Figuring out what you can afford to pay for college is the first step in helping your child attend college without having to take on excessive student loans or burdening your family with unreasonable debt.

The best way to start thinking about college costs and affordability is to assess what you can afford by looking at such factors as tax credits, cash flow, any savings available beyond an emergency fund, and reasonable parent borrowing.

A helpful tool you can use to assess these factors is the College Affordability Calculator™, available as part of the Financial Fit Program on College Countdown. The College Affordability Calculator is a confidential, 10-item questionnaire that evaluates your family’s finances and determines how much money you can actually afford to pay for college per year—your affordability threshold.

Once you’ve established your affordability threshold, you can then start searching for colleges that will be your best financial fits.