How much do you put into your kids' 529 (college fund) annually?

[Anonymous]

Nothing. We have some investment real estate that other people are renting re: paying the mortage on. A while ago I calculated that we would need about $600/month to save up for 4 years at Harvard - for each kid. Not happening.

[Anonymous]

I got must of college tuition paid by grants and scholarships and so now that I have a good paying job I will certainly save up for my kid's college. Is it only fair that I repay the governement by not burning them with my child's tuition after they helped me.
By the way I do the prepaid MD tuition for my two children $241 for one and $257 for the other one. I think it is great even if tuition doesnt go up as much in the next 17/16 years, we can all guarantee that it will go up. And with this plan you freeze the tuition at today's price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering for all these people that went to college "for free" - scholarships, etc. - how much were your parents making? I know for me, living in the DC area with 2 gov't employee parents, we didn't qualify for ANY need-based aid. Most of the very best schools weren't offering merit-only aid. So it was either pay full-tuition at a good school or go to a mediocre school with some merit aid. I would imagine that if the financial aid landscape has not changed too much, many DC area dual income families make too much to qualify for need-based aid. So I guess you are counting on your kids getting merit aid?

I was wondering the same thing. I grew up in a different region, a rural area, and my parents had a HHI of about $60,000. I received full merit scholarships to several schools, but the financial aid packages were totally insufficient on their own. I'd imagine it's even harder for a student in this intellectually competitive area of the country to receive a merit-based award.

My experience was very different - HHI of 60k in the early '90s, and I'm an only child. I got significant need-based aid from Harvard, and slightly lower but still fairly generous aid packages from a couple of top LACs. I did graduate with a small amount of debt, but it was not burdensome.

[Anonymous]

$300 per month, per kid (currently 1 and 3 yo). I'm on faculty at a university, with no plans to leave this institution (although who knows what the next 15 years could bring). They can get free tuition if they go here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$300 per month, per kid (currently 1 and 3 yo). I'm on faculty at a university, with no plans to leave this institution (although who knows what the next 15 years could bring). They can get free tuition if they go here.

That was my sister's plan as well. And then her first 2 kids were not accepted and the 3rd kid wanted to study a program the college didn't offer. Life is funny that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$300 per month, per kid (currently 1 and 3 yo). I'm on faculty at a university, with no plans to leave this institution (although who knows what the next 15 years could bring). They can get free tuition if they go here.

That was my sister's plan as well. And then her first 2 kids were not accepted and the 3rd kid wanted to study a program the college didn't offer. Life is funny that way.

My husband currently works for a university, and if he were to stay there, our child would get free tuition, but he's staff, not tenured faculty, so we are not even taking it under consideration when saving for college (ours isn't born yet, so we have started a savings account for baby, but not a 529).

[Anonymous]

Nothing. My DH and I are both 41 and have woefully underfunded our retirement accounts. We need to focus on saving for retirement before we can save for a child's college. His daughter is 18 and we're already paying for her now.

I put myself through college and then have spent the last 15 years caring for my elderly parents who never saved a dime for retirement (which killed my own ability to save for my retirement 'till now) so I think I'm doing more for our kids by doing what we can now to make sure they're not saddled with financially dependent elders when they are just out of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. We have some investment real estate that other people are renting re: paying the mortage on. A while ago I calculated that we would need about $600/month to save up for 4 years at Harvard - for each kid. Not happening.

This. I don't want to tie an investment to one purpose. What if DS joins the military and gets his education funded that way? What if he gets a merit based scholorship? How do I even estimate what I should put into a 529 - will he be going to a state school or private school? When we have our next kid, I plan to buy another rental property for that kid's college fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. My DH and I are both 41 and have woefully underfunded our retirement accounts. We need to focus on saving for retirement before we can save for a child's college. His daughter is 18 and we're already paying for her now.

I put myself through college and then have spent the last 15 years caring for my elderly parents who never saved a dime for retirement (which killed my own ability to save for my retirement 'till now) so I think I'm doing more for our kids by doing what we can now to make sure they're not saddled with financially dependent elders when they are just out of college.

We do what we can. And it sounds like you're doing great!

[Anonymous]

$7200 per year. Two kids. It's what will get us to paying for 50% of a four year in state college degree.

[Anonymous]

We put a couple grand in at the start and have contributed about $6k each year/child. We also put all money received for gifts in the 529s. This adds up to close to another $1k/year/child.

We are both feds and expect income to be too high to qualify for aid.

[Anonymous]

Kids are 4 and 8 and we just started last year. $1000/month for the younger one and $1100/month for the older one. HHI $250K minimum - gets higher with commissions and bonuses.

[Anonymous]

We have 14 month old twins. I put in $450/month each. My husband puts in $167/month each. I started when they were 6 months old, he started at 1 year.