18 years seems like a long time to plan for your child's university education.

You're lucky if you have that long.

University remains a driving ambition for many of the UK's students. The opportunity to live out their dreams of a new and exciting lifestyle, free from constraints for 3 or 4 years, with only the interruption of some occasional lectures to disturb them!

But how many families have had to scrap these aspirations or significantly change their lifestyle to cope with the rise in tuition fees of up to £9,000 per annum - that's before any living costs are thrown in. Assume additional costs of £6,000 per annum, once inflation takes hold and how are you going to afford £15,000 per annum to fund a university education? And what if you have more than one child?

We come across this dilemma all too often.

Some people are lucky and have either already made provision or they still have 18 years to do so.

Others are less fortunate and need to make the most of the time they do have available to plan. We can offer solutions whereby you save what you can afford on a monthly basis, retain control of your savings at all times, only assign monies to your dependants as and when required and reduce (potentially remove) the tax impact at the same time.

This is only one solution, there are many more which can help you save for the short or long term and help reduce the ever increasing burden of tax at the same time.

Saving doesn't need to be daunting or unaffordable; investment in your own and your dependants future can be achieved by some careful planning.

If you empathise with this situation and would like further information on how we may be able to assist you, please contact me at jon.telford@msfs.co.uk.