OMG $75K not $75 😂 |
well if you have the "income to pay excess out of cash flow" it can be better to invest now and let it grow tax free. At least up to the estimated cost of in-state for your kid. Hard to turn down the tax free growth IMO |
Don't use a "my kid is Age 5 and you pick how to invest for me" fund. Pick 100% growth funds until your kid is 14/15, then start to move it to less riskier investments with 25% cutback each year as you get closer to needing the $. DO that and you will average the SP500/market which is a lot more than 4-5%. I can get 4-5% with CDs/MM accounts currently. |
Daycare is $$$ I always commented to my friends that day was (even before/aftercare at the Y) at the time was more expensive than their in-state tuition. IF possible, don't spend the newfound money when daycare is over. Take a chunk you don't get anyhow, and direct it into college plan if you can. |
NP. Even my bonds do better than my kids' 529 which is a mix of bonds and equity. |
Totally agree! However, college funds should be aggressive until 3-4 years before college. Then start going less risky as you approach college, but keeping in mind that you have 3 years after they start college before you need to last 25%. So do what is risk appropriate for you, but really go aggressive until they are 14+ is the way to go. In 2016, we knew Kid 1 was 2 years from college, we thought the market would tank with the election, so early Oct we pulled out 75% of Kid1 into less risky investments. Kept Kid 2 100% in aggressive/growth/market. Kid 2 (fully funded for $320K for college starting 6 years later) made $50K in 3 months and it kept growing afterwards. Now we had enough for Kid 1 to attend college of choosing, so we didn't need to be risky. We missed out on gains, but also missed out on potential major losses had market gone the other direction. Hence why we pulled it to "safer" investments. But we lost out on great gains for them. However, we maintained principle and they had $250K for college when they started (they were never going to attend what is now an $85K+ school, so we planned for $60K/year) |
Thank you for sharing OP!
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Yes, but like other "average joe's" who don't spend time lurking in finance forums, we learned this the hard way and several years too late. |
Didn't need to "lurk in a finance forum". A simple google for the last 20 years would inform you that you can self select your funds and that is the better approach. And that you want to keep it aggressively invested until a few years before college starts. Same with 401K---you can be aggressive still when you are 40, because you have 20-25+ years before you will need that money. |
Good job, OP! I started educational trusts (no 529s back then) when both of our children were born. I put all cash gifts to the kids in them and funded them regularly. But, life ensued. Fortunately, I had written the trust language so that the corpus could be used for educational needs along the way. Both kids were SN and needed endless testing, therapy, Exec coaches and tutors, psychiatrists and so on. By the time we hit college, the trusts had been depleted due to the SN needs. But thank heavens for in-state tuition in Virginia! Got both of them through. Full freight. Nothing from FAFSA. No merit. no financial aid but we did it. One is launched. Other in grad school which we are paying for out of savings and income. You did better than we did. |
+1 I put it in the date targeted fund years ago, and the growth was tiny. I pulled some out recently and put it in an equity fund. Kicking myself. |
I'm projected to have about 75-80K with a similar profile (single parent). This gives me hope! |
dp.. so I thought the target funds 10 years out would be invested more aggressively. Turns out, I was wrong. |
OMG, me as well. I just switched at the top the year for my freshman. |
Yep my TSP and 529s are 100% equities! I won't switch to bonds until very late in the game if at all depending on how things are. |