Opinion-Are we on track?

[Anonymous]

I was just checking my son's 529 account. He is 8 going into third grade. We put in a little over 15K per year and the account currently has a little under 120K in it. Should we be upping our contributions? Keep them the same?

I'm not sure what the right play is here. We still have 10 years until college but I'm afraid of the market tanking soon and not recovering for a long time. I'm scared for our retirement too but that is a different conversation.

TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just checking my son's 529 account. He is 8 going into third grade. We put in a little over 15K per year and the account currently has a little under 120K in it. Should we be upping our contributions? Keep them the same?

I'm not sure what the right play is here. We still have 10 years until college but I'm afraid of the market tanking soon and not recovering for a long time. I'm scared for our retirement too but that is a different conversation.

TIA

If this is your concern then you don’t belong anywhere near the stock market.

[Anonymous]

Only 1 kid? I think 120k with 10 years to go should be okay. Or bring it up to 150k then hold unless you have another kid if money is tight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just checking my son's 529 account. He is 8 going into third grade. We put in a little over 15K per year and the account currently has a little under 120K in it. Should we be upping our contributions? Keep them the same?

I'm not sure what the right play is here. We still have 10 years until college but I'm afraid of the market tanking soon and not recovering for a long time. I'm scared for our retirement too but that is a different conversation.

TIA

We don't have a 529 or any money saved for our kid who is also going into 3rd grade. You're doing great!

[Anonymous]

College won't even be around by the time that kid is 18.

[Anonymous]

This is subjective. What is your goal? If it is to pay for Stanford, then you should save more. If it's in-state, you're fine.

[Anonymous]

Thats more than I contribute to my 401k. Im guessing you dont even need the 529 and could probably just cash flow it.

[Anonymous]

It’s already good for public in state. I wouldn’t try to significantly overfund.

[Anonymous]

Being scared for your retirement shouldn't really be a separate conversation. Don't put more into the 529 if it would better serve your retirement. How lopsided are the account balances already? How old are you? Will anyone be 59.5 during any of college?

Don't fall into the trap of not thinking of your whole portfolio as one. I agree this is very hard to do. Also in general it sounds like you may be taking more risk than you are comfortable with if you're afraid for both goals. For instance, you could put the $120k or much of it out of the market, which might better serve a baseline goal of paying for college at all but at the expense of a reach or full-pay private goal.

[Anonymous]

You would get much higher return on your own.
This is already too much money tied down in a restricted use account.
Our 18-year old starting college in few weeks, has 30 credits already with first semester paid by his own tax refund. He is getting a refund, because he works and we don't touch the small 529 we have. Using 529 would take away his refund. See how sneaky this all is.
For the second child, we simply invest. He chooses his own stocks like roblox that went from $36 when we bought it to $125 in a year.
Now, people would say we got lucky. We didn't. All our stocks have doubled or tripled in very short time. I wouldn't have known it either if I had used 529 or even 401k instead if being hands on and learning.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for your input. We are older parents (we adopted him at 49 and 51, cue the gasps and judgement) so we are getting near retirement. We have 4 mil in retirement accounts plus our primary home and an investment property that we AirBnB. We are putting the max into our 401Ks, so over 60K per year betweent he two of us. I'm a fed so I will have a pension of about 80K (at least) when I retire plus SS.

I was asking because I'm seeing people talk about how full-pay at some places is 100K now, I just want to make sure my son can go to wherever he wants/gets into. These all seem to be such crazy numbers. I graduated law school from a state school and I was only paying 3500 per year in tuition in 1993.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just checking my son's 529 account. He is 8 going into third grade. We put in a little over 15K per year and the account currently has a little under 120K in it. Should we be upping our contributions? Keep them the same?

I'm not sure what the right play is here. We still have 10 years until college but I'm afraid of the market tanking soon and not recovering for a long time. I'm scared for our retirement too but that is a different conversation.

TIA

Personally, I'd keep it the same and just let the 529 grow. You should have enough for "elite/90K currently" schools for the kid, and possibly some for graduate school. If you add only another $15-25K, you would also likely be set for "instate" for 4 years. But I'd add a bit more if you can afford to

[Anonymous]

Agree it's subjective but with only one kid you probably dont want to overfund. We funded until.our contributions equalled the then-current in-state tuition etc. Times 4. $125k at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You would get much higher return on your own.
This is already too much money tied down in a restricted use account.
Our 18-year old starting college in few weeks, has 30 credits already with first semester paid by his own tax refund. He is getting a refund, because he works and we don't touch the small 529 we have. Using 529 would take away his refund. See how sneaky this all is.
For the second child, we simply invest. He chooses his own stocks like roblox that went from $36 when we bought it to $125 in a year.
Now, people would say we got lucky. We didn't. All our stocks have doubled or tripled in very short time. I wouldn't have known it either if I had used 529 or even 401k instead if being hands on and learning.

Some of this doesn’t make sense.

[Anonymous]

The most expensive private schools will probably cost $150K+ per year by the time your kid goes to college. Of course by then no one but the wealthy will be able to afford college and the ROI on paying that much for an undergraduate degree will be seriously in question. Good luck.