https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 18 Apr 2026 23:38:38 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529/page/2#post-1166666 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:54:39 +0000 psw27 1166666@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Just adding my 2 cents here -- depending on the fund (look at your specific rules) you can transfer 529 accounts from one child to another. This is from Fidelity's website:</p> <p>529 plans offer significant flexibility should the designated beneficiary (student) decide not to attend college. You can take out the money as a non-qualified withdrawal, but any earnings on non-qualified distributions are subject to federal income taxes at the recipient's rate as well as a 10% federal penalty. You can also change the beneficiary on your 529 plan account to eligible family members of the original beneficiary without incurring federal income taxes and the 10% federal penalty.</p> <p>A family member is a person who has one of the following relationships with the original beneficiary: (1) son or daughter; (2) stepson or stepdaughter; (3) brother, sister, stepbrother, or stepsister; (4) father, mother, or an ancestor of either; (5) stepfather or stepmother; (6) son or daughter of a brother or sister; (7) brother or sister of a father or mother; (8) son or daughter-in-law, father or mother-in-law, brother or sister-in-law; (9) spouses of the individuals listed in (1)–(8) or the spouse of the beneficiary; and (10) any first cousin </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529/page/2#post-1166424 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:23:46 +0000 banana 1166424@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@plantains: Really? There goes my ping pong idea. =\ </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529/page/2#post-1166414 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:16:51 +0000 plantains 1166414@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The thing about athletic scholarships is that lots of them don't actually amount to very much money so even thoug it would be nice, I'll just have to ignore that option and treat it as a nice to have :wink: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529/page/2#post-1166264 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:31:01 +0000 deactivated_account 1166264@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@banana: Yes, ping pong!!! That's a safe sport! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529/page/2#post-1166206 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:15:56 +0000 banana 1166206@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsMcD: Genius!!! I'm going to have to look into other under utilized college scholarships! We'll give piccolo a shot and that doesn't work. rowing it is!!! What about badminton? Or ping pong! Do they have ping pong scholarships? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166203 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:15:17 +0000 deactivated_account 1166203@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ShootingStar: Sports scholarships are amazing if a child is talented enough to earn one! A friend of mine played baseball at Stanford and received both an athletic scholarship and an academic scholarship. I cannot imagine any better oppotunity. I think that being on a sports team in college is such an amazing experience. A team of any kind, really. The camaraderie developed translates into great life skills as an adult. Just my two cents! Don't totally discount athletic scholarships! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166198 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:11:42 +0000 deactivated_account 1166198@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@banana: Just FYI: girls' rowing teams have hugely under utilized college scholarships. That's my plan for my future little girl if she's not otherwise on her way to earning any other scholarships! :wink: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166169 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:59:11 +0000 banana 1166169@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ShootingStar: How cool! I actually really like the piccolo. Easy to carry and such a cute sound. :) Ok I'm going to start off my kids on flute then! And then urge them to try the piccolo! Piccolo scholarship, here we come! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166152 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:54:21 +0000 ShootingStar 1166152@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@banana: LOL, I played piccolo in high school. And actually, all piccolo players start out as flute players and that's pretty much the most popular instrument to play. </p> <p>I would never want my kids to get a sports scholarship. It is a HUGE amount of pressure to play sports and go to college, especially if it's a D1 school. It's basically like working two full time jobs. </p> <p>I just figure we'll save what we can. I'm confident that we will be able to provide some type of education, it just may not be a top tier private school. I kind of feel that those schools are a waste of money anyways, especially for undergrad. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166108 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:36:09 +0000 banana 1166108@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@plantains: Yes, I'll take any and all scholarships. I'd be proud if my daughter got in with a cheerleading scholarship! My cousin's daughter recently did that and it's pretty awesome! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166104 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:34:23 +0000 plantains 1166104@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@banana: I struggle with this too, it just doesn't seem feasible to me. @banana: @Mrs. Jacks: any kind of scholarship would be great. I'd rather them have too much in the 529 than not enough. Having extra to put towards grad school would be nice. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166096 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:31:04 +0000 banana 1166096@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Jacks: There seems to be so much more competition with academic scholarships! Maybe I should have choose a really unpopular instrument (like the piccolo) and start lessons early so that he can get in with a band scholarship! How much competition can there be for a piccolo scholarship? ;) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166083 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:27:46 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1166083@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@banana: academic scholarship is great too! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166052 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:17:29 +0000 banana 1166052@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Jacks: A sports scholarship would be awesome! Too bad my son is so uncoordinated. He's kind of starting to look like the stereotypical math nerd...uncoordinated, always reading books, loves numbers. I'm hoping he gets in with some sort of math scholarship! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166043 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:12:40 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1166043@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am hopeful that my girls go to our local University where I get half off tuition. If not, maybe we can work some academic and sports scholarships :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1166038 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:11:30 +0000 banana 1166038@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: I struggle with this, too! If a Bachelor's Degree will cost half a million dollars, I don't know if I'd push for my kids to get one! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165943 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:32:26 +0000 HabesBabe 1165943@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaMoose: I like your way of thinking (spreading the savings between a bunch of different types of accounts) and we'll probably do something similar. I knew that the 529s would grow to more than the principle, but didn't feel like figuring out the math ;) I think our plan is to cover tuition, books/supplies, and housing (living with us) for a 4-year state school, so we definitely don't need to save $500k! LOL </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165939 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:28:19 +0000 MamaMoose 1165939@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: I know. I almost had a heart attack when my partner sent me the article. My immediate response was "well, M's not getting a sibling then!" </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165920 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:20:55 +0000 looch 1165920@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaMoose: I just can not get comfortable with the cost of a 4 year degree being half a million dollars! Seriously, though, I would question the degree being worth it. </p> <p>Do I think my degree is worth $250k? Not at all. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165908 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:17:26 +0000 MamaMoose 1165908@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HabesBabe: If the 529 does what it's supposed to do and grows at a good rate of return by the time LO goes to college it should be much much more than 150K-180K. But I recently read an article that suggested that if you want a baby born this year to go to a 4 year private college it's not unreasonable to expect that it will cost $500K! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165902 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:16:00 +0000 MamaMoose 1165902@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Like @littlek: not going to college is pretty much not an option for our kids. HOWEVER, my husband is crazy athletic and got a (mostly) free ride to college to play football. On the off chance that one or some of our kids are also gifted enough to received extensive scholarship money either for athletics or academics I don't want to be stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars in 529s and no higher education expenses to use it on. So we plan to save about 5-7K per year in 529s, and then we also save extensively for her benefit in a general investment account. It doesn't have the tax advantages of an IRA or a 529 but it has much more liquidity. Using retirement accounts to save for my LO's college isn't a good option to me. You can only contribute a max of $5,500 a year into an IRA and I want that money to be for my retirement, and my retirement alone. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165901 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:15:44 +0000 littlek 1165901@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HabesBabe: you can take it out but there's a penalty. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165894 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:14:51 +0000 HabesBabe 1165894@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlek: So what if, on the other hand, LO gets a full ride to the 4-year of their choice and you only have to pay for their MBA? I'm just wondering what people's back up plans are if they end up putting "too much" money into one of these plans (which is a nice problem to have!). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165884 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:12:34 +0000 808love 1165884@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Blue: Haha @ dancing with joy!<br /> This post gave me more motivation to save more for LO. We are saving around $200 a month with an annual tax refund deposit and now I want to bump it up. We are expecting to pay a portion, not everything. DH wants to pay it all. Gulp, what if she goes to med school though?!! We're doing similar to what Mrs. Jacks is doing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165875 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:10:22 +0000 plantains 1165875@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlek: this is true for us too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165871 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:09:09 +0000 littlek 1165871@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HabesBabe: LO not going to college isn't an option. In the area we live you pretty much need an advanced degree. Everyone we know at least have masters. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165864 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:05:53 +0000 HabesBabe 1165864@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlek: oh wow, that's great! but what happens if your LOs go into a trade, or if they start their own businesses, or they simply don't want to go to school after high school? Would you just take the penalty and use the money yourself, or would you still give the money to LO? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165838 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:56:26 +0000 plantains 1165838@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: Good point. We probably need to stit down and do soem proper estate planning to make sure that we are properly tax advantaged first before I change anything. </p> <p>@JoJoGirl: @looch: I hope LO can get on the go to college abroad train, it will save us so much! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165828 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:53:44 +0000 looch 1165828@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I looked up what it would cost to attend the school that I attended (it cost about $100k 20 years ago). Same school, same education, $250k.</p> <p>My son is also a dual citizen and I joke that he would have to attend school abroad, but really, it is a possibility. There, the only cost is room and board and we're talking less than $20k. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-to-save-monthly-for-college-in-a-529#post-1165827 Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:52:40 +0000 MsLipGloss 1165827@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlek: @Mrs. Jacks: We're doing the same . . . I would LOVE for LO to be able to walk away with an education debt-free. I came out relatively unscathed compared to my classmates, but still, the loan repayment is a huge financial obligation/burden! </p>