Which plans would PPs recommend for early elementary aged kids? I know ours isn't the best performing, but am frozen with decision paralysis.

This is probably because the target date funds, as your kids get older, have a large percentage invested in bond funds, which have done terribly the last few years because of the rise in interest rates. In the long term holding these funds can be a reasonable portion of a portfolio. In the short term such as the last few years, not so much.

why do people blame 529 plans when it is 100% on them for investing them poorly.

If you use the target date funds, which can makes sense in your situation, know they will become very conservative the years leading up to age 18..hence poor returns.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does DC have such obscene expense ratios?

The expense ratios used to be quite high but they changed the management significantly in 2017. The target date funds are around 0.33 percent. It varies more for the specific investments. For example, U.S. Total Stock Market Index Portfolio is only 0.32 percent but U.S. Large Cap Equity Portfolio is 0.74 percent.

https://www.savingforcollege.com/529-plans/district-of-columbia/dc-college-savings-plan/investment-options

Saving for College (an independent site) rates the fees as 3.5/5 stars and performance as 4.5/5. It's not the absolute best plan in the country, but it's quite good.

The MD 529 plan also has an equity fund. I just moved some funds from the targeted year fund to the equity fund, and it's done really well. I only put an amount that we don't need in the next 4 years.

Anonymous wrote:This is the first time you’ve checking the investment returns? Ours isn’t awesome at 5% but still.

+1 ours is a bit over 5%. MD 529. Over 10 years.

I'm sorry, OP. Returns from other options within the DC 529 would probably have been better. Usually you are given documentation which flags risks (higher risks, higher rewards), to enable you to choose.

We directly invested in certain stocks in a private account, since you can't hand-pick stocks in a 529. Our returns are significantly better than any 529 option. But we know what we're doing, and the industry and company we chose to invest in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does DC have such obscene expense ratios?

The expense ratios used to be quite high but they changed the management significantly in 2017. The target date funds are around 0.33 percent. It varies more for the specific investments. For example, U.S. Total Stock Market Index Portfolio is only 0.32 percent but U.S. Large Cap Equity Portfolio is 0.74 percent.

https://www.savingforcollege.com/529-plans/district-of-columbia/dc-college-savings-plan/investment-options

Saving for College (an independent site) rates the fees as 3.5/5 stars and performance as 4.5/5. It's not the absolute best plan in the country, but it's quite good.

I'm paying .13 for large cap at Vanguard. Target dates are .14.

I just went with the recommended target fund for their respective graduation years. I guess I should have paid more attention but yes, as the person above notes, the DC plan is relatively highly rated.

The SP 500 has more than doubled in the past 10 years, so the issue is what you invested in, not the DC 529. A 529 is just an account or plan not an investment.

Anonymous wrote:Why does DC have such obscene expense ratios?

The expense ratios used to be quite high but they changed the management significantly in 2017. The target date funds are around 0.33 percent. It varies more for the specific investments. For example, U.S. Total Stock Market Index Portfolio is only 0.32 percent but U.S. Large Cap Equity Portfolio is 0.74 percent.

https://www.savingforcollege.com/529-plans/district-of-columbia/dc-college-savings-plan/investment-options

Saving for College (an independent site) rates the fees as 3.5/5 stars and performance as 4.5/5. It's not the absolute best plan in the country, but it's quite good.

It's not the 529 plan but what you decided to invest in within the plan.

Why does DC have such obscene expense ratios?

Which funds do you have the money invested in? The index fund option has done pretty well for us.

This is the first time you’ve checking the investment returns? Ours isn’t awesome at 5% but still.

We’ve been saving in our kids’ DC 529s for as long as we had any money to spare—about 10 years. Both kids are now in high school. I just looked and the five-year annualized rate of return is 1.74 percent for the younger kid, just over 2 percent for the older. At this point, we have about enough in each account to pay for one year of in-state tuition—if we had state schools. I realize there are tax benefits but I think that if I’d realized our earnings would be so minimal, I would have saved another way.