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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP are you insane or just stupid? You make $400k, have $2m+ in retirement accounts, and you're stumped about how to pay for college for your kids? You've been banking on the (mistaken) assumption that your kids would get merit scholarships to Ivy League and near peer schools?

I've got to say, as a two-nonprofit household that has forgone every luxury to be able to afford the best schools that our two kids might be able to get into, people like you just blow my mind.[/quote]

OP again. I’m definitely not stupid nor am I insane, but I do appreciate your candor. We’ve programmed a great deal of discretionary spending into our budget. We have no debt with the exception of our mortgage, which is less than 20% of our base take home pay. I think we can make some significant spending cuts to make this work and augment, if necessary, with temporary cuts to our retirement contributions.[b] Sort of feels like colleges expect parents to liquidate all savings and take out both loans and second mortgages[/b], which is something I just didn’t see coming when we started putting money into 529 plans 16+ years ago.

And, yes, I was definitely surprised to learn that merit-based scholarships are not available at Ivy League and comparable schools. [/quote]

No, colleges expect parents in the top 15 of all wage earners in the United States to save enough money to pay for college, which you have not done, even though by your account you've been high HHI for quite a while.  You're saying in one breath "we spend everything on funsies, was that the wrong approach?" and in next breath "woe is me, why is college so expensive??"  Your kids are in [i]high school[/i].  The time to be surprised by the cost of college is when you open your 529s, do some rudimentary research, and decide how much to allocate every month.  Not after you've been on 4 safaris and you find out they don't hand out merit money to rich kids anymore.[/quote]

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