How much did you save for kids’ college?

[definitelyO]

we have ~$60,000 in the 529 which "may" cover 2 years at a public in state school. We intentionally stopped putting into the 529 at that level. 
But we have enough saved in a brokerage account to cover the entirety of his undergrad and the rest is for us in retirement in addition to 401(k), etc...

DS is heading to college in the Fall - so now I need to figure out how to get the funds out of the 529

I include tuition, room and board, books, fees, etc... at the school DS is going to it's estimated at $33,000/yr. he has some scholarship money to offset

[noodleoo]

We have $21K in DD1's (age 9) and $18K in DD2's (age 5). The recent stock market gains are helping us out there! We started late, but I started contributing monthly when DD1 went to K and freed up some daycare money. DD2 goes to K this fall and my plan is to increase it then.

I wish I had a good idea of how much to save. The calculators are all over the place because the cost of college can vary so much. It stresses me out trying to plan for it. I guess we will save what we can and figure out the rest later!

[SusanBAnthony]

I think we have about 50k per kid and both are in high school.

We don't get any state tax benefits so we intentionally aren't putting anything in 529's. What we do have is from my grandpa and CC rewards (Fidelity 529 CC).

We plan to cash flow and pull from regular investment accounts. We'll have the kids take out the ~5k a year in loans each year and potentially pay it off for them when they graduate.

[mainelyfoolish]

I’ve just been working through this for my 2 kids. I am basing my assumptions on attendance at our state’s flagship school which is about $26,300 today for tuition/fees/books/room & board. This is lower than the projected cost on the college’s website because they include about $2,200 for travel and miscellaneous, which I can’t use 529 money to pay for.

My kids are finishing 10th and 5th grade, so they will start college in 2 and 7 years, respectively. I’m currently in the process of moving money out of other savings to their 529 plans to get the 529 accounts to a point where I no longer contribute any more than $100/month per kid, which I do to get $300/year per child in matching money from our state. For kid 1, the 529 balance will be around $96k and for kid 2, the 529 balance will be around $88k.

With two kids five years apart in school, I have a bit of a buffer to juggle the money between kids and alter my savings plans if the first kid’s expenses are wildly different from my projections.

[sent]

Since I'm self-employed, I fund a Roth for each kid. We also don't get tax breaks on 529s so I don't have those. My financial advisor says I should be able to cash flow a lot of expenses when that time comes. I recently turned 44 and I don't know about that. I will be in my mid to late 50s by the times the kids get through college. I often daydream about getting out of the current rat race in the near future and doing something else. Who knows if I'll have to hold out longer than I want for them.

[formerlyak]

If you don’t get a tax benefit from your state, be sure to put some money in an interest bearing savings account that is not a 529. DS starts in the fall and I’ve been reading and there are some expenses, like travel and personal items needed in a dorm or apartment, that can’t be paid out of the 529.