
Anonymous wrote:Dumb question but why doesn’t anyone recommend putting it mostly towards the mortgage?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Keep it in a separate account so it remains your asset due to inheritance rather than a marital asset. If you put it into a joint asset whether a car etc or a bank account it is no longer your asset, it is a marital asset.
+10000
I made the mistake of giving DH access to inherited assets I brought into the marriage and regret it daily.
Anonymous wrote:Keep it in a separate account so it remains your asset due to inheritance rather than a marital asset. If you put it into a joint asset whether a car etc or a bank account it is no longer your asset, it is a marital asset.
Anonymous wrote:Regarding your kids college savings. Don't dump $40K or some big amount into the 529. Your state tax benefit from 529 investments has a cap/carryover restrictions. So once you've put enough in to max out the state tax benefit (which it sounds like you are already doing even without this $) there is no reason to put more into that investment vehicle. Plus you can't pull the $ out without penalty should you decide you need it for some unplanned or large unforeseen expense - or your child gets a college scholarship etc. You want to maximize your tax benefit, but keep some flexibility with how the fund could be accessed if need be. What our advisor told us is to open VA 529 accounts for your kids and max out the tax benefit, but then set up separate mutual fund account(s) for additional college savings. You can probably get better returns on the $ in mutual funds (given the higher number of brokerages/funds to choose from) than the 529 offers anyway. So yeah, get the state tax credit, but everything over the top goes into mutual funds.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Regarding your kids college savings. Don't dump $40K or some big amount into the 529. Your state tax benefit from 529 investments has a cap/carryover restrictions. So once you've put enough in to max out the state tax benefit (which it sounds like you are already doing even without this $) there is no reason to put more into that investment vehicle. Plus you can't pull the $ out without penalty should you decide you need it for some unplanned or large unforeseen expense - or your child gets a college scholarship etc. You want to maximize your tax benefit, but keep some flexibility with how the fund could be accessed if need be. What our advisor told us is to open VA 529 accounts for your kids and max out the tax benefit, but then set up separate mutual fund account(s) for additional college savings. You can probably get better returns on the $ in mutual funds (given the higher number of brokerages/funds to choose from) than the 529 offers anyway. So yeah, get the state tax credit, but everything over the top goes into mutual funds.
Yea, but the 529 invest grows tax free. I got 22% returns off mine in 2017.
NP. It's a balancing act. I agree with PP that you don't want to over invest in a 529 unless you are 100% certain you will never need that money.