<p>We opened savings accounts and put birthday money in, and added $25 or so a month, not specifically for college, but mostly that was what we had in mind. Yeah, I want my kids to get all the scholarships they can. We are middle class for our county (almost the poorest in the state), but probably lower class for the US. Yeah, I'd like them to have some money left when they get out of college to start job hunting, apartment furnishing, and since we are older than most parents of college age kids we'd like to have enough left for retirement too (can you have enough? How do you know?) D just finished her first year at a state school. She got $1275 in scholarships. She finally got a parttime job 2nd semester. She doesn't like seeing her bank account go down, but she's paying for her own tuition from now on, we'll pay her room and board. She also pays for books and other "living expenses". S starts college when she's a junior. He may qualify for free tuition the first year, but no guarantees after that. Still, we don't expect the colleges to pay everything. That entitlement mentality certainly seems pervasive. </p>
<p>So anyway, how many have been saving since your child's birth (or since they were young) and how much and where did you invest it? Should be an interesting poll. Might also include your yearly income as reference.</p>
<p>we started putting money away when oldest was born- asking for savings bonds from relatives for birthdays- not necessarily with college in mind- but just knew that it would come in handy at some point.
More so than a Teddy Ruxpin doll when we have very low income anyway.</p>
<p>Initially the money was in her name- but since we didn't send her to public school, it was used for private long before college.
Savings bonds are in her name however.
Our income has ranged from in the $40,000s to the $20,000s to the $60,000s</p>
<p>We started saving for college as soon as they were born with a small head start from the grandparents. We added monthly. With three, we put a couple of hundred in each month alternating between the three. Had enough for college for first born since he went to a state school. More than enough for second because he got a full tuition scholarship. What was not used for room and board he got when he graduated. For the third, we had to pay out of pocket for the last year because there wasn't enough.</p>
<p>Birthday and job money was put into their own account which they used for a car when they were 16 and whatever else they wanted. That was their money. We paid tuition and room and board for four years. Anything else was theirs.</p>
<p><em>laughter</em> Oh, goodness. I think that I have saved about $7.38 with Upromise over the past three years. Prior to that, not a cent. Not one. Nada.</p>
<p>Awkwardly, the $7.38 means I have saved more money for my son's college than I have for my own retirement.</p>
<p>We started buying savings bonds through payroll deduction long before DD was born. Unfortunately, that ended when DH's job ended after 9/11. We also had an investment account for college since she was born. Lucky for us, she chose our flagship state u so there is enough (we hope) for at least three years. Since we have a greater need for tax deductions at this point, we are financing a portion of her first year's tuition, with the intent to repay it with the $$$ we no longer need to spend for h.s. tuition (about $500.00 per month). Room and board will come out of her college savings account. Hopefully by the end of the 4 years, there will be just enough.</p>
<p>She also inherited from a deceased uncle when she was 12 so she was able to finance her first (used) car last year. There may still be enough for her books from her inheritance; if not, she will have to have a job at college to pay for books.</p>
<p>We never did save for college. We are paying our EFC for first daughter out of pocket. (We prepared for college by paying off all debts except mortgage, and by having two solid fully-paid-for cars that would last us through our 7 years of paying for undergraduate education.) Next year, with two kids in college, we will be okay, because DS will use all his small college savings (compliments of grandma) to contribute towards his college costs, which will plug any gaps between what we can afford and total cost. Not sure what we'll do for the final 3 years (we may continue to pay out of pocket if the roof or airconditioner doesn't die), but if we have to, we will take out a parent plus loan or something, in addition to what we can scrape up from current income. Save for college? We were too busy spending that money to live on when the kids were little!!!!</p>
<p>We made one good real estate 'flip' waayyy back when, before it became so common. Invested $10T of our profit (a large sum then) for son's college expenses. Never added any more to it.</p>
<p>Like many others, we worked hard to stay out of debt, except for mortgage.
His college fund grew to cover about 35% of his 4 years at public college room and board. He takes the minimal Stafford loans, will graduate with about $17T in debt (about 20% of total expenses) We pay the rest from current income and a small low interest student loan in our names.</p>
<p>We had huge college/grad school debts when our kids were young. Our loan payments were bigger than our mortgage (and we didn't buy a house till the kids were 8 and 5.) When we inherited a little money, we finally paid off the loans just as older one was entering HS. We stayed put in our little starter house, paid off the cars, and shifted the loan payments and more into saving for college. We got so efficient, that even now, with a fraction of the income we had for a short while, we are able to coast to the last of eight years with something left over. Can't believe we're almost done! time to save for retirement now.</p>