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I'm your host, Andrea Trevillian from Take a SmartStep.com. This week, we're going to talk about college savings for your kids. Our guest today is Abby Brooks. She is the spokesperson for Sally

May, the nation's saving, planning, and paying for college company, and for You Promise,

Sally May's free savings and reward program. A member of You Promise since 2011, Ms. Brooks is an

expert guide to Upromises shopping, dining,

and travel benefits, and she's passionate about helping students and parents save for college

by maximizing the cash-back rewards U-Promise offers on everyday purchases.

She is also a sought-after source of information on planning for college, finding ways to

pay for it, and managing student loan payments. Welcome to the show, Abby. Thanks for having me,

Andrea. This is a topic that a lot of parents, I think, kind of get stressed about because they

know they should be saving for college,

but there's so many different components to it. So let's start with just a very broad overview of what should parents even consider when saving for college?

Sure.

So it's Sally May, and you promise, we tell families it's never too early or too late to save for college, so that's something

to keep in mind.

But it is best to start saving as early as possible.

We do an annual study called How America Saves for College.

And this year we found that on average parents start saving when their kid is like six and a half.

And I think that's a good age.

That's when their oldest kid is six and a half.

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