Anyone make $200k + not saving much for college?

[Anonymous]

We are in this boat. Make $250k but with mortgage, daycare, our student loans, etc. we're not saving much for our kids' college educations. I just read somewhere today that my alma mater costs $67k all in. Gulp. We're only saving $200 a month per kid (2). That is not going to cut it, needless to say. My best friend saves $1250 per kid (3). Of course they make more but still. Sigh. I worry about the amount of loans my kids will have to take out: $$$$$. Anyone else here?

[Anonymous]

We're in the same boat, but it is a conscious decision to rid ourselves of student debt (grad school) first, and then just divert all of that into college savings in a few years. It's not perfect - and maybe we'd be in a different boat if we'd had kids in our early 40s instead of early 30s - but no use crying over spilt milk.

[Anonymous]

OP why does your friend save that much? Surely that is overkill??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP why does your friend save that much? Surely that is overkill??

Well we met at college so her alma mater costs $67k too! (SLAC which we both loved). Who even knows what it will cost in ~ 15 years.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I forgot to mention the salient point, which is that I'm worried because I think we probably make too much to qualify for financial aid BUT we obv don't make enough to pay for it fully on our own without help. And I don't see huge potential for big raises in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Mine went on full athletic scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you have too expensive of a house. The good news is you can always sell it and move somewhere cheaper before your kids go to college.

[Anonymous]

We just barely make 200k but haven't started college savings yet. 2 kids in daycare = $2500, mortgage = $2500 and our own student loans are $600/month.

When our oldest is out of daycare in 2 years we plan on ramping up college savings, but I'm not too stressed about it. I took out loans and survived.

[Anonymous]

OP, since you mention that your kids are still in daycare can you just divert the extra money you're saving once they enter elementary school (assuming you're doing public) to up the college allotments? We're in a similar boat and that's our plan....realize it still probably won't be enough, but you can only do what you can.

[Anonymous]

Yup. Med school debt is a killer.

[Anonymous]

We are only putting 1000 a year into 529s right now (per kid). However we did a 15 year mortgage with the thinking that we can pay as we go. Our house will be paid off by the time our oldest DC is in middle school so we can start funding hard then and add cash as we go. Our kids are also 4 years apart so shouldn't be in college at the same time. Its not a perfect plan but its the route we decided to take.

[Anonymous]

We are only saving $125 a month.

[Anonymous]

Nope, we started saving before they were born. Our income was around $110k when the first was born and is now close to $200k and we have saved enough for both to go to an out of state university. ONe is currently at an out of state university. One has one more year of HS. We saved my salary from the time we got engaged for general savings over and above 401k and bought a smaller older house to be able to do it.

[Anonymous]

We have been saving more that on a higher income but I'm thinking of taking a major pay cut and when I worked out the budget, college savings just did not fit in. It's tough. You may want to see if you can at least stretch to get to your state tax deduction, which won't be that much more per month.

[Anonymous]

Our DD is in college. $60,000 per year. We pay out of pocket, but since private school was close to 40 we don't really feel like college is that much more. We make less than you do, but have very little other debt other than mortgage and that is reasonably low. We have no intention of saddling our DD with college debt. Luckily grad school will be paid by the school she ends up at.