Opening a 529?

**trying to be cheap** · 02-23-2007, 12:46 PM

Sorry, I wasn't sure where to post this, but figured since it had to do with children, maybe the family forum was the right place.

Anyway, my FI and I were just talking the other night about our future children and I would really like to open up a 529. But how do you do this? Do I need someone to open it for me or is there a way to do it yourself? Also, can I open one for an unborn child? If you know any good information websites to direct to me to, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!!

**Telephus44** · 02-25-2007, 07:58 PM

Best website for this is:

www.savingforcollege.com

It has all of the information about 529 plans, which ones you can sign up with online, all of the options, etc.

We need to start one for our son - but DH has to file paperwork with his employer first since he works for a stock exchange - so I'm waiting on that.

**tigo** · 02-26-2007, 10:22 AM

I went through UPromise (www.upromise.com) to set mine up. You can open one that you can finace regularly through auto deposit or link it up through membership and credit cards. I have a combo effort going in that all my cards (like my WinnDixie card etc) and debit cards link into the 529 I started on the site. www.babymint.com is another site you can link into 529 deposits based on merchants etc.

**movaly1** · 02-26-2007, 11:05 AM

Definitely check out www.savingforcollege.com

Some states offer tax deductions for participating in your state plan, but you need to make sure their plan has good choices and reasonable expenses.

You'll have the most control over it if you put it in your name but if it were in a grandparent's name it wouldn't even be counted towards parental assets for financial aid consideration.

If you do it before the child is born (or has a social security #), you can make yourself the beneficiary and then just change the beneficiary when the child gets his/her social security #.

We use Utah's plan (even though I don't live in Utah) b/c I like Vanguard funds (which they use) and that 529 plan has pretty low expenses. I've also heard Nevada, Iowa and Ohio have low-expenses and good fund choices as well.

Good luck!

Valerie

**nuisance26** · 02-26-2007, 11:59 AM

~Their savings calculator says I need $250K for my son and $275K for my daughter. That's ridiculous. I'd have to save over half our income to send them to college($1350 month). I plugged in numbers to save for community college and that came to $31K for ds(less than $11 month)and $35K for dd($91 month).That's almost doable. Sorry for rambling on your thread, but college saving has been on my mind too!~

**Telephus44** · 02-26-2007, 01:07 PM

Wow, and I was thinking that the savings was pretty reasonable for my kid - I only needed $550/month to get everything paid for a 4 year private school.

I think the reason that the numbers are so high is that each year the cost of college increases - and the increase is far greater than just inflation or cost of living. I know that the calculator on the site factors that in somehow. So when my son is 18 private colleges will probably be $100K/yr or something ridiculous..

But that's a whole other vent..

**Sahmamma** · 02-26-2007, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by nuisance26

~Their savings calculator says I need $250K for my son and $275K for my daughter. That's ridiculous. I'd have to save over half our income to send them to college($1350 month). I plugged in numbers to save for community college and that came to $31K for ds(less than $11 month)and $35K for dd($91 month).That's almost doable. Sorry for rambling on your thread, but college saving has been on my mind too!~

we have a large mortgage in a high COL area, so after that comes retirement savings and after that comes college savings. We are saving what we can, but we know it won't be enough. Both dh and I agree we want to help, but not do it all for them anyway.