s/o 529s and college savings

[southerntransplant]

How much are you saving for them monthly or yearly? And how do you figure out if this is "enough"?

We are thinking of doing 1k a month, at least to start. I was feeling comfortable with that until I went to savingforcollege.com. It gave me a really high number for private school in 18 years (over 600k). Do you think it will reach that? I have a hard time believing that many mc people will be able to afford that but maybe it'll be close? Like 400-500k?

What do you all think?

[dulcemariamar]

I am planning on helping my children but I am not going to pay for everything. Just the idea of saving 600k to pay for a bachelor degree is crazy :-(

I dont know how much money we are planning on saving. It depends on how many kids we have and what the pension system looks like here in the future.

I hope my kids at least do their undergraduate degree in Europe so we dont have problems paying for it. I wouldnt mind helping to pay a good portion of a grad degree in the States.

[whitemerlot]

I agree with Peggy that funding retirement is a priority over the 529 for us. We will probably do something like $500 a month for both kids in the 529 plan so we can continue to save aggressively for retirement.

[Deleted]

Right now, we're saving $11k a year for DD since she was born.

[atouchofklasse]

We save $250 biweekly. It probably isn't enough, but we plan on cash flowing the rest or using other investments.

Our contribution level may go up or down as life progresses.

[h]

We have been trying to do $1000/per month per kid, but with a third kid on the way and $2000/month in daycare/school tuition for the older two, there is no way we will be able to save $3000/month for college for a while. We'll just do what we can.

I also expect that we will just pay for a good chunk of their tuition out of our income when the time comes. I don't feel like we need to have 100% of the cost saved before they ever start school. Heck, we pay $24,000 a year in tuition for our kids now, so I would think we could pay at least that much out of pocket toward college when the time comes.

[Deleted]

Just because all these answers seem crazy, I'll admit we save $110/month for DS. The government kicks in $22 because it's in an RESP.

Post-secondary in Canada isn't as competitive or expensive. I don't mind if he has to take some SL. We aren't maxing out retirement savings. I'm operating on the "something beats nothing" philosophy and calling it a day.

[h]

Oct 5, 2012 9:07:20 GMT -5 whitemerlot said:

I agree with Peggy that funding retirement is a priority over the 529 for us. We will probably do something like $500 a month for both kids in the 529 plan so we can continue to save aggressively for retirement.

FWIW, we don't put much of our kids' college savings into 529s--most of it stays in our names in long-term investments (mostly mutual funds), in part so that we can switch gears and use it for retirement if we need to. We think of it as college savings and hope to use it for that purpose, but there is nothing obligating us to do so if we find that our retirement is underfunded when the kids' are college age or if we hit financial roadblocks we didn't anticipate.

[jenn248]

Wow, those are high numbers. I was thinking maybe $200/month starting off, maybe more once we're no longer paying for daycare. As pps have said, I'd rather make sure our retirement is fully funded first. As much as I would like for our kid(s) not to have to start out with student loan debt, it's always an option; we can't exactly take out retirement loans if we need money when the time comes.

[anna7602]

We put a certain % of our income into investments every month. That money is technically earmarked for retirement, but we may use part of it for DD's college if we need/choose to at that point.

I don't like the idea of a 529 or things in her name specifically. She can always borrow money for college if necessary, but if we don't have enough money to retire, we're screwed. I would never want to burden DD with having to take care of us financially in our old age.

Worst case scenario, I think DD's foreign language skills are good enough to ship her outside the U.S. for college. It is seriously so much cheaper everywhere compared to the U.S.!

[jinnifah]

we're saving $100/mo with a 20% gov. match. We have no intention of saving enough to pay for their entire schooling, but it should be a good chunk.
Our tuition isn't as high though since the government subsidizes university to a certain extent

[froggy76]

These answers are crazy! $1,000/month isn't enough?! You don't have to have the entire cost of college saved by the time your kid goes. There are always loans and scholarships, plus you will probably still be earning income while they're in college. And, hopefully college won't really cost $600k in 18 years.

I was thinking of using my refund from the dependant care flexible spending program to fund the 529. So, that's like $5,000 per year ($600 per month.)

[MadamePresident]

At this point nothing, but we will set aside some money to help them out.

[galaxy8227]

Right now we dont' have any account for him--we are working to pay off our CC debt, and saving more for retirement. Our hope is that when daycare is over we'll put that money into college funds

[Deleted]

$250/month. Will go up when daycare ends.

If you plan on sending your kid to private, $1000/month isn't crazy. I wish we could save that buy we can't with our other priorities. We plan on paying for the equivalent of a public school education. Up to DD to decide if she wants to take out loans for private.

[badtzmaru22]

We're putting $25 a month in her "college saver" account at our bank. Basically, if you put $25 a month until she's 18, they give you a $1000 bonus. Who knows if this plan will still be around in 18 years, but $25 a month is easy enough for us to do. We don't make enough to max out our retirement accounts, so we're focusing what we can there instead. We do plan to open a 529, and will put gifts she gets in there, and I know my dad wants to contribute to it as well.

It's not the end of the world if she needs to take out loans. There's nothing that says we can't help her pay them back when the time comes, especially if we're in a better financial position then. We sort of hope to pay off the house by then, or for sure while she's still paying back loans, and that will free up some money for us to help her in a more real way, after our retirement needs are met.