$4k a year, we just started, he's 5 months.

Def more than either of our parents gave us ($0). I'm sure it won't be enough, but he'll be fine.

$500 per month ($6K per year) for each child.

1. Use this to project your "needs": https://www.savingforcollege.com/calculators/college-savings-calculator
2. Use your own family budget to project your ability
3. Ignore what everyone else on an anonymous message board says that they are saving

$200 per month for 2 kids, with extra amounts put in (birthday money, holiday money) so I would say around $2k/year/kid.

Kids are 10 and 7. My FIL also has apparently a 529 for each and maxes them out but we have no idea what is in either which makes it hard for us to know what to save.

$800 per month for two kids.

Kid 1 is 8 years old with $45K
Kid 2 is 6 Years old with $37K

Plan to hopefully hit $100k each for college expenses.

I admit I’m confused by the amount we are supposed to invest ($1,200 per month) for each child to fund private college. That means we will be investing approximately $259k over 18 years. That is enough to pay for private college now at 60k per year. Is the calculator not including any appreciation?!?

Our goal is to invest at least 60k by age three. This is one year of tuition. I sure hope this would grow to at least two years of tuition by age 18, which would be in 15 years.

2 kids, currently saving around $6k/year/kid.

The Maryland 529 calculators that they have on their website put us on track to 100% fund in-state tuition based on what we have and what we are currently saving. That's our intention.

We do what we can afford.

Anonymous wrote:8k per year per kid. This maxes the tax advantage in DC. It won't be enough, but we plan to cash flow the rest.

Are you sure? I thought it was $8,000 per year for a married couple, period. Like, in total, not per kid.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with previous posters that what other people do is frankly irrelevant to what your family can handle from a financial standpoint. We put in 1k a month per kid (infant and a 3 year old). Most of the calculators say we should be able to cover private for 4 years on that. Whatever we can’t cover we will pay as we go. It’s a hell of a lot more than my parents had for me, which was zero, and I did the whole Ivy League and law school thing just fine. Your kids will be ok.

This isn’t necessarily true. Our neighbor is attending a private school and the tuition, room and board are $60,000 per year. My cousin’s child as the exact tuition, room and board for a different private school. Add to that books, supplies, travel, phone, insurance, gas, etc. it is massive.

I agree with previous posters that what other people do is frankly irrelevant to what your family can handle from a financial standpoint. We put in 1k a month per kid (infant and a 3 year old). Most of the calculators say we should be able to cover private for 4 years on that. Whatever we can’t cover we will pay as we go. It’s a hell of a lot more than my parents had for me, which was zero, and I did the whole Ivy League and law school thing just fine. Your kids will be ok.

We put away $2000 per year per kid, too. In case you are wondering what it may look like down the road - our 16-year old has $52K, and our 12-year old has $35K in their college funds. By the time they go to college, it should cover two years of an in-state college. (We have another source we will be using to fund the remainder.)

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are the same ages as yours. We were doing $1000/mo total. When the older one went to preschool we took the money we saved not paying daycare and upped it to $1500/mo total for both kids. It’s probably not enough. We’re hoping one kid chooses state school.

I’ll add that we channel a lot of bonuses and other including me into college savings now while they are little and it has time to grow. Our vacations are cheap - rented house at a local beach. We plan to spend more money traveling when they are older and we may reduce contributions to do that.

Our kids are the same ages as yours. We were doing $1000/mo total. When the older one went to preschool we took the money we saved not paying daycare and upped it to $1500/mo total for both kids. It’s probably not enough. We’re hoping one kid chooses state school.

We have 3 kids and put away $150 a month for each of them, so about $5,500 a year total. If we have a little left over in our end-of-year budget we divvy up the surplus between the three accounts. Wish we could do more but it is what it is. Can't neglect our own retirement.