How much to fund 529?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

What's funny?

It's an accurate description of what's needed to attend a t50 school and professional program. You don't have to spend that much for undergrad but med schools don't give discounts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

[Anonymous]

To OP: we stopped at $300K for two kids, though ours are much younger (one is almost a decade from college, and the other is over a decade from college). We cash flow over $70K/year in private school now, so figure we can just shift that to college tuition accordingly, if need be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To OP: we stopped at $300K for two kids, though ours are much younger (one is almost a decade from college, and the other is over a decade from college). We cash flow over $70K/year in private school now, so figure we can just shift that to college tuition accordingly, if need be.

Excellent point! If you cash flow that much, you can easily put $30-40K cash flow for each kid when they go to college. Also, if you already have $300K, that will grow to much more by the time they enter college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This is a crucial point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This is a crucial point.

Investing early and letting time help you is key for many things.

Everyone knows that when you have a kid, around age 18 they will graduate HS and might want to attend college (and let's face it, college still provides the best path towards future earnings and a comfortable life) So why not start saving early? Your kid wont really care that they have less toys or less "experiences as a toddler/ES aged". So even if you can only save $200/month, do it, put in a good 529 and let it grow tax free for 18+ years. And when your kid gets out of daycare, put 75-80%+ of that money into their college fund.
Because if you are a couple making 150-200K with potential for more, your kid isn't getting FA. So it's on you to plan accordingly.

Now yes, I'd argue you don't need to fund $90K/year schools---there will be plenty of great options that are currently 30-40K, but if you want them to have that option, it's on you to save for it.

same goes for retirement. Max your Roth from a young age and at a minimum also contribute to get your company match. You are young, live like you are still a poor college student until your income improves. But if you do that (7500 for the Roth and another 2-3K most likely in your 401K) from age 22-30, you could stop and have well over $1M at retirement from just that.

[Anonymous]

We saved around $500k in 529s by the time our 2 kids were in 4th and 2nd grade and aren’t contributing anymore. Currently at $575k a year later with a long runway until college for gains. Hoping to use 20k a year each for private high school ($160k) and then the remainder for college (hopefully around $800k). Will cash flow any difference. Any leftover can be used for grad school or passed along to the next generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This gives me hope. We have a junior in HS with only $10k in his 529. We will be able to help him with $24k/year, so I am glad some colleges give as much as $40k. Now of course your child must have been in the top 5% of their class. But if we are able to find a college that will give our son $26k that's great because $50k/year colleges will now be an option. Otherwise we are looking at community colleges right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This gives me hope. We have a junior in HS with only $10k in his 529. We will be able to help him with $24k/year, so I am glad some colleges give as much as $40k. Now of course your child must have been in the top 5% of their class. But if we are able to find a college that will give our son $26k that's great because $50k/year colleges will now be an option. Otherwise we are looking at community colleges right now.

DP but depending on your total financial situation, you may have a lot more options than you think. Our HHI has only been above 250k for a couple of years, preceded by many years of struggle, and our assets are still catching up. We only managed 20k in 529 for DS and were thrilled when his first choice offered a large amount in financial aid (school does not do merit) so what looked like something totally out of reach turned out to be doable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This gives me hope. We have a junior in HS with only $10k in his 529. We will be able to help him with $24k/year, so I am glad some colleges give as much as $40k. Now of course your child must have been in the top 5% of their class. But if we are able to find a college that will give our son $26k that's great because $50k/year colleges will now be an option. Otherwise we are looking at community colleges right now.

Also, keep in mind that you genuinely don't need anything more than $50K/yr colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This gives me hope. We have a junior in HS with only $10k in his 529. We will be able to help him with $24k/year, so I am glad some colleges give as much as $40k. Now of course your child must have been in the top 5% of their class. But if we are able to find a college that will give our son $26k that's great because $50k/year colleges will now be an option. Otherwise we are looking at community colleges right now.

You will have plenty of options. My DD applied to private schools that generally had sticker prices around $70k. Most ended up around $30-$35k after merit. One in-state public came in at $17k. The school she chose added an additional music scholarship and we pay about $28k/year. You need to be open to a wider range of schools than just the ones you always hear about. These are schools with high admit rates but she's been happy with her experience there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility.

Lol

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs. My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit. When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer. It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college. If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice. If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice.

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid. And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that. It's called planning

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that. You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip. Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college. But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college. If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+. We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit). The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit. Why? because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose. Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

This gives me hope. We have a junior in HS with only $10k in his 529. We will be able to help him with $24k/year, so I am glad some colleges give as much as $40k. Now of course your child must have been in the top 5% of their class. But if we are able to find a college that will give our son $26k that's great because $50k/year colleges will now be an option. Otherwise we are looking at community colleges right now.

Yes, my kid was top of their class (1500/3.95UW/8AP) and a female applying for engineering.
The key to finding merit is to apply to targets and safeties that give good merit. And be at 75%+ for your stats. There are plenty of excellent schools out there that will want your kid. Even for a 1200/3.5 kid you can find great merit. You just wont be attending a Reach school (most likely).

[Anonymous]

ROI is not a concept that should be considered for college. Different people can pay different amounts. It is about their future not just their earnings future. There are lots of things that work from state schools to privates. Lots of ways to get there.