Mention that you need to start saving for your child's college tuition and you will hear the same advice from many financial planners: Pay for it in advance.

``Step one is, if you can lock in your costs at today's prices, do it,'' said Cathy Pareto, a certified financial planner in Coral Gables.

That's because the costs of college are rising at a staggering pace -- and far faster than the rate of inflation, Pareto said.

Just this year, the state raised tuition at all public universities by 8 percent and every university then raised tuition another 7 percent -- a one-year increase of 15 percent.

While Florida universities are still among the cheapest in the country, tuition at Florida State University, for example, has increased 400 percent over the last 18 years -- from about $4,000 back then to about $16,000 this year.

You can enroll in the Florida Prepaid College Plan all year long, but starting Monday, through Jan. 31, parents who sign up will lock in 2009-2010 tuition rates. The first payment is due in April. If you sign up after Jan. 31, you will be prepaying at the 2010-2011 rate.

At private universities, the price of tuition is growing at an average of 6 percent per year. There is a prepaid program for some of these schools too, the Independent 529 Plan, which was created by a group of more than 270 schools across the country. Both plans work in a similar way and the private plan can also save thousands in the long run. But the upfront costs are steeper than Florida's, reflecting the pricier tuition at participating schools.

For example, if you have a child who is 1 this year and will start college at a public university in Florida in 2026, you could pay off four years of their tuition and a lot of the anticipated fees this year with a single payment of $38,837. Putting that same amount into the Independent 529 plan would buy about one year tuition at Duke University 17 years from now.

Florida prepayers can lock in the cost of dorms, athletic, activity and health fees and a newer feature, tuition differential fees -- which pay for enhancements to public university curriculum.

But even if you prepay all of these items, the state estimates this will still leave students with about half their college expenses unpaid. These costs include books, transportation, food and lab fees.

The private school plan gets its name from a section of the federal tax code. A 529 plan can refer to a prepaid program in which the tuition is guaranteed to be covered, like Florida's, or college savings plans, in which investors manage their own accounts and there is no guarantee of the plan's worth at the time a child is ready to go to school.

That's another reason Pareto recommends the prepaid plans.

``You're locking in the cost. Someone else is assuming the risk of the investment -- and there is no annual fee,'' she said.

For Christine Acosta, securing college tuition for her four boys was a no-brainer. Since first enrolling Zachary, 11, the Miami family has signed up Austin, 9, Matthew, 5, and Owen, 1.

``You're not going to lose your money,'' Acosta said. And she has no doubt all four of her kids will get an education beyond high school. She and her husband are first-generation Americans whose parents came to the United States from Cuba.

``Education, that's the only thing you take with you -- since we were little we were hearing that,'' she said. ``It's the best thing we can do for our kids.''

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