Our oldest just entered college , so from birth we saved 500 per month - we weathered the 2008 collapse and ended up with 600k for 2 kids - 2nd graduates next year. Enough for any school they want but thankfully kid number one is going to state so we will be able to help with law school which is goal. We make about 500K now but hhI was about 165 When we started saving.

Some very inspiring posts! We are not paid as well, but we aspire to be as prepared as you all. Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous wrote:"Since the idea that we should all be saving "four figures" each month came up a few times, if you want your kids to be able to attend a selective private college. What are you saving? What is your HHI? How much do you have total so far and how old are your kids?"

We started saving $300 per month for each child when they were born. We stopped saving in college earmarked investments when our older son was a junior in high school and had $140,000 in his 529. We just stopped saving now that our daughter is a freshman in high school and has about $120,000 in her 529 plan. The idea is that the 529 plans pay everything if they go in state public, and we'll pay from general investments if they go private.

Our HHI was $180,000 when we started saving in 2000. It's now well over $400,000.

Thank you for this data point! I have also been saving $300/month/child since each child was born, and was worried I was way underfunding their accounts. But if I get similar results I will be thrilled (esp. since we were able to cash flow $3K/month during the daycare years.) Did you always only contribute $300/month to get to these numbers?

"Since the idea that we should all be saving "four figures" each month came up a few times, if you want your kids to be able to attend a selective private college. What are you saving? What is your HHI? How much do you have total so far and how old are your kids?"

We started saving $300 per month for each child when they were born. We stopped saving in college earmarked investments when our older son was a junior in high school and had $140,000 in his 529. We just stopped saving now that our daughter is a freshman in high school and has about $120,000 in her 529 plan. The idea is that the 529 plans pay everything if they go in state public, and we'll pay from general investments if they go private.

Our HHI was $180,000 when we started saving in 2000. It's now well over $400,000.

Anonymous wrote:Is HHI the same as AGI? I thought the answer was no (HHI usually > AGI) but looking to confirm.

I did not answer AGI, I answered gross income.

HHI of between $170K and $200K, kids are 16 and 13. We have $200K saved for the older one and $130K saved for the younger one. Current distribution is $500/mo for the older and $1000/mo for the younger, but those amounts have varied over the years and this is on the low side for us.

It is very important to me that money not be a factor in my kids' higher education choices. We live below our means to save for their educations and for our retirements.

We started at $1000 a month per kid from birth but bumped that up to 1250 about a year ago. The kids are almost 8, 6, and 4 and there is ~ $250k split between three accounts.

I'm actually thinking about tucking an extra $5k into their accounts at the end of the year, assuming bonuses were good. They need the money more than we do. I'd actually like to see all three go to grad school and if they do I know they'll end up using all of the money (and then some).

We have about 185 for our 9 YO, 165 for our 8 year old and 120 for our 6 year old (I haven't looked at their accounts in about 6 months). We save 10K/year per child and have since birth, I think that we did 20K the first year of birth for each.

We make 300k and are currently investing 1k/month/child (two children). We didn't save anything at all until they started elementary school. At this point we should probably be saving even more than we are but this is what we feel comfortable saving right now.

Anonymous wrote:We are only going to save $500 per month for our first child but will start when the child is one month old.

Forgot to add we are prioritizing paying down our mortgage so it will be paid off when we are in our late 40s. So when the child leaves for college we won't have any mortgage expense.

We are only going to save $500 per month for our first child but will start when the child is one month old.

Is HHI the same as AGI? I thought the answer was no (HHI usually > AGI) but looking to confirm.

Our income is less than the brackets you propose, but our children are older. We have two children. Our current HHI is around $200k including bonuses and has been up and down averaging that for about the past 10 years (from $160k-$220K). When our DC's were younger it was closer to $100k. DH gets large bonuses about every third year and we have plowed most of those into the college funds, Roth IRAs and other savings vehicles. We also had saved my entire take home salary for the three years prior to the first being born in anticipation. One DC is currently in college and one will be next year. First we saved enough for in state for both through 529s. Then we added saving outside of educational vehicles in case they went out of state or private. We have saved enough (along with what we could pay as they are in college for the six years) for them to go to any college they wanted. If they have a strong feeling about a college, then we go with their first choice. Fit is/ was an important consideration for them. If they are wishy washy about their top three (or whatever)- then they can choose the less expensive one. The oldest is currently at an out of state public school. The youngest is leaning towards a fairly expensive private school but looks like it will be an excellent fit.

It hasn't been a walk in the park, both have had additional costs that were unexpected due to some special needs that needed to be addressed in order for them to be able to go to college and lead relatively normal independent adult lives. One has ASD and one has multiple LDs which add another layer to the school decision process.

College is not supposed to be paid out of pocket, we have had two decades to plan and save.

We tend to dump money into the kids' 529s when we get bonuses because its easier to cash flow. We have 24k saved for our 3 yo and 6K for our 4 month old.

Since the idea that we should all be saving "four figures" each month came up a few times, if you want your kids to be able to attend a selective private college. What are you saving? What is your HHI? How much do you have total so far and how old are your kids?