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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If my income was $300k I would have zero problems being able to pay for my kid to go to an expensive, private college. You need a dose of reality[/quote]
$300k puts you in a 30% combined tax bracket if you live in MD, about 27% in VA.  Don't forget, SALT deductions are limited, so you will probably take the standard deduction.

If you are 50+, you want to max out your 401k contribution and add the catch up extra $7500, which brings it to like $30K per person.

So, your income will look something like this:

1. 60K 401k (assuming both are 50+ and contributing the max, which you should at that income level)
2. taxes around $60K to $65K

That leaves you with 300K - 120k = $180k.

Let's say your annual expenses is something like $100K/yr in just expenses.   You would have $80k left.  But that just  pays for room and board.  Travel and other costs will rack up more.   That's just one kid. Many of us have more than one kid who will be in college at the same time.

You will also not have any wiggle room for large emergency expenses or even vacation. If your car breaks down (like ours just did), you'd have to get a loan at 6% to 7%.

My DC is at the state flagship with some merit aid.  We told this DC, who had super high stats, to not do ED at the expensive colleges. We cannot afford it, yes, even with $300K per year.  It would leave us with so little wiggle room, that we'd be eating hand to mouth for the next 7 years -- we have two kids, and DH is 60.  We have enough in the 529s for in state.  That would barely cover 2 years of private.

I think you are the one who needs a dose of reality.
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+1000

This is so true!
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It's not your current income but what you've been doing for the last 18 years[/quote]

Just gaming it out. A dual GS-15/10 Fed couple in the DC area, let's say, starting in 2007, after maxing their TSP contributions etc, puts aside 20K/year in 529s for two kids (which is 10-12% of their net take home). Even investing in a reasonably aggressive plan (Fidelity with a 7% growth rate net of expense ratios) only comes out to ~620K, which is just enough for 4 years of two T25 private school (or even U. Mich) costs. This calculation assumes a lot of things -- a reasonable mortgage (~3K/mo PITI), essentially no childcare costs, and common-sense expenses. So bottom line -- even for a family who is ostensibly well off like this one, with a tax-advantaged savings vehicle for college, a lot has to go right to be able to pay for a private college (e.g. Colorado College is $87K/year, U Mich is 80K/year). I am not sure how someone making half or two-thirds as much can save this amount.[/quote]

Yes it is very challenging when selecting only the very most expensive schools for both kids with no merit aid at either one and also not paying anything out of cash flow and also no loans.

“Paying cash full tuition for twins at NYU no loans and we are a donut hole family” is not the scenario for 99.99% of people out there.

BTW if you are easily saving $20,000 a year every year without a serious lifestyle hit then paying off PLUS loans for your kids is going to be trivial, just apply that 20 large for a couple of more years post graduation, you have now bought a couple of extra years of “savings”.

Also if you live in the DMV and think Michigan Undergrad is really worth 2x(!) the cost of UVA or W&M or UMD I can recommend some really great mental health professionals.

All of the “gaming it out” is “you can’t actually afford it without some real sacrifice and even then it may not work”, there is no secret hack magic bullet other than extensive saving or picking a cheaper school or chasing merit.
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