Parents can't start saving for school early enough. Some strategies to sock money away for your child's education.

Hawaii's private school tuitions are headed up this school year, anywhere from 8,000 to 17,000. College costs are tens of thousands of dollars. For parents, financial planners say you need to have a savings strategy for your child's education.

"Very conservative would be the savings accounts or cd's , certificates of deposits that they can invest in," said Garett Cosner, from the community banking division. "Many investment houses have things called the 529 plan where they can start setting aside college funds. If you're very aggressive, you can even consider going into the stock market."

One other option more parents are tapping into- their home equity. Whatever route you choose, it's important to set goals based on how long you have to save.

"Like anything else, you start sooner, then the proportion you set aside on a monthly basis could be much smaller, but as you get closer to your college years, that means more you need to set aside in order to hit that goal," said Cosner.

Financial planners can sit down with you and create a realistic budget.