Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We earn about what you did and fully funded the kids college. We had no student loans ourselves. We keep cars forever. We under bought our house. The kids have not been to Europe. That said in state options are great for most kids so focusing on the tuition level is fine too!

How did you do it though, did you save someplace, pay out of pocket and so forth? I'm looking for "how-to." We've really been pouring all savings into our retirement.

529 plans and some we paid (are paying) from our current income. Some is just from our long term savings. It was invested rather concervatively which is probably not actually the best advice but I wanted to know that whatever happened in the stock market my kids could still go to college.

OP, your retirement savings and home equity are good but not great for your income. It seems you may need to take a hard look at your spending and cut back in other areas. There’s no magic formula.

We send our kids to in state public's or to privates with merit scholarships. Elite schools are off the table.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At your income level you are way behind on college and retirement savings. We are late 40s and make about $170,000 combined. We don't have "college" savings, but have put money into 401Ks and Roths. We are at $1.3 million in retirement savings and have been able to cashflow private school and now UMD college park. Since we are heading into a recession, your 529 accounts aren't going to grow as much. Be in a position to cashflow and borrow once your kids get into college. You are in the donut hole friend. You are not getting financial aid.

People like this add no value to the conversation at all. Ignore this pp. Your retirement savings are good. Lots of people out there in your position as far as college savings. We are very similar. Plan to up our savings going forward
and also cash flow. Our kids are 11 and 9.

Seriously. Only on DCUM can you have a net worth over $1m in your early 40s and get criticized for "being behind."

Anonymous wrote:You won’t get FA with your HHI. State school is 40k. Shouldn’t be a problem to cash flow. Private schools can give you merit but with very rare exceptions not the top 30.

I am one of the "irrelevant" posters above. My 2022 high stats but unhooked kid received very few merit offers even in the top 50. The only schools giving her merit (other than Northeastern) were outside the T100. I agree that OP can likely cashflow for just about any school they want to if they keep their spending in check. Hopefully the stock market will rally a bit and help 529 savings (and retirement savings!).

I’m single, make $280, have a 10 and 12 year old and have $115 combined in their 529 accounts. The 12 year olds account gets a direct deposit of $1,250 each month. The 10 year old gets $1,100. We do travel internationally and I own a 3 bedroom house in a great public school system but my car is 11 years old.

You just need to figure out your priorities.

Anonymous wrote:You haven’t said much about what you are paying for housing and cars but on 320k salaries with no day care or tuition costs I’d expect you could max 401k and put $1-2k a month into 529s. Maybe do backdoor Roths (which can be used for either) too.

This is what we have always done (once we got through the crush of daycare). HHI started at $250k when kids were little and is now close to $400k.

We put $1,250 per month per kid in a 529. Currently have about $200k per kid saved with 4ish more years till college.

Save 1k/mo starting at birth. We did that and were on track

As soon as our kids were done with preschool we started saving every month. After a few years we were able to save 1k/month per kid (2k total). Kept that up until very recently. Better to start younger but we couldn’t afford it at the time. Now our first is in college and we have been able to cash flow this first year so we haven’t had to draw on the 529 yet. The college has a payment plan and it’s less than 5k a month. That is obviously a big expense but the first 2k we don’t miss at all because we had been putting that into a 529. We are still maxing retirement but we aren’t currently adding to savings otherwise. When our second starts college and they’ve overlap we will draw on the 529.

You won’t get FA with your HHI. State school is 40k. Shouldn’t be a problem to cash flow. Private schools can give you merit but with very rare exceptions not the top 30.

Anonymous wrote:At your income level you are way behind on college and retirement savings. We are late 40s and make about $170,000 combined. We don't have "college" savings, but have put money into 401Ks and Roths. We are at $1.3 million in retirement savings and have been able to cashflow private school and now UMD college park. Since we are heading into a recession, your 529 accounts aren't going to grow as much. Be in a position to cashflow and borrow once your kids get into college. You are in the donut hole friend. You are not getting financial aid.

People like this add no value to the conversation at all. Ignore this pp. Your retirement savings are good. Lots of people out there in your position as far as college savings. We are very similar. Plan to up our savings going forward
and also cash flow. Our kids are 11 and 9.

We have savings for state school tuition but are coming to the realization that state schools will likely not be the best choices for our kids. We’ll cash flow the difference and dip into other savings if we have to.

Your kids can go to in state schools. You pay from cash flow.

Anonymous wrote:At your income level you are way behind on college and retirement savings. We are late 40s and make about $170,000 combined. We don't have "college" savings, but have put money into 401Ks and Roths. We are at $1.3 million in retirement savings and have been able to cashflow private school and now UMD college park. Since we are heading into a recession, your 529 accounts aren't going to grow as much. Be in a position to cashflow and borrow once your kids get into college. You are in the donut hole friend. You are not getting financial aid.

You sound kind of like a jerk, actually. "Way behind"? How do you know how long that income has been what it is and what other expenses exist?

And: Why did your kids go to private school when you make such a modest salary?

Anonymous wrote:We make a similar income to you and have been saving $1600/month ($800 per child) since they were very small. We don’t drive luxury cars or pay for fancy home remodels.

Yikes - do you save for retirement?