[USER]

How much would you put in yearly for your child’s 529 plan if you have to start this year at 1 year old? How do you calculate what’s a good amount?

If you’re starting a 529 college savings plan this year for your 1-year-old child, how much would you contribute annually? How do you determine what a “good” yearly amount is?

I’m trying to get a sense of what other parents or financial planners consider a reasonable annual contribution, assuming you’re starting now with no previous savings.

Do you base it on projected college costs, your current budget, or some other factor?

I’ve seen different recommendations—some suggest $200/month, others go higher—but I’d love to hear real examples or formulas people use.

Also, do you adjust your contributions over time as your income changes or as the market performs? Or do you try to set it and forget it with automatic deposits?

Any insights into how you calculated your contribution goal, how often you review it, and what you hope the plan will cover (e.g., full tuition, partial, room and board, etc.) would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

[John]

There are state colleges calculators online that do this. It was spot on for my kids.

We hit the amount right on the dot

[Paige]

As much as you can, honestly. We have 2 kids and another on the way so currently my two are getting $550/month/kid.

I think to fully be able to pay for their college (which is our goal) we’d need to put in like $900/mo/kid.

My two are 6 and 4

[Jonathan]

I put in zero because in those days I had no extra money, worked out okay because he chose a military career.

[Andrea]

There are calculators out there. You can start picking a school and no financial aid at this age, and see how much they recommend per year.

Then you can adjust when s/he in elementary school.

[Jennifer]

My kids are 15. We went to talk with a financial adviser around when they were born.

They told us back then (2010) to contribute $500-$1000 per month, per child (they are twins) if we wanted to be able to fully fund their college, the difference being public versus private.

We couldn’t do that back then, but started seriously catching up about 7 years ago. The numbers were not wrong.

Higher education is completely up in the air at the moment with all of the significant changes being made by the new Administration. But – save as much as you can.

You will probably need more than you expect, by a lot.

Don’t sacrifice retirement or anything. But after the other investments and your emergency funds and all that? Save as much as you can.

[Brian]

I went heavy on contributions for both of my kids from birth until I had about $50k in the plan by the time they were starting school (1st grade.)

At that point the math showed we should have around $125k per child by the time they started college with no more contributions needed.

It worked out very close to that number.

I never wanted to have a full four years saved because who could have possibly predicted what that would be based on so many variables.

However, I was comfortable knowing I should be able to pay for at least half of their University expense with that first five years of saving:)

[Rachel]

I do $100/month/kid. I started when the first kid was three, when the second kid was one. Currently they are 10 and 6.

I have 14k in one in 10k in the other

[Valerio]

Currently my son is 23 months and has $12,500 in his 529c between growth and initial contributions, first year contributions etc.

Currently I do $333 a month, so $4k a year.

Have also start saving in a separate account for first car. HYSA til I nail down a better option.

Something to also consider, if you can do childcare FSA thru work, you can contribute $5k a year, use the tax benefit and then when you claim your contributions, drop that $5k into a 529c at the end of each year or thru monthly deductions.

[Thai]

Vanguard has a 529 calculator that adjusts based off of your chosen school and age of child.

At that age, for a public university, came out to $6K/yr for me.

[Dang]

My son is attending Columbia and tuition alone is 60K…imagine what the cost would be in 19 years.

Just save whatever you can.

I was totally unprepared since I thought my son would go to city colleges which cost only 9K.

[Nina]

We do $3K per year per kid, which is $250 per month. The estimate is that if it grows at 7% each would have $100K at 18.

[Shulepina]

We have started with $3,000/year. We haven’t calculated where we want to be but our state offers a tax deduction, that caps there.

[Jamilah]

6k/kid. Started it when our kids was born and will stop contributing once we think it is enough to cover for their college.

[Enciso]

It depends on the rate of return an what what you are investing in and if you anticipate them going to an in-state or out-of-state school; living at home or on campus; attending grad school, getting a professional degree, e.g. Doctor, lawyer, etc.

[Wei]

10k a year. Didn’t do much math. If at some point we feel it’s too much we can stop contributing.

[Kon]

I just keep contributing as much as I can afford monthly. Just stoped at 100k for 1st child recently.

She is 14…probably just enough for the bachelor degree…

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