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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]According to this 2020 survey, only about half of American parents have anything saved for their kids' college educations (which is WAY more than I thought - I actually question the accuracy of that statement.) Of those who have money saved by the time the kid is in high school, the average saved is $26,000.

https://www.salliemae.com/content/dam/slm/writtencontent/Research/HowAmericaPlansHAR.pdf

I don't actually believe that statistic is in any way plausible. So I looked at the survey to find out what they mean by "college savings". They asked the parents how much they have put away for their child's education. On average, parents with a HHI of $35,000 or less reported they had $3,960 in a savings account intended for college; $1490 in a 529; $1705 in a checking account; $1000 in a piggy bank, $337 in a prepaid college plan... etc.  They are adding all that up to say HHI under $35,000 has $14,000 saved for college.

That is not very likely. What those parents have actually saved is what is in the 529 and the prepaid accounts. A parent of a junior in high school earning $35,000 isn't setting aside the #3960 on the savings account for college - that may be their aspiration, but it is not likely that money is actually going to be available 2 years later for college tuition.

Most people have bupkiss saved for college. Then, there's DCUM saving $250,000/per kid that kind of skews the data.

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I think you are reading it wrong because they wrote it very poorly. You have to read in light of the heading: "Half of higher education-bound families are saving for higher education"

So it's 48% of 61%=29% of families
Or 48%*(61%+12%)=35% if they're including the career training-bound in higher education-bound.

Which one it is may be clear from the report, but I don't have time to read it all now.[/quote]

I went back. The 48% is inclusive of 94.7% (2823/3010 people) of the population or everyone except "not attending." So 45% say they are saving, which I agree seems higher than I expected.

However, of those under $35k, the $14k represents only 201/822 or 24% of the lower income population. It's those saving who also know how much they have saved. 34% or 252/740 claimed to be saving, but then only 201 knew the amount.

Medians would be much informative than averages here. 
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