I’ve been meaning to add financial matters to the topic discussion for quite a while. But, then Alec Baldwin had to go and say some crazy stuff to his daughter and soldiers’ were getting penalized for being deployed and a moron in Saint Louis decided it was a good idea to start a website called National Association Against Baby’s Mamas. Needless to say, I got a little sidetracked. But, with that said, I want to point out a really easy, FREE (yes, for real free) way to start saving money for your child’s college.

I worked for quite some time as an Investment Adviser, and I constantly heard parents saying they wanted to save for their children’s college but couldn’t afford it. I feel that way too. With college tuition increasing more than 40% in the last decade, it seems impossible some days to even have a chance. But, I also know that with saving and investing “the earlier, the better.”

If you have never heard of UPromise or have, but haven’t started using it, now is the time. UPromise makes it easy for parents to save money for their children’s college and it doesn’t cost anything. Here’s the way it works basically: You create an account for your child and register your credit/debit cards. When you make purchases at more than 70,000 participating businesses, a small amount gets deposited in your child’s account. You can also have friends and family sign up. Every parent in America, who has a credit or debit card (i.e., every parent in America) should be taking advantage of this. These small amount can add up fast and every little bit helps. Take the 5 minutes and do it!

Today, I think I’ll take my own advice. I’m going to start one too :).

Update 11:22AM: Jeez, I sound like an infomercial. For the record, I was not paid to write this shining endorsement. Although, getting paid to do it might actually be a better way to get more to money to save for my son’s college :).