Here's Why I Started Investing for My Son's College When He Was Only a Few Days Old

I still remember the day I brought my son home from the hospital. It had been a tricky delivery and my body was in bad shape, but I was happy to be back in my house and dive into motherhood. 

Those first few weeks were a total blur. I barely slept since my son nursed frequently, and as a new mom, I had so many worries. 

Was he eating enough? Was he warm enough while he slept? And how on earth were we going to cover the many costs we suddenly had to grapple with, from diapers to daycare?

Thankfully, my husband and I had made a point to boost our emergency fund before our son entered the world. So we knew we had money in our savings account to tap in a pinch if needed. 

But money was still a concern. Our costs were rising, our incomes were lower back then, and I wasn't getting paid a dime during my maternity leave from work. 

Despite that, we managed to sock away a little money from my husband's paycheck in a brokerage account earmarked for my son's college education when he was just a few days old. And while that wasn't easy, I'm glad we did it. 

A longer investment window can go a long way

I've been saving for retirement pretty steadily since my mid-20s. (Yes, I wish I'd started a year or two sooner, but I had education loans to pay off and no financial support, so I had to do things like build an emergency fund first.) But the thing about retirement is that many people get a good 40-year window or more to build themselves a nest egg.

With college savings, you only get about 18 years to accumulate money if you wait until your children are born (which is a reasonable thing to do). And that's why I wanted to get started right away. 

See, over the past 50 years, the stock market has delivered an average annual 10% return, as per the S&P 500's performance. So if you manage to stick $2,000 into a college fund when your child is first born, in 18 years, that $2,000 could grow into more than $11,000.

Now clearly, $11,000 is not going to be enough to pay for four years of college. Heck, at today's prices, $11,000 might pay for a single year of in-state tuition if you're lucky. 

The point, however, is that the more time you give yourself to invest your money, the more growth you might enjoy. And that's why I made a point to pump money into my son's college fund at a time when we had many other pressing priorities.

It wasn't easy to take that money and set it aside when it could've bought us paid help around the house or takeout meals when we were too exhausted to think about cooking. But we invested that money regardless, and because of that, we feel we're in a good place as far as our college savings are concerned (even though we're not nearly done saving yet).

A sacrifice worth making

My husband and I have welcomed two daughters into the fold since having our son, and as such, we still have a lot of work to do on the college savings front. But we're doing our best to cover our kids' higher education costs as much as possible. And investing money for college shortly after the birth of each of our children is one of the smartest decisions we feel we've made.