College savings funds

[DeltaCotton12]

So I've read back through the post comparing MPACT to the 529. It appeared MPACT was the overall favorite between the two. From those who are now several years into the college savings, I have a few questions.

What option did you choose?

Are you satisfied with your choice?

Would you change anything?

Any advice?

I am trying to stay on top of this for the little one.

Thanks folks.

Walton

[Smoke68]

I went with a 529 ESA. Each state has their own plan, and you are not limited to your state of residence. I have an account for each of my kids in Virginia's ESA. The financial adviser I use recommended it. Not going to make leaps and bounds selecting one over the other; you've just got to choose one.

It's basically a mutual fund. I put $50/month per kid in it. It's not enough to completely pay for college, but I've done this since the day each of them was born.

Just to give you an idea, my oldest child is about to turn 7. I opened her account in August of 2010. The annualized rate of return since I've opened it is 9.28%. That growth is TAX FREE.

The good part about 529 ESAs is that they can be used not just for tuition, but books, boarding, meals, supplies, etc. MPACT is just tuition. And, if my kids decide not to go to college or simply do a trade school and don't use it all up, I have options for what to do with the leftover: transfer to another child's ESA, let them have it (wouldn't be tax free), buy a duck hole, etc.

So yeah, I'm glad we have the ESAs. It gives more options. I'm not contributing as much as I want right now, but the most important thing is to GET STARTED EARLY. I'll bump up the contributions at some point, but even if I never do my current routine will take a good bite out of college. If the last 7 year trend continues until she's 18, I would have $30K per kid. That's the current cost of tuition and fees for 8 semesters at MSU. It'll go up, so yeah I need to bump up my contributions.

[420 racin]

I set up just another mutual fund rather than one of the college savings plans, if i remember right, those are tax free but can only be used for school related things, (tuition, books, room an board, etc.) If they don't go to college or get a scholarship or something, you are penalized pretty good to get that money out and use it for something else. So we just set up another mutual fund and labeled it college savings plan, it is no different than our other mutual funds for retirement, this one is just for the kid.

If he gets a scholarship or doesn't go to college, I still have that money sitting there to do with as I please.

[Smoke68]

I set up just another mutual fund rather than one of the college savings plans, if i remember right, those are tax free but can only be used for school related things, (tuition, books, room an board, etc.) If they don't go to college or get a scholarship or something, you are penalized pretty good to get that money out and use it for something else. So we just set up another mutual fund and labeled it college savings plan, it is no different than our other mutual funds for retirement, this one is just for the kid.

If he gets a scholarship or doesn't go to college, I still have that money sitting there to do with as I please.

Did you run this reasoning by a financial adviser? Skipping the tax free advantages of the 529 plans is no small thing. Plus, if they get a scholarship there is no penalty to take the money back. If I take it out for a reason that doesn't waive the penalty like scholarships does, then the penalty tax is 10%. It just turns into a regular mutual fund and you're taxed normally on the earnings. For my situation, I'd say the odds are pretty low that I won't use the money on education related expenditures.

http://www.savingforcollege.com/questio ... cle_id=137

[420 racin]

Yeah, we have a financial adviser that handles all our mutual funds and life insurance etc.. we ran several scenarios and felt that the best for us. no doubt though you need to have someone that knows what they are doing when setting it all up.

[JLT]

I have done the same as 420.......didn't want any more stipulations than I had to have.

[curlytail]

Both of my kids are now out of school. We went with the IMPACT program when it came out. We took the funds that we had invested and made a lump sum payment and then set it up ( if I remember correctly), where I paid $50 and $60 per month until they went to school. It was probably around 8 years or so. The good thing about that program at that time was that it locked you in at the tuition cost at that time. Worked out great for us. They also had received some scholarships and it worked out fine.

[the doctor]

We use Coverdell ESA...529 was my second choice. Only change id make is to put more in each month. Agree on tax advice and if memory serves tax code is pretty loose on whats "necessary" expense for education.

the doc

[peewee]

We went with MPACT for my two kids. I can't imagine what tuition will be 7-10 years so I got that part covered.

[SB]

We did MPACT too for our two kids before it got shut down. Has it opened back for new enrollment?

We also did a mutual fund for the oldest kids non-tuition related expenses based on a conversation I had with our own Memphis Stock Broker. Stopped contributing to it because of some reason I can't remember, but it was related to performance. Contemplating starting back to contributing to it now, but probably will move it to another manager.

Not sure how I will invest for the second child's non-tuition collage expenses. Would really like to invest into some income producing land that can be enjoyed while the asset is appreciating. Easier said than done.

Anybody got a sure fire way to calculate what the non-tuition costs will be in 10 years to send a kid off to collage? Take what ever I think it might be and 2X or 3X it?