<p>Gremom, the good thing is you really do NOT have to touch your $200,000 nest egg to pay college costs. You also have $125,000 in a 529 account, right? As I’ve said before, this should be able to,cover undergrad costs at any number of colleges within your state…and even other places especially if you add the $5500 direct loan to this.</p>
<p>Yes, it would be nice to have some of that 529 money for grad school. Everyone would love to,save their 529 for future expenses. But as pointed out upstream, your kiddo could get an assistantship, or fellowship for grad school. The kiddo might go,to,work and have an employer who partially funds grad school. Lots of “ifs” with grad school in the future. </p>
<p>Undergrad is NOW, and that needs to be your focus now, in my opinion. You are very fortunate to have a college fund that can fully fund an undergrad college education…very fortunate. </p>
<p>If your kiddo applied to schools with assured merit aid, you could very well have a surplus in that 529 to help with grad school.</p>
<p>We funded undergrad school for our kids. But we made it very clear that grad school was their responsibility. If you were to do this, you would not be the first parent to do so!</p>
<p>Your kiddo has the gift of leaving undergrad school with NO debt because of that 529 and the planning it took to fund that. </p>
<p>And because of that 529, YOUR $200,000 account can be used for YOUR expenses.</p>