College fund!

drunkindonuts · July 2013

Hey ladies,

Hope you're all doing well! Hard to believe all the littles are coming up to their first birthdays. Caroline just celebrated hers!

I'm wondering, if its not to personal, how much everyone is tucking away for college? Right now we're only putting aside 30/wk or 120/mos. that won't give her much at all towards college in the grand scheme.

We're looking into sending her to catholic school when she's ready, roughly 3k per year. once she's high school ready, there's a private/boarding school in our city that ranks top 20 among the nation but it's roughly 11k per year. I'm overwhelmed thinking about it and she's only one! What is everyone else doing as far as saving for education?

Edit: punctuation! My iPhone evidently doesn't do parenthesis on the bump!

SM0524 · July 2013

We are currently putting $20 a week into a 529 plan. She will be going to public school though so this is just for college. We will up the amount once she starts school and we will no longer be paying for DC. If we keep it at $20 that will probably only pay for a year or two of college. It's a start though.

drunkindonuts · July 2013

SM0524:
We are currently putting 20 a week into a 529 plan. She will be going to public school though so this isnbsp;just for college.nbsp; We will up the amount once she starts school and we will no longer be paying for DC.nbsp; If we keep it at 20 that will probably only pay for a year or two of college.nbsp; It's a start though.

Absolutely, anything helps! Both H and I have large college debt so we really want to try and relieve some of that burden for Caroline.

alrighthamilton · July 2013

We are really fortunate in that the city we live in started a program several years ago where every child that graduates from the public school system has their entire college education paid for, including books and room and board, as long as they attend a public, in-state college or university. Still, we have started a special savings account for her offered by our bank, and we put at least $25 in per week, more if the budget allows. And all of the money she receives as gifts. I know that the college years will be very expensive for us even with this program in place.

CrazyDaisy8 · July 2013

Becc77:
We are really fortunate in that the city we live in started a program several years ago where every child that graduates from the public school system has their entire college education paid for, including books and room and board, as long as they attend a public, in-state college or university. Still, we have started a special savings account for her offered by our bank, and we put at least $25 in per week, more if the budget allows. And all of the money she receives as gifts. I know that the college years will be very expensive for us even with this program in place.

Ummm, do you have a spare room in your house so I can come live there too? I wish this was how it was everywhere! We currently are not setting aside money for him but plan on it as soon as we get some of our own debt paid down.

drunkindonuts · July 2013

mlynne37wiu:
Becc77:
We are really fortunate in that the city we live in started a program several years ago where every child that graduates from the public school system has their entire college education paid for, including books and room and board, as long as they attend a public, in-state college or university. Still, we have started a special savings account for her offered by our bank, and we put at least $25 in per week, more if the budget allows. And all of the money she receives as gifts. I know that the college years will be very expensive for us even with this program in place.
Holy crap, where do you live?  I'm going to be your new neighbor.
I contribute $0 to her college fund right now.  Cash is tight and I need to think about my retirement first.

Yes! Where do you live? I didn't know such a program existed! That's amazing!

alrighthamilton · July 2013

mlynne37wiu:
Becc77:
We are really fortunate in that the city we live in started a program several years ago where every child that graduates from the public school system has their entire college education paid for, including books and room and board, as long as they attend a public, in-state college or university. Still, we have started a special savings account for her offered by our bank, and we put at least $25 in per week, more if the budget allows. And all of the money she receives as gifts. I know that the college years will be very expensive for us even with this program in place.
Holy crap, where do you live? I'm going to be your new neighbor.
I contribute $0 to her college fund right now. Cash is tight and I need to think about my retirement first.

Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's in the SW corner, about 2 1/2 hours east of Chicago. It's a nice city, but this fund was started by private donors who have a vested interest in the city's economy because so much business was dying off and college graduates were quickly moving out of state for employment. I think it's had a positive impact because there seem to be more people moving in. And the public school system here is actually pretty decent-the elementary school down the road, where Kate will be going, is consistently in the top 100 national schools.

shakinros · July 2013

We contributed 100 to open her college fund and then all contributions have come from grandparents and great aunts. She's got about 5K right now in gifts from her birth. She'll be going public through high school.

We have to pay down H's school debt and save for retirement first. I'm honestly way more worried about making sure she doesn't have to pay for us when we're elderly.

MoFree · July 2013

Lila is fortunate to already have a substantial college fund. We used part of DH's accident settlement for her schooling. In addition FIL has out away a significant amount away for her and will do so for any subsequent grandchildren.

alrighthamilton · July 2013

mlynne37wiu:
Becc77:
mlynne37wiu:
Becc77:
We are really fortunate in that the city we live in started a program several years ago where every child that graduates from the public school system has their entire college education paid for, including books and room and board, as long as they attend a public, in-state college or university. Still, we have started a special savings account for her offered by our bank, and we put at least $25 in per week, more if the budget allows. And all of the money she receives as gifts. I know that the college years will be very expensive for us even with this program in place.
Holy crap, where do you live? I'm going to be your new neighbor.
I contribute $0 to her college fund right now. Cash is tight and I need to think about my retirement first.
Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's in the SW corner, about 2 1/2 hours east of Chicago. It's a nice city, but this fund was started by private donors who have a vested interest in the city's economy because so much business was dying off and college graduates were quickly moving out of state for employment. I think it's had a positive impact because there seem to be more people moving in. And the public school system here is actually pretty decent-the elementary school down the road, where Kate will be going, is consistently in the top 100 national schools.

That's it. We're moving to Michigan. DH can commute 6 hours a day.

Do it! He can buy a speedboat and commute via Lake Michigan. That should shave some time off of his commute.

sdlaura · July 2013

There was a NY Times Magazine article about Kalamazoo:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/magazine/kalamazoo-mich-the-city-that-pays-for-college.html?pagewanted=all

Sorry it's not clicky.

CLeigh03 · July 2013

We will do 3 years of private school for preschool, B will then head to public elementary/middle/high school. College is already taken care of from grandparents. I think about how insane that is almost every single day.

drunkindonuts · July 2013

CLeigh03:
We will do 3 years of private school for preschool, B will then head to public elementary/middle/high school. College is already taken care of from grandparents. I think about how insane that is almost every single day.

Wow, you are so fortunate! That's amazing.

allardr · July 2013

I started a savings account and have been putting all her holiday card money in there. We try to put $10/week in there but sadly we don't even get that done all the time, what can I say being a SAHM puts us in a tight budget. But definitely not to early. Anything is better than nothing is my philosophy. We have roughly $600 after 1 year, not much but hey its more than nothing

klp28 · July 2013

I think about this and feel guilty on the daily. H and I have ridiculous student loan debt and I hate the thought that our children may have to shoulder that same burden as young adults.

DD has a 529 that all of her gifted money goes into. We currently have DS's gifted money in a savings account and we really need to find the time to go open a 529 for him, too.

Barring a miracle that increases wages for nurses, we'll probably be able to pay for 1 year of college for both kids. Ugh.

drunkindonuts · July 2013

klp28 said:

I think about this and feel guilty on the daily. H and I have ridiculous student loan debt and I hate the thought that our children may have to shoulder that same burden as young adults.

DD has a 529 that all of her gifted money goes into. We currently have DS's gifted money in a savings account and we really need to find the time to go open a 529 for him, too.

Barring a miracle that increases wages for nurses, we'll probably be able to pay for 1 year of college for both kids. Ugh.

I'm a nurse too so I understand 100%

we're in the same boat!

JulieMarie21 · July 2013

Only because we can right now, we put $300 a month in DD's 529. We don't know how long this will continue, but for the time being, most of our money is going into savings. FYI We both work.

JayandEmm · July 2013

We just have a savings account for ds right now. We don't put a certain amount into it, really. My dad sends $50 every so often to put in his savings, MIL gives us some to put in there sometimes [like when she wins at bingo, or something], and when DH gets a bonus from work. We're really bad about it. My dad paid for all of my college, and DH didn't really even "go" to college [his work paid for 6 weeks of business classes], so I guess I never really thought hard about it...

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