How Are You Saving for LO's College?

pixieprincss

DH and I just worked out the amount we can swing from our monthly budget for a college fund and now we need somewhere to put the money. I'll admit, for all of my MM ways I know zero about college savings options.

Gigs2000

We're doing VA 529 plans.

We're also agressively putting additional money aside in a separate account to purchase prepaid tuition for one child in the next 3-5 years.

pixieprincss

Gigs2000:

We're doing VA 529 plans.

We're also agressively putting additional money aside in a separate account to purchase prepaid tuition for one child in the next 3-5 years.

What did you look for when choosing between VA's 529 plans?

bh2720

We also have a VA 529 plan and back when DH was employed we were putting a decent amount in every month. Once he is employed again (hopefully within a month--woohoo!), we'll start that back up again. Also, any money that W receives as a gift goes directly into the account. 

SoonToBeMrsDTS

Each kid has a 529 - DH set it up so I'm not sure of the specifics but we put an equal amount in each account every 2 weeks. At Christmas and the kid's birthdays we have asked for savings bonds instead of gifts from some of our family while the kids are young and don't know any different. DD is perfectly happy getting a $25 gift from my parents and then they give us a savings bond for a couple hundred dollars. 

smacb

We opened an account for DS when he was born.  We put in all gift money plus try to add as we can.  We don't have a set amount per month.  A relative also generously established an account in his name for college.

I'm also planning on going back to work when DS and any other kids we have are school aged.  We can live on Dh's salary.  We plan to use my future salary if we need to save more aggressively for college. 

Gigs2000

pixieprincss:

Gigs2000:

We're doing VA 529 plans.

We're also agressively putting additional money aside in a separate account to purchase prepaid tuition for one child in the next 3-5 years.

What did you look for when choosing between VA's 529 plans?

We took the easy approach and went with the website suggestions based on age (i.e. aggressive).  If I didn't have an outdated browser at work, I could get you more info but due to my browser, the website won't let me log in!

 

 

vtkgirl77

We haven't started saving specifically for college yet. Right now, we are focusing all of our financial efforts on contributing to our retirement since DH will be almost 60 when our first kid goes to college. My first priority is making sure that DH and I have enough money for retirement so our kids won't have to worry about taking care of us as we age. I'm hoping that if we can really build up our retirement while our kids are young, then as they get older, we can focus on putting more money into college savings. Also, by the time they are in college, we should be able to contribute a significant amount of our income to their college expenses since we won't have to save for retirement anymore and since we should've have a house payment. So, that's our strategy for now.

Hey Jellisy

We do the VA 529.  We put $4000 (the VA tax deferred) in it each year and I think we have her in a targeted account that starts off aggressive and gets more conservative as she gets older.  We also add money they receive to that account as well as a percentage of all bonus money DH and I get.