How much do you save for your kids' college?

[patsal]

How much can a student borrow each year in their own name?

From my experience with DS only about half of what was needed.

 

[disykat]

I may be off because we didn't do this, but I think students can do $3500 freshman $4500 sophmore, 5500 junior and beyond in subsidized Stafford loans. If a student sticks to this, they'd only be able to rack up 19K in debt -actually a doable amount.

However, there are also unsubsidized loans. I'm not sure on those limits.

 

[Leader of the Club]

We haven't saved anything for college.

The National Guard and ROTC have amazing programs if you want to walk away from college with little to no debt. If you go the ROTC route you leave college with a secure job for a minimum of four years with good pay and outstanding benefits. That is what I encourage my kids to do.

My DD23 will graduate college next year with little debt. She went to the local 2 yr school and received two AA degrees and 3 Certificates. She is finishing up at the 4 yr school now. She lives at home, I pay her car insurance and cell phone bill. She works three jobs to pay for everything else. She received grants and scholarships to cover most of her tuition.

My boys are 15 and 7. Their dad works for a University and they will get free tuition if he is still working there when they are ready for college. I will still encourage them to check out the ROTC or National Guard option to help with other expenses.

 

[nsmith]

When DD, the DS finished preschool we continued to save the tuition towards college, I think it was about $125 a month. Not much but something. As the years went by we did w/out new cars, cable TV even cells phones for a long time trying to increase that amount. I set a goal of giving each $10000.00 a year through 4 years of college. That meant we needed to save $600 a month. We only made it to $525 and wanted to increase that when the economy collapsed and I just couldn't give them anymore when our retirement savings took such a hit.

DD is starting college in 10days. We will be able to give her that 10K with out any change in our budget.

This is what I have learned this year about college/tuition/ and choosing a major.

NJ state schools are very expensive for IN STATE tuition and they don't give much if any aid. DD was promised $3000 still would cost $30,000 a year for R&B and tuition and fees

NY and PA state schools are a good deal for out of state tuition, still no to little aid.

Small private Catholic schools give ALOT of merit/need based aid making them more affordable that our state schools. She received a $1500/yr scholarship for her volunteer work. She also was awarded a $12000/yr a year merit scholarship and a $3200/yr need based award. Her school also give $1000/yr out of state grant. All this made the $39000/yr for tuition, R&B and fees sticker price much more managable.

My children are not athletic so did not participate in sports. From a strickly Finacial aspect this was a GREAT THING for us. We did not need to spend money on equipment, trips to tornaments, fees, trainers etc. They have been able to work part time jobs and volunteer at our local hospital instead.

We will give DD $10000, she is taking the state Stafford loans totaling $5500 and will pay the rest out of her savings from her job.

Lots of our friends would say "they will just have to take loans our for school we cant save anything for them" but students can only borrow first year $5500 in their names anything over that must be cosigned by the parents or borrowed in the parents name. THAT scares the heck out of me, I don't want $100000 of loans with my name on them.

As far as majors we were pretty realistic with DD about the need to get a job right away after college to start paying her debts and being independent of us. We checked out the US department of labor each time she was interested in a major to see job availability/salary/and job growth statistics. When she chose her major it was in part because of the information we found on this site and verified with people in that industry.

We also try to find experiences to "test out majors" art classes at a local college when she was interested in graphic design, CSI camp when she was interested in criminal justice, documentary making at the local PBS station for DS this fall to check out his interest in writing and film making. I work in a hospital so as volunteers both can "shadow" a practictioner in any of the departments.

DD is a hardworking goal driven kid DS not so much. Our experiences with him may be very different but for now I am sending my first off to college feeling very secure both finacially and emotionally.

 

[Qwackertoo]

In my state, a score of 32 on the ACT will get your tuition paid for with a Presidential level scholarship at two of the biggest state-wide universities.

You can also at that level apply for departmental level scholarships and a few others and scrape together a few more thousand to apply towards housing.

We took our DD off for her first semester last weekend. Been a long week. Miss her a bunch. Planning a trip for she & I to WDW as soon as she arrives home in Dec.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

We haven't saved anything for college.

The National Guard and ROTC have amazing programs if you want to walk away from college with little to no debt. If you go the ROTC route you leave college with a secure job for a minimum of four years with good pay and outstanding benefits. That is what I encourage my kids to do.

My DD23 will graduate college next year with little debt. She went to the local 2 yr school and received two AA degrees and 3 Certificates. She is finishing up at the 4 yr school now. She lives at home, I pay her car insurance and cell phone bill. She works three jobs to pay for everything else. She received grants and scholarships to cover most of her tuition.

My boys are 15 and 7. Their dad works for a University and they will get free tuition if he is still working there when they are ready for college. I will still encourage them to check out the ROTC or National Guard option to help with other expenses.

Just wanted to say this isn't necessarily true. I have at least two friends who were hoping to get active duty Army officer slots out of ROTC and ended up getting slotted for reserves (at least they got school paid for). They're pretty upset because reserve status sometimes makes it harder to find jobs and they thought they would have no issue going active. The only guaranteed way for an active duty commission is through the service academies. Every branch of the military is currently downsizing and isn't as stable as it was 5 years ago. I will say my husband was able to get his bachelors while enlisted in 5 years with the Air Force from Embry Riddle and didn't pay a dime. But pay as a newly enlisted guy sucks (we didn't meet until he had about 10 years in so it wasn't an issue for us, but it is for a lot of people).

 

[tiawolfe]

I had a long talk with the hubby after reading through this thread. Even though the kids get $400 a month towards college, we are going to bite the bullet and spend $32,000 to buy them each a prepaid year of tuition in Michigan.

We are also looking at increasing what we put in their 529 plans each month.

DH and I are both public school teachers, and putting this much away is a bit of a stretch for us. I want to make sure that we still have money to ENJOY life before they are all grown up!

 

[scottmel]

I am running away from a 529. At least in PA the fine print says it will not promise the funding to basically be there when DD13 hits college. They have increased the fees on them as well....In the past they use to be a good deal but no longer. They can't guarantee the funding on them going forward. I am sure each state is different but we to Roth, Cloverdale (spelling?)...I have about 50k right now but at the rate we are now it is going to be about 75k. Her current private tuition is 12k a year so that takes a bite out of what it could have been but what can you do?

 

[ilovemk76]

I am running away from a 529. At least in PA the fine print says it will not promise the funding to basically be there when DD13 hits college. They have increased the fees on them as well....In the past they use to be a good deal but no longer. They can't guarantee the funding on them going forward. I am sure each state is different but we to Roth, Cloverdale (spelling?)...I have about 50k right now but at the rate we are now it is going to be about 75k. Her current private tuition is 12k a year so that takes a bite out of what it could have been but what can you do?

A 529 is a investment that is not held by the state and the state nor the investment house does not guarantee any return on your investment.

Are you talking about a prepaid plan?

 

[scottmel]

Yes, PA has two 529 plans:

The "prepaid" 529 plan, where PA says they will invest your money and earn returns that cover your childs future college needs...problem I have is they call this plan "guaranteed" and it's nothing of the sort - if the fund is short, they just change the rules (PA has attached premiums to certain school choices over the last few years). I liken this plan to a standard pension plan - ask any steel, auto, or airline employee how that guarantee turned out. I am also virtually certain that PA taxpayers are NOT on the hook for any shortfalls either (i.e., there is no PBGC like for pensions).

The "investment" plan, where PA basically has a "Roth IRA", so to speak, but is education related and not retirement...my question here is "why pay PA to manage what you can do yourself via Fidelity or Vanguard"? Their fee is currently 0.49% per year, which is very high compared to many of the standard Fidelity mutual funds...I also believe there are three parties feeding at the trough, er "involved", here - PA, uPromise for recordkeeping, and Vanguard for fund management. What value is PA or uPromise bringing that you are paying for? Yes, you get a state tax deduction;however, I don't make financial decisions strictly for tax reasons.

I am not a financial advisor and there are many ways to fund college - so if someone wants to use a state 529 (I've only looked at PA), then by all means do so...I'm just not sold on their value.

I personally think these 529 plans were a way for states to get in on the strong market back in the late '90's and make some money via fees (i.e., you send you money to the state) - things are fine when the market is good, but not so much when the market tanks / volatile.

In short, caveat emptor.

 

[garada3]

Kids in grades 12, 10 and 8.

We have been saving every month since they were born, with the amounts gradually increasing over time.

We are estimating 4 years at a state school for $100,000 total for each kid. The first two are fully funded and the youngest will be by the time he graduates high school.

The money is in regular mutual funds in our names, nothing in education plans.

If they choose schools that cost more than what we provide then they will have to fund it. Same with grad school.

However, if they mess up then the parent funding is gone.

 

[Dopey420]

I will still encourage them to check out the ROTC or National Guard option to help with other expenses.

Followed by a 2-4 year all expenses paid vacation in Iraq or Afghanistan.

No thanks.

 

[bettymae1121]

$250 a month now, will bump to $750 a month once DD is out of daycare and in school (basicly we'll roll her daycare payment into her college fund).

of course we only have one kid right now, if we have a 2nd we'll have to revise that.

 

[brymolmom]

$250 a month now, will bump to $750 a month once DD is out of daycare and in school (basicly we'll roll her daycare payment into her college fund).

of course we only have one kid right now, if we have a 2nd we'll have to revise that.

Was just chatting about this with a friend today. I'm guessing you have a flexible job of some sort? I hate that even though you always THINK daycare costs are going to go way down during school years, it isn't always the case. My friend needs to pay for a before and after school program and although it's a couple hundred dollars less than before - It is not a huge savings.

Thanks to the wonderful people on this thread I went into my kids' 529's last night and upped our monthly contribution by $20 each. I figure we won't miss the $40 and maybe I'll try to do that again in the next 6 months or so...THANKS for inspiring me!

 

[LisaR]

Was just chatting about this with a friend today. I'm guessing you have a flexible job of some sort? I hate that even though you always THINK daycare costs are going to go way down during school years, it isn't always the case. My friend needs to pay for a before and after school program and although it's a couple hundred dollars less than before - It is not a huge savings.

Thanks to the wonderful people on this thread I went into my kids' 529's last night and upped our monthly contribution by $20 each. I figure we won't miss the $40 and maybe I'll try to do that again in the next 6 months or so...THANKS for inspiring me!

My niece was planning to use the daycare money for college savings, as well. Unfortunately, after a year at the public school, she decided to put her girls in a private school. In addition, the hours were different than the public school and it didn't mesh with the parents work schedule so they had the after school care expense. It is always something!

 

[brettgirl]

I am shocked at the amounts of money most of you can put away for college-we have saved barely enough for almost 2 years of daughter's college (she is in a state school starting her 2nd yr) and it is not for the fact that we have not tried! Your hubbies must make gads of money because hubby and I don't, not even near 3 figures (have not had raises in years, I have a 4 year degree, hubby has tech degree-even have taken losses due to our wonderful economy) We rarely go out, one car is paid for by hubbys work, 1 nice vacation a year (could only afford son and myself this year for disney) and I am not a shopper. We own a home in the sticks of PA. We are frugal and quite boring but we love our lives and enjoy it immensly, we have been through a lot together (job losses, near death illnesses, premature baby, autism) and if going into debt for our kids is part of our lives, then so be it-we will do what we can now and pay the bill when it comes in.......

For those who have mentioned entitlement......We may be paying for our two children's education, as my dad paid for me, but the buck stops there-they are responsible for everything else in their lives when we start paying for college-there has been no cars nor gads of money given to our daughter when she finished high school.

 

[dcfromva]

We started contributing 300 per month and upped as budget permitted. I think we were at 600 per month just before he entered college. DS just graduated this past spring with a job waiting for him. We were able to meet our goal of covering 100% with no loans.

 

[KennesawNemo]

My goal is to fully pay 4 year in-state college for my son. Beyond that, I will help as much as I can.

 

[tiawolfe]

Hubby and I just looked at the prepaid tuition, or MET plan, in Michigan. It is $16,600 PER YEAR! Yikes!

Given that most of the public universities are around $10,000 right now, this does not seem like a good deal for our 8 and 6 year olds. Guess we'll invest it and see how that goes. Hopefully the market won't crash..... Again!

 

[brettgirl]

PA state schools are over 18500.00, and that is going VERY basic.......