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SALT LAKE CITY — Students at the University of Utah started school this week, and one college freshman is learning a valuable lesson in economics, thanks to her grandfather. It's a lesson we could all learn from the real value of a college degree.
When Marley Hill-Filben was just 3 years old, her grandparents started saving for her college education. They became the first Utahns to open an account with the newly created Utah 529 savings plan.
Her father, Duane Hill, said, "I'm blown away by what you can do by just putting it away and not thinking about it; and just doing something regularly, it works."
For 15 years, that account grew tax free to $30,000. "There's enough money now to pay for her four years of college here, so it's a no-brainer," he said.
"I feel really lucky that I don't have to deal with taking out loans that I'll have to pay off for the rest of my life," Hill-Filben said.
She should feel lucky because, according to Pew research, that $30,000 investment is now worth $1.4 million over her lifetime.
Today, Hill is seeing all his years of saving pay off he walks the halls of his alma mater with his granddaughter.
"The debt the kids have nowadays is just incredible. This is a wonderful opportunity, and I'm just so glad that we did it," he said.
Even though Hill-Filben has her share of worries as she adjusts to her first week of college, wondering how she's going to pay for school isn't one of them.
Duane Hill got a 4,467 percent return on his initial investment. To put that in perspective, if he had started with $1,500 and invested it at a credit union, he would have received only a 2 percent return. If he had invested in gold, he would have a 14 percent return.
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Written by Ashley Kewish with contributions from Nadine Wimmer.
