Ask any parent what ambitions they have for their children and the pat answer is usually that they just want them to be happy. But underlying that is a desire to see them well-educated and successful in their chosen career.
Despite a rapid expansion of local tertiary education places in the past decade, many Hong Kong parents still look to overseas universities to give their children the best springboard into the world of work. Whether planning on a local or an overseas tertiary education, the cost of supporting even one child through a degree is daunting.
Overseas, the current cost of studying for a three-year university degree ranges from an estimated HK$360,000 in Australia to nearly $470,000 in Canada, $600,000 in Britain and $1.27 million for the same at a university in the United States. Even locally, financing a three-year degree course in Hong Kong, including accommodation, living expenses and fees, will set you back more than $250,000. Moreover, the trend in public spending is towards a user-pays principle and it is more likely that fees for Hong Kong's tertiary institutions will rise, not fall.
Investing early, saving regularly and continuing with the savings until your child reaches university age can help ease the burden.
Experts say that even parents who do think ahead and set up some sort of education plan make several common mistakes. The first is not starting early enough. 'The earlier you start the quicker you get the effects of compounding in place,' says Bonnie Tse, head of direct sales and investor services at JF Funds. Under-estimating the cost is another pitfall, as is failing to factor in cost elements apart from fees.
'Fees are just a part of education costs,' says Stewart Aldcroft, managing director of Investec Asset Management Asia.