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Our goal is just to save as much as possible - I don't think it'll come close to paying for all college expenses, but should make it a bit easier. We're currently saving about $375/mo for LO1, but I'm thinking that will reduce a bit while we have two in daycare (and then will hopefully go up after they're no longer in daycare!)

We've been contributing to their RESPs (canadian) since our kids' births. If you contribute $2500/yr you get a $500 grant from the government up to a lifetime grant of $7200. We are contributing the minimum and will probably increase it later when we no longer have daycare costs to deal with! Even with conservative growth of 5%, it can be a sizeable amount by the time they are ready to pursue post-secondary schooling and it should more or less cover tuition, housing and books. One thing to note is that Canadian tuition is a lot lower compared to US schools, and we would have international tuition costs to deal with if they decided to go down to the US. In that case, it would barely cover undergrad tuition and we would probably use other savings to contribute. I'm not sure if we would pay for grad school - it would really depend on the situation.

@LBee: Why are you assuming 8% inflating college costs?? I thought 4% was generally the norm.

Our situation is unique, so it's hard to really vote, but we don't have a college savings account. We have accounts, and we're saving for higher education. My son is entitled to attend college in Europe for just the cost of room and board, so I hope he would choose that option. If he does, we'll buy an apartment with the savings. If he doesn't choose that option, he may need to take out some loans. I really hope there is some reform in college tuition space...the costs at private colleges are becoming prohibitive and I don't really see the value...this is coming from someone with a degree from a private college that if we had to send our child to today, it would be a struggle to afford.

I was just thinking about this, though we are really early still. Ideally, I'd like enough to cover in-state tuition at a public state school. I work at a private university that (if I continue here), would cover college for my future kid(s). But there are too many unknowns for me to count on that. I think it's important for my husband and I to help as much as we can for our kids college.

We don't have a set number. We would like enough, but setting ourselves up as a family as a whole is a larger priority.

@pmerr: yep, same here. Plus we need to focus on retirement.

I don’t have a set goal dollar amount because it’s impossible to say right now how invested money will grow in the next 18 years. My vaguer goal is to save as much for her college as I comfortably can at each stage in my life and career and we’ll adjust our contributions as we go along.

We are absolutely saving, as literally anything/something is better than nothing.

The hopes for the fund are to cover whatever college expenses need covering so that LO can focus on school and her education above all else. I'm not setting parameters up now around anything else, since it's more than a decade away. It will cover as much as we can get it to cover.

We don't plan to pay for college for our kids. We'll certainly help them with expenses while they are in college but they are on their own paying for it.

We are saving the max per year in their RESPs to take advantage of the full government maxing. If we are able to continue doing that they should have enough for tuition, room and board for their undergrad (at a Canadian university).

None, DH and I are still paying off our student loans, as well as saving for our retirement.

DH and I have agreed to pay In State Public tuition for both girls. Plus Room/Board/books.

Their Grandparents on DHs side have funds set up for them. I suspect my ILs will have around $25K in them minimum each by the time college comes around.

DH and I would like to have another $150K set aside.

With a 15 year mortgage though we would be able to easily absorb some of the costs when we get there so we're not too panicked.

@Freckles: It is crazy, but hopefully this will help explain some of the differences. I went to a top private university in the US for my first year of undergrad, then finished my degree in Canada, so I have some insight into the costs as well as experience.

My university in the US had AMAZING facilities -- buildings, computer labs, dorms, student life center... everything. My university in Canada was barebones. The buildings and computer labs were ancient and gross. Dorms were very old.

Opportunities for undergrad research were minimal in Canada. One prof I talked to said he has the budget to select 1 per term. A friend told me about working with profs in the US in her 2nd and 3rd years of undergrad.

There were tons of student activities organized in my American school -- fun orientation activities, weekly movie nights, cheap (possibly subsidized?) outings to nearby cities on a coach, and lots of clubs. I worked on the student newspaper and was PAID! (Minimum wage with a cap on hours... but still paid). My Canadian school had very, very little of that. There was a student council and newspaper but it was all volunteer.

I got a great education at both universities, but I can see why one school cost way more than the other. Whether or not it is "worth it" is questionable. Financial assistance in the form of scholarships/grants/bursaries is also much different. I had a full tuition scholarship in the US, but got $0 in Canada.

We max out their resps (Canada) which is $2,500 a year and the government matches up to $500. So $3000 (each) a year plus interest. Should be enough to mostly pay for an undergrad in Canada.

@pmerr: @Bao: right there with you. My husband's grad school loans are insane. And I want to go to grad school within the next few years too We'll be paying our own loans for a long time and then need to focus on retirement/personal savings. It's a nice idea to pay for our kids' tuition! But I don't feel badly about not being able to. We both chose modest career paths

My goal is to have at least $100k for each li but we plan on paying for things in addition to that like spending money so they don't have to work, etc.

We're trying to figure this out now. Ignorant question - for those of you saying that your kids are on their own, what does that look like? I thought I remembered that students are limited to how much debt they can incur in their own name for undergrad. Maybe that's just government loans? We had no money and I went to state school and financed through a mix of loans in my name and loans in my parent's name. Even if you finance with all private loans, wouldn't a parent have to co-sign and potentially make interest payments prior to graduation?

We don't max out RESP amounts in Canada and have zero pressure on ourselves to pay for their post secondary. But we do contribute what we can right now. Both DH and I paid/used student loans and paid our loans off ourselves. Based on where I work, employer also pays tuition anywhere in the province for the undergrad so that is a huge helper if they stay in province, too.

Don't have a number in mind. I think we have close to 50k now and plan on just putting away as much as we can while still saving for our retirement, and paying for two in daycare… it's tough. Once they are both out of daycare, I think we can be more aggressive in our savings.

I would like to do 250k for each child. Grandparents donate 2k a year so with that and our yearly contribution plus the time value of money, I think we will be close. The idea is to also start dumping in what we would be paying for childcare once that child starts public school. For example right now we pay 15k a year for T to go to pre-k. We plan to dump that into the college fund yearly when he starts public school. Right now our main focus is on maxing out retirement funds, but this is a pretty high priority for us as well.