I’m aiming for enough to pay for any college they might choose. Your kid might get a merit scholarship, and in that case, yay you. But that isn’t a high probability event. As someone above wrote, many top tier schools don’t offer them.I agree, which is why I'm maxing out all except 529 (Pre-tax 401k + Mega BackDoor Roth IRA + 2 Roth IRAs).I like tax sheltered growth, but it is up to you!
But 529 will be useful for college and college only, nothing else. And my kid may end up going to college with merit scholarship.
I don't want to pay tax + penalty from my 529 account, which is worse than my taxable accounts.
How much do you invest per year to 529? Is there an upper bound? 18k / year gift tax exclusion is what I hear, and even that amount for 18 years sounds too much to me, especially if college tuition is covered by merit scholarship.
The trouble I have is: kids are expensive between the ages of 0-18, and none of these tax-advantaged accounts are helping with it. Pre-school, private K-12, they are all expensive.
Statistics: Posted by Scotttheking — Sun Sep 08, 2024 8:53 pm