Recommendations for Funding College

[Anonymous]

Your in-state public school is your best option for undergrad. No debt on your part or on your student's part. Any leftovers can be used for grad school or second child.

[Anonymous]

So you have a HHI of $400-460K and only have $173K saved for college for you sophomore and senior? We have a HHI that is one third of yours and have $180K saved for a freshman and junior. You either need to find big stuff you can cut from your monthly budget, do a home equity loan, or let them know you can't afford those colleges.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you could significantly reduce expenses to free up additional college funds and I think that the pp is correct that having your students take a reasonable amount of loans and contribute some of their own earned money is a good idea.

(Almost) all students should be applying to colleges that are a mix in terms of affordability as well as selectivity-so at least one public and at least one school likely to offer generous merit.

[Anonymous]

Sell your home. Move in with family.

No? Change your mindset then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you could significantly reduce expenses [u]to free up additional college funds and I think that the pp is correct that having your students take a reasonable amount of loans and contribute some of their own earned money is a good idea.

(Almost) all students should be applying to colleges that are a mix in terms of affordability as well as selectivity-so at least one public and at least one school likely to offer generous merit.

What did she specifically say that makes it sound like that?

[Anonymous]

We’re you not making over $150,000 until very recently? If you didn’t want to save for college, then you either need to take parent plus loans or look at less expensive schools.

[Anonymous]

An income of $400K? Assess your annual spending. You can probably afford expensive colleges annually if you spend wisely elsewhere (unless I'm missing something...).

[Anonymous]

Hookers and booze OP amirite? Why you save so little in
529

[Anonymous]

How much do you have saved in 401k/IRAs? I didn't see that listed. If you already have a lot, you could cut contributions (but don't give up an employer match). You can probably also afford to cash flow a lot of the cost of college if you cut back on current expenses. $400k/year is quite a bit to work with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re you not making over $150,000 until very recently? If you didn’t want to save for college, then you either need to take parent plus loans or look at less expensive schools.

No, we’ve been making quite a bit more than this for some time. We have clearly underfunded our 529. Too late to fix it now and, honestly, we didn’t realize until just a year or two ago that many colleges don’t offer merit-only-based scholarships. There must also be a demonstrated financial need. DH grew up dirt poor and received a full scholarship to a T20 school and then a full ride after through to a Ph.D. I went to a cheap in-state school.

But…we ran multiple college financial aid net price calculators and even with our below-par 529 balances, we’re told our net price is whatever the college charges and that our affordability is more than double the actual $80K cost. So, sure seems like the colleges think we can easily afford to send our kids there. Just wondering what levers they’re expecting us to pull?

[Anonymous]

Check out some schools that aren’t quite as highly rated as your T20 schools.

Many wonderful colleges do offer merit based aid. You could get the cost of attendance down to 35,000 or $40,000 a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re you not making over $150,000 until very recently? If you didn’t want to save for college, then you either need to take parent plus loans or look at less expensive schools.

No, we’ve been making quite a bit more than this for some time. We have clearly underfunded our 529. Too late to fix it now and, honestly, we didn’t realize until just a year or two ago that many colleges don’t offer merit-only-based scholarships. There must also be a demonstrated financial need. DH grew up dirt poor and received a full scholarship to a T20 school and then a full ride after through to a Ph.D. I went to a cheap in-state school.

But…we ran multiple college financial aid net price calculators and even with our below-par 529 balances, we’re told our net price is whatever the college charges and that our affordability is more than double the actual $80K cost. So, sure seems like the colleges think we can easily afford to send our kids there. Just wondering what levers they’re expecting us to pull?[/

They are expecting you can do some combo of cash flow and loans, probably a home equity loan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our base HHI is $400K, with $60K in annual bonus potential.

You absolutely could cashflow the rest if that's your priority. You are in the top 1-2% of Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re you not making over $150,000 until very recently? If you didn’t want to save for college, then you either need to take parent plus loans or look at less expensive schools.

No, we’ve been making quite a bit more than this for some time. We have clearly underfunded our 529. Too late to fix it now and, honestly, we didn’t realize until just a year or two ago that many colleges don’t offer merit-only-based scholarships. There must also be a demonstrated financial need. DH grew up dirt poor and received a full scholarship to a T20 school and then a full ride after through to a Ph.D. I went to a cheap in-state school.

But…we ran multiple college financial aid net price calculators and even with our below-par 529 balances, we’re told our net price is whatever the college charges and that our affordability is more than double the actual $80K cost. So, sure seems like the colleges think we can easily afford to send our kids there. Just wondering what levers they’re expecting us to pull?

They are expecting that you can cover it though cash flow and loans, probably going equity loan since you have a lot. You might not want to do that, but that's why they think you can pay the price

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much do you have saved in 401k/IRAs? I didn't see that listed. If you already have a lot, you could cut contributions (but don't give up an employer match). You can probably also afford to cash flow a lot of the cost of college if you cut back on current expenses. $400k/year is quite a bit to work with.

DH and I both work full-time and have about $2.2M in 401K/IRA and $70K in an HSA. DH also has a pension from a previous job that will kick in at age 62 (maybe?) that is worth about $3200/month but not COLA. We’re mid-40s, so I think we could cut 401k contributions for a few years, as we have at lot being compounded already. This could free up maybe about $40K gross…don’t want to cut all and lose employer 401k match, though.