Sallie Mae offers new financial literacy resources to assist families with financial planning for college

Nine out of 10 parents value education as an investment for their child’s future, yet only 23 percent of families have a college-savings goal and just 41 percent have a plan to pay for college, according to Sallie Mae’s 2014 How America Saves for College study. To help families make a comprehensive financial plan to achieve their higher education goals, Sallie Mae launched a new online college planning resource. Named Plan for College, the new section of SallieMae.com offers interactive tools, calculators and content to help families map out a plan to save and pay for higher education.

“We are dedicated to providing useful, relevant information and tools to help students and their families realize their dreams that begin with a college education,” said Charlie Rocha, senior vice president. “The Plan for College web resource is a reinforcement of that mission.”

With Plan for College, families may create a plan that is specific to their student. Families with students who are more than two years away from college will learn more about saving for college; those approaching college within two years will learn more about Sallie Mae’s 1, 2, 3 approach to paying for college.

Plan for College features the new College Planning Calculator, a tool designed to help students and families start a financial plan for college whether school is a long way off or right around the corner. Using an interactive and comprehensive step-by-step strategy, users may set savings goals, enter their various sources of funding for college and see how their plan compares to how the average family saves or pays for college.

In addition, Plan for College includes the Sallie Mae Scholarship Search, featuring more than 3 million scholarships offering up to $18 billion in free money.

For more information and to begin your plan for college, visit SallieMae.com/PlanForCollege.

Join the conversation on how to save, plan, and pay for college at Facebook.com/SallieMae and Twitter.com/SallieMae.

Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) is the nation’s No. 1 financial services company specializing in education. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae turns education dreams into reality for American families. With products and services that include Upromise rewards, scholarship search and planning tools, private education loans, insurance, and online banking, Sallie Mae offers solutions that help families save, plan, and pay for college. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.