In reply to SV reX :
Hmm, I'm going to have to look into that. I was always under the impression that the accounts are mine and they flow down from one child to another. I know that anything left in them can be converted into a roth ira for myself, not them...
wlkelley3 said:Being a career lowly enlisted soldier I wasn't able to save a lot for my 2 daughters. The oldest qualified for scholarships but messed them up when she got to college and lost them. Both decided to do college the hard way. I made them take at least one class every semester at the local community college, easier to add classes than to start classes. I paid tuition and most of the books, they had to work and pick up the rest. For a while both were in college at the same time even though they are 4 years apart, 5 grade levels apart. After they grew up and settled done both knuckled down and finished. They had to have their wild time. That's ok, I understood as I did too. The oldest just made GS-13 Program Manager with the Corps of Engineers, same level as dad (me). She'll out do me before too long. The youngest is an RN and doing well. I went to night school using my GI Bill and got my degree at age 45. None of us went to a big name college but we have degrees we worked for. Both have told me that their degrees and certification means more to them having to work for them than compared to their friends that went to big name universities straight out of high school. My son from my first marriage did similar and worked his way through college. He has a Masters in Database Management and a good job with an investment firm. His wife worked her way through her Masters in Physicians Assistant. My oldest daughters husband worked his way through to a degree and just got picked up as a civilian Contracts Specialist for the Army. Maybe took a while but they are all productive and can take care of themselves now so I'm proud of them.
Vets typically destroy the grading curve for the "fresh out of high school" crowd. 
Marjorie Suddard said:Katie and Tom both applied to private schools; Tom was accepted and got a scholarship thanks to his IB degree that made the tuition and room and board about $15k per year, while Katie’s choice accepted her, but said it didn't consider the caliber of high school classes, only the GPA, so she would've had a scholarship if she’d taken 4 years of PE, but with her tougher IB degree they wanted >$200K for an undergraduate degree.
I told her that at that price, she needed to be qualified to open an abdomen, not a Dillard’s in the mall, when she graduated. After some crying and gnashing of teeth, she took a scholarship from her B choice.
Both kids graduated debt-free, which—more than any other variable short of maybe a degree from the Wharton School complete with adult contacts—is probably the single biggest predictor of success after college. (Pssst: pass it along: it’s not worth debt.)
Margie
I know I'm replying to a very old post, but it's important to point out that college scholarships often don't work the way you think they do.
I started (20 years ago!) at a very large public university. Due to the high admittance size and general competitiveness, I didn't qualify for any scholarships. I dropped out at the end of Freshman year.
Several years later, I figured I needed to get back on that horse, ended up applying to a mid-sized private university in another state. Private universities target well-off alumni and often get them to cough up cash. My pretty good grades, which got me nothing at the public university, got me a 3/4 scholarship at the private uni. I worked part time all 3 years and graduated with minimal debt, despite attending a much more "expensive" school. Weird.
In reply to calteg :
Similar experience here.
I went to a California State for both under grad and grad school...Mrs. Reven' went to a University California for her under grad but we wound up sending our eldest daughter out of state to University Nevada - Reno as the price was a draw if she lived at home and lower if she lived away from home had she stayed in California.
During the parent orientation, the question of how many families were from out of state was asked (~ 70% raised their hands) and the question of how many families were from California was asked (~50% raised their hands).
So we, and by show of hands, a lot of other Californians have found that going out of state provides a better value.
BTW, my wife, daughter, and myself all got good grades but not amazing grades...maybe it's different for those that have 4.0+ GPA's.
Whatever, my daughter is a biology major (technically pre-med but that's just an administrative thing) and is doing very well so Go Wolf Pack!
For families that have a household income of less than $75,000, Harvard is free.
(Similar for some other Ivy League schools)
There is a great advantage to well endowed schools.
SV reX said:For families that have a household income of less than $75,000, Harvard is free.
(Similar for some other Ivy League schools)
There is a great advantage to well endowed schools.
I'll be 59 at the end of June and I just finished paying the first year of an eight year uninterrupted run between my two daughter so I'll be long since retired (66) when I'm done paying for college. California is by far the worst state in the country when it comes to retirement income taxes...the 35K I'm allocating per kid, per year will cost me $39,872 in pre tax dollars ($2,750 extra for the Fed & $2,122 extra for California).
Basically, you get thrown into a higher tax bracket because you're spending so much more to cover the...wait for it...taxes.
Anyway, I've busted my a$$ my whole life and I've got a hard stop at 62...75K is an absolute joke (healthcare + college + the taxes to pay for them alone put me well above that figure).
I've crunched the numbers a million times...if you can lay low enough to get healthcare + college assistance, you can live surprisingly cheep but the moment you dip your toe across the line, BANG, the income requirement explodes exponentially.
I'm 100% debt free and yet I'm budgeting a 175K retirement income until stuff starts rolling in...first Medicare for me then done paying for college then SS for me then wife finally gets on Medicare in 2037 when I'm 72 or dead; same thing really 
docwyte said:Frenchy, I'm a planner. Works out well for me, maybe not for everyone but if you don't try to plan, well, then you don't even give yourself a chance to end up where you want to be. I started 529's for my kids the second they were born. I also have accounts going for them for significant life events, so weddings, etc. I'd rather die of a thousand little cuts a month.
My daughter is in good shape because of it and my son will be too. Thankfully she's gotten merit scholarships from almost all the schools she's gotten into. So that helps a lot. I've given all 4 years of my GI Bill to my daughter because I'll be retired from the Air Force before my son gets to college and I'd rather still be in while it's being used in case there's an issue.
Anything my daughter doesn't use 529 wise will roll down to my son, so nothing will get wasted.
Plans Are fine. I had my plan in place and was working it. Then 2008 came along and myself and 22 million others went on unemployment.
It didn't scare me. I had a really nice fat IRA and 401K plus my wife was working and I had a really great letter of recommendation from my boss along with awards and commendations. Top or #2 sales for the past 5 years etc. in a previous lousy territory.
I figured the economy would recover I'd go right back to work.
Meantime I sent my resume and knocked on doors. Called every contact in a lifetime.
After 5 years? The bank was getting pretty empty and I started selling assets. Apply for any job posting. janitor, bag boy at grocery store? Prison guard? Etc.
Then my wife's cancer diagnosis really started eating up money. Insurance doesn't cover everything. Rare form of cancer. Only a few cases ever recorded. 99 miles 1 way for radiation.
Following my wife's funeral I finally got a job driving school bus part time. So from 6 figure income flying around in the company Lear Jet. To a part time school bus driver. And grateful for the job!!!!
So plan for all that.
In reply to frenchyd :
I am sorry for your losses but appreciate the cautionary tale (despite having read it before).
This kind of "worst case scenario" is why I TRY to live below my means, own life insurance, etc - you just never know.
All the people barely making the monthly payments on two incomes to keep up with the Joneses.. watch out
docwyte said:In reply to SV reX :
Hmm, I'm going to have to look into that. I was always under the impression that the accounts are mine and they flow down from one child to another. I know that anything left in them can be converted into a roth ira for myself, not them...
My understanding is that converting 529 funds into Roth IRA funds comes with some restrictions:
Eligibility & criteria:
As far as I can tell, the Roth conversion option only applies for the beneficiary of the 529s (in this case your kids). It might be a great way to jumpstart a Roth IRA for a 20-something kid with excess 529 savings, but seems pretty limited otherwise. If it's even allowed for the owner to take advantage of the Roth conversion option, it still has a relatively low lifetime cap, and has to be done in small increments each year up to the Roth IRA contribution limit. So I don't think you can just dump all of an unused 529 into your Roth IRA and call it good.
OHSCrifle said:In reply to frenchyd :
I am sorry for your losses but appreciate the cautionary tale (despite having read it before).
This kind of "worst case scenario" is why I TRY to live below my means, own life insurance, etc - you just never know.
All the people barely making the monthly payments on two incomes to keep up with the Joneses.. watch out
Mind you I'm OK. It's just that plans don't always work. Events have a habit of changing things.
People need plan 1, 2, 3, •••• plus alternatives for each and the ability to change as events present themselves.
Just being conservative doesn't guarantee things anymore than being liberal. I didn't buy the house on the lake as an investment. Rather I bought it because I liked the lifestyle.
Sometimes the gamble does pay off. Or it may not pay off but another opportunity presents itself.
I do happen to agree that keeping up with the Jones does seem foolish. Following others to find your happiness is crazy. But then?
frenchyd said:DirtyBird222 said:mazdeuce - Seth said:It's been about 20 years since I finished college. It seemed expensive then. I knew it was even more expensive now, but it wasn't until I got the itemized bill for Deucekid#1's first semester that I realized just how insane it was. A good state school, not one of the big 2 in Texas, but one of the next level, for four years, without books, will be over $100k. Based on what we have saved since the kid was born, we would have needed to double the $2k a year we've saved. Had be ween able to estimate things properly we would have needed to put away $4k a year over the last 16 years. $333 a month. And we've been on the good end of growth of money over the last 16 years which makes it a lot cheaper than doing the reverse and paying off loans in the other direction.
I'm just blown away.
Dude tell me about it. I'm at TAMU Law for my Masters and JD right now and paying out of pocket. The Master's program alone is going to cost me $35k for classes, books, and their ridiculous fees for paying cash vs. paying with a loan. I may just stop at the masters graduation because I do need to amp up my savings for my kids college funds.
Each one of my kids gets two "free" years from my GI Bill that I passed onto them. The problem is how do I pay for the other four years? When I got divorced the judge awarded my ex-wife the $30k savings account (10 years of diligently putting away $3k a year gone in a flash) I had for the kids education fund and she blew that on a new car. She also has no plan to save for them or replenish that so I'm left on my own to sort out my kids future.
I did some of my own forecasting taking what it costs me in my last year of my undergrad in 2009 compared to what it costs now, applied those same levels of inflation to when my kids will be in college, and assuming they'll go to a state university in Florida and figured I'll need at a minimum $40k for each kid to finish out their last two years, so $80k total. I'm assuming it'll be closer to $100k+ in reality.
I get such a kick out of people who plan their lives. Forgetting to include all the unexpected. In your case the divorce.
In mine , the recession of 2008 and just as that started to recover my late wife developed terminal cancer.
A old friend suddenly turned into an alcoholic. Then there are accidents and companies going bankrupt.
In my whole life I've only been to one retirement party. One! Since 1974. No I barely knew him. Oh, and my late wife who filed for her retirement and passed away 3 weeks later.
Not whining at all. Life happens. All the planning and sacrifice won't prevent events from happening.
Yes I know you can't be the grasshopper. But life as the ant isn't so great either.
Truth and at a bare minimum, my kids will always have two free years of college each. So if I go ass over tea kettle in my life, I at least have that to offer them, regardless of how crappy my planning is or what I lack to account for in anomalies.
In the end, my hopes are that they land a free ride and I can use that savings account for retirement.
Speaking of retirement, people retire all the time in the military. I attend a lot of retirement parties. Those people turn around and grab a govie or contractor job at the same location to just pad their balance sheets.
In reply to DirtyBird222 :
Military and government jobs don't pay as well as a typical civilian Job but at least you have something towards retirement.
You don't think of that in your 20's I had 9 years where I got out. It sure would have been nice to do 19&6.
Then take a government job to double dip. and with social security plus the VA benefits on top of Medicare!!!
A guy who did just that is now working at the bus company until his wife pulls the plug in 2 years.
Then they are moving to the Philippines. Right now $1 = 54 pesos and average income for a successful Pilipino is around 2500-2000 pesos per month. So he expects to live like a king. Between him and his wife's retirement.
In reply to frenchyd :
I'd rather have a plan than not have one. If I need to pivot how I'm executing it, or change the plan entirely, I can do so.
Looks like I need to contact my financial planner and start peppering him with questions about the 529's...
I believe you can withdraw 529 contributions, similar to a Roth.
After tax money..
But I'm far from an expert on this stuff. I just hide as much as I possibly can from myself.
prestonfedie1 said:frenchyd said:In reply to DirtyBird222 :
Military and government jobs don't pay as well as a typical civilian Job but at least you have something towards retirement.
You don't think of that in your 20's I had 9 years where I got out. It sure would have been nice to do 19&6.
Then take a government job to double dip. and with social security plus the VA benefits on top of Medicare!!!
A guy who did just that is now working at the bus company until his wife pulls the plug in 2 years.
Then they are moving to the Philippines. Right now $1 = 54 pesos and average income for a successful Pilipino is around 2500-2000 pesos per month. So he expects to live like a king. Between him and his wife's retirement.I agree with you, but on the other hand if a war starts what will you do? I wouldn't want to go killing people...
Oh man. I would highly recommend researching all of the different occupations in each of the branches of the military. Everyone is trained on how to utilize a rifle or a sidearm BUT not everyone is a professional triggerman.
Frenchy - you are 100% correct they don't pay as much as private jobs; however, there are things that balance that out. I make way more gross income on paper with my private job than I would if I were currently Active at the rank I'm at. I would net more if I were active because I wouldn't have healthcare deductions and part of my income would be tax free for housing and subsidence allowances.
I would not be opposed to my kids signing up for a four year contract to earn the benefits associated with it and then go to college. The only reservations I have are about what career fields they would be vectored into and the climate of the military at that time (are suicides and sexual harassment still running rampant?).
Talked with my financial planner. The 529 can roll from one kid to the next, do not need to get the older kids permission for that. Excess funds can be rolled into a Roth IRA but at a $6500/year limit and into an account in the kids name, not the parents. This will cause me to change how I'm funding my youngests 529.
As far as the military, I make far more than I do in private practice than I did active duty and for a far longer time. Plus I don't have to pick up and move all the time. While the active duty pension is very attractive, it was still a better move for me to go into the private sector.
prestonfedie1 said:frenchyd said:In reply to DirtyBird222 :
Military and government jobs don't pay as well as a typical civilian Job but at least you have something towards retirement.
You don't think of that in your 20's I had 9 years where I got out. It sure would have been nice to do 19&6.
Then take a government job to double dip. and with social security plus the VA benefits on top of Medicare!!!
A guy who did just that is now working at the bus company until his wife pulls the plug in 2 years.
Then they are moving to the Philippines. Right now $1 = 54 pesos and average income for a successful Pilipino is around 2500-2000 pesos per month. So he expects to live like a king. Between him and his wife's retirement.I agree with you, but on the other hand if a war starts what will you do? I wouldn't want to go killing people...
I went in during Vietnam. I actually dodged the draft by signing up for the Navy.
It's a little different now, when I went in the Navy, the next day they test you and see what you are good at.
I found out I was great at electronics. But I also scored high enough to qualify for NESEP. Which got me flying.
Just for background I had never done anything with electronics and the first time I was in an airplane was the flight to San Diego for the Navy.
I think the process now is they test you before and offer you what you want. ( please confirm) 98% of the jobs in the Navy are safer than civilian life. The 2% that are dangerous, you have to volunteer for. You are Never forced to do those. If after you try it & you don't like it, you can stop doing it and be a store Keeper or personal clerk, whatever!!!!
In the event of war. Fully 50% of the jobs are stateside. They are basically 9-5 just like civilian life. Certain jobs will keep you in port.
Regarding guns? They don't teach you about guns in the Navy. Or combat, or anything except to March to chow and March to classrooms.
I got to shoot all sorts of guns because I volunteered to fly combat. So they trained me.
That's right I volunteered to learn to fly. Then I volunteered to fly in combat. Finally my 2nd tour, my CO tried to talk me out of going and offered me several attractive billets to stay back.
I WANTED TO GO. Not to be a hero, but when I went the first tour, I was replacing someone lost in combat. 1/2 of the squadron ( flight crews) didn't return.
Experienced guys taught me what to do to stay alive. I figured I owed it to the New guys to teach them how to stay alive. My 2nd tour, we didn't lose anyone. Yet we were awarded a meritorious unit commendation.
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