Anonymous wrote:If you get RIFed at 50 with 30 years, you will also get your pension and health insurance OP. You will also get months of pay before that.

I'd pay for the last year of university out of 529 and hope that you get financial aid for the baby of the family if your income is reduced.

30 years was if we worked till 60.

If you get RIFed at 50 with 30 years, you will also get your pension and health insurance OP. You will also get months of pay before that.

I'd pay for the last year of university out of 529 and hope that you get financial aid for the baby of the family if your income is reduced.

Being RIFed and then tapping into your depleted TSP is a double or triple whammy.

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

You’re 50, one of you is losing your job, you’re talking about sending 3 kids to private with $300,000 total in 529s, and you may be retired by that time.

Is this a troll post? It has to be.

I'm a PP and I'm definitely thinking troll at this point too. Nobody thinks they can put 3 kids through private college on $300k income with only $100k for each kid in 529s, while also nearing retirement age, with not much in retirement savings. This is all made up.

For retirement, we had $1 million in TSP, a pension with 30 years for each of us, and then we would sell the house. That seemed like a reasonable plan.

Sending a kid to private college on a $300k income was not a “reasonable” plan, it’s the root of most of your issues right now. But for that, your situation would not be as dire.

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

You’re 50, one of you is losing your job, you’re talking about sending 3 kids to private with $300,000 total in 529s, and you may be retired by that time.

Is this a troll post? It has to be.

I'm a PP and I'm definitely thinking troll at this point too. Nobody thinks they can put 3 kids through private college on $300k income with only $100k for each kid in 529s, while also nearing retirement age, with not much in retirement savings. This is all made up.

For retirement, we had $1 million in TSP, a pension with 30 years for each of us, and then we would sell the house. That seemed like a reasonable plan.

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

You’re 50, one of you is losing your job, you’re talking about sending 3 kids to private with $300,000 total in 529s, and you may be retired by that time.

Is this a troll post? It has to be.

I'm a PP and I'm definitely thinking troll at this point too. Nobody thinks they can put 3 kids through private college on $300k income with only $100k for each kid in 529s, while also nearing retirement age, with not much in retirement savings. This is all made up.

She is a junior in college, we have been managing with this cash flow and saving a little bit on top for nearly 3 years, it was a good plan until DOGE

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

You’re 50, one of you is losing your job, you’re talking about sending 3 kids to private with $300,000 total in 529s, and you may be retired by that time.

Is this a troll post? It has to be.

The third kid is much younger, so it is more than a decade away, so the plan was to pay for the first two with cash flow and then have savings for the third.

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

You’re 50, one of you is losing your job, you’re talking about sending 3 kids to private with $300,000 total in 529s, and you may be retired by that time.

Is this a troll post? It has to be.

I'm a PP and I'm definitely thinking troll at this point too. Nobody thinks they can put 3 kids through private college on $300k income with only $100k for each kid in 529s, while also nearing retirement age, with not much in retirement savings. This is all made up.

*save the other $2500

If you lose your job, Duke or its equivalent will likely offer some financial aid. Other kids take loans or go in-state. IN the meantime, cash flow $2500 and the extra $2500.

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

You’re 50, one of you is losing your job, you’re talking about sending 3 kids to private with $300,000 total in 529s, and you may be retired by that time.

Is this a troll post? It has to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

Our DD is at an elite private college (think Duke) so the expectation was the tuition would have a good ROI. We were paying out of cash flow as $300 won’t pay for all 3 kids to go to private college, and we may be retired by time youngest goes.

Yes we can have her drop out of college, but community college puts her on a very different path. Obviously if we had known we would be RIF we would have pursued in-state only; now we have to try and setup a transfer which won’t be possible till Sept, assuming she is accepted.

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Anonymous wrote:I need to stop reading this site! My husband and I do not have kids but only have about $70K liquid…and people on here are saying $100K is nothing…

When you don’t have kids you don’t need a lot of money. You can pack up and rent an apartment anywhere. Worse comes to worst, live in the wild and hunt for food.

Kids change everything.

We want to have children though…I am not being dramatic when I say the current economy is making us reconsider. Which is unfortunate because we are already early 30s.

I wouldn’t let it bother you. We had our first during the recession, after one of us lost our job. Everything turned out fine.

Agree. We had a recession baby, single income and a cut in pay. It was just fine. In fact, it worked out better than we expected.

It’s way easier to recover from setup when you are young; being laid off at 50 can be financial calamity you don’t recover from.

Anonymous wrote:I am confused about the $5K in tuition a month while there is $300K in the 529. I am also confused about $500 a month for health insurance when one of you is a federal employee.

I am too! The 529 is there for college tuition. Even if you split it into three, there's still some money there for the first. Your savings are more than OK (seriously- almost a year's worth of expenses). I'd hold off on making any decisions until you have more information. I'd talk to the financial aid office and see what kind of aid you might get though.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to stop reading this site! My husband and I do not have kids but only have about $70K liquid…and people on here are saying $100K is nothing…

When you don’t have kids you don’t need a lot of money. You can pack up and rent an apartment anywhere. Worse comes to worst, live in the wild and hunt for food.

Kids change everything.

We want to have children though…I am not being dramatic when I say the current economy is making us reconsider. Which is unfortunate because we are already early 30s.

I wouldn’t let it bother you. We had our first during the recession, after one of us lost our job. Everything turned out fine.

Agree. We had a recession baby, single income and a cut in pay. It was just fine. In fact, it worked out better than we expected.