How much are you saving for college?

[Anonymous]

not much - maybe $10K. two kids - ages 8 and 12. going to use my DH's stock grants to help fund.
grandparents have funded accounts for them as well.

not worried about it in the least. our retirement is more important than funding their college accounts. I hardly think that my children will be too thrilled about caring for me when I'm old and decrepit- so that "college money" is actually 401K money. if need be they will fend for themselves if the 529s and stock is not enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think for most people making the median salary in this area (you know, those people who can still contribute to Roth IRAs?), things will get less tight after they are done paying for full-day daycare. After we pay mortgage, our Roths out of pocket since we don't have work retirement accounts, and daycare (and we only have one in daycare PT), there isn't a LOT left over. We feel pretty lucky that we can put anything aside at all. And this is with 2-working parent HHI of $125K.

I thought this too. But then after daycare there's aftercare, and summer camps, sports leagues/equipment, class trips, braces, lessons, bikes, computers, and you wouldn't believe the food bill for a teenage boy. Point is, there's never going to be a time when you feel like you've got extra. You do the best you can at each stage, but it's always expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think for most people making the median salary in this area (you know, those people who can still contribute to Roth IRAs?), things will get less tight after they are done paying for full-day daycare. After we pay mortgage, our Roths out of pocket since we don't have work retirement accounts, and daycare (and we only have one in daycare PT), there isn't a LOT left over. We feel pretty lucky that we can put anything aside at all. And this is with 2-working parent HHI of $125K.

Agree. Plus every financial guru says that saving for college should be the last of your priorities, after emergency fund and saving for retirement.

[Anonymous]

$100 per month.
we are dual citizens, so we do not really need to save.
Our kids can attend universities in Europe and even qualify for aid there. They have an EU country passport as well as US citizenship.
It will be interesting what they will choose to do with it.

[Anonymous]

We're saving only the difference between college tuition and private school tuition. Not trying to save the whole thing because we already pay private school tuition out of "flow." Our second grader porbably has about $30K in her account; the kindergartener has less, obviously. If we redo our retirement plan and try to retire earlier, then we will top the plans up to try to cover 100% of the cost first.

[Anonymous]

Just started one for DC who is 18 months at $50 a month. Will increase as I go (single parent), but my retirement is more important. I definitely think the education bubble will burst long before DC hits undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're saving only the difference between college tuition and private school tuition. Not trying to save the whole thing because we already pay private school tuition out of "flow." Our second grader porbably has about $30K in her account; the kindergartener has less, obviously. If we redo our retirement plan and try to retire earlier, then we will top the plans up to try to cover 100% of the cost first.

What happens if something interrupts your "flow"? Illness, job loss, etc.

[Anonymous]

My wife is all "DD can pay for her own college." I'm of the opinion that we can peel off the cost of say UVA or (at least) community college out of the general fund, but if she wants to go to some $50k second-tier liberal arts school because it "feels right," she can pay for all that extra cost.

Or, she can work and go to school. My wife did that.

[Anonymous]

I have ~$3k in 529 and have special acct for the expenses ~$3k. We are doing dual enrollment at 16 through NOVA. So she can graduate w/ Assoc and diploma. And save thousands. Looks like we are headed to state college.

[Anonymous]

"I definitely think these rising college costs are completely unsustainable. The average family can't afford it, and the kids won't be able to pay off the loans unless they all make 6 figures right after graduation. It is insane, and it will come to an end."

There may well be a bubble, but college still is going to cost money.

[Anonymous]

We save 500 per kid (we have 2) a month we have about 80k right now (529 plans) and our kids are 5 and 7 so think we will be ok. We have plenty of other savings so pending some major life change or issue, don't imagine it being a huge issue. We pay private school x 2 now too and plan to through high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I definitely think these rising college costs are completely unsustainable. The average family can't afford it, and the kids won't be able to pay off the loans unless they all make 6 figures right after graduation. It is insane, and it will come to an end."

There may well be a bubble, but college still is going to cost money.

no one said it wasn't going to cost money. Where did you get that idea? I just know people being advised to put aside $1K/month per child for 18 years to pay for college is completely out of reach for all but the most well off in our country. We make over 6 figures and can't do it for our one child, not with all the other pressures on our monthly budget (healthcare costs, rising gas prices, etc, etc)

[Anonymous]

We're saving for UMD tuition, and then some in general savings that we might or might not end up using for college. We might also get help from grandparents but we're not 100% counting on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife is all "DD can pay for her own college." I'm of the opinion that we can peel off the cost of say UVA or (at least) community college out of the general fund, but if she wants to go to some $50k second-tier liberal arts school because it "feels right," she can pay for all that extra cost.

Or, she can work and go to school. My wife did that.

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

We are saving $500 a month, but our mortgage will be paid off before our first starts college, so we'll have an extra $3,000 a month to put towards college at that point. We already have over a million saved for retirement too.