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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would like to hear more from UMC people about how College is a special consumer good where family income shouldn’t matter and the net price should be essentially zero when literally everything else in the world is allocated by family wealth, including “free” public school (you have to be able to afford to live in the district).

You thought it was fair when you bought your way into everything else in your lifestyle, well now welcome to the big leagues.

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I don't think UMC families are saying that they should be given aid. Just lamenting that they cannot afford it, even if some insist that they can.  Many of us have 529 accounts, but those funds didn't grow that much, even putting in [b]more than $2500 per year per account[/b], and we have multiple kids. It's enough for in state, but not 80k per year.  When we started saving college was a bit cheaper.    Several years ago, when my DC was in MS, we looked at an expensive private. It was $60K/year.   Now it's closer to $85k per year.  Saving $240k is doable.  Saving closer to $350K is much harder.

If you still have 20 working years, I could see how you think you can afford to pull back on funding retirement, and save later, but if you are 55+, you don't have that luxury.[/quote]

Obviously, saving only $2500/year/kid is not going to produce enough for $80K/year schools in 18 years (which will cost way more than 80K then).

Majority of kids have to pick schools they can afford, most cannot afford 80K/year, or they could but smartly realize that saved money would be nice to have for grad school. [/quote]
Read bolded.. we saved way more than $2500 per year per account. We have two accounts per child.  Still not enough to cover $80K per year per child given that the 529 didn't grow that much.[/quote]

So why write it that way?  How much did you save per year?  Why did the 529 not grow that much?  If you dont have it all in the growth market, it may not. But that is on you, as there are 529s that allow you to do that.  You can pick one (may not be your state's) that allows you to select the MF to invest in.  American Funds in VA is an excellent example.  My kid's funds earned 8-9% annual on average during the aggressive years. We didn't pull back until age 15/16 to less aggressive. [/quote]

DP. Even with 8-9% growth, saving 20K year since 2007  only gets you to ~600K after you factor in expense ratios etc. Not enough to cover 2 kids at 80-90K schools (and that is not even Harvard but say Amherst/Colorado College.) And this simple calculation doesn't actually account for the real fluctuations (e.g. crash in 2008/2009 and again in 2020. Yes, there were rebounds, but plugging in actual numbers and accounting for management fees only gets you to the number I quoted above. Colllege costs are ridiculous right now. And before you jump in with state options, DC doesn't have a state university (obv) and DCTAG helps but not as much.[/quote]

If you chose to live in DC and have kids, you know there is no state option.  So you have 18 years to consider moving to MD/VA if you want that option.  It's all about choices, but this wasn't a surprise to you.

Yes college costs have increased drastically.  But there are still plenty of excellent options for attending with no or minimal debt.  Search merit at "2nd tier" schools or lower.  My own 1500/3.98UW/9 AP kid got $42K/year at a T50 so instead of 80k+/year it would only be $40K.  Could have gotten even more if they'd searched schools in the 60-120 range (didn't Because we don't need the merit, but point is they could find plenty of good options if needed).  
So if you take off the blinders of believing you need to attend a T25 school, you can find something affordable for you.  [/quote]

For the life of me I cannot understand why the residential areas of DC aren't just returned to Maryland.  DC is basically a Maryland city.  They should be Maryland residents.[/quote]

I agree.  DC residents should have a "state option" for college.  However, if you do that, then they would have to be paying taxes to that state.  But there could be a plan to direct a portion of DC taxes towards MD for education for residents.  
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DC pays $10K/yr. Something but not enough to cover the difference between instate and outstate tuition at UMD. [/quote]

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