529 for private school?

[Anonymous]

My kids are young and will go to public school for elementary and maybe middle school, but private for at least high school.

Private school tuition will be a stretch for us financially, so I am planning to essentially save as much as possible during the public-school years to help offset the costs. Would you recommend I do this in their 529s or should I set up a different account?

[Anonymous]

YOu can use up to $10k/year of 529 for private school.

But how will you pay for college then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YOu can use up to $10k/year of 529 for private school.

But how will you pay for college then?

Just to clarify -- I would still fund the regular amount I am now for college, but put MORE in (I am paying preschool tuition now, so I would basically just keep paying it - but into their 529 instead), I wouldn't withdrawl enough to hurt college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YOu can use up to $10k/year of 529 for private school.

But how will you pay for college then?

Just to clarify -- I would still fund the regular amount I am now for college, but put MORE in (I am paying preschool tuition now, so I would basically just keep paying it - but into their 529 instead), I wouldn't withdrawl enough to hurt college

I don't think I'd do this. The big benefit of 529s is the tax free growth. It sounds like you'd start funding the 529s when they hit kindergarten, so there won't be too many years of that before you need to withdraw, and then you will only be able to take out $10k a year. You'll max out any state tax deduction with your college savings anyway, so you won't get any benefit there. On the other side of the coin, 529s come with a bunch of restrictions that may trip you up. For example, what if they don't go to private school after all?

[Anonymous]

I have a contrary opinion to the PP that yeah, putting and extra $40k in per kid early can’t hurt! Sounds like a good plan and you’d have ~10 years of tax free growth

[Anonymous]

Are you in VA? If so, you can put $10k in 3 low risk VA529 accounts ($4k + $4k + $2k) then write it off your state taxes even if you immediately use it to pay private school. You would need to save for college in different accounts if you want more state deductions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you in VA? If so, you can put $10k in 3 low risk VA529 accounts ($4k + $4k + $2k) then write it off your state taxes even if you immediately use it to pay private school. You would need to save for college in different accounts if you want more state deductions.

You can't do that. You can only have one VA 529 account for each beneficiary/owner combo. If you are married, you can have one for each child and your spouse can have one for each child, so a max of $8k in deductions. But OP said she was saving for college anyway, so she could max out the $8k (or $4k if she's not married) without also funding for private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you in VA? If so, you can put $10k in 3 low risk VA529 accounts ($4k + $4k + $2k) then write it off your state taxes even if you immediately use it to pay private school. You would need to save for college in different accounts if you want more state deductions.

You can't do that. You can only have one VA 529 account for each beneficiary/owner combo. If you are married, you can have one for each child and your spouse can have one for each child, so a max of $8k in deductions. But OP said she was saving for college anyway, so she could max out the $8k (or $4k if she's not married) without also funding for private school.

You're wrong, each individual fund is a separate account and you can deduct $4k for each account. For example you can have the same owner/bene on Total Stock, Aggressive Growth, and Target Date and deduct $4k for each one then do the same for other child.

[Anonymous]

If you are already saving for college in a 529 then you may want to consider putting the private school savings in a high interest savings account or I bonds. Like a pp said, you could move $10k from savings/i bonds and deposit it into 3 different VA 529 accounts before paying private tuition - that would save you $575 of VA taxes so not sure if all that work would be worthwhile to you.