This is a broader discussion that fits for kids that are headed to the Ivy League and also headed to a local university, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I should preface it by saying my second her dream school was University of Alabama. And I asked her why, and she just said, Mom, the football. So apparently she was going to school so she could go to football games. The third says, I'm not ready to go out of state. I want to stay in California. And he went to San Francisco State. And my four said, I want to go to Europe. I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to get a dual US European degree. And so she did. So even my own four has got to be similar to one of yours.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Definitely. And I feel like the glimmers of everything coming together for my 16-year-old are appearing now. Um, and so, you know, time-wise, well, let's get back to what you do today because you learned a lot. And I feel like this conversation is so timely because the it is not getting easier to pay for college. I feel like as a Gen X person, we're kind of the first generation that kind of walked out of school with student loans in some cases. But I look at those numbers which we felt were atrocious back in the day, and I compare them to what people are walking around with today. In some cases, you know, their loans are three or four times the size of their average annual income. And I just think we can't, if you have the ability to control for it, which you do before you sign loan documents, there's got to be a better way. And we're not going to fix the whole system, but we've got to talk on an individual level about how families can get through paying for college. So I'm it is so important. It's so timely, and just waiting for a solution is not the answer nowadays. So, what kind of strategies and tactics do you help people to understand in the work that you do with people?

SPEAKER_02:

So the first thing that I speak about is helping a child, right? They're still children. We start working with students as young as seventh and eighth grade because there are some mind-blowing mature students in seventh and eighth grade, and there's some squirrely 12th graders. So we really keep it on a uh student-by-student basis. We really don't try to discriminate by age. And so what I have found is we need to lean in on what colleges are looking for, right? It's a business. The entry point is they are asking, who are you? What matters to you, and what have you done about it? Okay, parents. So that is the business that we are going towards, right? Now I want you to think about you and your child. What will make your child stand out? Right? There's going to be somebody with the same GPA, higher or lower, same test score, higher or lower. Now what? This is the strategy. So the first thing we help students figure out is who are they? And I encourage you, parents, look your child in the eye and say, Who are you? And do not be shocked if they shrug. Do not be shocked if they're like, What do you mean I'm your kid? Like, what this is crazy. But also, you're going to see that if they don't know who they are, how are they going to tell colleges how amazing they are? Think about how you talk to your brother, sister, mom about your child, right? If colleges could only hear how amazing your child is, they would take them for sure. But students, we've taught them don't brag, don't boast, people don't like it. And I have to undo all of that in the short time I have with them and help them understand what is your core values? What are your gifts? What are your talents? Who do you advocate for? What do you want? And if they don't know right now, it's not going to get easier when they're in college still squirrely, not knowing their major, or graduating with a major that is unemployable. And there's lots of them and more coming with AI. So we start with step one, get to know your child. If they won't talk to you, parents, find somebody who they will. And I know I have three. Two talked, two didn't, no judgment, right? But we need them to talk. Step two, what are they doing right now? Colleges start to look at the day your child promotes from eighth grade. Okay. That summer going into ninth grade, the most underutilized, important point because they can get a jump start on things, right? Instead of just hanging out at the beach or shopping or gaming or whatever, they can be doing community service, leadership, extracurriculars, learning about, you know, genres and books, like intellectual curiosity. So we start there because guess what? College is just a stepping stone. It's not the in-game. So if you're just trying to shove your child into a brand, what is going to happen after they graduate? And the beauty is when your child's doing things they love to do with people whom they love to do it with, they are going to want to do it. They're going to be amazing at it. And guess what colleges are going to do? They're going to pay them for being an amazing young person. It's a business.

SPEAKER_01:

So differentiation is one of the keys, you're saying, and keeping track of what you've been up to.

SPEAKER_02:

It's the key. College on the application for the common application, which is about 75% of the schools, it asks for 10 activities, honors, and awards your child has received. Okay. On the University of California, like UCLA, UC Berkeley, there's 20. So if your child is not doing anything and they're competing, right? It is a competition for a spot. And that other person has 20 or 10 of really solid, passionate things that they're doing, they're not going to stand out. They're going to fade, unfortunately. And that is a tragedy that should not need to happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Makes sense. So then you've gone through the steps of prepping yourself to look good to the schools. And then in what is the next step, I guess I should say. So we've got nine, tenth grade is where we're at at this point. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So think about there's two, there's three, three ways to look at this. Do you want scholarships? Do you want to write a check? Or can you not go if you don't get money? Those are the three approaches that we can talk about. And as we were talking about before the show, Melissa, I'm a very unique college strategist because I don't just help your child, just help them get into college. I also want them to get a return on their investment of time and money. And so I take a very unique approach and I start with the child because if you get that part wrong, you're going to pick the wrong college and the wrong major. So it's super important to start with the child. Once you know the child and they know themselves, then they'll have a better idea what career or top three. Let's not even force them into one. Let's get into the top three careers. That's our next step. After that, what do they need to go to college? Are they going to be an influencer? This is a real thing that these kids are talking about. Are they going to be an entrepreneur? And then I ask them where's their business plan? And then they say, I don't know how to do a business plan. And then we get back to the college degree.

SPEAKER_01:

So then we're at the business school again, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Right, exactly. So it's all about how do we prepare them for a successful launch into life? And college is a stepping stone. And that's why their return on investment is important. So let's look at the three buckets. If you're in the bucket of I make too much money, but don't make enough money to just write you a nice check, college A, which is I'm guessing most of our of our listeners, yeah. Right. Then you need to approach it as a business. Think of it this way, listeners. You own a business. I come to you and I say, I really want to work for you, Melissa. I've heard amazing things. I heard you're wonderful. Will you hire me? And you say, May I see your resume or your CV, please? And I say, Oh, yeah, I don't, I haven't really done very much, but I I really want to come and work for you. You say, Well, I'll give you a chance, but I'm gonna pay you minimum wage. That means I'll accept you, but you're paying full price. Okay. Now, child number two, Melissa, I really want to work for you. Great. Can I see your resume? You go, absolutely. It's four pages. I know it's kind of deep. I know I've done a lot. I could probably do your job or at least make your life so much easier. How much do you pay? And you're like, uh, I'm gonna figure it out really quick and I'm gonna give you the most I possibly can. And that's child B. So, do you see how you just helping your child understand how life works when you work hard for something and you be the best version you can be, you get paid for that. Yep. That is a life lesson. That is college admissions at it at its finest. So for those students who are not doing anything for extracurriculars, leadership, community service, why would a school pay you extra money?

SPEAKER_01:

It's a big wonder though, like, you know, if an extraordinarily exclusive school may consider you student A, and then the school in state, a public institution may consider you student B. So there's also that flexibility too of saying, Hey, I don't, you know, like my family has the ability to pay, but only a portion of college. Um, and you know what you, if you had the choice for just this moment in time, what you would do as a family if there were a magic wand. But then you think over time, you know, whether it's parent loans that encumber retirement or student loans that make it much harder to kind of um set up a household when you're a student, like these considerations are really tough conversations for a generation who just wants the best for their kids as parents, but they are can be so important for the stability of either the student, the parent, or both, parents or both, um, by having those tough discussions and discussions around resilience and flexibility, even if it's your second choice, um, can be really important.

SPEAKER_02:

And then the other part is the people who need the scholarships. I don't want to leave that on the table. It's very important. I help students from need-based to multimillionaire. And and I don't ever want college to be uh out of reach for anyone. I actually wrote two best-selling books because I I wanted to make it doable. So for those students who really need scholarships, our students, I had 29 seniors last year earn over$10.2 million in scholarships. Amazing. The money is there, families. It's knowing how to get it.

SPEAKER_01:

What percent was merit-based versus need-based in terms of 100% merit.

SPEAKER_02:

That is 100% merit. But not just merit, it was also scholarships by independent people. I had a student who earned the Coca-Cola scholarship for$25,000 a year. It was all based on their leadership. It wasn't the merit, it wasn't the GPA and the test score. It was the student was an outstanding leader. There's a there's a scholarship right now,$10,000 if you're a vegan. So there's a lot of money out there, parents. And it's just knowing how to get it. Some schools are insanely generous, and some schools are insanely stingy. So I help my clients, if they say, I want to go to you know, UCLA, I'm gonna say, Do you see that price tag? That's what you're gonna pay. They don't give money, they're an insanely stingy school. They're a grade school, but they're they're stingy. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, is a private school with a very large price tag online. But I've had at least five students get a full ride there. So now, really, how expensive is it? It all comes down to understanding. Just because a local school, state school's price tag is lower, that does not mean that that's what you're gonna pay. And it's important to know what schools are going to give you, gift you, we call it gifted money because you worked hard for it. That's on top of merit money. Merit money is your grades, your test scores, and that type of thing. But gifted money is something that you work hard and you earned. And then we have need-based. And so if you're a family under$200,000 a year, you have an opportunity for schools to meet 100% of what you can't pay. 100%. There are schools that will do that. So just know every child, there are 10 schools that are tuition free. All your child has to do is work on campus. Again, they can earn it themselves. It doesn't have to be a no. It it can be, well, help us find the right one. And that's important. I think that's what you were getting at, right, Melissa?

SPEAKER_01:

Is absolutely it hurts my heart if someone's told we can't afford college, because in a family that does have more limited means, there are a lot of affordability tools for college. Living in Michigan, you could go to community college or two-year institutions with no or almost no tuition, almost regardless of your income level, and then transfer to a four-year institution. Um, so I hate it when you know it's just like college is not an option. It also is really um anxiety-inducing as a financial planner for families that say, no matter what, we'll, you know, we will do whatever it takes to go to school X, if that is going to impair um, you know, the other um kids in the family, the um parents' ability to retire or to be, you know, okay with um their money, like both are um so challenging to me. So I think having conversations about options, flexibility, and of course, you know, if you're listening to this episode, maybe sharing with your kids because it's not just a one-way street where it's like, oh, surprise, here's schools you're allowed to apply to, or we haven't even discussed this when it comes to kind of college application season, and everybody's caught surprised in terms of how they look at schools.

SPEAKER_02:

You your listeners may love may I just have one minute? I think they would really love it. Okay, here's a gift. I call it the millionaire game. Okay, and it's super fun and it's super easy. And I would have you do it with your 16-year-old Melissa. It's it's actually enjoyable. There's only two rules to the game. One is the teenager has to agree they are not gonna roll their eyes, they're not gonna cross their arms, they're not gonna stomp out of the room, they're gonna engage. Second rule: parents, you can't go, oh no, they're gonna do art. Like you have to be mindful of no judgment. That's the only rules. Now, here's how the fun part is played. You have one-to-one quality time, have a yogurt, whatever that is, and you sit down and you say, if I gave you a million dollars cash, you had 24 hours to spend it, or you had to give it all back to me, what would you do? And you would have one child who would say, I don't know. And they're being straight up honest. You might have another child that say, Well, I buy a yacht, an airplane, take all my friends around the world for a whole year. And I encourage you to talk about financial literacy at home. And then you have a third kind that said, Well, first I buy a rental property and then I'd fix it up, and then I'd sell it, and then I buy two rental properties. And you're like, What do your parents do? Well, they flip homes. My point to this exercise, parents, is you will find out what is important to your child. To some children, money is not important because they know that you've always taken care of it. But what is that going to do when they say, I want to buy a house right next to my parent? And they also say, I want to go and join the Peace Corps. Those two things do not go together. And so it's important to not shoot them down, but help them to understand that if they if if they want to buy a new car every year or every five years, they have to make a certain amount of money to do that. And this is a huge outage. I would say probably one in 10 students can do this. It is very, very low. And what you're gonna find out is the students who would donate all of their money, oh, they have a heart of service, right? You want to help them lean into community service. If another student says, I would donate it all to my sports team so we can get new uniforms. Hello, sports is huge. This is the very beginning of helping your child figure out who they are and what matters in a fun, easy game. So hopefully that helps.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it. I will report back on how it goes with my kid. I love it. Loves to spend money. So we're definitely going to need to be making money. And I I also, you know, in addition to all the activities and accolades and awards, as an employer, I appreciate people, and you can tell me whether schools see this or not, but I appreciate people that are working too. Um, because I feel like in the pursuit of, you know, every accolade, sometimes we forget how to like have a boss and not, you know, kind of a grade that we're trying to um get to and stuff like that as well.

SPEAKER_02:

So if your question is, should a student have a job and how do colleges look at it? Yeah. It really depends on why they're having a job. If if they are having a job just to um have social time so their parents don't make them do homework, uh, that's different. If they're doing a job because they have to help pay for food on the table, that's different. If they're doing a job to um, you know, save half for college and half for charity, wowza, you've hit the double ding ding. And when they write about their job in an essay, are they talking about what they learned from that job? That is massive. I love that going back to the what and why. Yeah. Do you see how we circle back? If they're just doing it so they have play money to buy more clothes and more games and da-da-da-da-da. Right. And they're not learning anything, don't do it. They could be doing community service and learning a lot more about themselves.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'll push back because I do think when 22-year-olds have never had a boss, have only had education, um, that you miss you do need to eventually learn how to work. And work is different than, you know, just arranging your time. Um, so I do think that in the pursuit of ever, you know, like every activity that um that might be some of the challenges of kids like not finding jobs after school is like they're waiting for you know the Harvard application to come out, and instead it's like, well, maybe you need to find a job that's not the perfect match, or your first job may not be, you know, running a company. Um, but all my kids I get it for college admissions.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

All my kids had one. I don't disagree whatsoever. My point is, what are they learning about themselves and how will it help them in the future? Just don't randomly do it because they don't want to do the other thing. Oh, yeah, I get that for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

So, any other so if somebody's listening, their kid has already sent the applications applications off, or maybe they're scrambling and saying, we just got the bill and got into the dream school, but I cannot write that check next fall. Um, what do you suggest families do? Are there like routes to for reconsideration if the just filling out the FAFSA didn't get you to the right place? And also, how do you find out about these um scholarships that are based on merit and how do you get applications in?

SPEAKER_02:

That was like a whole podcast in itself. So I know, I know. I'm gonna try to give you the top level of that, and then I will let people know how they can find me and I'm happy that so first things, parents, you need to know the FAFSA looks at the second semester of your sophomore year and the first semester of your junior year. So it's a double look back. You need your financial house in order. You need to talk to Melissa as soon as possible because you want to go into the FAFSA, understanding where your assets are and where the FAFSA doesn't look. Wink, wink. That's all I'm gonna say on that. The FAFA doesn't look at all your assets, and it's not just based on your income. Okay. So what you need to understand is your student aid index. That's the key takeaway from this. Know your student aid index. Secondly, if you have made a mistake, I'm so sorry. I want to genuinely tell you, I am so sorry. What you can do at this point is really evaluate your return on investment. Does your child need to transfer to another school? Does has your family dynamics changed? Does somebody become ill and you no longer have that mode of income, right? You can't just wake up and tell us school, you know what, we can't afford it anymore. It'd be like telling your boss, yeah, I can't do my job anymore, but I still want to be paid. Like it doesn't work like that. You have to have reasons for what you do. Can you ask for a financial reconsideration? Absolutely, but not because you can't afford it anymore or you don't want to pay it anymore. You have to show proof that your FAFSA has changed. And keep in mind that if you don't do the FAFSA, FAFSA their freshman year, you get you're disqualified. So if you think you make too much money today and tomorrow, unfortunately, somebody gets ill or loses a job, you have just made a huge mistake. So I I like to leave with the positive, and that is don't make those mistakes. Know your student aid index. Understand and get your financial house in order before your sophomore, um, before your second semester of the sophomore year, and have a strategy. Don't pick a school based on a football team or the colors or where it's located. Pick it because it's a good academic, social, and financial fit.

SPEAKER_01:

Or have several on the list too as options because they have they may have radically different aid packages, or you may be narrowing it down to two that you know, the price tag is going to be the same. I've had parents who called both, you know, financial aid office offices, laid out their personal circumstances, and one office came back with an extra 10 grand that they would help with. And the other was like, I'm so sorry, but you know, loans are an option. So you never know. And I think, you know, keeping your options a little bit wider can sometimes Help.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And applying to the right schools. Everybody asks what is the what is the one thing? The one thing is applying to the best fit school for your child. If it's a dream reached school, that means they are not qualified. That means, remember, you have no CV, you have no resume, right? You're you're just not competing. And that's okay. Not every student has to go to every top-level school. It's I that's not what I'm saying. But it's applying to the right level for that child's success academically, socially, and financially wherever that child is. And that is how you end up not financially strapped.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. And then if you are looking beyond this institution's aid office, where else can you look to apply for scholarships? These are these are there for those who are proactive. It's not everybody that gets entered into the application process, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. The first thing I would say is you can start applying for college scholarships in eighth grade. For all of you who are like, oh my gosh, I just gave up two years of money. Yes, you did. It's not too late. It's never too late. But I like people who maybe have second children or younger children to know start applying to scholarships in eighth grade. Like it's not too early. You can have them apply all the way through college. It doesn't just stop pre-college. Where to apply, be very careful. If there's no essay, it is a bait and switch. They want your information and they're going to try to use it to sell you something. It must have an essay. Must, must, must. We help our students find scholarships. If you're doing it on your own, it's good old-fashioned research. There's no easy way, there's no one button, there's no one book. It is truly good, hard researching. So just know there is so much money out there, families, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. And all you have to do is go and look for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I could talk all day. And like I said, each of my questions, like you said, Shelly, each of my questions is probably an episode in and of itself. You have a podcast yourself. So let's talk about your podcast, where people can find you, um, and the services you provide so that if you want to continue the conversation, you're available.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. So my podcast is called Parents Is Your Teen College Ready, because that's all I'm here to do. You can see I'm I'm a go-giver. I want to give you everything I possibly can. And if you're like Shelly, I just really don't want to do this myself. I want to love my teenager, not, you know, hammer on them. Um, so the podcast, please feel free to listen and like. Um, but I what I do is I bring on guests like yourself, Melissa, who can speak on the financial side or the emotional side or the academic side. And I just pour into my families. How if you're like, Shelly, I I really just don't want to do this. I I'd rather do my own job. I hear you. I don't do my CPA's job and I don't do my realtor's job. Like, I get you. Um, the best way to reach out is go to collegereadyplan.info and I offer 30 minutes where we just talk. We just find out where are you? Where do you want to go? What are your concerns? How can I help you? And then if you're like, I need more than that, we have um programs from$275 all the way up to custom one-to-one strategies. And we really don't want to turn anybody away. Um, we have two best-selling books that I'm happy to send to you, or you can go on Amazon and look for them. But parents, these teenagers cannot do this alone. Do not count on our high school counselor to do this, do not count on them knowing how to do this. They're just as terrified as you are. And so they need your help.

SPEAKER_01:

So hopefully that helps you kind of know what to do next. Well, I'm so glad that you're a resource on this really important topic. And I know so many families know that it's an issue, and it probably is one of the top two or three, you know, kind of challenges where it just gets lost in the shuffle sometimes because life is so busy. So if you're sitting in the car and thinking, we need to talk more about this, kudos to you. We have additional episodes that have gone over college readiness and how to pay. Um, but Shelly, I'm so glad to know you and the resources you provide. And thank you so much for joining us. It has been my plan, my pleasure, parents.

SPEAKER_02:

I would just encourage you to start now, wherever you're at in the process. Don't feel bad. Don't feel like it's too early. Just enjoy these with our last four years at home.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to ProPlan.com and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pro Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as a receipt of or a substitute for personal investment advice from Pro Planning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Copies of Pro Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and from CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at PerlPlan.com. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are Melissa's own and those of our guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplan.com.

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Melissa Joy, CFP

Host