Paying for and saving for college - how do UMC people do it?

[Anonymous]

Not a news flash, but tuition costs are staggering. Do most people apply for and get financial aid, unless they are truly rich?

Spouse and I make about $320,000 per year with about $400,000 equity on a nice four-bedroom suburban home which we bought 10 years ago.
Kids are 12 and 7. We have $30,000 in the 12-year-old's college savings account and $15,000 in the younger one's account.

We've been prioritizing, on our planner's advice, saving for retirement, and we have about $800,000 combined there. We're 43. Thankfully done paying for daycare and do not pay for school now - both kids are in public.

FIL will likely contribute some money toward college but certainly isn't funding their educations. We consider ourselves comfortable enough but certainly need to work and certainly don't have a slush fund to draw from for college.

How do more-or-less regular people do it? I worry that we make too much for aid, but we don't have enough money to have oodles of money for college! I would appreciate any "how to do it" posts.

[Anonymous]

At $320k a year I don’t understand what the problem is. We earn about $150k a year and have been saving since our kids were tiny. They are now 13 and 8 and we have about $120k combined. Still not enough but much more than you have. How much are you saving a month?

[Anonymous]

Save save save and cash flow as much tuition as you can. $80k this year for a private school and it's only going up every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At $320k a year I don’t understand what the problem is. We earn about $150k a year and have been saving since our kids were tiny. They are now 13 and 8 and we have about $120k combined. Still not enough but much more than you have. How much are you saving a month?

Your post is a bit smug, isn't it? Retirement is a priority for most people.

[Anonymous]

We earn about what you did and fully funded the kids college. We had no student loans ourselves. We keep cars forever. We under bought our house. The kids have not been to Europe. That said in state options are great for most kids so focusing on the tuition level is fine too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We earn about what you did and fully funded the kids college. We had no student loans ourselves. We keep cars forever. We under bought our house. The kids have not been to Europe. That said in state options are great for most kids so focusing on the tuition level is fine too!

How did you do it though, did you save someplace, pay out of pocket and so forth? I'm looking for "how-to." We've really been pouring all savings into our retirement.

[Anonymous]

We make a similar income to you and have been saving $1600/month ($800 per child) since they were very small. We don’t drive luxury cars or pay for fancy home remodels.

[Anonymous]

I have three kids. When I went back to work after maternity leave for each kid, I opened a 529 for then. Each got $250/month automatically deposited into their account. As the kids aged out of childcare, I tried to make lump sum contributions to divert that money to 529s.

Frankly , you don't deserve financial aid because you do have enough for college, you've just chosen not to save. If you were able to pay for childcare and didn't divert those payments to 529s when it was over but instead improved your lifestyle, that's on you.

[Anonymous]

Most people don’t get financial aid. I make 1/3 of what you do. No FA, I pay as I go, and choose state schools.

FA is for people making sub 50k

[Anonymous]

You haven’t said much about what you are paying for housing and cars but on 320k salaries with no day care or tuition costs I’d expect you could max 401k and put $1-2k a month into 529s. Maybe do backdoor Roths (which can be used for either) too.

[Anonymous]

We cash flow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have three kids. When I went back to work after maternity leave for each kid, I opened a 529 for then. Each got $250/month automatically deposited into their account. As the kids aged out of childcare, I tried to make lump sum contributions to divert that money to 529s.

Frankly , you don't deserve financial aid because you do have enough for college, you've just chosen not to save. If you were able to pay for childcare and didn't divert those payments to 529s when it was over but instead improved your lifestyle, that's on you.

FA is based on income anyway and over $250k usually doesn’t qualify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have three kids. When I went back to work after maternity leave for each kid, I opened a 529 for then. Each got $250/month automatically deposited into their account. As the kids aged out of childcare, I tried to make lump sum contributions to divert that money to 529s.

Frankly , you don't deserve financial aid because you do have enough for college, you've just chosen not to save. If you were able to pay for childcare and didn't divert those payments to 529s when it was over but instead improved your lifestyle, that's on you.

No, we improved our retirement savings. We live modestly so please don't make rude assumptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people don’t get financial aid. I make 1/3 of what you do. No FA, I pay as I go, and choose state schools.

FA is for people making sub 50k

Uh, no it isn't. Oh dear.

[Anonymous]

At your income level you are way behind on college and retirement savings. We are late 40s and make about $170,000 combined. We don't have "college" savings, but have put money into 401Ks and Roths. We are at $1.3 million in retirement savings and have been able to cashflow private school and now UMD college park. Since we are heading into a recession, your 529 accounts aren't going to grow as much. Be in a position to cashflow and borrow once your kids get into college. You are in the donut hole friend. You are not getting financial aid.