About 140k for HS senior - We weren't able to be aggressive, so it's been a slow climb. This would totally cover some schools and not even 2 years at others.

Anonymous wrote:DC is only child. What if we save too much and she decides to go to UMD. Has anyone had this happen and paid the penalty to withdraw the extra money?

I would like to save enough for private or OOS to be an option but I do wonder about if I should put anything over 100K in something other than a 529 on the off chance she does go in-state

I don't have first hand experience but if not used in undergrad, it can to used for graduate school. You can also assign a new beneficiary such as another kid or grandchild.

11 and 13. Each has $100k.

200K for hs senior and 200k for 8th grader. We may rebalance those totals a bit between accounts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't be so quick to brag. You have to report it on fafsa and will bring down your score in their formula as to how much financial aid you'll get.

It's really sucky. You're making sacrifices for years to save for your kids' college tuitions only to have it be held against when they view it as an "asset".

I’m assuming that the majority of posters here know they won’t qualify for financial aid regardless of how much they do or don’t save.

+1

DC is only child. What if we save too much and she decides to go to UMD. Has anyone had this happen and paid the penalty to withdraw the extra money?

I would like to save enough for private or OOS to be an option but I do wonder about if I should put anything over 100K in something other than a 529 on the off chance she does go in-state

Anonymous wrote:Don't be so quick to brag. You have to report it on fafsa and will bring down your score in their formula as to how much financial aid you'll get.

It's really sucky. You're making sacrifices for years to save for your kids' college tuitions only to have it be held against when they view it as an "asset".

I’m assuming that the majority of posters here know they won’t qualify for financial aid regardless of how much they do or don’t save.

2 kids - about 80k in each. 80% is in US large cap stock fund/ remainder in target date fund.
9th grade & middle schooler.
DC residents so any college will be at an out of state rate.
Hope to have $100k for each by graduation. The remainder can be their skin in the game.

Anonymous wrote:Don't be so quick to brag. You have to report it on fafsa and will bring down your score in their formula as to how much financial aid you'll get.

It's really sucky. You're making sacrifices for years to save for your kids' college tuitions only to have it be held against when they view it as an "asset".

We wouldn't qualify for financial aid- hence the 529.

Don't be so quick to brag. You have to report it on fafsa and will bring down your score in their formula as to how much financial aid you'll get.

It's really sucky. You're making sacrifices for years to save for your kids' college tuitions only to have it be held against when they view it as an "asset".

HS senior 250K

10 yo — 70k
7 yo — 55k
5 yo — 33k

We also made the terrible mistake of investing in the conservative target date funds. Cleaned that up late this year and hope it helps. We contribute $500 per kid each month.

Our goal is to have enough for instate. We had kids young, so we can always float the difference from either our brokerage account or income.

$175k freshmen college
$175k junior hs

But we focused on investment property and rental income from it, cash flow. No mortgage left on primary property or rental home.

Kids have Roth-IRAs too.

Lots of diversified investments.

Full pay at $87k/year Ivy

289k hs junior
245k hs sophomore

Ended up more than we expected. Invested in vanguard aggressive 529 starting when they were 2-3 years old. Contributed max yearly for a bunch of years then did the one time 66k max one year (or whatever max was then)

We have a 3rd grader and Kindergartener. Technically they have ~$400.00 each in a 529 account I opened a couple of years ago when they started allowing the ability to transfer money to a child's roth ira after so many years. I'm planning on selling 80k of ibonds after the new year and transferring to the 529. My husband chose to go the brokerage route over 529 for some reason. He has another 150k in there bookmarked.