Parents of little kids: What are your college savings goals?

[Anonymous]

DW and I disagree somewhat on the priority of saving for college. I think it's last priority after retirement savings and making sure we have a decent emergency cushion.

HHI is about $280/yr. 3 year old and 6 year old in public school. $650K mortgage. About $600K in 401ks, $60K in liquid/emergency funds. Only other debt is about $20K in student loans that are very low rate (2%) that will be done in a few more years.

The debate is: should we be aspiring to cover all of those future college costs? Where we've settled for the time being is 50% of out of state tuition for both kids - which equates to $750/month right now. Planning to increase that by about 2-3% a year going forward. We can't predict now what kind of scholarships or grants kids may be eligible for, and innumerable college calculators have given us pretty different answers, so 50% seemed an OK compromise.

What is everyone trying to get done? 100% coverage for college for their kids? Private university rates with inflation? Out of state public tuition?

[Anonymous]

Our goals are to try to save something that we've earmarked for college. We prioritize retirement. You can finance college if you need to. You can not finance retirement.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to save at least $100K for my daughter, and i'm hoping that her dad has similar goals. My HHI is a little over $100k. Ideally I'd be able to at least cover a state school, and maybe she'll get scholarships that would cover a bit more.

[Anonymous]

College costs are such a crapshoot - I don't think there's any way to know when your kids are little how much college is really going to cost. OP, our HHI is similar to yours (but our mortgage is a lot lower) and we're putting $1,000-$1,300 per month per kid into college savings. We will likely stop funding 529s (or scale way back and/or invest in more flexible savings vehicles) once each account has $200k or so in it.

[Anonymous]

Our goal is 100%. But who really knows where it will end up. We save $1000/mo/child.

[Anonymous]

I agree with your priorities, OP. Emergency fund and retirement before college.

[Anonymous]

Our goal is 100% of what a private school will likely cost. I want them to have the option to go where they want to go and I think starting out life debt free is a huge gift. That said, we're fully funding retirement and I do believe that comes first. So do what you can.

[Anonymous]

We have a similar HHI as you and here is our plan:

- 529 account save 100% of in-state tuition + room/board. This is about $120k in today's dollars. Obviously, there are unknowns with respect to inflation of education costs and market returns on investments, but we are putting about about $5k per year into 529 and we think this will get us pretty close to target and we can adjust as our kids get closer to college age

- if child wants to go to private school, we expect a shortfall of about $100k in today's dollars. We expect to be able to cover this shortfall with a combination of (1) student loans, (2) cash flow (3) scholarships, and (4) our non-529 savings

(1) I would not want my kid to take out debilitating amount of student loans, but I think it's fair to have some skin in the game and some appreciation for the extra costs of private vs. public. Remember, we're covering in-state public with the 529, so if the kid wants to take on private, maybe expect to take out student loan for 1/4 of the shortfall. That's $25k in student loans in today's dollars. I think that's about right.

(2) Staying really simple, even if we just diverted the current $5k per year that is going to 529, towards cash flow covering the college costs while in attendance, that's $20k total. Given likely raises and what not, I expect we could cover $25k of the private school shortfall through cash flow during those years.

That leaves $50k shortfall remaining. That will be covered by a combination of scholarships/financial aid or (more likely) from our non-529 savings. If I have to pull the full $50k from our other savings, that is fine. IT should not be a problem given our other savings goals.

[Anonymous]

We have three children (ages 8 and under) and are aiming to save for four years of in-state tuition and expenses for each. If we can save more for potential out-of-state or private school costs, great, but we will balance any additional college savings with ensuring that our retirement and emergency funds are in good shape.

[Anonymous]

My DH wants to cover 100%, I think 33% from us, 33% from the kid, 34% from scholarships is reasonable. Honestly loans aren't the worst thing that can happen to a kid and I think knowing going in that they have to pay for part of it will make them think longer and harder about public vs private, what major they want to pick and what their first job out of college will pay, the works.

I've told him that even if we hit the Powerball I'd stick to this plan, and then just pay off their loans as a graduation present. I really think having a kid be personally invested in their college education on the financial side makes them take it more seriously.

[Anonymous]

We prioritize retirement and did not start saving for college until the kids were in ES and I went back to work FT. Our goal is to cover 100% public in-state cost (we're in VA). Kids are now in 7th and 9th and we're looking to be on target for that. If they want to go OOS/private, they'll need to get merit aid to bring the cost down to be in range of in-state public.

[Anonymous]

We plan to pay for in-state only. We are contributing $600 per child per month. To the extent it costs more than that down the road we will pay the difference with other funds. We do not intend to pay for grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH wants to cover 100%, I think 33% from us, 33% from the kid, 34% from scholarships is reasonable. Honestly loans aren't the worst thing that can happen to a kid and I think knowing going in that they have to pay for part of it will make them think longer and harder about public vs private, what major they want to pick and what their first job out of college will pay, the works.

I've told him that even if we hit the Powerball I'd stick to this plan, and then just pay off their loans as a graduation present. I really think having a kid be personally invested in their college education on the financial side makes them take it more seriously.

I don't think a lot of 18 year olds have much concept of what it means to take on debt and what that's going to feel like 10 years down the road, let alone impact behaviors while at college.

My parents paid my way in full and I took college very seriously. They made it clear I was getting 4 years of college and I would earn decent grades, or the financial support would go away. And I worked during college and in the summers for all my spending money.

Just another thought as to how to instill work ethic and concept of having the kid be invested, if those are the goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH wants to cover 100%, I think 33% from us, 33% from the kid, 34% from scholarships is reasonable. Honestly loans aren't the worst thing that can happen to a kid and I think knowing going in that they have to pay for part of it will make them think longer and harder about public vs private, what major they want to pick and what their first job out of college will pay, the works.

I've told him that even if we hit the Powerball I'd stick to this plan, and then just pay off their loans as a graduation present. I really think having a kid be personally invested in their college education on the financial side makes them take it more seriously.

Maybe so in old days when cost was under control. With COA of 25k (instate public) to 70k (private) per year, there's no way kids can contribute in a meaningful way. Don't rely on that approach. It's a really outdated thinking.

[Anonymous]

We just do 4k a year since birth for each kid. We will see the costs when we get there, but we plan on 100% at an instate college. DH and I both had jobs that paid for our private college master's degrees. We also had parents that had stipulations on paying for college (needed 3.5 GPA at least and needed to have a career path laid out, no BA in Basket Weaving).