Saving for college?

zazu13 · July 2014

The penny pinching thread got me curious - are you saving for your kids' college yet? Or did you set up accounts for him/her?

We set up just a basic savings account at our credit union for each girl and $25 is auto transfered every 2 weeks on payday. It's not much, but it feels good to have something put away for them. Hopefully we can add more in the future or find better ways to invest/save. DH wants to invest in silver, too, but we havent done that yet.

smushi · July 2014

We've set up something similar

katy4128 · July 2014

We set up a savings account for DS about two weeks after he was born. All the money we received as gifts when he was born we put into the savings account.Our plan is to put money into the account every once and awhile.

RedDawnsRevenge · July 2014

When we pay down our debt we hope to start both girls a college fund.

juniper75 · July 2014

We have started accounts for both girls but I am up in Canada where we have Registered Education Savings Plans so for now we feel its worth it. Our goal is to put away 2500 a year for each of them.

AcaAwkward · July 2014

We having a savings account for DD and will set one up for DS as well. My aunt gives the kids money to be put aside for college each year at Xmas. We also get payouts from an oil & gas trust on my grandfather's family's land (left to his grandkids in his will) and we put that towards the kids' college funds, as well as part of DH's yearly bonus. We're very lucky in that regard -- we're able to save the extra for the kids but use DH's salary to keep us debt free and contributing to retirement, etc.

J&NL · July 2014

I really wish I could. Maybe in the future when I finish school and we aren't living on one income then I can start a prepaid plan but as of right now, I'm not.

hlm184 · July 2014

DH committed to another 4 years in the AF so that he can transfer his educational benefits to his children. We've also been putting money in a generic college plan pretty much since we got married.

Kyllarae · July 2014

I haven't yet either. I'll start one eventually but as of right now, I'm not too worried about it.

momofmanyinthemitten · July 2014

Our financial planner advised us to get out of as much debt as we could (DH's medical school loans are about equal to our mortgage), max out his retirement plan, get our 9 mo emergency savings account filled, and then worry about college money.

Ashleypixie · August 2014

We'll still be paying our OWN tuitions by the time our first goes to college! If any one of them DID have to pay their own tuition, we'd help them with a down payment for a house to buy some time! My dad, brother, and uncle are all financial planners and my husband is a finance attorney, yet we still havenofuckingclue how to save money. I'm just kinda hoping they get scholarships.

csmily51 · August 2014

DD has a trust fund. We put money in a savings every month too she will get 25000 from us for college or some education.m, if not then it's up to our discretion...she will not know about it. I didn't know I had a trust/savings and worked for what I wanted...I want her to do the same.

lcr23 · August 2014

We're doing $25 a month right now and all monetary gifts have been deposited in that account as well. We haven't opened her own account yet, we're using a separate sub account of ours.

pbandjmom · August 2014

529. Also, she's my baby model contractor so she gets paid from my business tax-free and that goes into savings.

LindsayB0505 · August 2014

Also in Canada and we have Registered Education Savings Plans for each child. We also get the $100 a month per kid in child tax benefit, so we put that plus any monetary gifts into the fund. We have a family plan so if one kid doesn't go to Post Secondary the other can use it. Or if neither kid uses it we can transfer to RRSP's (retirement plan) for ourselves or take the cash and pay the tax on it.

hordol · August 2014

I feel no obligation to help my children out with college (though DH wants to.) I suppose that makes me a mean mommy. But DH and I had no help and are still paying off our own college loans. I haven't gotten my retirement started yet either. My kids are on their own!

We are starting DS a savings account though. He got some money for his baptism.

olenkapdx · August 2014

Eventually. SO and I need better paying jobs. Pretty sure we are going to be losing money each month paying for daycare as it is.

goblue4433 · August 2014

@sandbridge1030 pmed you with some questions-- that is genius!

goblue4433 · August 2014

@sandbridge1030 pmed you with some questions-- that is genius!

goblue4433 · August 2014

Sorry for the double post!

Trgree1712 · August 2014

We plan on setting up a Florida Prepay account. However they only allow enrollment once a year in the fall so we are waiting until then.

belindahampton · August 2014

We set up a savings account for him when we found out I was pregnant and right now transfer $50 a month into it.

It's not necessarily just for college though. More of a fund for really anything (first car, down pymt on a house, college, major medical bill, wedding, etc).

Our goal is to build up to 25k before he graduates high school. He won't know about it until he needs it or decides what his next major step is.

RedDawnsRevenge · August 2014

ImnAtari said:
We have no intention of paying for Goomba's college. Neither of us got help and studies have shown that students who are finacially responsible for their own education have higher pass rates.

That being said, we are putting money away for her each month and monetary gifts are going in her account as well. We do well enough that we have expendable income and we want to start Goomba off with something, but it's not expected for that to go towards tuition.

I was told I needed a 4.0 to get into nursing school so that's what I got. My parents couldn't help me, that's why I got married at 18. I had a full scholarship that paid my books, uniforms and tuition. My middle sister in the other hand has $120k in debt from just her MA from USC. My parents are paying all of her bills because she can't get a job (couldn't do student teaching since she could pass the CBEST/CSET and therefore has no credential). Plus who knows how much student debt she accumulated while doing pre-physical therapy at UCSB before she failed out and had to change her major. And yet my family sees me as the failure.

moonsparkles · August 2014

Echoing a lot of thoughts - DH and I were just discussing the tuition bubble last night. Will it even be worth having a degree by the time our LOs are old enough to get them? Also, we both had our degrees paid for by our parents, but...while I don't think it did more harm than good, I can't help but think I'd be a different person if I'd had to really work for it. And I think the thought of having ones own retirement sorted so LOs don't go broke taking care of us is so important.

reillyea · August 2014

Regular savings acct where we each put in 10$ per our bi weekly paychecks. We plan to increase every so often.

MommaY4814 · August 2014

Vinny424 said:
I'd much rather save up to give him a down payment on a house than school.

This. As much as I want DS to have a bright future..college doesn't always GUARANTEE a job. And if he's anything like DH he'll quit college for a good job opportunity.

Don't get me wrong if he wants to go to college I'm all for it. I'll just say we will worry about that when the time comes!

thejewelster · August 2014

We opened the account (RESP - canada here too!) a few days ago. $2500/yr to max out government contribution of $500/yr and all child care tax benefits ($100/m) minus the income tax deduction will also go into this account. Our family will also be contributing to the account. Lucky lo!

cwm11985 · August 2014

We set up a basic savings for each kid and put in $75-$100/month. Some months we haven't put in anything though, it kind of depends on what bills/expenses pop up. It won't be strictly for college though; if they decide not to go to college they can use to get started on life.

Jenn06L80 · August 2014

We inherited a small sum of money from DHs grandmother. So we set up an account with TD ameritrade with $60K in it. $20K for each girl. We contribute $100 a month to this account.

We will also help them as much as possible when the time comes. I don't think there is anything wrong with loans but I would love to limit the loans my girls have to take.

Mustardseed2007 · August 2014

We haven't done it for DD but we have one set up for DS - a 529.

We didn't do it until DS was 1, and we probably won't get around to doing it for DD until she's 1 also.

ksulli · August 2014

They have 529s. If college isn't for them, we'll take the tax penalty. It's still saving/investing for their future. We also set up life insurance for us recently, but not them.

Calla123 · August 2014

thejewelster said:

We opened the account (RESP - canada here too!) a few days ago. $2500/yr to max out government contribution of $500/yr and all child care tax benefits ($100/m) minus the income tax deduction will also go into this account. Our family will also be contributing to the account. Lucky lo!

This is us exactly!

zazu13 · August 2014

what is 529?

Dixon813 · August 2014

zazu13 said:
what is 529?

It's a savings account that you can add to pre tax and must be used for higher education (yes?).

We've saved the money that was sent after Liam was born and will put it in a savings account (along with any money he'll get from family over the years).

Not sure about college. DH's parents paid for his, my parents helped but I had 40+k in student loans when I graduated. I do believe that it's important for DH and I to have our finances/debts/retirement taken care of/secure versus paying for SS or DS's college.

Jenn06L80 · August 2014

AprilMay9 said:

Jenn06L80 said:
We inherited a small sum of money from DHs grandmother. So we set up an account with TD ameritrade with $60K in it. $20K for each girl. We contribute $100 a month to this account.

We will also help them as much as possible when the time comes. I don't think there is anything wrong with loans but I would love to limit the loans my girls have to take.
That's small?!?

Your right! $60K is not a small amount. Just a small amount when compared to how much college could cost for 3 children! We are very thankful for his grandma thinking of the girls!

zazu13 · August 2014

Dixon813 said:

what is 529?

It's a savings account that you can add to pre tax and must be used for higher education (yes?). We've saved the money that was sent after Liam was born and will put it in a savings account (along with any money he'll get from family over the years). Not sure about college. DH's parents paid for his, my parents helped but I had 40+k in student loans when I graduated. I do believe that it's important for DH and I to have our finances/debts/retirement taken care of/secure versus paying for SS or DS's college.

I agree. I think this is a major point in a finance book I read (Suze Orman? Dave Ramsey?) There is no point in a parent spending money on their kid's education when they are not financially set to take care of themselves in retirement. Other wise they will become a burden to their kids. I'm grateful my parents have their finances taken care of and got us off to a good start taking care of ours. They started a savings account for us when we were young. We deposited gift/babysitting money as we got older. It was nowhere near enough for college. I mainly paid for that myself, but I was still grateful they did it for me. I want to do the same for my girls and they can use it on school, down payment, etc.

@Dixon813 Thanks. I hadn't heard of it before. I'll have to look into it.

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