Signed up for a free 14 day trial of Morningstar. Filtered on Gold & 5 star rated plans, which left 13. Some are age-based so they wouldn't be for my (almost) one year old. Does anyone here recommend any of these plans over the other one? Note I am not a savvy investor (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be making this thread) so I'm looking for a set-it-and-forget-it type of plan. I don't really need much customization. Any guidance is appreciated. Top-rated plans:
I used the Time magazine rankings, Forbes rankings, and some others to decided on T Rowe Price's Alaskan plan. Been doing ok so far. Glad to see you're investing now - I didn't start until both of my kids were 8. http://time.com/money/4098756/529-plans-best-college-savings-2015/ http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2015/06...gs-plans-of-2015-m?page=2&slreturn=1478794848 the T Rowe Price plan kept coming up over and over so it's the one I went with.
I'm dismayed at the lack of posts to this thread - If the average smoking woman (smoking 1 pack a day) were to quit while Pregnant (as most do..at least temporarily) and were to put JUST the cigarette money into a decent 529, when that baby turns 18, there'd be $85,000 ready to help fund college.
I recently started researching this for my newborn daughter, and the calculators tell me I need to save 250k to send her to college, 18 years from now. What in the actual ****.
Yes, I know. It's insane. Really not sure how most people can be expected to save for college AND pay for daycare/school. But whatever.
I imagine a lot of that money is assuming you're paying for books, room and board, etc. My parent's got away with paying for my sibling's and I's education through Texas Tomorrow Fund and by us all attending local college/university and living at home. I could also see those numbers being adjusted for inflation and worst case scenario of paying for room, board, tuition, books, etc. I would say the most important thing is to just start, selection may not make a huge difference TBH. How old is your kid? some of these selections are set up for more growth (stocks) than others, while you will not want it to be volatile (stocks) if your kid is approaching the age for using the money. This will help sort your selection. AKA go for the age group that fits your kid's age.
What kind of college were you looking at? When I went to SHSU in the early-mid 90's, tuition& board & food plan cost were about 6K a year. Right now its about 11K a year. Even if it doubles in the next 18 years, thats only 22K a year or 88K. Of course she could stay home for the first 2 years and take the basics at a community college and then transfer - that would save a huge amount of money too.
Wasn't looking at a specific school, just using various "calculators" that predict that is the cost in 2035 ish
A 529 plan is the better college-savings vehicle largely because tax-free distributions from a parent- or student-owned do not get reported as untaxed income on the dependent student’s FAFSA. Unlike a Roth IRA, the value of a 529 account is reported on the FAFSA. Also Roths have limits.
I had a friend recommend the Utah plan because of more control over where the money goes. Singles w/o children can start now if they have siblings with children. Or you could name yourself and do some juggling to avoid gifting taxes.
