How much should you contribute per month to 529 plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the PP, that's awesome.

Side note
I remember asking one of my co-workers about 529 plan for her two kids.
And she said her and DH weren't paying for their college.

While sipping on Starbucks in her matching burberry boots and bags.
I said well at least you know your priorities, LOL.

Anonymous wrote:OP here: good for you PP! This is something to aspire to!!

Wow, that is sad....

Yup. A lot of selfish parents out there. I get teaching kids responsibility and all. But not saving a dime for them these days is just wrong. I know too many people college debt in the 6 digits and they are so stressed.

It's possible that they are house poor, YET will have their mortgage paid off when their kids are nearing college, and will use that money to supplement college then.

I know a couple of families that are doing that. Even the most financially secure and savvy folks don't have 529's, it's not unheard of.

The cost of a child born today to go to a four year university (use VA Tech as an example) will cost around 200K and this is just for undergrad. It makes sense to start now. You get a tax incentive as well. And to these house poor families, the minimum contribution is $25 per month. So give me a break.

Who are you fighting with? Jeez, who pissed in your cheerios this morning. What do you care what others do.

Let me guess... you are one of those Starbucks sipping, Burberry wearing, d-bag parents?

I save for college, but dayum. It's ridiculous that one has to save from birth nowadays to pay for undergrad. We might to send DC to Canada or France instead if tuition rates continue at the rates they have in the past decade. GW was 30K in 2001 when I graduated HS. It's twice that today! For GW. Insane.

[Anonymous]

Am I the only one who breaks out into a cold sweat when I read these threads?

KUDOS to all of you who can afford to save so much for your kids' education. That is very admirable.

But then there's the rest of us. I have 3 kids and we are less than 5 years away from college. We have around $10K for all kids combined at this point. We were not saving monthly until a couple of years ago. We are now saving $300/month. That's total - not per kid. But here's the deal. I am a SAHM. I work part time, but will go back full time when my youngest is in MS. At that point, ALL of my salary will be dumped into their college savings. So, even if I am only making $30K/year at first, that will be $60K by the time our oldest goes to college. In state colleges in our area are around $20/year, including room and board, books, etc. So, this is our plan and we will be fine. Basically, I will be working solely to pay for their college until they all get through. I know...it would be better to let it accumulate gradually so that it could earn interest. Well, sure, but that didn't really pan out for us.

I recently read an article about how so many parents OVERestimate the cost of college. So, they raise their kids thinking that college is not even an option. They know they could never save at least $250,000 for each kid. This is the number we were given when our first child was a baby. I think it's important to note that the PPs who are saving so much are likely planning to send their kids to a private university. And that's great. But not attainable for most of us. Saving for a state college is attainable for a lot more of us. For those who can't pay for state college, their kids will likely qualify for assistance.

[Anonymous]

Nothing. 529 is a terrible idea altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. 529 is a terrible idea altogether.

how so? care to elaborate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who breaks out into a cold sweat when I read these threads?

KUDOS to all of you who can afford to save so much for your kids' education. That is very admirable.

But then there's the rest of us. I have 3 kids and we are less than 5 years away from college. We have around $10K for all kids combined at this point. We were not saving monthly until a couple of years ago. We are now saving $300/month. That's total - not per kid. But here's the deal. I am a SAHM. I work part time, but will go back full time when my youngest is in MS. At that point, ALL of my salary will be dumped into their college savings. So, even if I am only making $30K/year at first, that will be $60K by the time our oldest goes to college. In state colleges in our area are around $20/year, including room and board, books, etc. So, this is our plan and we will be fine. Basically, I will be working solely to pay for their college until they all get through. I know...it would be better to let it accumulate gradually so that it could earn interest. Well, sure, but that didn't really pan out for us.

I recently read an article about how so many parents OVERestimate the cost of college. So, they raise their kids thinking that college is not even an option. They know they could never save at least $250,000 for each kid. This is the number we were given when our first child was a baby. I think it's important to note that the PPs who are saving so much are likely planning to send their kids to a private university. And that's great. But not attainable for most of us. Saving for a state college is attainable for a lot more of us. For those who can't pay for state college, their kids will likely qualify for assistance.

I will admit that we structured a lot of our adult lives around paying for college. Limited our family size to two children, determined to have both spouses work full time continuously with no breaks other than maternity leave. I understand that model doesn't work for all families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who breaks out into a cold sweat when I read these threads?

KUDOS to all of you who can afford to save so much for your kids' education. That is very admirable.

But then there's the rest of us. I have 3 kids and we are less than 5 years away from college. We have around $10K for all kids combined at this point. We were not saving monthly until a couple of years ago. We are now saving $300/month. That's total - not per kid. But here's the deal. I am a SAHM. I work part time, but will go back full time when my youngest is in MS. At that point, ALL of my salary will be dumped into their college savings. So, even if I am only making $30K/year at first, that will be $60K by the time our oldest goes to college. In state colleges in our area are around $20/year, including room and board, books, etc. So, this is our plan and we will be fine. Basically, I will be working solely to pay for their college until they all get through. I know...it would be better to let it accumulate gradually so that it could earn interest. Well, sure, but that didn't really pan out for us.

I recently read an article about how so many parents OVERestimate the cost of college. So, they raise their kids thinking that college is not even an option. They know they could never save at least $250,000 for each kid. This is the number we were given when our first child was a baby. I think it's important to note that the PPs who are saving so much are likely planning to send their kids to a private university. And that's great. But not attainable for most of us. Saving for a state college is attainable for a lot more of us. For those who can't pay for state college, their kids will likely qualify for assistance.

But...your income will be taxed at your husband's tax bracket, so even if you make $60K a year, you'll net, what, $35 or 40K, minus expenses of working?

[Anonymous]

We've contributed $300 per child per month since our older child was 2 and our younger child was born. Now that the older one is in high school, we really ramped it up and saved almost $40K between the two accounts last year instead of $7,200. We have over 100K per kid now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who breaks out into a cold sweat when I read these threads?

KUDOS to all of you who can afford to save so much for your kids' education. That is very admirable.

But then there's the rest of us. I have 3 kids and we are less than 5 years away from college. We have around $10K for all kids combined at this point. We were not saving monthly until a couple of years ago. We are now saving $300/month. That's total - not per kid. But here's the deal. I am a SAHM. I work part time, but will go back full time when my youngest is in MS. At that point, ALL of my salary will be dumped into their college savings. So, even if I am only making $30K/year at first, that will be $60K by the time our oldest goes to college. In state colleges in our area are around $20/year, including room and board, books, etc. So, this is our plan and we will be fine. Basically, I will be working solely to pay for their college until they all get through. I know...it would be better to let it accumulate gradually so that it could earn interest. Well, sure, but that didn't really pan out for us.

I recently read an article about how so many parents OVERestimate the cost of college. So, they raise their kids thinking that college is not even an option. They know they could never save at least $250,000 for each kid. This is the number we were given when our first child was a baby. I think it's important to note that the PPs who are saving so much are likely planning to send their kids to a private university. And that's great. But not attainable for most of us. Saving for a state college is attainable for a lot more of us. For those who can't pay for state college, their kids will likely qualify for assistance.

But...your income will be taxed at your husband's tax bracket, so even if you make $60K a year, you'll net, what, $35 or 40K, minus expenses of working?

I meant to say that my net pay would be $30K. I used that number because I know that I could go back to work in my field tomorrow at that rate. I would, of course, hope for a higher salary. This is just the minimum in my field. But even if that was my gross pay, that would still pay for her first 2 years of college.

[Anonymous]

I started putting away $200 per month when my oldest was born and since then have increased that by about $25 per year. He is now 15. Did the same with my youngest.

At this point, we put away approximately $600 per month. We have $90,000 for the 15 year old and 66,000 for the 11-year old. If we keep up at this pace, we should be in good shape to pay for a private school. And if the older child goes to a less expensive school, we may find that we have money left over and can reduce our contributions into the younger child's account.

The advantage of the slow ramp up is that I have never noticed the pain of having to save so much money - it's like I never had it.

My advice: start saving early!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who breaks out into a cold sweat when I read these threads?

KUDOS to all of you who can afford to save so much for your kids' education. That is very admirable.

But then there's the rest of us. I have 3 kids and we are less than 5 years away from college. We have around $10K for all kids combined at this point. We were not saving monthly until a couple of years ago. We are now saving $300/month. That's total - not per kid. But here's the deal. I am a SAHM. I work part time, but will go back full time when my youngest is in MS. At that point, ALL of my salary will be dumped into their college savings. So, even if I am only making $30K/year at first, that will be $60K by the time our oldest goes to college. In state colleges in our area are around $20/year, including room and board, books, etc. So, this is our plan and we will be fine. Basically, I will be working solely to pay for their college until they all get through. I know...it would be better to let it accumulate gradually so that it could earn interest. Well, sure, but that didn't really pan out for us.

I recently read an article about how so many parents OVERestimate the cost of college. So, they raise their kids thinking that college is not even an option. They know they could never save at least $250,000 for each kid. This is the number we were given when our first child was a baby. I think it's important to note that the PPs who are saving so much are likely planning to send their kids to a private university. And that's great. But not attainable for most of us. Saving for a state college is attainable for a lot more of us. For those who can't pay for state college, their kids will likely qualify for assistance.

But...your income will be taxed at your husband's tax bracket, so even if you make $60K a year, you'll net, what, $35 or 40K, minus expenses of working?

I meant to say that my net pay would be $30K. I used that number because I know that I could go back to work in my field tomorrow at that rate. I would, of course, hope for a higher salary. This is just the minimum in my field. But even if that was my gross pay, that would still pay for her first 2 years of college.

Where is college - tuition, room, board, activities - only $15K a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. 529 is a terrible idea altogether.

Counts against you for federal aid, very restrictive terms of use etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. 529 is a terrible idea altogether.

Counts against you for federal aid, very restrictive terms of use etc.

What is a better vehicle for saving for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. 529 is a terrible idea altogether.

Counts against you for federal aid, very restrictive terms of use etc.

Right, and the returns grow tax free.....so

BTW, any vehicle you would use to save money, an investment account for instance, will count against you for federal aid. If you aren't spending, you are saving, if you are saving, it will count against you and likely you are saving in a vehicle that isn't growing tax free

[Anonymous]

We are currently saving $1,400 per kid per month right now. But this is a recent thing. Kids are 11 and 9 and we currently have 100k saved in total. We didn't start actively increasing the amount until 2 years ago so now playin catch up. Hoping to save at least 2 years of college by the time they each attend. Also we should be mortgage free at that time so can devote that money to their college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who breaks out into a cold sweat when I read these threads?

KUDOS to all of you who can afford to save so much for your kids' education. That is very admirable.

But then there's the rest of us. I have 3 kids and we are less than 5 years away from college. We have around $10K for all kids combined at this point. We were not saving monthly until a couple of years ago. We are now saving $300/month. That's total - not per kid. But here's the deal. I am a SAHM. I work part time, but will go back full time when my youngest is in MS. At that point, ALL of my salary will be dumped into their college savings. So, even if I am only making $30K/year at first, that will be $60K by the time our oldest goes to college. In state colleges in our area are around $20/year, including room and board, books, etc. So, this is our plan and we will be fine. Basically, I will be working solely to pay for their college until they all get through. I know...it would be better to let it accumulate gradually so that it could earn interest. Well, sure, but that didn't really pan out for us.

I recently read an article about how so many parents OVERestimate the cost of college. So, they raise their kids thinking that college is not even an option. They know they could never save at least $250,000 for each kid. This is the number we were given when our first child was a baby. I think it's important to note that the PPs who are saving so much are likely planning to send their kids to a private university. And that's great. But not attainable for most of us. Saving for a state college is attainable for a lot more of us. For those who can't pay for state college, their kids will likely qualify for assistance.

But...your income will be taxed at your husband's tax bracket, so even if you make $60K a year, you'll net, what, $35 or 40K, minus expenses of working?

I meant to say that my net pay would be $30K. I used that number because I know that I could go back to work in my field tomorrow at that rate. I would, of course, hope for a higher salary. This is just the minimum in my field. But even if that was my gross pay, that would still pay for her first 2 years of college.

Where is college - tuition, room, board, activities - only $15K a year?

Many state colleges are around 20k per year total. I said that working full time for 2 years leading up to college would be (more than) enough to pay for 2 years of college.