Curious what others are doing. We are targeting $250/month per kid on top of a decent starting amount to open the account.

I do $300/month with additional contributions every other month.

I drop $6000/kid/year. This will allow for in state tuition here in CA.

$200/ month per child for now since birth (they are only 4 and 5)

Will up that when they stop costing me $2,000/mo at full time daycare.

Which kids? The ones I like? The ones I know? Or the ones I know of?

I have a monster of a spreadsheet and just reviewed this at depth yesterday. A&M inflation is ~3.9% since 2004 to today. Assuming 6% growth and covering 80% of my children's tuition we save $220/month per child. Their grandparents contribute $500/year for each child. We're tracking right on target (3y/o and 9month old)

$300/month is probably about right to fund 100%.

$225 and $250. Started with $3k lump each. Started at the same time, so will get 2 extra yrs growth on the younger kid, hence the lower contribution.

Are all of you maxing out all retirement options before contributing that much to your kids 529?

For me to save more for my kids 529 I'd have to reduce retirement contributions which I am not willing to do. Can't take a loan to retire....

I have a 6 figure income but with 3 kids and a wife who stays home there is not a ton leftover. I make random contributions throughout the year to their accounts but nothing automatic. Our family gave us $6k/kid on their first birthday and grandparents routinely give $100-$250 for Birthdays,etc.. so they are off to a decent start.

On the other hand, I'm not convinced college will be the same 15 years from now.... but then again, i am sure people 15 years ago said the same thing & here we are.....

We started early so we will still be pretty young when they go to college (mid 40's). I am hoping to have retirement accounts in good standing, house paid off, & hopefully income much higher so I can cash flow what I need to. If they need to take some reasonable loans as well, not the end of the world.

Halfway joking here - I'm urging my girls to start golf/tennis at a young age. From people I have talked to, there aren't enough girls out there playing these sports at a high enough level for all of the scholarships that are available.

My company contributes 15% to a retirement act for me; I can't contribute. So, I don't have a 401k. Just ira.

When congress and the executive are next held both by the Left, I expect to see some not-insignificant melding with current broken college tuition/debt system, to the detriment of savers. I also see a continued erosion of the ROI of the university degree vs. other substitutes for that time and financial investment. The 529 penalizes the entrepreneur or tradesman. We are therefore only funding at 50%.

Going to do something like $16,000 total over the first two years and then $3,000-4,000 per thereafter. Should be close to enough for A&M and if it's not hopefully by that time making up the difference won't be an issue.

At some point the college thing has to turn when it comes to costs for a few reasons.

$600/kid x 2.

We are planning to have at least 1 more, so I will scale that back as more kids come along. I started at $800/month for #1.

Only do $200/mo per kid. Could do a lot more, but don't want too much locked into this type of account.

$250 for all three. We have family members giving annual contributions as well.

Whatever our contributions, our kids can get a job when in school to cover their lifestyle. I had tuition room and board paid by my parents but I was on the hook for everything else.

Currently at 110/kid, and contribute more several times throughout the year.

Kids have been given large sums from grandparents, but can't convince them to contribute the money to the 529's, so they sit in cd accounts. My dad is convinced his granddaughters are going to become plumbers or something.

Yes, maxing out 401k first. I can contribute $54k to self funded 401k, wife can do the regular $19k max. I'd strongly recommend maxing 401k before going 529, unless you're in a lower tax bracket and not paying a lot of tax on that money now. Although, if that's the case I'd direct what one could to a Roth 401k first.

Started at birth with 3k, $200/month. According to my calculator at a conservative 5% growth, that should be around 75k when college starts. Won't cover everything, but it should be close. I worked through college and summers and it didn't kill me.

I think parents tend to forget that they don't need every dollar they plan to give from day 1 of college, unless maybe if you are retired.

Assuming you still have income, are in your high earning years, and you have no debts (especially your mortgage) there's no reason you can't cover quite a bit using just your income stream. What's $5k-$10k a year to throw at a 529 for a few years?

That way you don't over-fund it.

Have 2 years prepaid tuition here in Texas for each of them. Have about $15k in a 529 for each and will cash flow the rest when they're in college. Will be about what we already pay for private school each year anyway.

The attorney who wrote up my will advised me to set up a 529 plan and "front load" it as heavily as I could afford to do so in order to confer asset protection. I am in a high risk profession. I would love to hold onto the plan and pass it along to my son as a form of estate planning. I certainly wish that my parents were in a position to pay for my education when I was attaining it, but it would also be great if they had the means to provide for grandchildren. Just curious, is anyone else looking it as a form of asset protection and possibly using other funds to pay for a child's college and then pass the 529 on "intact" so that that child could use it to educate his or her own children?

$1k/mo per kid. 2 kids. I'm probably overfunding a bit, but live in CA, so I'm prob gonna pay OOS as it's impossible to get into a good CA school if you're a resident. Also, want them to go to TAMU.

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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When congress and the executive are next held both by the Left, I expect to see some not-insignificant melding with current broken college tuition/debt system, to the detriment of savers. I also see a continued erosion of the ROI of the university degree vs. other substitutes for that time and financial investment. The 529 penalizes the entrepreneur or tradesman. We are therefore only funding at 50%.

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50% of what

Of the amount I estimate junior's college tuition/fees/board to cost in 20 years ($70k/yr) if it does not suddenly become "free".

Maybe I will get aggressive later on, but for the 3 year old and 7 month old we save $1800 per year. That will get us to around $80,000 at college entrance.

Zero.

I want my kids to earn it.

Wife is an Aggie said:

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Halfway joking here - I'm urging my girls to start golf/tennis at a young age. From people I have talked to, there aren't enough girls out there playing these sports at a high enough level for all of the scholarships that are available.

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While easier to get a female tennis scholarship than male-- Still not a good plan.

We get flooded by foreign players that take scholarships. Some teams barely even bother recruiting any Americans.To get to a level good enough to play d1 tennis, probably could have invested all the money on lessons/drills and paid for college.

Aston04 said:

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Wife is an Aggie said:

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Halfway joking here - I'm urging my girls to start golf/tennis at a young age. From people I have talked to, there aren't enough girls out there playing these sports at a high enough level for all of the scholarships that are available.

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While easier to get a female tennis scholarship than male-- Still not a good plan.

We get flooded by foreign players that take scholarships. Some teams barely even bother recruiting any Americans.To get to a level good enough to play d1 tennis, probably could have invested all the money on lessons/drills and paid for college.

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At a school like A&M that is true. If A&M is not a priority (I know that idea is shocking for some), there are a lot of options at smaller colleges for these skills. We have a young engineer in our office who got a full ride at St. Mary's in San Antonio by being an above average female tennis player. Obviously, St. Mary's isn't A&M in the engineering prestige arena, but this young lady is pretty sharp. I would put her up against just about any A&M grad (certainly higher than almost any UTSA grad). The she saw the value of the sports scholarship and turned it into an engineering degree says a lot about her values.

She is engaged to an Aggie which also show her mind is right.

You may unwittingly saddle them with difficult to escape debt and put them in a position where they can't buy homes or afford any type of secondary education.

There are young people I work with that have $250K in debt from undergrad and their MBA. They get paid well, but that is a lot to dig out of.

If you have $250k in debt from an undergrad and an MBA you went to the wrong school(s)...

If you can't afford to borrow to pay for school and pay it back later from your increased earnings, you're at the wrong school and/or in the wrong major.

Aston04 said:

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Wife is an Aggie said:

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Halfway joking here - I'm urging my girls to start golf/tennis at a young age. From people I have talked to, there aren't enough girls out there playing these sports at a high enough level for all of the scholarships that are available.

---

While easier to get a female tennis scholarship than male-- Still not a good plan.

We get flooded by foreign players that take scholarships. Some teams barely even bother recruiting any Americans.To get to a level good enough to play d1 tennis, probably could have invested all the money on lessons/drills and paid for college.

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This is like all the baseball dads investing in tons of $ in select ball thinking their kid is future guaranteed MLB material. Or , at the very least worthy of a full ride baseball scholarship. All that money spent...

Mine are grown and college costs are no more. Those of you with daughters, don't forget they will want you to pay for a wedding one day!

O'Doyle Rules said:

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Aston04 said:

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Wife is an Aggie said:

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Halfway joking here - I'm urging my girls to start golf/tennis at a young age. From people I have talked to, there aren't enough girls out there playing these sports at a high enough level for all of the scholarships that are available.

---

While easier to get a female tennis scholarship than male-- Still not a good plan.

We get flooded by foreign players that take scholarships. Some teams barely even bother recruiting any Americans.To get to a level good enough to play d1 tennis, probably could have invested all the money on lessons/drills and paid for college.

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This is like all the baseball dads investing in tons of $ in select ball thinking their kid is future guaranteed MLB material. Or , at the very least worthy of a full ride baseball scholarship. All that money spent...

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lol, this has always amazed me, it is worse in baseball and softball than in any other sport. They play select ball, pay for pitching lessons, travel all over to games and tournaments, all the while thinking their son or daughter is going to get a full scholarship somewhere, or for the boys, wind up in MLB. I got so tired of hearing things like "the Brewers had a couple of scouts at the game and they said nobody had a curveball like Bubba has." Or, "this one scout said they are always looking for left handers with an arm like Bubba." On and on, otherwise sharp people but blind as a bat when it came to their kid's future in sports. I heard that when our kids were playing, so 8 to 10 years worth of it. I think one kid, in all that time, got a partial scholarship at some junior college. He quit after a year in their program.

We only have 1 child and it has been $14k to $15k per year. She just turned 3 on the 12th. If we don't have another kid, we will shut off the funding at some point.