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[■■■■■ radar suspended]
OK, I think I see what tunnel your train of thought is in, but I’d just like to mention something here to see if I can get this whole “future” thing across and maybe help you find your way out of that tunnel.</p>
<p>I attended an in-state university roughly 25 years ago.
Full-time tuition and fees then: $720/semester.
Full-time tuition and fees 20 years later: $1987/semester.
Full-time tuition and fees today: $4067/semester.</p>
<p>Now… You want to decide what schools are on your unborn child’s list so that you can find out the price tag and create some investment plan that will hit 75% of that price tag 20 years from now. I’m sorry; truly I am; you can’t. It’s 20 years away. Nobody knows what the price tag is going to be.</p>
<p>You can buy into a 529 plan to hedge against tuition increases, but you don’t know where you’ll be in 18-20 years… you don’t know what interests, talents, and preparation your child will have in 18-20 years… you don’t know what priorities you yourself will have in 18-20 years… I meant it, not unkindly or disrespectfully, when I said on your other thread that you don’t know anything yet. None of us do, really, until we go through it. You are on the verge of learning just how little control we really have over the future and the lives of those dearest to us.</p>
<p>When you meet with this financial advisor of yours, I’d suggest you discuss what you can afford to put away regularly beginning now, and find out what you might expect your anticipated savings to yield within 15-16 years. That should give you some idea of “how much college” you can fund. Then follow your savings plan, adjust it as your life progresses, and *when the time comes<a href=“read:%20junior%20year,%20%5BI%5Dnot%5B/I%5D%20third%20grade”>/I</a>, talk with your kiddo about how much money you’ve saved for college and how the kiddo might fund any gaps between the savings and financial aid.</p>
<p>[■■■■■ radar reinstated]
OK, this thread and the other one are so estranged from reality that I can’t imagine an adult on the verge of parenthood posted them. My bet: “babyontheway” is a high school kid whose parents have told him they’ll pay full freight for certain prestigious colleges or else it’s the local state uni… and he’s posted a straw-man argument here in the hopes of collecting ammunition to use against his parents. Bets? 
@babyontheway: If I’m right… your parents’ approach would not be mine, but I’ve heard it before – and if it’s their money, it’s their rules.</p>