I have twins. We put money in a savings account (we haven't opened a 529 plan yet) sporadically - probably ~$500 per year. It's not ideal, but we pay close to $2000 in child care per month right now, so there isn't a lot of extra money to be saved at this point. I'd like to increase our contributions as our salaries increase and child care decreases.
I'm doubling down on the bank of grandpa to get these kids through college. As a backup plan, I regularly tie each kids right arm down and force them to pitch me with their left. It's awesome
We can't afford to right now, unfortunately, but we still contribute to our "high-yield" (LOL) savings account. When we start accounts for them (we will, even if we start when they're 13) we will pull money out of there. It's our catch-all for vacations, education, future house(?), emergency, etc., right now.
I just realized that we haven't had to pull money out of there for maybe 4 months so that makes me feel really good about our financial situation now. And the last time we did it was to add more cushion to the car down payment on top of the insurance money, which is legit IMHO. So, GO US!
We put $100/pay period into a savings account, and transfer that money out to a 529 plan periodically. The 529 account can be used by both kids, though I have no idea how we'll split that up, in half or based on need. We've got a while to see how that works out.
I did not know you could do this! I thought they had to have individual accounts. Is that state-specific?
It'd be AWESOME if we could just group it all together instead of having two separate accounts, in the future.
I have twins. We put money in a savings account (we haven't opened a 529 plan yet) sporadically - probably ~$500 per year. It's not ideal, but we pay close to $2000 in child care per month right now, so there isn't a lot of extra money to be saved at this point. I'd like to increase our contributions as our salaries increase and child care decreases.
Yeah, I'd like to, when we are in public school, put at least a portion of what we WERE paying in daycare into an account for them. Since it's already "budgeted" money, right?
Assuming we don't need it for something else. Even half would be good, $1000/month?? That's pretty good.
Post by thebreakfastclub on Nov 8, 2013 11:38:32 GMT -5
We put in half our tax refund this year to start the account (so around $2K) and plan to do that every year. I am about to get back $5K for our dependent care account, so I was thinking about putting half of that in yearly as well.
I like the idea that was brought up of continuing to put DC tuition aside, so maybe that will now be on the table in future years.
We will do what we can, but it's not an enormous priority.
Post by adhdfashion on Nov 8, 2013 11:45:03 GMT -5
FIL took a small lump sum from us and threw in some. He invested it in the stock market made more money and dropped that into the Get program or something like that. He also throws money in every year, it makes since tax wise. The girls are set and any other children we have.
Since she will be in private school, we will be used to cash flowing education, so no need to save anything.
We won't have 60-80K a year for private school for the kids, but our mortgage will be paid off when DD is 17. We hope to use the extra cash flow to help with college costs.
Post by sherbanator on Nov 8, 2013 11:51:49 GMT -5
We did the Washington GET program. When dd was born I put 2 years worth of college in it. I honestly don't remember how much it was, but the program is based on credits so I basically bought her 2 years of credit. she doesn't have to go to a school in Washington but depending on what school she chooses those credits may last longer ( community college) or less if she chooses a more expensive college.
C is 3. When he was born, I was putting aside $15 a paycheck in his account, figuring we could start investing it a bit as it got to a decent amount, and increase contributions after daycare ended. We then got hit with $6k in car repairs and DH was unemployed for 6mos; our e-fund was decimated and we had to use the few hundred I did have saved to meet car insurance at one point. We're still rebuilding, so he isn't getting anything now, but will try again once daycare is done. There will definitely be conversations about whether college is needed and how to do that realistically for C as he gets older; he is not getting the 'you must go to college at all costs, it solves everything' training that I had.
We put $100/pay period into a savings account, and transfer that money out to a 529 plan periodically. The 529 account can be used by both kids, though I have no idea how we'll split that up, in half or based on need. We've got a while to see how that works out.
I did not know you could do this! I thought they had to have individual accounts. Is that state-specific?
It'd be AWESOME if we could just group it all together instead of having two separate accounts, in the future.
Ours is a Virginia 529, and we'll be able to change beneficiaries without penalty, which works for us since our kids are unlikely to be in college at the same time. Not sure if there's a way to have multiple beneficiaries on one account, but that would be really nice.
We put approx. $3k per year away. We also refinanced our mortgage to a 15 year two years ago, so our house will be paid off by the time #1 goes to school. It will be my greatest accomplishment if my kids get to go to whatever school they want to/can get in to and I can pay for it. This is baggage from my childhood, lol.
Post by lifesapeach on Nov 8, 2013 12:15:51 GMT -5
Our state lets us write off up to $2,000 per kid from our state income tax if we put it into a 529, so that is our goal. Some years we fall flat though, and it's going to be harder with a third, but that is our goal. That should pay for half of what the calculators say in-state fees should be for them.
I'm doubling down on the bank of grandpa to get these kids through college. As a backup plan, I regularly tie each kids right arm down and force them to pitch me with their left. It's awesome
We do this! DH and DS1 play baseball almost every night, and every couple days DH challenges DS to only use his left arm, just for "funsies"... or our retirement.
We put $75 per month into our state's tuition program, plus all other monetary gifts to them.
There is a government program where they put something in for every amount you put, and the max contribution is $2500 a year. So we do that. Full disclosure: FIL has made all the contributions so far but we would if he wasn't.
We're using this program too. We deposit our $100 Universal childcare benefit (baby bonus?) check into it every month so we don't miss it.
We do the same, plus we max our contribution so that we get our matching funds from the gov't.
I think we probably average around $5k per year going into DS's education fund, but we have good income right now. That will probably decrease at some point - we want to get it around $50K and then the rest will be up to him I think. Same for any additional children.
I used to think I would pay for my kid's college because no one paid for mine. But you know, right now to go to CC for 2 years and in state public school for 2 years would cost $70,000. You CANNOT make that working at the bookstore and choosing your activities wisely. And to come out as saddled with debt as many of us have, with variable rate loans, with no forgiveness, no option to declare bankruptcy, and knowing that this is getting worse instead of better? I feel obligated to give my theoretical kid some kind of help.
We have 529s set up for each kid, and put in $300/month per kid. Also, we empty their piggy banks once a year and deposit that stuff in, as well as any checks from my H's grandparents, which are explicitly earmarked for "education" in the memo.
When they are a bit older, we will take some of the money from their piggy banks and let them buy stuff for themselves, but since they are 3 and have no idea, we just put it all in their accounts.
Eventually, when our law school loans are paid off, chunks of bonuses will likely go into the 529s too.