April 18, 2025 • 11 mins
We're joined by Meredith Westheimer, spokeswoman for Florida Prepaid, on how the program helps you lock in today's tuition rates for your child's college education years down the road. Open enrollment for this year wraps up on April 30th.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcoln for wj n O dot com, the
(00:02):
Florida News Network, and it's getting ready to be that time,
the deadline to get in open enrollment for Florida Prepaid.
Great way to lock intoday's college prices for your babies
or young children. And we are checking in as usual
on this topic with our local Palm Beach County spokesperson
(00:26):
of Florida Prepaid and well also a beneficiary of Florida Prepaid,
Meredith west Timer. We've talked about this all the time.
We don't have to go through it all. Just trying
to remember where you went to school. It was either
UF or UCF, and I never remember which one. I
always get them confused. Which one was it? You see, okay,
and I thought it was I and I thought it was.
(00:49):
That's kind of a party school right now. I'm gonna
tell you why, because I have a little story. It's
a little bit of a party school, right I.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It was a fun time, I could say, for sure,
all right.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
The reason so I'm with my I'm with my daughter
at Disney and my twelve year old and uh and
then my older daughter in her thirties, and we were
just talking because my daughter. I'm very very proud. She's
sixth grader and uh in Orlando, and she's in all
advanced classes. And my older daughter is a elementary school teacher.
And so we were kind of, you know, talking about
(01:21):
my youngest future and because she lives in Orlando, my
young one, you know, we were talking about, you know
how in middle school she's going to start at some
point taking high school class you know, high school courses
to get high school credits, so that she's that far
ahead of the game. Then in high school she'll be
able to get college credits. And my other my older
daughters bussed out with you know, and yeah, so if
(01:42):
you attend UCP, I said, she's not going to UCP.
That's a party school.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh they've got tons of great programs, but even have
a medical school.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Now, so you know, yeah, she might want to she
might want to fly the coop and you know, go
go further from home. That's what a lot of people,
a lot of the kids like to do. But nonetheless,
I'm just teasing you. But the important thing is is
that you got a college. You know, you graduated from college.
You have a degree or degrees as the case maybe,
(02:10):
and you did this at a discount for your parents
and your family because you joined the Florida Prepaid or
they did, I guess. And now you have two kids,
and I understand you have programs for them as well.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Absolutely, I think it's such a good point and I
really want families to hear this message that I was
able to go to UCF on a four year you know,
prepaid plan and graduate completely debt free. And so I
feel super lucky. You know, I grew up that my
mom was a single mom, so back in the day,
you know, when prepaid was just coming out. You know,
I'm so grateful that she trumpted that this is a
(02:44):
great program. You know, now fast forward thirty years, it's
the longest running, most successful prepaid program in the country.
And we, you know, have it for our kids because
we want a guarantee that whatever plan we selected for
them will be available to them once they're ready to
go to school.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Now, I basically, I mean, we've been talking about this
for years, you and I and I basically got it
right as far as and I know this, as far
as the bottom line of what it is. You pay
you know, a price now and then you're locking in
it's today's tuition rates. We know, you know, ten twenty years,
whatever it is, they're not going to be the same.
(03:22):
But what else is there to know about this program? Obviously,
you know, fill in some of the blanks.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Sure, so you're locking in the future across of college
today and then you're able to make small monthly payments
against that until it's time for your child to go
to college. And so it's much more affordable to families
that way to pay, you know, twenty nine dollars a
month or one hundred dollars a month, you know, depending
on which plan you choose from. My recommendation is always
for families to go onto the website. You'll plug in
the name, I'm sorry, the age of your child and
(03:50):
they're their date of birth, and then one year university
plan and your child is this age you know for
infants right now, that's only twenty nine dollars a month
to lock me in the future cross of one year
of university. And so you know, get something. I mean,
no parents always feel the struggle to do everything right
(04:10):
to if they can't do four years of university, what's
the point. You know, there's tremendous flexibility with these plans
that they're guaranteed, and I can promise you that you
won't regret having them, but you will regret if you
don't have any college savings, you know, in a tax
beneficient way.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, I would think if somebody you know has the
ability to now lock in one or two years at minimum,
you know, the kids may end up getting you know,
grants later on, right, and then they could cover the rest,
but potentially right, just.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Start somewhere, you know, or maybe you do one year
university plan now and you're locking that in now, and
that's what you can do now. But maybe once you
roll off that diaper bill, then you lock in another year.
Or maybe you have a grandparent who wants to help
out and they can tip in and get a year.
You know, there's a lot of ways to do this,
or maybe you just end up paying for one year
or two years. And to your point, there's scholarships or
(05:05):
other funding that you know, look at in the future,
but you know, any little bit helps. In Any dollars
spaced ahead of time is a dollar that your kid
doesn't have to take out in a student loan. And
that's really what we want to prevent here because that
debt is so burdensome. It's in the trillions, you know,
collectively in the United States college college debt, and so
that can be like when you're getting out, you're in
(05:26):
your twenties, you want to start off your career and
you might want to buy a house or startup family. Right,
that's crushing to have to make those repayments with high
interest rates.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Now you mentioned twenty nine a month, twenty nine that
obviously prepaid plans prices start at twenty nine dollars a month,
and it sounds like that's a lower figure than when
we recently spoke like last year. Correct.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, so these it's the lowest plan price in over
ten years. And this deal is good through the end
of the month, and so it's currently to your point
open enrollment and that runs until April thirtieth. So I
really reckomon mentor families, you know, if you've been thinking
about it for a while, you know, please do go online.
It's a significant savings on the prepaid plans.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And people are you know, concerned right now with some
of the prices and you know, are we heading into
a recession and whatnot? What would you tell folks that
you know, would say, I don't know, maybe I should
hold on and see where we go before we get
you know, get going with this and do it next
year or the year after.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I understand. I go to the grocery store too, so
you know, I can completely understand our families are coming from.
But always the recommendation is to do what you can.
So if there's a little bit of flexibility in your budget, right,
twenty nine dollars a month, you know, it's not a
tremendous bill to pay, but you know, if there is
some flexibility, you know, please do go and encourage you
(06:47):
to look. It's hard to look ahead, especially when your
children are don and you think, oh, I've got time, right,
but that that time is really your greatest advantage when
it comes to saving ahead for college. In addition, these
plans are built for flexibility, so you know you can
always get your money back that you put in for
prepaid plans or guaranteed by this state. You know, So
we really want families suggest start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Do you lose anything if you know your your kid
grows up and says I don't want to go to
college and you just can't talk them into it or
lock them in the room long enough to get them
to agree to go or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You know, not at the teenageers yet, so I don't know,
you know how difficult they can be, but I hear you.
So you have actually up to ten years to use them.
But no, you don't lose anything that you put in.
You can always get the money back out that you
put into the plan. They're also transferable to another child,
so you know that's another option for flexibility as well.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
All transferable. Okay, all right, fine, your sister's going to
use it then, so up to ten years. Let me
just backtrack there so people understand what you said. The
child has up to ten years after their high school
graduation to use the plans. So maybe you know, you
sit on it and let them think about it, and
you know, I would think somebody, you know, would they
flip enough burgers long enough? Maybe maybe they may want
(08:03):
to go to college, right right?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Right? That party school starts to sound pretty appealing, right
when you have to pay your own own dolls. So
they have up to ten, yes, up to ten years
to use it from their graduation date. Who's co date?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And you can take this And I know we talked
about you having used it. It's at uc F, the
party school with some really good programs. I know it's
a good school. I took my older daughter there back
when we redid her college tour. So I just tease
you about it, but I just remember going, wow, this
looks like a party school. But she ended up at FAU.
(08:38):
Let's say, for enclosure, I.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Went there too. Actually I started a year a great school.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Uh So, so we're talking about UCF. We're talking about local,
you know, local and state colleges and universities. But if
somebody goes and and and they can take this out
of state too, correct, That's correct.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
The prepaid plan will adopt with your child. So if
your child wants to attend to technical orification of school
and out of state or private college, the plan will
pay the same amount as it would have paid to
a public college or university in Florida. So let's say
you have a one year university plan. It would pay
you know, whatever it would pay the UCF. It would
(09:18):
also pay to an out of state school or to
private school. You never lose the value of the plan. Yeah,
that exists. Always said there.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The thing to remember would probably be that, you know,
Florida's got some of the lowest tuition rates in the country. Correct,
am I am I right there?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
They meaned relatively stable, which is why we're able to reduce,
you know, the monthly starting payment this month for the
prepaid plan to be the lowest in over ten years.
So we're really lucky to live in Florida, to have
great schools with great programs, and so you know, it's
a great option for Florida families. And you know it's
again it's the longest running and most successful seatback college
(09:53):
stavings program in the country. So we actually hear from
a lot of families that move from other states that said, oh,
I wish I had this in my state before. I
wish my parents had this for me, or I could
have already started it for my kids. Right, So we
really want Florida families to hear this and to take
advantage of this benefit because it is unique to our estate.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Folks are thinking about sending your kids out of you know,
it'll pay what, as you said, what it would pay
to go to a Florida school. That being said, so
you may have to pay a little bit more if
you're taking it out of state, correct, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Right, because you'd be charged, you know, per correct credit
rate because you're an out of state student. You don't
have residencies in that state. So you know, oftentimes schools
will charge more for students who are coming from other states.
And that's why there's a differential, not because you lost
the value of the plan. The value of the plan
is always still there. It's just that some institutions charge more.
(10:49):
Same thing with a private college. If they charge, you know,
for private college charge is a higher tuition rate per
credit hour, then you know there would be a little
bit of a cost differential, but the value is always
still there.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right, Where do they go to do this? And
they have until what midnight? Eleven fifty nine, I guess
we would say PM on April thirtieth, so the end
of the month.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
My Florida prepaid dot com there's a savings calculator there.
It's super easy to use to really build a savings
plan that works for you and your family.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
All right, Meredith west Timer, we appreciate you being our
local spokesperson and not just a not just a spokesperson,
but a client. Remember the hair guy that those commercials. Anyway,
it's been a long time. All right, well, I appreciate
you joining me here on Florida News Network in wj
NO dot com.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Thank you, Joll anytime,
Hey, Joel Malcoln for wj n O dot com, the
(00:02):
Florida News Network, and it's getting ready to be that time,
the deadline to get in open enrollment for Florida Prepaid.
Great way to lock intoday's college prices for your babies
or young children. And we are checking in as usual
on this topic with our local Palm Beach County spokesperson
(00:26):
of Florida Prepaid and well also a beneficiary of Florida Prepaid,
Meredith west Timer. We've talked about this all the time.
We don't have to go through it all. Just trying
to remember where you went to school. It was either
UF or UCF, and I never remember which one. I
always get them confused. Which one was it? You see, okay,
and I thought it was I and I thought it was.
(00:49):
That's kind of a party school right now. I'm gonna
tell you why, because I have a little story. It's
a little bit of a party school, right I.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It was a fun time, I could say, for sure,
all right.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
The reason so I'm with my I'm with my daughter
at Disney and my twelve year old and uh and
then my older daughter in her thirties, and we were
just talking because my daughter. I'm very very proud. She's
sixth grader and uh in Orlando, and she's in all
advanced classes. And my older daughter is a elementary school teacher.
And so we were kind of, you know, talking about
(01:21):
my youngest future and because she lives in Orlando, my
young one, you know, we were talking about, you know
how in middle school she's going to start at some
point taking high school class you know, high school courses
to get high school credits, so that she's that far
ahead of the game. Then in high school she'll be
able to get college credits. And my other my older
daughters bussed out with you know, and yeah, so if
(01:42):
you attend UCP, I said, she's not going to UCP.
That's a party school.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh they've got tons of great programs, but even have
a medical school.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Now, so you know, yeah, she might want to she
might want to fly the coop and you know, go
go further from home. That's what a lot of people,
a lot of the kids like to do. But nonetheless,
I'm just teasing you. But the important thing is is
that you got a college. You know, you graduated from college.
You have a degree or degrees as the case maybe,
(02:10):
and you did this at a discount for your parents
and your family because you joined the Florida Prepaid or
they did, I guess. And now you have two kids,
and I understand you have programs for them as well.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Absolutely, I think it's such a good point and I
really want families to hear this message that I was
able to go to UCF on a four year you know,
prepaid plan and graduate completely debt free. And so I
feel super lucky. You know, I grew up that my
mom was a single mom, so back in the day,
you know, when prepaid was just coming out. You know,
I'm so grateful that she trumpted that this is a
(02:44):
great program. You know, now fast forward thirty years, it's
the longest running, most successful prepaid program in the country.
And we, you know, have it for our kids because
we want a guarantee that whatever plan we selected for
them will be available to them once they're ready to
go to school.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Now, I basically, I mean, we've been talking about this
for years, you and I and I basically got it
right as far as and I know this, as far
as the bottom line of what it is. You pay
you know, a price now and then you're locking in
it's today's tuition rates. We know, you know, ten twenty years,
whatever it is, they're not going to be the same.
(03:22):
But what else is there to know about this program? Obviously,
you know, fill in some of the blanks.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Sure, so you're locking in the future across of college
today and then you're able to make small monthly payments
against that until it's time for your child to go
to college. And so it's much more affordable to families
that way to pay, you know, twenty nine dollars a
month or one hundred dollars a month, you know, depending
on which plan you choose from. My recommendation is always
for families to go onto the website. You'll plug in
the name, I'm sorry, the age of your child and
(03:50):
they're their date of birth, and then one year university
plan and your child is this age you know for
infants right now, that's only twenty nine dollars a month
to lock me in the future cross of one year
of university. And so you know, get something. I mean,
no parents always feel the struggle to do everything right
(04:10):
to if they can't do four years of university, what's
the point. You know, there's tremendous flexibility with these plans
that they're guaranteed, and I can promise you that you
won't regret having them, but you will regret if you
don't have any college savings, you know, in a tax
beneficient way.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, I would think if somebody you know has the
ability to now lock in one or two years at minimum,
you know, the kids may end up getting you know,
grants later on, right, and then they could cover the rest,
but potentially right, just.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Start somewhere, you know, or maybe you do one year
university plan now and you're locking that in now, and
that's what you can do now. But maybe once you
roll off that diaper bill, then you lock in another year.
Or maybe you have a grandparent who wants to help
out and they can tip in and get a year.
You know, there's a lot of ways to do this,
or maybe you just end up paying for one year
or two years. And to your point, there's scholarships or
(05:05):
other funding that you know, look at in the future,
but you know, any little bit helps. In Any dollars
spaced ahead of time is a dollar that your kid
doesn't have to take out in a student loan. And
that's really what we want to prevent here because that
debt is so burdensome. It's in the trillions, you know,
collectively in the United States college college debt, and so
that can be like when you're getting out, you're in
(05:26):
your twenties, you want to start off your career and
you might want to buy a house or startup family. Right,
that's crushing to have to make those repayments with high
interest rates.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Now you mentioned twenty nine a month, twenty nine that
obviously prepaid plans prices start at twenty nine dollars a month,
and it sounds like that's a lower figure than when
we recently spoke like last year. Correct.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, so these it's the lowest plan price in over
ten years. And this deal is good through the end
of the month, and so it's currently to your point
open enrollment and that runs until April thirtieth. So I
really reckomon mentor families, you know, if you've been thinking
about it for a while, you know, please do go online.
It's a significant savings on the prepaid plans.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And people are you know, concerned right now with some
of the prices and you know, are we heading into
a recession and whatnot? What would you tell folks that
you know, would say, I don't know, maybe I should
hold on and see where we go before we get
you know, get going with this and do it next
year or the year after.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I understand. I go to the grocery store too, so
you know, I can completely understand our families are coming from.
But always the recommendation is to do what you can.
So if there's a little bit of flexibility in your budget, right,
twenty nine dollars a month, you know, it's not a
tremendous bill to pay, but you know, if there is
some flexibility, you know, please do go and encourage you
(06:47):
to look. It's hard to look ahead, especially when your
children are don and you think, oh, I've got time, right,
but that that time is really your greatest advantage when
it comes to saving ahead for college. In addition, these
plans are built for flexibility, so you know you can
always get your money back that you put in for
prepaid plans or guaranteed by this state. You know, So
we really want families suggest start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Do you lose anything if you know your your kid
grows up and says I don't want to go to
college and you just can't talk them into it or
lock them in the room long enough to get them
to agree to go or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You know, not at the teenageers yet, so I don't know,
you know how difficult they can be, but I hear you.
So you have actually up to ten years to use them.
But no, you don't lose anything that you put in.
You can always get the money back out that you
put into the plan. They're also transferable to another child,
so you know that's another option for flexibility as well.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
All transferable. Okay, all right, fine, your sister's going to
use it then, so up to ten years. Let me
just backtrack there so people understand what you said. The
child has up to ten years after their high school
graduation to use the plans. So maybe you know, you
sit on it and let them think about it, and
you know, I would think somebody, you know, would they
flip enough burgers long enough? Maybe maybe they may want
(08:03):
to go to college, right right?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Right? That party school starts to sound pretty appealing, right
when you have to pay your own own dolls. So
they have up to ten, yes, up to ten years
to use it from their graduation date. Who's co date?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And you can take this And I know we talked
about you having used it. It's at uc F, the
party school with some really good programs. I know it's
a good school. I took my older daughter there back
when we redid her college tour. So I just tease
you about it, but I just remember going, wow, this
looks like a party school. But she ended up at FAU.
(08:38):
Let's say, for enclosure, I.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Went there too. Actually I started a year a great school.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Uh So, so we're talking about UCF. We're talking about local,
you know, local and state colleges and universities. But if
somebody goes and and and they can take this out
of state too, correct, That's correct.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
The prepaid plan will adopt with your child. So if
your child wants to attend to technical orification of school
and out of state or private college, the plan will
pay the same amount as it would have paid to
a public college or university in Florida. So let's say
you have a one year university plan. It would pay
you know, whatever it would pay the UCF. It would
(09:18):
also pay to an out of state school or to
private school. You never lose the value of the plan. Yeah,
that exists. Always said there.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The thing to remember would probably be that, you know,
Florida's got some of the lowest tuition rates in the country. Correct,
am I am I right there?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
They meaned relatively stable, which is why we're able to reduce,
you know, the monthly starting payment this month for the
prepaid plan to be the lowest in over ten years.
So we're really lucky to live in Florida, to have
great schools with great programs, and so you know, it's
a great option for Florida families. And you know it's
again it's the longest running and most successful seatback college
(09:53):
stavings program in the country. So we actually hear from
a lot of families that move from other states that said, oh,
I wish I had this in my state before. I
wish my parents had this for me, or I could
have already started it for my kids. Right, So we
really want Florida families to hear this and to take
advantage of this benefit because it is unique to our estate.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Folks are thinking about sending your kids out of you know,
it'll pay what, as you said, what it would pay
to go to a Florida school. That being said, so
you may have to pay a little bit more if
you're taking it out of state, correct, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Right, because you'd be charged, you know, per correct credit
rate because you're an out of state student. You don't
have residencies in that state. So you know, oftentimes schools
will charge more for students who are coming from other states.
And that's why there's a differential, not because you lost
the value of the plan. The value of the plan
is always still there. It's just that some institutions charge more.
(10:49):
Same thing with a private college. If they charge, you know,
for private college charge is a higher tuition rate per
credit hour, then you know there would be a little
bit of a cost differential, but the value is always
still there.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right, Where do they go to do this? And
they have until what midnight? Eleven fifty nine, I guess
we would say PM on April thirtieth, so the end
of the month.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
My Florida prepaid dot com there's a savings calculator there.
It's super easy to use to really build a savings
plan that works for you and your family.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
All right, Meredith west Timer, we appreciate you being our
local spokesperson and not just a not just a spokesperson,
but a client. Remember the hair guy that those commercials. Anyway,
it's been a long time. All right, well, I appreciate
you joining me here on Florida News Network in wj
NO dot com.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Thank you, Joll anytime,
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