Fully Funded College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Do you think a stiudenr who passes up prepaid tuition at UVA or GM for Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford is a moron?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Do you think a stiudenr who passes up prepaid tuition at UVA or GM for Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford is a moron?

NP. Only a teeny tiny percentage of kids go to these schools. And yes, I think it makes smart financial sense to go to an ivy or MIT or similar school because it will pay off financially in the long run. Plus if a child is that intelligent, I would make the sacrifice. But for the vast majority of kids going to all the average/good schools in this country why would you go to average/good school A that puts you in major debt vs. average/good school B that you can graduate debt-free from??????

[Anonymous]

We front loaded the accounts 18 years ago and today each account has over $400k - enough to pay and some left over for head school. Although I haven’t looked at amount in account since Spetember...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Do you think a stiudenr who passes up prepaid tuition at UVA or GM for Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford is a moron?

NP. Only a teeny tiny percentage of kids go to these schools. And yes, I think it makes smart financial sense to go to an ivy or MIT or similar school because it will pay off financially in the long run. Plus if a child is that intelligent, I would make the sacrifice. But for the vast majority of kids going to all the average/good schools in this country why would you go to average/good school A that puts you in major debt vs. average/good school B that you can graduate debt-free from??????

The point is that blanket statements like “only a moron would go private over UVA or GM” don’t really mean anything because approximatley 99.9% of parents would she’ll our the cash for certain privates. Once we realize that this is not an objective issue but a subjective issue, we can also realize that perhaps it is not moronic for a parent to fund a private. For example, a deeply Catholic family may gladly pay out for Notre Dame, notwithstanding PP’s statements that you don’t go to college to find yourself.

Perhaps a student is dead set on going into the film industry. Well, Southern Cal is going to be a heckuva lot better than UVA or GM for that student.

I tend to agree with PP that the majority of students should seek to minimize undergraduate costs. I think minimizing costs should be given the most weight when making these decisions. But there are some students who will be better off at smaller schools. Others who will be better off at privates for a wide variety of reasons. It is not universally true that it is moronic to go private over UVA or GM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We front loaded the accounts 18 years ago and today each account has over $400k - enough to pay and some left over for head school. Although I haven’t looked at amount in account since Spetember...

I want to hear more about the head school.

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous: parents (with means) of young kids making blanket statements about what education will be best for their kids twelve years from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure what people mean by fully funded. Our financial planner advised us to not over save in a 529, so we have stopped contributing for now.

Different financial goals. We fully fund the 529s to create tax-free generational wealth. Our grandchildren can use the 529 money leftover after our kids’ college and grad school costs.

Interesting idea. It has to be used for educational expenses, unless you want to pay the tax penalty on the earnings.

Sure. We’re banking on grandchildren and those grandchildren having educational expenses sometime from K through grad school.

I don’t want to put the of grandchildren on my own kids, and I’d rather build wealth that doesn’t have strings attached, but I can see that this would be an appealing strategy. I will ask our financial adviser about it.

Why wouldn't you try to use a Roth IRA to build generational wealth that has no strings attached?

Our advisor has recommended against Roths for us, so we do traditional IRAs. I just want to ask what he thinks of over-funding 529s for a future generation to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Do you think a stiudenr who passes up prepaid tuition at UVA or GM for Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford is a moron?

The chances of any kid getting into any of those schools is slim. It's basically irrelevant to me.

But of you want to get down to it, if it means 200k in debt vs $0, I might say, yes. Book smart, but a practical moron.

As someone who purchased my first home in Vienna at age 23 and am now sitting on an enormous amount of equity from one real estate roll over to the next, I'd say I'd be behind the curve if I had gone to any of those schools and racked up debt. I would have never been able to buy a house straight out of college. Not a chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Do people really put $240K ($60K *4) in college funds and call that "fully funded"?

Of course. My kid is 7 and has over 150k. I'm expecting it to cost close to 400k by the time he is ready for college.

What did you think it meant???

How is this worth it? Seriously. $400k for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Do you think a stiudenr who passes up prepaid tuition at UVA or GM for Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford is a moron?

NP. Only a teeny tiny percentage of kids go to these schools. And yes, I think it makes smart financial sense to go to an ivy or MIT or similar school because it will pay off financially in the long run. Plus if a child is that intelligent, I would make the sacrifice. But for the vast majority of kids going to all the average/good schools in this country why would you go to average/good school A that puts you in major debt vs. average/good school B that you can graduate debt-free from??????

The point is that blanket statements like “only a moron would go private over UVA or GM” don’t really mean anything because approximatley 99.9% of parents would she’ll our the cash for certain privates. Once we realize that this is not an objective issue but a subjective issue, we can also realize that perhaps it is not moronic for a parent to fund a private. For example, a deeply Catholic family may gladly pay out for Notre Dame, notwithstanding PP’s statements that you don’t go to college to find yourself.

Perhaps a student is dead set on going into the film industry. Well, Southern Cal is going to be a heckuva lot better than UVA or GM for that student.

I tend to agree with PP that the majority of students should seek to minimize undergraduate costs. I think minimizing costs should be given the most weight when making these decisions. But there are some students who will be better off at smaller schools. Others who will be better off at privates for a wide variety of reasons. It is not universally true that it is moronic to go private over UVA or GM.

Yea. If my kid wants to get some sort of useless fielm degree, he can pay 100% for that epic waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI now is $250K (hasn't always been the case) and we can pay up to $50K/year/kid.

DC#1 is at an Ohio LAC and our annual cost is about $40K.

DC#2 is a HS senior and so far has a few options, one at $28K/year and the other at $35K/year, both with merit aid. When the rest of the options come in, DC can choose whatever school they want, up to our maximum budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Most of us want our kids to thrive, be happy and successful. Not all kids do well in large schools nor do they have all the majors one may want. There are many reasons why kids would not choose to go there. And, not all kids can get in. You can teach your kids financial literacy without forcing them to go to a specific school because you went. There are plenty of good state and other schools that are affordable. I hope my child goes to the state school so we can help with graduate school. But, I also want them to be happy and be at the right fit for them. You sound pretty selfish. But, if you'd rather your big house, fancy cars and clothing vs. best for your kids, sounds like a good plan. Hopefully those will be the best schools for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI just over 550k.

We have 2 kids 12&9. Both have Virginia prepaid tuition. We also have approx 100k sitting in invest that will presumably grow. We now only contribute a very minimal $250/mo in the invest. We consider college a done deal. Any extra will be paid out of pocket. I also hope I have raised bright children that take advantage of the VA public schools. I will consider myself a failure if they dont. Only a moron who hasn't been taught basic personal finance wouldn't go the free option. George Mason and UVA did both DH and I very well. Zero debt, great jobs, excellent local network.

On that income you can afford to pay for where ever they want to go plus graduate school. I don't get why you have so little saved. Yes, you can do very well at a state school, but different kids thrive at different schools.

We have the prepaid and about $80K, maybe more for our 9 year old. We have about $180K in income. I'm tryin for about $10K a year, usually more. We want to pay for college and graduate school. If child wants private and we can afford it we will do that. My goal is debt free.

Just because we make good money doesn't mean we make stupid choices with that money, nor does that mean we teach our kids financial illiteracy.. I don't consider a full state ride "so little".

Dh and I didnt "thrive" at GMU or UVA. We went to school, got a degree, and used our network to get good jobs. College is a means to an end. Not a social experiment, nor a place for my adult children to find themselves in the most optimum environment.

Most of us want our kids to thrive, be happy and successful. Not all kids do well in large schools nor do they have all the majors one may want. There are many reasons why kids would not choose to go there. And, not all kids can get in. You can teach your kids financial literacy without forcing them to go to a specific school because you went. There are plenty of good state and other schools that are affordable. I hope my child goes to the state school so we can help with graduate school. But, I also want them to be happy and be at the right fit for them. You sound pretty selfish. But, if you'd rather your big house, fancy cars and clothing vs. best for your kids, sounds like a good plan. Hopefully those will be the best schools for them.

+1

[Anonymous]

Grandparents have put enough in 529s since birth to be at $250K per kid now. They have stopped contributing now.