Paying for and saving for college - how do UMC people do it?

[Anonymous]

We have one in college and a HS senior. HH income $250k. Grandparents gave us $25k per kid for college. I was a SAHM when they were little and went back to work FT when youngest started K my salary was purely for college savings, increasing retirement (although we'd been prioritizing that while just DH was working), and doing a house renovation. Started saving about $1500/mo for college. Our goal was to have each kid's 529 be enough to cover an in-state college. When the grandparents added their gift it looked like we might be above that goal in the 529 so we shifted savings to a regular brokerage account.

Oldest is at a VA public U that costs about $26k per year (no merit aid). Younger is going to a mid-tier LAC that will cost about $30k after merit award. 529s will fully cover both of them, with a little $ left for grad school.

OP should consider what they would be comfortable cash-flowing for college and figure out where to cut to start building up college savings at least to aim for a public U cost. If you aren't happy with the public U options, there are plenty of privates that will offer merit to come down to the same range but you have to be OK with your kids not going to the most highly ranked school they can get into (you aren't going to get significant merit aid from a reach). And know that highly ranked schools generally give extremely little to zero merit scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have a spending issue. We make half you do. We paid $400k for our house and paid in extra to get it paid off. We started saving since birth. We have only taken a few vacations, wait till the cars die before replacing and pay cash, mainly shop clearance, aldis, etc. it’s about life choices.

where did you find a 400k house? And when?!

Lower MoCo, there are still plenty of them in the $400-500K range but they are small and most need a lot of work, ours did. Rockville has a lot too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, you’re asking how other people do it. This is my “how I’m doing it” at a fraction of your income: I did not bother with a 529 because that seemed like a luxury on a single fed salary. Instead, pre-kid, I started putting whatever I could save after funding my retirement account, into I bonds and investment accounts that would not necessarily be limited to education. Granted, I had some small seed money from parents and grandparents in those accounts, but mostly it was extra savings that I started way before I even thought about kids. By the time kid was in high school, there was enough money for state school. At that point, I adjusted my spending and cash flow and, for the last couple of year pre college, set aside enough cash in a savings account for an additional year of state school, as a cushion. In the end, my kid did not go to state school, but got enough merit aid at a private to make it only slightly more than state school. The first two years I was able to cash flow, even on my single fed salary, with some contribution from the father ( about one third; he pleads poverty even though his combined HH income is higher than mine). I didn’t have to start dipping into the investment account until junior year. At this rate, I’m not going to have to use up all the money saved, so it worked out fine not putting it in a 529.

So basically, keep putting money in the 529s, but if I can cash flow a good chunk of college, you should be able to cash flow quite a bit, if you adjust your spending during those years. Going where they get some merit aid or state schools would also help.

Saying you are a single-income fed doesn't mean much as you could be earning $50K or $250k+. If you are on the higher side, there is no reason why you couldn't save. If you can pay it out of cashflow you aren't low income and very comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have a spending issue. We make half you do. We paid $400k for our house and paid in extra to get it paid off. We started saving since birth. We have only taken a few vacations, wait till the cars die before replacing and pay cash, mainly shop clearance, aldis, etc. it’s about life choices.

How the F do you have a $400k house and not have to pay private school tuition??

Because we have always supplemented at home. We did do private for a few years and it was good but the kids aged out. Later we looked at privates but it was not the same math acceleration and other academics the public had so it wasn't right for our kids. Smart kids with supportive parents can do well anywhere. You can easily supplement in ES. Now the publics offer free tutoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI has nearly always hovered around 90K a year, OP, but we bought individual stocks when we were young that have since matured into a double digit million portfolio. This is both our retirement AND college tuition, because we have very little in our retirement accounts (foreigners who came late to work in this country).

Everyone's path to college tuition will be different, but the common theme is awareness from birth of your kids that you need to strategize to pay for college. Our oldest is a senior, and his favorite school is 85K a year. We can afford it, thank goodness.

OMFG. Don’t advocate for stock speculation as a path to wealth. It’s great you bought Apple before the iMac, but they could easily have been the next Atari.

Not to mention, no one needs to go to their “favorite” expensive print school.

[Anonymous]

^^ private school

[Anonymous]

We make about the same. 2 DCs. I started 529s when they were out of daycare. We have enough now for 3.5 years of private college tuition for each of them. We will cash flow the rest.
We are both federal employees and the TSP balance is healthy if nothing extraordinary. I intend to work until I am 60 and then do whatever I feel like.

You have 6 years left for the eldest and I think you will be fine.

[Anonymous]

It's amazing how many people attack families for not saving enough, even when they're already saving hundreds or thousands a month. That's blaming the victim.

The real issue is that colleges have become predatory and too damn expense. Colleges are wasting so much money. The brand-new football stadiums, the luxury faculty lounges, all the administrative bloat. Tenured professors barely teaching because they're spending all their time on some pet social justice issue. Your tuition dollars are basically just fueling the culture wars.

Colleges are strip mining the middle class. Middle class parents should not have to basically take a vow of poverty just so that one day they can maybe send their kids to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have a spending issue. We make half you do. We paid $400k for our house and paid in extra to get it paid off. We started saving since birth. We have only taken a few vacations, wait till the cars die before replacing and pay cash, mainly shop clearance, aldis, etc. it’s about life choices.

where did you find a 400k house? And when?!

This is not just a DMV forum. There are plenty of houses in safe areas in the us for under $200k, let alone $400k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have a spending issue. We make half you do. We paid $400k for our house and paid in extra to get it paid off. We started saving since birth. We have only taken a few vacations, wait till the cars die before replacing and pay cash, mainly shop clearance, aldis, etc. it’s about life choices.

How the F do you have a $400k house and not have to pay private school tuition??

Because we have always supplemented at home. We did do private for a few years and it was good but the kids aged out. Later we looked at privates but it was not the same math acceleration and other academics the public had so it wasn't right for our kids. Smart kids with supportive parents can do well anywhere. You can easily supplement in ES. Now the publics offer free tutoring.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not save for kids college, prioritized our investments. We was not eligible for any financial aid with the gross income around $250,000. Both kids got full merit scholarships. There are a lot of free college options, I don't see any need to pay high $$$ for college when there are plenty free options. One kids was admitted to three Ivy league schools, chose to go to the school with full ride instead.

Really gross that you took money from another student who needed it as you were too selfish to save.

I don’t think you understand the term “merit scholarship.”

[Anonymous]

OP---do either of you work in a field where a significant part of your compensation is a year end bonus? That's how we did most of our college savings---we maxed out the 529 annual contribution out of year end and lived on our base salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's amazing how many people attack families for not saving enough, even when they're already saving hundreds or thousands a month. That's blaming the victim.

The real issue is that colleges have become predatory and too damn expense. Colleges are wasting so much money. The brand-new football stadiums, the luxury faculty lounges, all the administrative bloat. Tenured professors barely teaching because they're spending all their time on some pet social justice issue. Your tuition dollars are basically just fueling the culture wars.

Colleges are strip mining the middle class. Middle class parents should not have to basically take a vow of poverty just so that one day they can maybe send their kids to college.

Or, you do what we plan to do. Tell your kids what you can afford, which is our state school and discuss money/debt with them. They can apply out for merit aid but they know we can do $30-40K, not $80K. Agree the fancy stuff is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not save for kids college, prioritized our investments. We was not eligible for any financial aid with the gross income around $250,000. Both kids got full merit scholarships. There are a lot of free college options, I don't see any need to pay high $$$ for college when there are plenty free options. One kids was admitted to three Ivy league schools, chose to go to the school with full ride instead.

Really gross that you took money from another student who needed it as you were too selfish to save.

I don’t think you understand the term “merit scholarship.”

Yes, I do. Greedy selfish parents who refuse to save a dime and can afford college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not save for kids college, prioritized our investments. We was not eligible for any financial aid with the gross income around $250,000. Both kids got full merit scholarships. There are a lot of free college options, I don't see any need to pay high $$$ for college when there are plenty free options. One kids was admitted to three Ivy league schools, chose to go to the school with full ride instead.

Really gross that you took money from another student who needed it as you were too selfish to save.

I don’t think you understand the term “merit scholarship.”

Yes, I do. Greedy selfish parents who refuse to save a dime and can afford college.

Doesn’t mean the student should suffer. They have no control over how much their parents choose to save for college.