We have $650k for two kids, one elementary and other middle school. Not adding anything more

We have $290 for our 8 year old and $270 for our 6 year old. We plan to stop contributions.

We put $5k or so year away per kid since they were born, with a couple years when grandparents added $1k as well (birth year, first communion year, maybe 1 more). Oldest is a senior and has almost $300k, which is perfect because he got in ED to a school that costs $80k/year and got no merit. We have cash flowed private k-12.

Younger is a freshman and is on similar pace.

Wow. 🤯 I had no idea this amount of money existed. I’m truly, truly amazed.

Anonymous wrote:$350k for middle school kid (stopped contributions, moved to a conservative allocation), $210k for early elementary school kid (95% equities).

Also wanted to add that I have over $150k in tax-free growth across the two accounts, and I prefer the bucket approach to keeping everything in a brokerage account because my spouse is a spender. They can't access or spend the 529 balances.

$350k for middle school kid (stopped contributions, moved to a conservative allocation), $210k for early elementary school kid (95% equities).

We have $250k each in our two middle schooler's 529s. Hard to say right now how much college will be because who knows if they go in state, get merit, etc and it doesn't make sense to greatly over-fund them. We could cash flow college tuition if we had to, middle school tuition is $50k per kid so $85k each wouldn't feel that different.

Anonymous wrote:Zero. We sell stocks instead. 529s don't allow the selection of individual stocks, so we preferred to just invest more in our brokerage accounts. It turned out much better for us.

Meant, we sell stocks for college. My kids actually spent most of their K-12 in public schools. That gave us time for our investments in the stock market to pay off.

It depends on your income, assets, etc , but honestly OP, there are very few scenarios where it makes sense for working or middle class families to pay for private. We were in this situation for a while, during a stint abroad. My oldest went to an international private. But in the DC area, they went to good publics.

We are paying 65K for my oldest's private uni (sticker price 90K, he got merit aid) and can afford any university for our children.

Before picking a private high school, I would consider moving inbounds to a better public cluster, seeking a diagnosis and treatment for any neuropsychological concerns, and paying for expensive and intensive tutoring. All of which I have done! Still much cheaper than private, and more importantly, a lot more customized to my children's needs.

By US standards we are UMC but by DCUM standards we’re in the low end (~$200 HHI). One kid. Husband is older, and on the advice of our financial advisor we have funded a Roth IRA for college money instead of a 529. Will have about $350k in it at start of freshman year.

We have two in elementary — one in private, one currently in public who will go to private in the next few years.

We contribute the max for DC tax benefits every year and usually pull out the $10k benefit to pay for tuition. Our kids both currently have about $150k in their accounts and we will just pay OOP for college if we don’t have enough. Private tuition is $60k a year, which isn’t all that far off from college and we won’t notice a difference.

we have about $900k for 2 kids. One thing I have been thinking about to minimize estate taxes is if it makes sense to pay out of pocket for college/grad school and just give the kids their 529s so they can use them for their own kids.

All in regular investment account. Rich or not, I'd never invest in 529.

Op - I should have added that I’m considering pulling from529 to pay for private high school but not sure if it’s worth it bc I’m not sure how reasonable my 529 goal is.

Zero. We sell stocks instead. 529s don't allow the selection of individual stocks, so we preferred to just invest more in our brokerage accounts. It turned out much better for us.

Posting here bc y’all are loaded. How much are you putting in your private school kids’ 529? What’s the goal?