When my husband left the army and decided to go to college it was a big change on us, but luckily the military helped pay for his schooling. While he was in college we strategized and spent weeks deciding what are best graduate school choice would be.

Now my husband is just finishing up his second year of graduate school, and we are putting together our Post-grad/college financial plan.

Of course it is always a good idea to save up money when you are in college for after graduation.  Sometimes it’s not always possible, if you are trying to pay off loans and such.

Three things we really focus on:

Finding a job- before you graduate it’s good to start applying for jobs, whether it is a internship or post doc. You need to have something lined up for after graduation to ensure that you have money coming in.

Benefits: Do you have a family or are you single? If you have a family it’s a good idea to look into  benefits of a job or secondary school for your family. Also look at the cost of living in the area you are going to make sure you can afford it.

That was one of the big things for us when my husband was starting Grad school. We had 3 kids so, we had to look into cost of living and who offers free or discounted health insurance of every school.   Luckily we found a school that is the perfect fit for our family.

Debts: After you have determined where your life is going to go after college, and you have a income coming in to pay off your college loans. Well if you have any, College can rack up  a lot of debt on credit cards and loans. Plus you have to pay interest on that. It’s a great idea to set up payment plans or even if you can pay the whole thing off at once.

Going to college can be a life changing experience, but even after you graduate you still have many more decisions to make.

Disclosure: This Article was written using Genworth Financial Educational Resources