Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia has one of the best and if you live in virginia you can tax deduct. Maryland and DC have the worst in terms of performance.

DC is #4 in terms of performance. Ahead of MD and VA (and ahead of the fabled Utah plan).

http://www.savingforcollege.com/articles/2013-plan-performance-rankings-q3

I don't really understand how they do those performance rankings (although I'd note there isn't much difference between UT and DC over year and MD and UT both do better than DC over longer periods of time).

The reason I like (and recommend) Utah is I can pick the portfolio I like from some good investment options, have it gradually adjust to be more conservative over time (on the schedule I like), and the fees are rock bottom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We liked the benefits for out of state use and if our child goes to a VA school, then all the better.

Why is it better if they to to school in Va?

Because then we are looking at in-state tuition (assuming we still live here)!

Anonymous wrote:We had the same issue, so we went with VA's. We liked the benefits for out of state use and if our child goes to a VA school, then all the better.

Why is it better if they to to school in Va?

We had the same issue, so we went with VA's. We liked the benefits for out of state use and if our child goes to a VA school, then all the better.

Anonymous wrote:Virginia has one of the best and if you live in virginia you can tax deduct. Maryland and DC have the worst in terms of performance.

DC is #4 in terms of performance. Ahead of MD and VA (and ahead of the fabled Utah plan).

http://www.savingforcollege.com/articles/2013-plan-performance-rankings-q3

Utah

VA or UT

In MD the tax deduction is only $2500 per person. If both parents want to qualify they each have to have a separate 529. Note that you can also have multiple 529s...if you live in a state that has a good one (like MD) and want take advantage of the tax deduction you can always but the balance in another state's plan (like Utah's Vangard plan). You also might want to look at a Roth...

MD has a good plan. In fact, Morningstar rates MD's plan ahead of VA's--

http://corporate.morningstar.com/us/documents/529Reports/529-Plan-Ratings-Chart.pdf

If you don't care about the tax deduction i would go with Utah.

You can start one in one state and roll it into another state's plan later.

In most states you can even take the tax deduction and later roll the funds out of that state's plan without a problem, although in some states they will try to recover some of the tax deduction.

How much do you plan on contributing? If less than $4,000 a year right now, I would put it in the state you currently reside to get the tax benefit. You can transfer it later.

Virginia has one of the best and if you live in virginia you can tax deduct. Maryland and DC have the worst in terms of performance.

I need to get off my butt an open a 529 for my 18 month old. We don't know where we will be living a year from now, let alone 16 from now. I don't know much about 529s (obviously). I have USAA. Should I go with their option? Please advise. Thanks!