[Pelluru]

I have 2 kids Older one is 4 year old and younger one is 8 months old.

How much I should be investing in their college saving account?

Is there any calculation that can be done to understand how much needed for their college saving account?

[Rick]

I usually suggest half of what you expect to need in 529 doing this fully first.

Then part second half of the amount needed into brokerage account and second half of the effort.

This gives the 529 maximum time to grow with its tax advantages at withdrawal and this gives a ton of flexibility with the brokerage account as needs and desires change over 20 years.

Oh and hope the college industrial complex implodes and is replaced by something better and far cheaper.

I thought Covid would do this but the complex is incredibly resilient and kept itself alive long enough for parents to return to throwing money and their kids future earnings back into it.

[Ami]

It’s going to be so hard to guess. Our kids are 6 and 18 months. We are aiming for 250k per kid by the time they are 18. It’s a moving target though depending on what they seem to want to do.

Ideally, we would want to pay for all their schooling.

The hope is they go to a public 4 year university in state or somewhere with good merit and we can save the bulk of their 529 for grad school (assuming they go).

If we don’t use all of it we will convert what we can to a Roth IRA

[Linda]

It’s a very difficult question. What % do you ultimately want to pay? Are you aiming for a private or public university?

The range is extreme.

Hopefully this means you are fully funding your own investments first though.

Great that you are starting so early though.

[Author]

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