Quote Originally Posted by 1998braves64 View Post
I don't think you'd want a huge chunk of money (by my definition of huge and with current pricing of college as anything more than say $40,000 a kid) tied up in it. You can gain flexibility if your kids don't use it by changing it over to grand kids, since assuming you have kids when you start donating to a 529 you're likely to have grandkids who could then use it. I believe they can just keep on passing it down the line. Eventually I think college/university is going to get to be almost too much for the "lower" upper class which are those moving up from middle class, and the rest of middle class is going down to lower class.

I was a fortunate and view it as highly fortunate that the most of the skin I had in the game was my student loans. My parents helped with the rest, not to say I didn't put any of my earnings through 18 years towards it either though because I did. That said I don't think the cost above my student loans/grants/scholarships (didn't have a lot of grants/scholly's though) for 4 years of schooling, 98-01 and 09-10 didn't add up to more than $15,000. I probably had about $6-7,000 in student loans (combined). I also went to NDSU for only 1 year and NDSCS for 3. That said I will likely help my kids out some, definitely probably should start doing 529 I think as savings accounts aren't going to give me the returns I need to get me to say even $40,000 that I put above.

I think leaving a kid in drowning debt isn't exactly helpful either so there probably is a fine line between doing too much or doing too little. The real key is education of what they should do with their money, what are you saving for, how much do you save. What is left over and spending that wisely so you don't overspend will make sure they start on the right financial step.
Agreed. Just remember you have more choices than just a savings account or a 529. If you like stocks or mutual funds you can do that inside or outside of a 529. Outside giving you more flexibility. Or you could do something completely different and buy a rental house that cash flows and use the cash flow to help pay for school. Then you still have the rent house after school is done. In other words, buy/create a stream of cash flow that will continue instead of "saving up" and then paying it all out.

It's a completely different way of thinking that most won't do, but that I like a lot.