We invest a certain % of our income regularly. Theoretically, it's ear-marked for retirement, since DD can take out loans for school but we can't borrow money to retire. However, depending on how things look at the time she goes to college, we will try to pay for as much of her college costs as we reasonably can.
No grand goal to save for the whole thing in advance, but we'll pay off the house around the time DS hits college, so we'll see. I can't even guess what it will cost then, what DS will want to do, etc.
Honestly, we just started with the hundred bucks the government sends us every month and rounded up a bit. Yay crazy Conservative government!
$50 a month. We aren't able to fully fund retirement yet, so until we are, we aren't prioritizing college. We'll help pay for it as much we can at the time.
Post by thatgirl2478 on Sept 27, 2012 12:36:29 GMT -5
Right now we're trying to save $500 / mo for DD. We've been successful thus far, but that will be the first category to get merged into general spending should something unforeseeable happen.
Post by aspentosh on Sept 27, 2012 12:38:52 GMT -5
$200 per month right now. We plan to stick with this and then increase it once she's no longer in daycare. We'll do this for the hypothetical second child as well.
We're planning to set aside a certain amount (probably about $100k each) to pay for their undergrad. Anything above that will probably be their responsibility.
$250/month. This will increase when daycare costs end.
We plan on paying 100% for undergrad at a state school. We'll pay as much as we can for a private school but most likely will need her to take out some loans.
No plans on paying for grad school at this point but it all depends on our financial situation.
We set aside some money monthly in a 529, but when DS is ready for school, we should have our house paid off too, so we can supplement. We'll pay as much as we can afford, if that's all of it, then all of it. I may have some "conditions" though if he's anything like me-ie. grade requirements.
Post by whitepicketfence on Sept 27, 2012 14:09:48 GMT -5
We put $50/kid into their 529 plans each month. We also put $50/kid into their regular savings accounts each month along with any gift money they receive - this money may be used for college expenses if needed. We plan to up our contributions once they are both in school full time and I go back to work. Also, our mortgage should be paid off by the time they start college so we hope to pay for some costs out of our regular budget.
We would like to pay for all of their college expenses but I'm not 100% certain that it will happen.
Post by smilelari on Sept 27, 2012 14:35:30 GMT -5
We currently aren't saving for college, but mentally the plan is to start putting in what we currently put into paying for daycare when we're done with daycare. So, about $1000/month per kid starting around age 5. That would be for college, help for house down payment, weddings, etc
Will this be enough to cover it? I don't know. We'd like to pay for most of their educations. If we get closer to the time and it looks like this won't be enough, we'll probably throw some more money their way. I'd like them to take out as little debt as possible.
Post by belovedbride07 on Sept 27, 2012 15:01:54 GMT -5
No kids yet, but our tentative plan is to convert out SL payments into college saving for them once the loans are paid off. It'll be a good chunk by the time hypothetical first kid is 18, but not enough to cover the entire cost. We hope to help as much as we are able, but we know funding it 100% is unlikely with our other financial goals.
Trying for #3; FET 8/18 -- BFN. Leaving things up to chance for now... After three years, three IVFs, and two FETs, we finally have our miracle babIES!
Post by drloretta on Sept 27, 2012 15:03:26 GMT -5
Depends on how the account looks when she starts. We set aside a good chunk of $ when we first got married and had a shitton of $. It's just growing slowly until she goes to school.
Post by mollybrown on Sept 27, 2012 15:11:17 GMT -5
$0
I'm fine not saving anything and helping them out of our income at the time (house should be paid off). DH swears it's a priority, but never wants to cut anything else when I bring up college savings. His newest plan is to save out of his 2 extra paychecks a year, but I'm confident that other things will come up.
We won't be paying 100% unless we hit the lottery, or our children choose state schools.
And damn, I'm ready to listen to DH and move to Canada.
$200/month I hope to increase this someday, post-daycare. I don't know if we'll be able to pay for it fully, probably not. We'll reassess at later points what we can afford.
I'd love to be able to pass on the good fortune I had from my parents and grandparents to my kids, but I just don't see it happening. I don't think we'll start saving until either daycare is done or our SLs, whichever comes first. But when those are done that will free over 2k/month even with only one kid.
My MIL says she'll pay for wherever they want to go. She's got 529s in Virginia for them for tax purposes. If she doesn't for whatever reason we will help with our direct income. We are paying private school preschool-12th & by then HS will be in the $20k/yr range so we already plan to "afford" $20k/yr if need be. I don't contribute to our income now really so in 13yrs we'll also have another entire income to throw at stuff like this if need be (barring any disasters).
We're putting away $100/mo until he's 18. However much that makes us is how much we'll have. So around $20,000 plus interest. This money will be shared between all our kids unless I start making considerably more in which case we'll double contributions.