VA 529 has been flat, what to do in coming 1-4 years

[Anonymous]

The earnings on the VA 529 have been pretty flat but I don't want to change to something risky as DC is a 2025 grad and will need the money from 2025 to 2029.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought someone mentioned a VA 529 option for a money market type account that makes 5%. Does that exist?

[Anonymous]

What do you have the money currently invested in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The earnings on the VA 529 have been pretty flat but I don't want to change to something risky as DC is a 2025 grad and will need the money from 2025 to 2029.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought someone mentioned a VA 529 option for a money market type account that makes 5%. Does that exist?

https://www.virginia529.com/invest/investment-options-performance/fdic-insured/

[Anonymous]

I'm convinced the VA 529 managers should be changed. I don't know what they're investing in, but they don't make any money at all ever

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced the VA 529 managers should be changed. I don't know what they're investing in, but they don't make any money at all ever

Mine have made plenty of money, although I'm sure some of the gains have been given back over the week. You can't blame VA 529 for your asset allocation. They are very clear as to what they're invested in and their fees for all the investment options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced the VA 529 managers should be changed. I don't know what they're investing in, but they don't make any money at all ever

Mine have made plenty of money, although I'm sure some of the gains have been given back over the week. You can't blame VA 529 for your asset allocation. They are very clear as to what they're invested in and their fees for all the investment options.

+1

We were happy with our VA 529 result. We went in hoping it would fund half of college expenses but it ended up funding all. We reached full funding amount about 2 years prior to college graduation so we reallocated funds to the “savings account” option to lock in our funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced the VA 529 managers should be changed. I don't know what they're investing in, but they don't make any money at all ever

Mine have made plenty of money, although I'm sure some of the gains have been given back over the week. You can't blame VA 529 for your asset allocation. They are very clear as to what they're invested in and their fees for all the investment options.

+1

With AmericanFunds VA529 you can pick your own investments (from over 10 options). Never use a "timeline fund". However, you are correct with your kid needing the money starting next fall, you want at least 50-75% in a MM/fund that wont loose $.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced the VA 529 managers should be changed. I don't know what they're investing in, but they don't make any money at all ever

Mine have made plenty of money, although I'm sure some of the gains have been given back over the week. You can't blame VA 529 for your asset allocation. They are very clear as to what they're invested in and their fees for all the investment options.

+1

With AmericanFunds VA529 you can pick your own investments (from over 10 options). Never use a "timeline fund". However, you are correct with your kid needing the money starting next fall, you want at least 50-75% in a MM/fund that wont loose $.

-1 on American Funds if they still have a sales charge. The direct sold VA529 has lowe fees and at least 25 investment options. Yes, many are target date funds or blends of stocks and bonds, but they also have bonds alone, real estate, etc. and even a few actively managed options and some kind of socially conscious one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm convinced the VA 529 managers should be changed. I don't know what they're investing in, but they don't make any money at all ever

Mine have made plenty of money, although I'm sure some of the gains have been given back over the week. You can't blame VA 529 for your asset allocation. They are very clear as to what they're invested in and their fees for all the investment options.

It's like blaming the bowl for the soup you put in it.

[Anonymous]

I've got a 2025 grad as well in VA529. We did the Prepaid VA529, and hope DC will choose an in-state college. We also have the Invest VA529, and that has been in 70% US Market index and 30% International Index - and that has done great over the years.

I still have the invest portion fully invested in the market at the same percentages since I assume I still have 4-5 more years to recover if the market does anything wrong since we will be using the prepaid for the first 4 years in some capacity.

This prompted me to breakdown my VA529 Prepaid investment returns versus my VA529 Invest portion over the past 17 years. So if you are curious, the PrePaid we had (no longer available in the same form) was a $38K investment (now worth $47K if we take out in cash) but if DC attends UVA @$88K - that is 228% increase, VT @ $74K is a 191% increase, and VCU @ $68K is a 176% increase.

The VA529 Invest accounts has increased 232% in the past 17 years, adding money monthly.

So I guess it is kind of a wash as to which performed better. The security of having in-state paid for no matter the market conditions is nice, but less advantageous if DC attends a less expensive in-state college.

If I had done only the US index (277% increase), and not any of the international index (159% increase), the VA529 Invest would have been the clear winner.

Although I'm tempted to take the VA529 Invest and put it into something safer, I know it still has potential for a few more years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've got a 2025 grad as well in VA529. We did the Prepaid VA529, and hope DC will choose an in-state college. We also have the Invest VA529, and that has been in 70% US Market index and 30% International Index - and that has done great over the years.

I still have the invest portion fully invested in the market at the same percentages since I assume I still have 4-5 more years to recover if the market does anything wrong since we will be using the prepaid for the first 4 years in some capacity.

This prompted me to breakdown my VA529 Prepaid investment returns versus my VA529 Invest portion over the past 17 years. So if you are curious, the PrePaid we had (no longer available in the same form) was a $38K investment (now worth $47K if we take out in cash) but if DC attends UVA @$88K - that is 228% increase, VT @ $74K is a 191% increase, and VCU @ $68K is a 176% increase.

The VA529 Invest accounts has increased 232% in the past 17 years, adding money monthly.

So I guess it is kind of a wash as to which performed better. The security of having in-state paid for no matter the market conditions is nice, but less advantageous if DC attends a less expensive in-state college.

If I had done only the US index (277% increase), and not any of the international index (159% increase), the VA529 Invest would have been the clear winner.

Although I'm tempted to take the VA529 Invest and put it into something safer, I know it still has potential for a few more years.

Where are you getting your tuition and fees numbers? VCU's is higher than VTs.

UVA is currently $20,923 times 4 = $83,692, so that is kind of close to your $88K
VT is currently $15,950 times 4 = $63,800, which is not close to your $74K
VCU is currently $16,720 times 4 = $66,800, is very close to your$68K, but still different

https://www.virginia529.com/invest/tuition-track-details/#ttp-calc

[Anonymous]

I've made plenty on the 529 - you're in the wrong funds.

[Anonymous]

I moved both our dd’s out of the date based funds into some index funds that track the general market a couple of years ago because I felt like they never went up. That was a great decision because they’ve done great since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've got a 2025 grad as well in VA529. We did the Prepaid VA529, and hope DC will choose an in-state college. We also have the Invest VA529, and that has been in 70% US Market index and 30% International Index - and that has done great over the years.

I still have the invest portion fully invested in the market at the same percentages since I assume I still have 4-5 more years to recover if the market does anything wrong since we will be using the prepaid for the first 4 years in some capacity.

This prompted me to breakdown my VA529 Prepaid investment returns versus my VA529 Invest portion over the past 17 years. So if you are curious, the PrePaid we had (no longer available in the same form) was a $38K investment (now worth $47K if we take out in cash) but if DC attends UVA @$88K - that is 228% increase, VT @ $74K is a 191% increase, and VCU @ $68K is a 176% increase.

The VA529 Invest accounts has increased 232% in the past 17 years, adding money monthly.

So I guess it is kind of a wash as to which performed better. The security of having in-state paid for no matter the market conditions is nice, but less advantageous if DC attends a less expensive in-state college.

If I had done only the US index (277% increase), and not any of the international index (159% increase), the VA529 Invest would have been the clear winner.

Although I'm tempted to take the VA529 Invest and put it into something safer, I know it still has potential for a few more years.

Where are you getting your tuition and fees numbers? VCU's is higher than VTs.

UVA is currently $20,923 times 4 = $83,692, so that is kind of close to your $88K
VT is currently $15,950 times 4 = $63,800, which is not close to your $74K
VCU is currently $16,720 times 4 = $66,800, is very close to your$68K, but still different

https://www.virginia529.com/invest/tuition-track-details/#ttp-calc

DP. You left out tuition inflation in your calcs above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've got a 2025 grad as well in VA529. We did the Prepaid VA529, and hope DC will choose an in-state college. We also have the Invest VA529, and that has been in 70% US Market index and 30% International Index - and that has done great over the years.

I still have the invest portion fully invested in the market at the same percentages since I assume I still have 4-5 more years to recover if the market does anything wrong since we will be using the prepaid for the first 4 years in some capacity.

This prompted me to breakdown my VA529 Prepaid investment returns versus my VA529 Invest portion over the past 17 years. So if you are curious, the PrePaid we had (no longer available in the same form) was a $38K investment (now worth $47K if we take out in cash) but if DC attends UVA @$88K - that is 228% increase, VT @ $74K is a 191% increase, and VCU @ $68K is a 176% increase.

The VA529 Invest accounts has increased 232% in the past 17 years, adding money monthly.

So I guess it is kind of a wash as to which performed better. The security of having in-state paid for no matter the market conditions is nice, but less advantageous if DC attends a less expensive in-state college.

If I had done only the US index (277% increase), and not any of the international index (159% increase), the VA529 Invest would have been the clear winner.

Although I'm tempted to take the VA529 Invest and put it into something safer, I know it still has potential for a few more years.

Where are you getting your tuition and fees numbers? VCU's is higher than VTs.

UVA is currently $20,923 times 4 = $83,692, so that is kind of close to your $88K
VT is currently $15,950 times 4 = $63,800, which is not close to your $74K
VCU is currently $16,720 times 4 = $66,800, is very close to your$68K, but still different

https://www.virginia529.com/invest/tuition-track-details/#ttp-calc

DP. You left out tuition inflation in your calcs above.

If they all went up a simlar amount then tuition inflation would make sense. In this case, they are totally different.