<p>I just saw this in the morning paper.</p>
<p>According to Joseph Hurley, author of The Best Way to Save for College: A Complete Guide to 529 Plans, " If you invest $200 a month for a newborn until college, that should get you about 60% of the 4 year cost of a public university and 25% of a an average private college."</p>
<p>Now I do not know about all of you but there is no way we had $200 per month per child to invest starting from their birth. There were months we were lucky to have $20 after expenses.</p>
<p>Exactly. Also, some of the next generation will be busy paying off their own student loans, parent plus loans, and private loans for college. They certainly won't have the $200/mos. unless they get an excellent job and frugal in every other way. Some will become sandwiched between elderly parents and young children, as were some of us because many in our generation had our children a bit later than in prior generations.</p>
<p>We did not have $200/mos. when we started out. We were first making ends meet, and then saving for our first home. When we were first married old car blew up, and we needed a new car right off the bat. Our first born was quite ill as a newborn, and this changed our lives as well. He could not go into daycare, so we had limited options for his care. It meant part time work for me, while my son was left a few hours each day with a stay at home mom. I was lucky that my son was even allowed to be in that type of situation, and it worked out very well.</p>
<p>And where is the other 40% of the college cost (if an instate) supposed to come from?!</p>
<p>Some years ago, I figured that IF my ex and I both put in the maximum that would get each of us a state income deduction ($2500/year for each of us), we'd have about 60% of the projected cost of our instate flagship. That's saving more than $200/month, but this was long after kid was born. </p>
<p>So that's 60%; what of the rest?</p>
<p>(Rhetorical question; loans, grants, merit aid, kind grandparents, flipping burgers, moonlighting. I know, I know!)</p>
<p>That's assuming that your 529 performs well. Which is why we didn't do 529s as I didn't like the lack of transparency.</p>
<p>This is depressing.</p>
<p>It is depressing, and all the more reason that something regarding higher ed has to change. Incomes, IMO, have not kept up with rising college costs. If something isn't done college will only be for the wealthy or the exceptionally gifted at some point in the future.</p>
<p>It is depressing, I know. I am so glad that OP brings out this obvious point - some of us would have never saved enough for all our children's education.</p>
<p>For those of us who came to US at ages above typical graduate students, we had our children while being a gradute student. We really don't have much to save evenso we live way below our mean. For example, our mortgage (P&I and insurance) is less than 1/4 of my take home (max out 401K). </p>
<p>We are so blessed that our DD's hard work got her some very generous FA. However, we said FA is very generous but it still costs A LOT from our low income. I have told DD many times that generous FA does not equal low cost. I showed her my 2003 Taurus and what we paid for that at 2006. I will drive this car for 5 ~ 6 years, I told her, but we are paying the equivalent of a car like this every year for you to go to college.</p>
<p>He's an optimist. We barely did it with monthly savings since birth (1985) and college (2002-2006). We had fund downward in years 2000-2004 of $80000 and a recovery of $50,000. Loan Interest rate swing from 4.5% down to 1.5%. Today's students and parents will not get the interest we had (variable interest Stafford & PLUS loans) nor will they get the social and economic stability of the years we invested.</p>
<p>I made the point to DS that the cost to us of his four years of private college tuition with a nice merit scholarship (about 1/5 annual cost) will be more than the purchase price of our house. We are fortunate to both have good jobs, live in a rural area with low cost of living, have a comparatively modest mortgage payment albeit high property taxes, drive a 2006 & a 2006 car for which we paid cash. But my entire take home salary will go for his education for the next four years, and it will be somewhat of a squeeze to live just on H's salary. </p>
<p>We have made all this clear to him. As long as he works hard, earns good grades, and most of his spending money, we will pay for his education. Since we are able to do so, albeit with some struggle, we don't believe he should be saddled with huge college loans. </p>
<p>I felt guilty that we hadn't saved more as he was growing up, but now I realize it probably wouldn't have made all that much difference.</p>