spicycrab,
I notice that you are from VA which is where I live, too.
The VA 529 plan has many, many options
some of which are guaranteed. In addition, you can write off from VA state taxes up to 4,000 per year per account with unlimited carryover for amounts that exceed 4,000.
We used both VPEP and VEST for our DSs college. (They are now called Virginia 529 PrePAID and Virginia 529 inVEST--link to
http://www.virginia529.com/ )
Lucky for us, DS elected to go to an in state college. DS graduated last year. We used VPEP for tuition and fees. We invested approx 18,500 for the 4 year VPEP plan and the payout was over 42,000. The VPEP (now called prePAID) plan guarantees you will get back at least what you paid into the program:
While you won't lose any money on the prePAID, your returns will be less than stellar if your child goes out of state or to a private college so that is a risk.
We used the VEST (now called inVEST) for DSs room and board and books. The return on this was pretty dismal because we opened the account about 4 years before he went to college. Most of the time, his funds invested in the Piedmont fund IIRC. This was 100% fixed income/stable value. While earnings weren't great, I believe we earned close to 4K over the life of the investment.
You can inVEST in an age evolving plan, assorted Vanguard investments, fixed income, etc.. There are many choices that could be matched up with your risk tolerance.
And, there is also a new program that was introduced just last year called College Weath. Basically, there are two banks through which you can sign up (BB&T and Union First Market) and they pay interest.