MS parents: How much have you saved for college (529, etc.)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$0 I'm a professor and DS can go to school free where I work. It's an amazing benefit!

Don't you still have to pay for room and board? That is about $12K per year. Also, what if they children do not get into your school? Can they go somewhere else for free or a discount?

He plans to live at home and he'll definitely get into my school, but let's say he doesn't - I can apply the benefits to other schools and with my income we'll qualify for financial aid as well.

Why not pay to live on campus and get a better college experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$0 I'm a professor and DS can go to school free where I work. It's an amazing benefit!

Don't you still have to pay for room and board? That is about $12K per year. Also, what if they children do not get into your school? Can they go somewhere else for free or a discount?

He plans to live at home and he'll definitely get into my school, but let's say he doesn't - I can apply the benefits to other schools and with my income we'll qualify for financial aid as well.

Why not pay to live on campus and get a better college experience?

I didn't live on campus and college was fine. For some of us, college is a means to an end. I worked full time in college and would not change one minute of it.

[Anonymous]

Kid #1: $140k (about $25k from grandparents, the rest is from $300 monthly payments we made)

He just committed to a private school that costs $70k a year all in. So, we need to come up with another $35 a year.

Kid #2: $150k (same as above). We have 3 more years to save.

She wants to go to school in Europe so we may have way more than we need.

[Anonymous]

We have about $21,000 in an account for our 6th grader. I work at a state institution that gives half price tuition at any institution in the state. DS can go to a state school with much of the remaining tuition and cost covered by my husband and me, as we already pay about $20,000 a year for private school. We could use that toward his college each year, instead. I'm not willing to pay for private school, and DS is already aware of his options.

[Anonymous]

$60,000 5th grader. I feel good just to have saved this much. At least she'll have something which is more than I had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. I don't have any extra money.

Same here. Single parent teacher and I am glad I can pay his HS tuition out of pocket.

You've saved nothing for college, but are sending your kid to a private HS?

Yep. My mom did the same thing. My DS can take out loans for college just like I did. He will work in the summers starting at age 15 and save his money for car insurance and later books and other college expenses. I did it and so do plenty of other people. I don’t know why people are so anti-loans. I took them out for college and grad school and then paid them back by living frugally for about 5 years. Our local HS is meh and I don’t want to send him there. We all make choices and I won’t regret this one at all.

Are you serious? That's super that you made that choice (or had it made for you). But, those loans are a significant obstacle to wealth. I paid my own way through college and grad school (in-state no nothing undergrad, and a good but not private or ivy grad school). I worked every summer since I was 14. I didn't have or do a lot of things my friends whose college was paid for had. And that's fine if it was fine for you. It wasn't for me. It merely demonstrated the difference between the haves and have nots. I want better for my child.

I want DC to come out of undergrad debt free. I intend to assist with grad school, as well, if that is DC's path. I see no need to make DC grind through school and a living eating ramen noodles and water, like I did. I want her to be able to have unpaid internships, if needed, and not worry about paying loans. I want her to be able to start working and saving for retirement, a home, right away. All things I could not do.

I know plenty about work ethic. And working your butt off to just get by, graduating with awards and honors, and having little to show for it. It can be demoralizing. So, again, it's fine to make the choice you made. There is nothing wrong with it. But, you cannot seriously say that you don't understand why someone else may choose differently (no loans for their kids).

Sounds like you should’ve made some new friends who weren’t coasting along thanks to their wealthy parents. And as far as “having little to show for it” I don’t understand what you mean. You have two degrees for goodness sake!

My friends weren't "coasting", they had an easier road. They didn't need the 2d/3d job to pay for expenses and keep costs down. But, are you really suggesting I should not have had rich friends? That's unbelievably stupid. I"m not blaming them. They are good people. They just had a much easier time of things.

What I mean by "little to show for it", and perhaps that was worded not in the best way, was that those kids graduated with NO debt, which freed them to make choices that I was constrained from making. I wanted to pursue public interest but there was NO way I could do that with the amount of loans I had. They were able to purchase homes, start families, save for retirement much sooner than I could. That inhibits accumulation of wealth (and I don't mean billionaire wealth, but UMC wealth at a minimum).

I get that you must be one of those "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" type. But don't be obtuse about the fact that kids w/o loans have an advantage over those with loans. I want better for my child than the experience I had. I'm not sure why that is so hard for you to understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else a little nervous about trowing a lot of money into a 529 right now? I'm worried markets will plunge with some craziness from Trump. I've been putting money in a regular savings and bough chunks in Jan after the Dec dive (should have bought sooner! & wish I had put in more then). The market inflation worries me. Trump worries me. The effect of a transition (hopefully) to a Dem pres who enforces reasonable business regulations on the market worries me. Ahhhhhhhhhh!

It should worry you if there is a radical Dem president. If they are going for progressive reforms - the market will absolutely tank. Reasonable reforms, nobody has a problem with, progressive financial reforms and policies trying to achieve social justice - watch out.

How's that kool-aid tasting. I see you've already absorbed Mitch's talking points. He said that's what they'd run on for 2020. Good little sheep, you are.

[Anonymous]

Nothing saved. DD is 13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a whole different ball game out there with respect to loans for tuition. For example, in the 1980's, tuition cost me less than $2,000 dollars a year at UVA. I was able to pay this with some assistance from my parents, summer jobs, and by working 10 to 15 hours a week. Now, tuition is over $13,000. A student would have to work about 60 hours a week at minimum wage to cover tuition, let alone room, board, and incidentals.

That’s why you take out loans while you are in school and not making much money. You repay them when you have a FT job. Do you understand that this is what the majority of college students do? People have enough trouble paying their bills let alone have extra money to put aside for college.

Props to everyone who has saved so much...it is a very hard thing to do these days!
For us and many others we know, our health care, housing, and own retirement savings eats up so much of our budget. It is harder & harder to save.

Its not hard if you make it a priority. If your priority is to live in a big or nice house and lots of retirement, then its hard to save. If you live like some of us in small homes and don't do a lot of vacations or extras (and yes we save for retirement/max out what we can), its not that hard to put $10K away if you make $150-200K or more a year. We comfortably do it.

That’s what I would expect people who actually make a lot of money to say. If only people barely getting by made college savings more of a priority... I rent an apartment and I will never, ever make enough money to buy my own property. I make around $55K as a single parent. No amount of prioritizing will allow me to save money for college. Some months I have to choose which bill not to pay. I am glad you are comfortable on your income. I would be too since it is three to four times my own. You do realize people make MUCH less than you do, right?

Then, your child will qualify for aid. I don't work. I made less than you did with a masters degree so given child care costs for one were more than my take home it was an issue. You also realize that some, like my husband got his college degree later in life and only make a good income because he went back (thanks to the military) and got a degree in a well paying field. You can slam others for their choices but life is about choices and if someone has that much in income there is no excuse not to save. And, for all we know, you could be getting several thousand in child support.

I am supposed to get approximately $4K per year in CS but my ex rarely pays what he owes each month. I don’t have control over that. I would bet that most people making the kind of money you make does save for college. It not every makes that. Not even close.

Sadly, most don't save and that is the issue. At your income you can get good financial aide, at our income its hit or miss depending on the school. So, you either save, your kid takes loans or they go military (I am fine with military after a degree but not before as my husband was enlisted and its a very different life). Most are instead buying $700-900K houses which is why the housing prices are insane and spending everything each month that we know. We could easily buy a bigger house at this point/past few years but I'd rather stay in ours and save for college.

Where do you live? When did you buy? How much is your healthcare? How much do you save for retirement each month?

Our house was under $400K at the height of the market in 2009. We have military insurance but have a lot of out of pocket costs so between $1000K or so a month in extra health care, also have an elderly relative we supplement. We max out retirement but no clue how much that is and we put in the $5K per person per year or what ever the max is - under $170K a year, but that is only recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$0 I'm a professor and DS can go to school free where I work. It's an amazing benefit!

Don't you still have to pay for room and board? That is about $12K per year. Also, what if they children do not get into your school? Can they go somewhere else for free or a discount?

He plans to live at home and he'll definitely get into my school, but let's say he doesn't - I can apply the benefits to other schools and with my income we'll qualify for financial aid as well.

Why not pay to live on campus and get a better college experience?

I didn't live on campus and college was fine. For some of us, college is a means to an end. I worked full time in college and would not change one minute of it.

Campus living is not for everyone. My son wanted no part of it. He is doing well in school so I can’t complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 1% doing a great job representing in this thread. We should rename this, "How the American 1% Preserves Perpetuates Itself at the Expense of the 99%."

Congratulations to all of you for rigging the game and "earning" the throne. I'm sure your kids will grow up like that entitled MAGA hat kid, Nick Sandmann: after their Ivy League experience, they'll come back to DC as politicians or lawyers to write more laws that keep everything the way it should be.

Who is rigging the game here? I'm confused.

People are saving money for college. How is that rigging the game?

Income inequality grow to the widest level since the Great Depression under Obama and the Democrats.
Nice job liberals. Why do you hate poor people so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else a little nervous about trowing a lot of money into a 529 right now? I'm worried markets will plunge with some craziness from Trump. I've been putting money in a regular savings and bough chunks in Jan after the Dec dive (should have bought sooner! & wish I had put in more then). The market inflation worries me. Trump worries me. The effect of a transition (hopefully) to a Dem pres who enforces reasonable business regulations on the market worries me. Ahhhhhhhhhh!

I got worried about a year and a half ago that Trump overheated the stock market and it would bust soon. I took the amount of money in my 6th grader (at the time) account and bought 8 semesters of prepaid. I hedged my bets a little and left my 4th grader with the invest program. Thought that was a good idea since you can transfer the prepaid credits if my oldest doesn't use the prepaid. The prepaid was cheaper for the 6th grader than 4th grader. The stock market has been a little up and a little down since then and is currently a little up (but so is the cost of prepaid), so it is still to early to tell if it was the right choice.

[Anonymous]

7th grader: around 87k
9th grader: around 85k

We plan to keep saving 1000/month in each account and expect to pay a bunch out of pocket.