A free, new tool from Kiplinger Magazine helps parents and students find the best college values for their tuition dollar. The tool itself actually lets you sort their pre-existing list of 100 schools and find the best college value for you, based on a number of other sub-criteria.

For example, you can sort their list by:

• In-state vs. out-of-state rank
• Average debt at graduation
• 4 and 6 year graduation rates
• Enrollment
• Student-to-faculty ratio

To give the tool a whirl, visit the Best College Values tool at Kiplinger.com

After a lot of promising and waiting, the IRS - FAFSA On The Web transfer feature is expected to go live in January of 2010. This feature, which looks relatively easy to use, will allow financial aid applicants to automatically transfer the required financial information from previous years' tax returns.

The IRS - FAFSA On The Web transfer feature is expected to save a substantial amount of time for students and parents, while also significantly reducing the number of errors on FAFSA.

For more information, check out the official press release on the IRS - FAFSA On The Web transfer from the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I love statistics. Especially if they get us off our duffs and moving in the right financial direction.

We'll, here's a stat that'll hopefully get your college savings plan in gear...

The average student loans for a graduating college senior rose to $23,200 in 2008, according to The Project on Student Debt. That's a big jump from 2004, when the average student loans for a graduate were only $18,650.

What does that tell you about the changing landscape of paying for college? A simple combination of three things: rising tuition, dropping incomes, and a failure to save for college.

Of course, since most of us can't control our tuition or incomes to any measurble extent, the lesson here is that we all need to get on the stick and start saving more for our kids' college educations.

For those of you with young kids, you'll want to check out this article on the basics of college planning. For you procrastinators with older kids, you'll want to check out this list of tips for parents getting a late start.

In an announcement sure to put pressure on other 529 plan providers, Fidelity Investments has announced that it will be lowering its Fidelity 529 fees by up to .25%.

The new fees will still vary depending on the management style (active vs. passive) and sales channel (direct purchase or advisor-sold).

The new Fidelity 529 fees are:

• Index Funds - .25%-.35%
• Actively Managed Funds - .59% - 1.04%
• Advisor Plans - .84% - 1.48%

To learn more, visit the Fidelity 529 website.