Prepaid. Not wealthy but our priority. Will start 529 soon. We wanted to make sure we had something.

Do most people choose prepaid or regular plan?

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is 2, and we live in MD. We wold like to open a college saving plan for her but don't know where to stat. Could you please give some guidance?

http://www.collegesavingsmd.org/

My daughter is 2, and we live in MD. We wold like to open a college saving plan for her but don't know where to stat. Could you please give some guidance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 kids under 2.

Opened DC 529 plan put in $52,000 per kid at birth.
At 5 year mark will transfer to VA plan for lower fees. This allows us to roll the tax benefits now and then reap lower fees in the future.

Goal is 100,000 per kid by the time they are 10. Will probably stop there unless we see obvious reasons to continue.

Our HHI is $220k. Modest by DC standards.

if you make $220K, how did you amass $52k per kid at birth?

We pulled from existing retirement savings. Some people say that's "bad" since 529 plans can't be used for retirement but it seemed like an acceptable percentage

Anonymous wrote:2 kids under 2.

Opened DC 529 plan put in $52,000 per kid at birth.
At 5 year mark will transfer to VA plan for lower fees. This allows us to roll the tax benefits now and then reap lower fees in the future.

Goal is 100,000 per kid by the time they are 10. Will probably stop there unless we see obvious reasons to continue.

Our HHI is $220k. Modest by DC standards.

if you make $220K, how did you amass $52k per kid at birth?

Anonymous wrote:529 plan

We put in $300 per child per month.

We went the 529 route. I don't think anything else comes close since the return on the fund is not taxed. You get a small state tax deduction too.

We largely funded ours relatively early on with some lump sum contributions and continued to put in the tax deductible amount after that. We had c. $200k when DC1 started college which largely covers tuition. We aren't using it all though- reserving some for grad school which will only be a 1 year program for DC 1. So our out of pocket is about $10k/year (far less than DCs private school tuition).

We have a Va prepaid plan that covers tuition and fees and a 529 plan for room board and misc expenses st about $100k per child. The kids who spend less for college will have more leftover for grad school.

2 kids under 2.

Opened DC 529 plan put in $52,000 per kid at birth.
At 5 year mark will transfer to VA plan for lower fees. This allows us to roll the tax benefits now and then reap lower fees in the future.

Goal is 100,000 per kid by the time they are 10. Will probably stop there unless we see obvious reasons to continue.

Our HHI is $220k. Modest by DC standards.

529 plan

Open a 529 account. We put about 500 a month per kid in there. It is crazy how much we save for college, but we expect to be paying 200k for their education 17 years from now (public, in state is what we plan for)..

I won't classify us as "wealthy" DC standards but we are in the upper bracket, could DCUMers provide some suggestions and insight here for savings that have tax benefits for the parents while the kids are young?