how much do you have saved for your kids for college so far?

[LoveBWVVBR]

We have 100% of a Florida state college education saved, as we purchased the Florida Prepaid Tuition Plan for each child right after birth. It wasn't expensive at that point and we were able to pay it in full both times. We also have 22K in our 4.5 y.o.'s Utah Vanguard 529 and about half of that in our 1 year-old's Utah Vanguard 529.

 

[delmar411]

Older DD has a full scholarship already (21st Century Scholars) plus she'll have another 20k to cover books and expenses. Anything above that and she's on her own.

The 3 younger kids will also have about 20k each and if they don't get the 21st Century scholarships then we'll cash flow what we can and they'll have to use loans to cover the rest. We'll have 2-3kids in college at the same time for 4yrs straight plus another 2yrs of just 1 kid in college so it will be a very long and expensive 6yr run for us. Two of those years we'll have 3 kids in college at the same time and that freaks me out! I suspect DH and I will be living on beans and rice to pay for it all. Although our priority will be to fund retirement since we'll be starting so late in the game.

I'm just beyond grateful that our oldest is covered. Since DH and I myself are in school full time until she's in HS, there is no way we'll be recovered enough financially to cover her tuition. We'll finish off paying our own student loans by the time she graduates HS.

 

[abmitch01]

I've read that you should fully fund your 401 and Roth IRA first. Right now I plan to use the Roth Ira deposits for college. You can't use the interest earned without a penalty, but you can take out what you put in for college.

I haven't reached the max yet of 16k per yr for my 403b and I think it's 6k a year for a Roth. If by some miracle I max those out, I'll start using a 529.

I think I have about 20k in the Roths, not sure what part of that is useable for college.

College savings is the one thing that keeps me up at night scared to death, lol. I know I'm on track for retirement but there's no way I can be on track 100% for both college and retirement.

 

[rileysmommy]

Dd (8) has about $30,000 in her 529 and ds (4) has about $15,000 in his. My dh's uncle started a 529 account for each of the grand nieces/nephews when they were born (he had no children of his own, never married). This was a real blessing to us. When he died 2 years ago we were blessed with a large inheritance and we put more money into their accounts.

 

[abmitch01]

I think we may do the community college for 2 yrs then transfer to a 4 yr school plan. I hate that they won't have the kind of college experience that I had but there are so many advantages to going that route.

my divorce settlement states we each will pay half the cost of a state school. So that's my savings goal.


my dear brother who works at MIT likes to walk my DD by Harvard and tell her she'll go there one day. He's been doing that since she was little. Oy vey.

 

[extremesoccermom]

I hate to admit it. I always meant to start a college fund but it just never happened. Luckily I got a job at a private university where one of the benefits is 100% tuition remission for my immediate family if I am employed 3 years or more. I have been here 20 years and it is a God send.
We have not had to pay anything yet for college. The tuition exchange (he decided to go to a sister school) covers all tuition. We pay for parking, books, lab fees, food and housing. So far he has recieved grant money to cover all those expenses.
While I don't recommend my method I am blessed that DS20 will graduate in 2 years debt free.
DD15 is mentally challanged and will most likely not attend college. We are trying to put some away every month in a trust fund for her.
I also decided to go back to school last year since I dropped out 25 years ago. I am going to school where I work and I love it. I am taking advantage of the tuition remission in hopes of a promotion at work.

 

[abmitch01]

that's great! I tried to get a nursing job at our local universities but found out they contract these services out so I wouldn't get the tuition benefit.

my employer offers some tuition reimbursement for going on in your field. When I look at how long I've worked there, sometimes I want to kick myself for not having gone back but the truth is, I don't want to go on to be say a nurse practitioner. I just can't convince them to pay to send me back to get an English degree!

 

[sunlover13]

We have $16,000 for DD(7). We have $10,000 for baby due in Oct.

We put $250 into each of their funds per month.

It would be nice to pay for their college education, but it is not my #1 priority. #1 is our retirement funds so we put most of our savings into our 401K's and max out our Roth IRA's each year.

I do not want my children to have to take care of us financially later in life.

Plus, I think student loans are a good thing to teach responsibility and to teach about finances. My DH and I both had student loans.


Question: Has the Roth IRA max contribution increased from $5,000 to $6,000 this year? I think I'm still contributing at a rate per month to reach $5,000.

 

[sparty7798]

Hi,
We started saving for our son when we he was born and I put in $100.00 per month into a 529 plan so nothing to big right now. My parents are really good to him and give him a $500.00 bond every Christmas and a $250.00 bond for his birthday so he is racking up some money from them that way.

When we stop paying $600.00 a month for day care, we will have a little more money to contribute to that. My parents helped with my education and my brother's education and I still owed 15 thousand at the end which I am still paying off. My husband has a PHD and won't pay off his educational expenses until he is 50 or more.

Education is expensive and only getting more expensive. We both work at universities so I understand!

 

[Virgderon]

I did the College Illinois pre-paid tuition . At the time, it cost me $540 a month for 5 years. Neither DD ended up going to an Illinois college, but they average the cost per semester and send that to the college that they are attending.

I paid $32,400 and the College Illinois program has paid out about $60,660 to the kids schools, so I think it was a better investment than stocks, etc.

Younger DD between college scholarships, grants and the College Illinois money will graduate with less than 10k in loans.

Older DD graduated with about 25k in loans, but she did study abroad twice, and knew that would make her loan burden higher. She did a year of Teach for America, and they sent $4500 to her loan company at the end of the year (they do this because teaching underpriveleged kids was considered public service), and is now teaching for a year in Japan to pay off the loans faster.

Did our retirement savings suffer because we saved $540 a month for 5 years for college? Yes.

But the fact that we had to dig into our 401ks when DH got laid off hurt more, and I couldn't have known that that would happen.

 

[4forMe]

Right now we have about 60K divided between 4 accounts. We currently set aside $500 per month.

My oldest is 8 yrs. away from starting college and has already decided he wants to go to the top public college in our state which is already 25K per year. I can only imagine how much it will cost when he starts. We will have our mortgage paid off the year he leaves for college so that will help with college costs.

I agree our kids college experience will be much different than ours. DH and I attended a private college. My parents helped pay for my schooling while DH paid it all on his own. It cost $40,000 for all 4 years with room and board 24 years ago. Now, this same college is close to 40K per year!!!

When I think about the cost of 4 years of college for 4 kids, I want to faint!

 

[DAISYDUCKRN]

i wish i would have saved for my kids, but because of paying for grade school and high school tuition i was not able to. we are fortunate because my mom, who is no longer with us, had, money set aside of her own (from a settlement) and this was given to my children. this helped tremendously, paid off a good bit of my older child's tuition, but still have about 20,000 left to pay through loans, my younger child has about 13,000 saved in a CD, she has one more year to go before college. she is a good student so i am hoping she will get an academic scholarship. my older child also received an academic scholarship, which helped.

 

[GoofyGolferGirl]

We did the KY prepaid tuition we paid about 16,000. for four years of college at a state university. It has turned out to be a great investment, tuition has gone up 10% or more each year and some years it went up like 20%. We still have 5 years before she can use it so anybody that lives in a state that offers the prepaid tuition I would take advantage!!

 

[JamesMom]

We signed up DS7 for the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan the year he was born and the last year of the program in 2003. We made annual payments and is now fully funded with $24,000. Yet, it is worth, right now, $40,000 at University of TX at Austin for 4 years prepaid tuition. Who knows what it will be worth when he acutally attends in 11 years!
For DS5, we signed him up last year when they re-opened a different program - Texas Promise Fund based on points. We paid (got an inheritence this year) a total of $30,000 for 4 years at an average price school (UNT) or 3.5 years at UT Austin. We'll see if the rate of return is as good as the other program.
So tuition is covered regardless of price hikes provided they attend Texas State schools.
Living expenses & books we figure we will pick up along the way. I have $3,000 in a 529 (opened for DS5 when there was no TX plan) and we'll keep adding to that.

 

[crisi]

Two kids, age 10 and 11. About $250k in college savings - $150k earmarked in 529s, the other $100k is intended for college. Still contributing. Retirements are funded as well and still contributing.

We won't qualify for aid and know it.

 

[SLM]

Our daughter graduated six years ago-and then she did a year to get her Masters. She was a good student and got about 6,000 a year in scholarships but we paid the rest. My husband and I figured that was our responsibility and it was a priority to put money aside for her (and our retirement). Whatever you can put aside will help. She always worked summers for her spending money and paid for her books (which is alot!). Now she has a good job and great benefits. She'll never be rich-she's an elementary school librarian-but she has a job she loves and will always be able to take care of herself. That was important to us. Oh-those of you with daughters? When they get married it's like another year of tuition!
ETA: I meant to say that we paid close to 100,000.00 for four years at a private liberal arts college and a year at a large university for her master's degree.

 

[ENSOCK]

My DH told DS16 that if he did not qualify for TOPS (Louisiana based) then he would have not a life or a truck.

Must have worked for he made a 21 on his ACT. He is starting his junior year in high school tomorrow and can take the ACT every six months. He needs a 25 to get into LSU law school, which is his school of choice so hopefully he makes it. If not then he will have to go to a smaller school.

we are going to help him as much as we can. He will have to get student loans but I am planning on paying them back as much as I can.

Second DS11, same thing but I am just hoping he will start to take school a lot more serious then he does. His last teacher kept saying "thank God he is cute!"

 

[prncess674]

My DH told DS16 that if he did not qualify for TOPS (Louisiana based) then he would have not a life or a truck.

Must have worked for he made a 21 on his ACT. He is starting his junior year in high school tomorrow and can take the ACT every six months. He needs a 25 to get into LSU law school, which is his school of choice so hopefully he makes it. If not then he will have to go to a smaller school.

we are going to help him as much as we can. He will have to get student loans but I am planning on paying them back as much as I can.

Second DS11, same thing but I am just hoping he will start to take school a lot more serious then he does. His last teacher kept saying "thank God he is cute!"

Not to knock you off your high, but a 21 is nothing to get excited about. Louisiana has some of the lowest requirements and a 21 only means you are in the 50th percentile. He should really be working towards a 29 which is where most scholarships starts kicking in that would then give him money to cover books, room, board, etc.
http://www.actstudent.org/scores/norms1.html
Also realize that TOPS pays for 8 semesters maximum. Graduating in most pre-law curriculum will likely take more schooling.

 

[tar heel]

I wouldn't think an ACT score would have anything at all to do with law school. He needs a high LSAT and college GPA for that. Could you by any chance be talking about just pre-law undergraduate? That's only the first step toward law school.

 

[CowboyCO]

We have a couple of 529s with not much in them (11 & 8).

BUT, the University of Wyoming (Go Pokes!) has a great legacy program. Children of alums get in-state tuition, which is cheeeeap. That's the back-up plan, because we could pay as we go on that college because it's only about $8,000 a year.

We're already laying it on thick for academics and academic scholarships. I also had a friend who is a big-time college career counselor who recommended to me to not fill up a 529 because all of that counts against against you in financial aid. He said the difference you could get in scholarships and grants is much more than any interest you might pay on loans. Just a thought...