College savings--GAH!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for that pretty useless post, 12:50. This is a forum set in DC.

I make $240,000 a year and I save every cent of that for my kids' college, since I have a sugar daddy AND a fairy godmother who pay for everything I might need, such as housing, shoes and vacations. See, wasn't that pointless to read?

Wow, who shat in your cornflakes?

[Anonymous]

Finra has a good calculator where u can adjust all the inflation and percent return assumptions.

[Anonymous]

we are waiting until kids no longer need daycare to start saving. of that 2800/month we currently spend on care, we will put 1800 toward college (900/each) and 1000 toward our retirements (we are not saving the max now).

[Anonymous]

We save $320 for one child per month. It averages out to the $4000 tax deduction that you can get on DC taxes by saving in a 529. It's about all we can afford. My parents are also putting $1000 a year in a 529. So far, between the two of us, we have about $25,000. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we are waiting until kids no longer need daycare to start saving. of that 2800/month we currently spend on care, we will put 1800 toward college (900/each) and 1000 toward our retirements (we are not saving the max now).

You might want to think about the expenses that will replace your daycare costs enforce you count on being able to bank all of that money. When you're paying for daycare, it's hard to imagine this, but kids get more expensive as they get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are waiting until kids no longer need daycare to start saving. of that 2800/month we currently spend on care, we will put 1800 toward college (900/each) and 1000 toward our retirements (we are not saving the max now).

You might want to think about the expenses that will replace your daycare costs enforce you count on being able to bank all of that money. When you're paying for daycare, it's hard to imagine this, but kids get more expensive as they get older.

It depends on what your expenses are when they are younger. If they are already in activities and other stuff and you keep it reasonable, it does go down.

[Anonymous]

We did the prepaid 4 years at a VA state school when my son was born (we inherited some money from my grandma and used it to buy the prepaid tuition for DS). We put aside a little bit each month for room and board. If he wants to go somewhere besides a VA state school, he can pay for the difference himself.

[Anonymous]

We have one child and do not have high incomes. We put aside enough to get the tax deduction but no more. It's an automatic deduction. We are scrimping now so the money has longer to grow.

That said, I don't think we owe our child full college tuition. We need to put our retirement saving first. The college savings account will hopefully pay 50 to 75 percent of the cost and then DS will have to work to pay for the rest. That's what I did, and it was good for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are waiting until kids no longer need daycare to start saving. of that 2800/month we currently spend on care, we will put 1800 toward college (900/each) and 1000 toward our retirements (we are not saving the max now).

You might want to think about the expenses that will replace your daycare costs enforce you count on being able to bank all of that money. When you're paying for daycare, it's hard to imagine this, but kids get more expensive as they get older.

It depends on what your expenses are when they are younger. If they are already in activities and other stuff and you keep it reasonable, it does go down.

I agree, it can go down depending on your circumstances, but not to nothing, which is what PP seems to be counting on. Just considering costs of necessities, your grocery, clothing and shoe bills increase as your kids get older. And, once you finish daycare, you still have before and aftercare, which isn't cheap.

[Anonymous]

We have 3 children - the oldest is 6 and have saved a total of $150K. I received stock options years ago and had always tagged this bonus to my children's education. We currently pay a minimum monthly amount into the 529s - but we do max retirement accounts.

We will have our mortgage paid off before our youngest 2 enter college and will use the monthly mortgage amount to pay for whatever additional amount is necessary.

[Anonymous]

We have saved quite a bit for my son for college.

It is important to remember to save for yourself and your retirement first. Your child may be eligible for scholarship and loans (although loans seem pretty much out of control right now) for college. He or she may work during school.

However, for your retirement, no one is going to give you a loan or a scholarship! Pay yourself first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have saved quite a bit for my son for college.

It is important to remember to save for yourself and your retirement first. Your child may be eligible for scholarship and loans (although loans seem pretty much out of control right now) for college. He or she may work during school.

However, for your retirement, no one is going to give you a loan or a scholarship! Pay yourself first.

This is what we are doing. DH and I make 160,000. We both have jobs with pensions. We save an additional 2,000 a month for retirement. We don't have anything left over for college. We figure when our kids (now 3 and 5) go to college we will stop funding retirement and we will use the 2,000 a month to pay for college so each kid will get 24,000 a year for college. The rest will be up to them to pay.

I know retirement assets are not included when financial aid is calculated, but how are 529's treated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have saved quite a bit for my son for college.

It is important to remember to save for yourself and your retirement first. Your child may be eligible for scholarship and loans (although loans seem pretty much out of control right now) for college. He or she may work during school.

However, for your retirement, no one is going to give you a loan or a scholarship! Pay yourself first.

This is what we are doing. DH and I make 160,000. We both have jobs with pensions. We save an additional 2,000 a month for retirement. We don't have anything left over for college. We figure when our kids (now 3 and 5) go to college we will stop funding retirement and we will use the 2,000 a month to pay for college so each kid will get 24,000 a year for college. The rest will be up to them to pay.

I know retirement assets are not included when financial aid is calculated, but how are 529's treated?

Your math is wrong. I hope that's a typo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for that pretty useless post, 12:50. This is a forum set in DC.

I make $240,000 a year and I save every cent of that for my kids' college, since I have a sugar daddy AND a fairy godmother who pay for everything I might need, such as housing, shoes and vacations. See, wasn't that pointless to read?

You, ma'am, are a twatwaffle.

Housing isn't THAT different in other areas. PP's answer was responsive to the question.

Go crawl back into your hole.

[Anonymous]

Ironically you don't have to save if you make insert a certain amount due to grants and siding scale s. I feel like a sucker knowing that probably half of the tuition I will be paying will be given to another student who's parents didn't save.