Clicky Poll: College fund for LO?

watermellens · June 2011

I saw a comment in another post and it got me thinking...are you creating a college fund for your LO?
[Poll]

TMNTgirl · June 2011

We've got one set up right now. We put $50/month in it and also any monetary gifts we have gotten for DS (Christmas, his baptism, etc.)

I think we've got about $1500 in there so far (which will probably only pay for hour of college in 2028).

principessa81 · June 2011

We're going to start a 529 for Tony. He received quite a bit of $ for his baptism, so we're going to put it in a college fund for him.

OhSewCrafty · June 2011

Absolutely not. To think that we will be able to put a dent in what college will cost (especially if we have more children) is ludicrous. Our money will serve a much better purpose going towards our current debt and our retirement so we are in a better place to help with things like a car, books, fees, etc. You can take out loans for college, you can't take out loans for retirement.

The good news is that since I work for a university, if Charlie decides to go where ever I work, chances are he'll go for free.

plumerialost · June 2011

I chose the 2nd option, but we have opened savings for both girls that they will get when they graduate high school to use for school, car, apartment. They get $10 a month at this time and all money they get as gifts.

shaw · June 2011

Of course!!!! Education is highly regarding in both sides of our family. Many family members have asked where they can contribute (toward college) so we started an account. We also put $50 in monthly. Family members will gift money to the account on holidays and birthdays.

xxbabycakesxx · June 2011

we just set one up for griffin last week. DH didnt want to cause his parents never set one up for him. he wants griff to learn on his own so he doesnt take it for granted but my parents helped me and i never took it for granted.

SapphireKat18 · June 2011

I plan on paying for his whole education as soon as they start pulling up the right Powerball numbers!

Seriously...we definitely want to contribute but I'm thinking there will be many student loans (and hopefully scholarships involved). My BIL did financial planning when my niece was born almost 8 years ago and they projected it will cost $100,000+ a year when our LOs are college aged. Oy!!

kat81again2 · June 2011

we haven't set anything up yet but we will. it's very important to us.

nursedevivo · June 2011

Yep...we save everything he gets...he got quite a bit of $ when he was born, so we put in an account for him.

Also my parents set up a fund for him and they contribute to it annually.

BUT--I am not letting him know any of this so that he thinks college will NOT be paid for. So that when and if he graduates, we will pay off his loans for him.

melissa4252008 · June 2011

OhSewCrafty:
Absolutely not. To think that we will be able to put a dent in what college will cost (especially if we have more children) is ludicrous. Our money will serve a much better purpose going towards our current debt and our retirement so we are in a better place to help with things like a car, books, fees, etc. You can take out loans for college, you can't take out loans for retirement.
The good news is that since I work for a university, if Charlie decides to go where ever I work, chances are he'll go for free.

This.

We have an account for him that we contribute $100 a month to, but at this time it is not intended to be for direct college costs.

KristieElizabeth · June 2011

We have one set up. DH set it up as soon as we got her SS# in. My parents also set up one for her and my niece.

OhSewCrafty · June 2011

I think its wonderful that some of you plan to pay for college for your LO, but what if you have more children? I just can't imagine being able to pay for multiple kids going to college!! Or worse, putting aside a lot of money for Charlie, then as we have more children, not having as much and systematically screwing them. lol

honkytonk_kid · June 2011

We don't have a fund set up yet, but we plan to.

We plan on helping LOs through college, but we definitely don't plan on paying for 100% of his and future LO's college expenses (unless we happen to become super wealthy in the next 18 years- HA!) for a couple reasons. 1. Most of our savings will go to retirement. That's not selfish IMO, it's smart. I can't imagine putting the burden on our children to support us in our old age. 2. They should plan on working hard to get scholarships and financial aid like H and I did, as well as working part time through school and taking out small loans if needed. I don't want them to have to work full time through college or not have any fun because they are stressing about money, but college students should be able to handle a part time job.

It also kinda depends on the kid's personality. No way am I going to shell out $$$ for an irresponsible, immature 18 y/o to party through school, fail out, and waste my money. That kid can get a job and prove that they can grow up by starting with a few community college courses. But for a kid like SIL at 18 (straight As, academic scholarship, NCAA D1 runner) yeah, I'd be willing to pay more so that they didn't have to work much, or at all, on top of that.

lulu8109 · June 2011

We don't have one yet, but plan on starting one eventually. We plan on putting any gift money he gets into an account. Hopefully we'll be able to add to it, but saving for that is definitely secondary to paying off our debts and saving for retirement.

My parents helped pay for school, but I also took out loans. I would love if LO didn't have to take out any loans, but if he does, then that's life, hehe.

LuckyladyJ · June 2011

I have one set up for Both my children I just budget money monthly & deposit into each fund.I am sorry, but I feel it's important to start saving towards their education. They even have a few savings bonds that they have received as gifts from their grandparents.I will rather cut out a few things here & there to accomplish this goal than not have anything at all.

thatgirl85 · June 2011

DH had a 529 set up within a week of Alec being born. We've put all of the money we received from family and friends from birth and baptism. DH's parents made a very generous contribution. DH is in charge of it, so I honestly am not sure how much is in there or how often we put money in. He's a financial planner, so I let him do his thing.

mamaholmes2010 · June 2011

OhSewCrafty:
I think its wonderful that some of you plan to pay for college for your LO, but what if you have more children? I just can't imagine being able to pay for multiple kids going to college!! Or worse, putting aside a lot of money for Charlie, then as we have more children, not having as much and systematically screwing them. lol

Realistically we know that we will not be able to pay for 100% of Oliver's college education but we would like to help in any way possible. Truthfully we contribute very little every month ($50-$100) most of what is in there at this point in money from baptism, birth, Christmas, Easter. Our families don't want to buy him toys or clothes since we already have a house full, so they would rather contribute to his education. We know we would like to have more children and at that point we will have to re-evaluate how much we are contributing to each child. In the short term Oliver's will have more money (started at $50 a month but when baby #2 comes it will probably be $25 a month) but he will go to college first and then we can start contributing more to baby #2. It will all even out in the end!

SapphireKat18 · June 2011

OhSewCrafty:
I think its wonderful that some of you plan to pay for college for your LO, but what if you have more children? I just can't imagine being able to pay for multiple kids going to college!! Or worse, putting aside a lot of money for Charlie, then as we have more children, not having as much and systematically screwing them. lol

This is my worry, too. My dad was able to contribute to both my and my brother's education which was awesome. I picked a pricey private college and feel fortunate to have been able to go. After scholarships and my dad's help, I graduated with about $12K in student loans which I know is on the low side compared to some people. But even just 6 years after graduating I'm not sure I could afford to go to that college now! I can only imagine what it will be like in 18 years.

But I suppose it also depends on the schools my kids choose. If they do CC for 2 years then go to a state school it might be a little easier for us to help them out than if they choose to attend private institutions from the start. I'm also not totally against them joining the military to help pay for their education. DH started in college but did not have the maturity/motivation to do well so after 1 year he enlisted, grew up a little, and gained more perspective on what he actually wanted to do in life so now he can take advantage of and appreciate the education he's getting rather than throwing away money like he was doing at 18. I'm hoping our kids have better drive than he did at that age, but if not, like PP said, I'm not paying for kids to goof off and screw themselves over because they're not ready. So yes, I'd like to have money set aside to help them but I'm not going to be signing my name to checks too easily. :P

thatgirl85 · June 2011

OhSewCrafty:
I think its wonderful that some of you plan to pay for college for your LO, but what if you have more children? I just can't imagine being able to pay for multiple kids going to college!! Or worse, putting aside a lot of money for Charlie, then as we have more children, not having as much and systematically screwing them. lol

I don't think it's about paying 100%; we're just trying to put away what we can for Alec and our future children. I worked full time and took out student loans during college. I keep thinking how nice it would have been to be able to study more and get involved on campus. Instead, I took morning classes and then worked 1pm-9:30pm 5 days a week. My work schedule didn't permit me to join any study groups or any extracurricular programs that would have greatly enhanced my degree.

We may not be able to fully fund our children's college expenses, but whatever dent we can make is worth it to me.

jessrenee11 · June 2011

nope, not at all. There is no way that we would be able to pay 100% for college for our children. We can barely save for retirement. Ideally I would love to be able to but realisticly MH and mine jobs are never going to make us wealthy enough to do so. MH and I both went to trade schools so it was pretty inexpensive compared to a 4 year school and lucky both set of our parents were able to pay for it so if she chose to do something like that and we can swing it by all means. I know that both sets of grandparents have set up college funds for her, so that is going to pretty much be it unless I win the lottery

Moonbeam828 · June 2011

Absolutely. Obviously this is a personal thing for everyone, but I feel it's part of our job as parents to help him pay for college as much as we can. We opened a Florida Prepaid College Fund account for him right after he was born and are making monthly payments. It isn't taking away from our retirement savings, and we have very minimal debt besides our mortgage. Neither DH or I are big moneymakers (teacher and paralegal) but this is something we feel very passionately about so it factors in monthly when we allocate our money. DS is likely our only child, but even if we have another we still want to be putting away as much as we can for his/their future.

kj07 · June 2011

DH and I disagree about this. After scholarships and my parents, I only had to pay for my books and living expenses (outside of room and board). DH had to work his way through college and it took him about 10 years to get his degree.

Now DH is insistent that we pay for B's college, while I think that if he has to work for it he'll appreciate it more. I'm not adverse to helping him out by any means, but I agree with OSC that we should prioritize our retirement savings/plannings over B's (and any subsequent children's) college savings/plannings.

curlydoglover · June 2011

We've been saving for "college" for years now. It hasn't been in a tax shelter, but we've had money mentally earmarked for that purpose.

Want a personalized experience?

Clicky Poll: College fund for LO?

Re: Clicky Poll: College fund for LO?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards