We pay out of pocket. How do the numbers not add up? Is it that you just can't fathom putting a child's needs first? I could have a nicer car and bigger house (2500sqft now), but I would prefer to spend that money on my one and only child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, we started saving before they were born. Our income was around $110k when the first was born and is now close to $200k and we have saved enough for both to go to an out of state university. ONe is currently at an out of state university. One has one more year of HS. We saved my salary from the time we got engaged for general savings over and above 401k and bought a smaller older house to be able to do it.

Do you live in the DC metro area? Having trouble imagining how that is feasible unless you bought your house 20 + years ago or live outside of the beltway.

Yes, we live within the beltway in the DC area (VA). Remember our HHI was $110k, 20 years ago. Today, our house could be purchased by a family that makes $250k. The problem is that no one wants houses as small as ours and when they sell, people tear them down and put in behemoths- but they are still around and affordable in the OP's HHI.

I want (and bought) a small house in N Arlington.

The PROBLEM is developers come in and pay cash for small houses, so people who want them can't buy them. We had a $120K DP and paid $550K for our house, but I know many others who wanted similar houses and didn't get them because a developer marched in with cash. Luckily, the seller wanted a family to live there, not for the house to be torn down. Overly sentimental, but that's the only way to get a small house close-in anymore.

We're only saving 4k per kid per year to get the tax benefit. I really want them to fend for themselves when they are college aged.

Anonymous wrote:For all those PPs that have a plan to start saving after daycare, I really do not think it gets cheaper - at least not in my case. Daycare was about $650 a week for 2 kids back when kids were little. But everything else costs more as kids get older, sports- including equipment and clothes, lessons, camps, clothes, entertainment, going out to dinner -- everything! It seems like getting rid of that weekly bill will give you more but there are a lot of expenses that go up too. Try to put a few hundred a month away now if you can.

$650/wk for two kids is on the cheap side. And not everyone just puts that money back into the spending pool when the kids stop going -- you have to be disciplined and put it directly into the 529 and not use it for optional things like entertainment and going out for dinner.

Anonymous wrote:Our DD is in college. $60,000 per year. We pay out of pocket, but since private school was close to 40 we don't really feel like college is that much more. We make less than you do, but have very little other debt other than mortgage and that is reasonably low. We have no intention of saddling our DD with college debt. Luckily grad school will be paid by the school she ends up at.

So you make $200K and pay $60K per year out of pocket for her education? Or you saved up?

I somehow doubt your income was $200K and you paid $40K for private and now can afford $60K for college barring significant outside help. The numbers don't add up.

For all those PPs that have a plan to start saving after daycare, I really do not think it gets cheaper - at least not in my case. Daycare was about $650 a week for 2 kids back when kids were little. But everything else costs more as kids get older, sports- including equipment and clothes, lessons, camps, clothes, entertainment, going out to dinner -- everything! It seems like getting rid of that weekly bill will give you more but there are a lot of expenses that go up too. Try to put a few hundred a month away now if you can.

We make around $250k-$300k, and with our mortgage now paid off, we'd be able to save plenty of money in 529s. We're not, because, quite frankly, no school is worth $67k a year, and I don't care how much you loved it.

We'll cover in-state Virginia, and we're not stressed about that. We'll pay it out of dividend investment income.

Anonymous wrote:We are in this boat. Make $250k but with mortgage, daycare, our student loans, etc. we're not saving much for our kids' college educations. I just read somewhere today that my alma mater costs $67k all in. Gulp. We're only saving $200 a month per kid (2). That is not going to cut it, needless to say. My best friend saves $1250 per kid (3). Of course they make more but still. Sigh. I worry about the amount of loans my kids will have to take out: $$$$$. Anyone else here?

Count me in
We didn't have time to save for our oldest (moved to US 15 years ago).
So, between mortgage ($3K), college for oldest DC (2k/month - state school), and retirement savings for us - we can't save much for our youngest kids. Our plan is to downsize from our big expensive house in good school district to cheaper neighborhood, and use cash to pay state school equivalent for youngest. I do not plan to pay private school tuition (60K+) in full.

We're only saving $2K per year per kid, so $4K total and we make $250K combined. We're saving to buy a house right now (currently rent) so I'm focusing on that first. We have one grandparent who might help some with college but in general, I just can't swing that much extra on college right now. Hoping that incomes will increase in the next few years and we can do more.

OP my alma mater is about the same as yours, $60+ a year. I've told my children to not even consider private colleges like that, and that state school is the only way to go.

We're not planning to pay for 67k per year universities. We've been saving a few hundred per month per child since birth and will funnel more into college savings as they transition into public school. We also cap our mortgage costs fairly low ... fortunately neither of us will likely work in the district and we have no need for a huge house.

We're around 170k/month HHI with minimal pay raises (if any) in the future and we contribute nothing to college savings. Between mortgage, child support, preschool, and daycare, there's nothing left. BUT...in one year, three of those four items are disappearing and I will reconfigure our budget and hopefully be able to start contributing something.

My parents started our kids off with 40 grand each in their current 529s. College cost calculators show that amount only getting them through like...a year and a half of college. So I'm going to just start doing whatever we can to invest more as soon as we have the money and, if we have to, we'll do loans to make up the difference.

Anonymous wrote:We are in this boat. Make $250k but with mortgage, daycare, our student loans, etc. we're not saving much for our kids' college educations. I just read somewhere today that my alma mater costs $67k all in. Gulp. We're only saving $200 a month per kid (2). That is not going to cut it, needless to say. My best friend saves $1250 per kid (3). Of course they make more but still. Sigh. I worry about the amount of loans my kids will have to take out: $$$$$. Anyone else here?

Are you maxing your retirement 401ks and IRAs? If so, I think you will find that once you have paid student loans and are done with daycare you can focus more on college savings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, we started saving before they were born. Our income was around $110k when the first was born and is now close to $200k and we have saved enough for both to go to an out of state university. ONe is currently at an out of state university. One has one more year of HS. We saved my salary from the time we got engaged for general savings over and above 401k and bought a smaller older house to be able to do it.

Do you live in the DC metro area? Having trouble imagining how that is feasible unless you bought your house 20 + years ago or live outside of the beltway.

Yes, we live within the beltway in the DC area (VA). Remember our HHI was $110k, 20 years ago. Today, our house could be purchased by a family that makes $250k. The problem is that no one wants houses as small as ours and when they sell, people tear them down and put in behemoths- but they are still around and affordable in the OP's HHI.

Anonymous wrote:Nope, we started saving before they were born. Our income was around $110k when the first was born and is now close to $200k and we have saved enough for both to go to an out of state university. ONe is currently at an out of state university. One has one more year of HS. We saved my salary from the time we got engaged for general savings over and above 401k and bought a smaller older house to be able to do it.

Do you live in the DC metro area? Having trouble imagining how that is feasible unless you bought your house 20 + years ago or live outside of the beltway.