If your HHI is between 200-300k, how much will you have saved for college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In all seriousness, Are you guys in a regular 529. Mine accrues very little interest; it’s laughable how little really. What am I doing wrong?

You shouldn't be aiming for interest you should be aiming for investment gains. My kid's 529 is up about 20% over the last 3 years and it's just in a target date fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In all seriousness, Are you guys in a regular 529. Mine accrues very little interest; it’s laughable how little really. What am I doing wrong?

Same here. We're VA529 and I don't see gains that large at all and we just selected the age appropriate fund. In retrospect, I wish that we'd done the pre-paid but I wasn't sure if we'd stay in VA. We have three kids so bigger savings burden but hope to save $150-170 per kid. Not sure if that will pan out but will see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:200k HHI. 1 child about to turn 8. Currently 250k in 529. We started around 6 months old, automatic monthly contributions and past few years have increased to $2200 month. All of this from passive income from investment properties. We also throw in extra money when we have it.

Goal 550k to cover college. Any extra money left over for further education if interested - grad/med/law. Left over after that to grandkids.

We bought a place in gentrifying neighborhood in DC so mortgage is low, drive used car, and don’t spend money on stuff. We max retirement and then spend money on travel and entertainment because experiences is more important to us.

The passive income really helps us with college savings. If we did not have that, then we would budget more and cut back on travel and entertainment.

Good for you and your child but the fact that school might cost this much is just insane and shows how broken things are

No, it shows how ridiculously entitled people are. There are many other avenues, whether it’s community college first then transfer to finish, trade school, overseas options…all of which are way way WAY cheaper. I just don’t understand why anyone would pick the shiny $350k college for UNDERGRAD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Are you all between the 200-300k HHI? I feel like everyone on this board makes so much more than that. We have about 65k for the oldest-6 more years to go until college. I started contributing more this year. At the end, it will probably be just under 100k/kid.
For the PP who said we don’t have to pay for college. I would like to help my kids at least not graduate with debt. It feels like so many kids already have a leg up in other ways bc of parental help. This seems like the least we can do.

Yes, we've been in $200K-300K for a while (and probably will always be) and our kids are going to college imminently. Don't feel too bad for your savings -- our 529 plans will be at about $80K for each of them! But like you we're planning to do what it takes to ensure that they won't graduate with debt. By the way, our MD 529 growth rate has been way worse than any of our other (retirement) investments, so I'd be skeptical about building the kids' accounts by interest. Our rate of return hasn't even matched the rate of increase in private college costs.

Wow - do you mind sharing what state and plan they were in? That’s disheartening that it didn’t keep up.

[Anonymous]

Most people aren’t paying the sticker price for most private schools. There are many, many schools that offer both need based and non need based merit aid.

[Anonymous]

300k HHI
Currently doing enough to get the max DC tax credit, no more... can likely cover the rest with cash flow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:300k HHI
Currently doing enough to get the max DC tax credit, no more... can likely cover the rest with cash flow

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Are you all between the 200-300k HHI? I feel like everyone on this board makes so much more than that. We have about 65k for the oldest-6 more years to go until college. I started contributing more this year. At the end, it will probably be just under 100k/kid.
For the PP who said we don’t have to pay for college. I would like to help my kids at least not graduate with debt. It feels like so many kids already have a leg up in other ways bc of parental help. This seems like the least we can do.

Yes, we've been in $200K-300K for a while (and probably will always be) and our kids are going to college imminently. Don't feel too bad for your savings -- our 529 plans will be at about $80K for each of them! But like you we're planning to do what it takes to ensure that they won't graduate with debt. By the way, our MD 529 growth rate has been way worse than any of our other (retirement) investments, so I'd be skeptical about building the kids' accounts by interest. Our rate of return hasn't even matched the rate of increase in private college costs.

This is so true - the point about your MD 529 growth rate being way worse that other investments. I'm very disappointed with my returns over the past 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make a bit more than that and stupidly bought into the va prepaid. We have that for both kids and about 50k total in invest. Junior and 7th grader. I believe one will go in state, but one is brilliant and will probably go to a private or out of state school.

Why does brilliant mean going to a private or out of state school? Do you think there aren't brilliant kids at UMD, UVA, W&M, Va Tech, UMBC, etc?

[Anonymous]

We are around $270k HHI and have just under $300k saved in Virginia 529 plans (a combination of Prepaid and Invest/age-based portfolios) for three children aged 6, 10 and 12. We are currently contributing $1,000 a month per child and will likely decrease this amount over time. Our goal is to cover in-state tuition, if possible. Despite supportive families, neither of us had much help financially in college and had to get through with a combination of loans and working, so saving (at least a significant chunk) for our children's higher education is a priority for us. We feel grateful and proud that we are able to save at this rate, acknowledging that it is with public and not private schools in mind (unless there are scholarships or other ways to offset that differential).

[Anonymous]

I (29) and my husband (35) just had my baby and my HHI is 275k. We plan to save 500/month to 529. Hopefully over the years we can increase if we have to . I think we’ll be fine. We plant to have one more baby and will also save 500/month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:300k HHI
Currently doing enough to get the max DC tax credit, no more... can likely cover the rest with cash flow

I personally think 529s are terrible policy, since they're mostly used by high earners to shelter assets from taxes, but... if the tax shelter is available, why would you only take advantage of it to the tax credit max? The tax-free growth on anything in the plan seems like it's worth putting in as much as you can rather than planning to cash-flow it later, no?

[Anonymous]

$350K HHI, so a little more than the range you asked about, but we are each the most financially successful sibling in our respective families so we end up spending more than the average family to help others out financially. One of us had about $100K in student loans coming into the marriage.

Our only-child college freshman has $250K in 529 and another $75 in savings accounts. DC ended up getting great merit at a good SLAC they loved, so instead of spending $70K/year we're spending about $30K. I was so relieved when they chose the less expensive school. Had they preferred to spend the full $70/year I would have had a long conversation with them about the benefits of having money set aside for graduate school or to start their own business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not your responsibility to pay for college, OP. Adults are responsible for themselves. If you are 18, you are an adult. I raised independent adults who pay their own way for everything. If you want to go to college, you'll figure it out. If you do not want to go, you'll also figure that out.

This is the way. Also voting to remove Federal loans for college, and bankruptcy discharge of student debt. Watch the cost of college drop to affordable rates, and no more silly degrees that don't pay for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:300k HHI
Currently doing enough to get the max DC tax credit, no more... can likely cover the rest with cash flow

+1

same here.