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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]$400,000 each lowest and $700,000 each if med school or law school a possibility. [/quote]

Lol [/quote]

It's reasonable for some people to save for law school, medical school, and other higher educational costs.  My parents paid for those things, and they are still over the estate tax limit.  When I went to school, the total cost of attendance was $50k (now it is over $90k), and my parents' income was over $1m at the time, so from their perspective, paying for undergrad and graduate school was a no-brainer.  It didn't affect their quality of life, retirement plans, etc.  [/quote]

I don't know the stats but if were to guess I would say [b]maybe 2% of the US population has a yearly income over $1 million[/b]. With a single year salary they can finance your entire education. 98% of Americans don't have that privilege.[/quote]

More like 0.5%.

Their answers to these questions are completely irrelevant.[/quote]

I think they are relevant to understanding who can afford to pay $100k annually for their kids' college.  If you're making $250k per year in 2026, it's probably a bad financial choice.  If you're making $2m a year, it's a find financial choice. [/quote]

But if you are making $260k and have been saving $10-15k per yearsince your kid was small, you could also easily fund that for your kid.  And it's not a bad decision

There are plenty of people who do just that.  It's called planning 
[/quote]

It is actually a bad financial decision to pay that much for college per year. The ROI isn't going to be there.[/quote]

If you have saved for it, have also saved for retirement and are not in debt (other than a mortgage), it's a personal choice.

I think spending on a sports car or luxury car isn't a return on investment, yet many do just that.  You can argue that spending $10K on a trip to Europe isn't "worth it" when you can just go camping and drive there for $500 for a week trip.  Yet many choose to save and spend on vacations like that.

It's only "not worth it" if you don't have the money allocated for college and need to go into debt (or haven't adequately been saving for retirement or paying your bills) to pay for college.  But if you choose to save and can afford it, it is worth it.

Some of us knew we would make too much to get FA (ie over $200/250K), so once we had kids, we started immediately saving for college.  If you start early, you don't have to save $400K, [b]you can save $100-150K and turn it into $400K+.[/b]  We made a choice to do just that, and so did many of our friends.

One kid we spent $40K/year (T100 school and they got great merit).  The other we are paying $90K/year and even let them turn down a "similar ranked school" that offered them $42K/year merit.  Why?  because we can afford it and while the other school is an excellent school, our kid was a much better fit at the one they chose.  Sure they'd do great anywhere, but we can afford it so we are paying for it.

[/quote]

This is a crucial point. 
[/quote]

Investing early and letting time help you is key for many things.

Everyone knows that when you have a kid, around age 18 they will graduate HS and might want to attend college (and let's face it, college still provides the best path towards future earnings and a comfortable life)  So why not start saving early?  Your kid wont really care that they have less toys or less "experiences as a toddler/ES aged".  So even if you can only save $200/month, do it, put in a good 529 and let it grow tax free for 18+ years.  And when your kid gets out of daycare, put 75-80%+ of that money into their college fund.  
Because if you are a couple making 150-200K with potential for more, your kid isn't getting FA.  So it's on you to plan accordingly.

Now yes, I'd argue you don't need to fund $90K/year schools---there will be plenty of great options that are currently 30-40K, but if you want them to have that option, it's on you to save for it.

same goes for retirement.  Max your Roth from a young age and at a minimum also contribute to get your company match.  You are young, live like you are still a poor college student until your income improves.  But if you do that (7500 for the Roth and another 2-3K most likely in your 401K) from age 22-30, you could stop and have well over $1M at retirement from just that.  [/quote]

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