529 plan and a college scholarships

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Do any of the folks that have been through this already have a 529 plan for college savings? How did that factor into any part of your decisions? Do you get 'penalized' for saving?
 
Do any of the folks that have been through this already have a 529 plan for college savings? How did that factor into any part of your decisions? Do you get 'penalized' for saving?

We do have a 529 for each of our kids. Didn’t really factor in our daughters decision other than she knew she had some money available from us. If she doesn’t use it, it can be transferred to one of our other kids. You have to add the 529 amount in the fasfa.
 
We do have a 529 for each of our kids. Didn’t really factor in our daughters decision other than she knew she had some money available from us. If she doesn’t use it, it can be transferred to one of our other kids. You have to add the 529 amount in the fasfa.
thank you
 
Do any of the folks that have been through this already have a 529 plan for college savings? How did that factor into any part of your decisions? Do you get 'penalized' for saving?
Again if you're lucky enough to have a HELOC or the means to get a HELOC, that is one route to better finance college. Another vehicle to consider is a Whole life policy. You can take a simple interest loan against the policy that is collateralized by the death benefit as opposed to your house with a HELOC.
 
Do any of the folks that have been through this already have a 529 plan for college savings? How did that factor into any part of your decisions? Do you get 'penalized' for saving?
Whether to use a 529 plan or not is also dependent on the age of the child or children. For instance, investment projections before covid showed that you would need to contribute around $600/month from birth to have a fully funded education for the child. So if your child is already older, 529 plans may not be the best option. I think going into debt to pay for a kids schooling is pretty dangerous and against common advice now.
As has been discussed in other posts, there are very limited number of scholarships available in soccer, even pre covid. Post covid it will be brutal. Thus, your ability to self fund the education is huge for the program and you increase your child's ability to get into a school that academically they may not be able to get into without soccer.
 
Whether to use a 529 plan or not is also dependent on the age of the child or children. For instance, investment projections before covid showed that you would need to contribute around $600/month from birth to have a fully funded education for the child. So if your child is already older, 529 plans may not be the best option. I think going into debt to pay for a kids schooling is pretty dangerous and against common advice now.
As has been discussed in other posts, there are very limited number of scholarships available in soccer, even pre covid. Post covid it will be brutal. Thus, your ability to self fund the education is huge for the program and you increase your child's ability to get into a school that academically they may not be able to get into without soccer.
We have a 529 for DD, and that wasn’t even part of the discussion with regards to how much aid she would receive. I’m sure it’s program dependent. But I should add we started her 529 when she was born and we were young and poor and we never increased our modest monthly contribution since then. While it’s not enough to fully fund her education, it is definitely a nice chunk on change to help offset her college expenses.
 
Again if you're lucky enough to have a HELOC or the means to get a HELOC, that is one route to better finance college. Another vehicle to consider is a Whole life policy. You can take a simple interest loan against the policy that is collateralized by the death benefit as opposed to your house with a HELOC.
Using the HELOC/PLOC/SLOC as a checking account is the key to funding education and quickly paying off education debt.
 
Whether to use a 529 plan or not is also dependent on the age of the child or children. For instance, investment projections before covid showed that you would need to contribute around $600/month from birth to have a fully funded education for the child. So if your child is already older, 529 plans may not be the best option. I think going into debt to pay for a kids schooling is pretty dangerous and against common advice now.
As has been discussed in other posts, there are very limited number of scholarships available in soccer, even pre covid. Post covid it will be brutal. Thus, your ability to self fund the education is huge for the program and you increase your child's ability to get into a school that academically they
I try to keep them motivated to go and get a degree that has a job possibility when they are done. My conversation with my kids is that I have some money set aside. If they go the smart route and do as JC then a state University it shouldl cover it. Any money left over they get to keep. minus the tax they will pay the tax. Im not signing any loans and I'm talking them out of going into debt. If they stop going then money left over goes to their sibling. If they use it all and they don't graduate then it gets deducted from any money they inherit. I don't know if my plan is the best but I'm just trying to figure the best way to get everything covered.
 
Interesting information here, my tax guy has put 4 kids through ivy league college. He told me never open a 529 plan because if your kids received any financial aid, they make you use your 529 first before the aid kicks in. You have to declare the 529 when applying for financial aid or receiving a scholarship so not sure how most of you were not required to declare your 529 when your kid applied at the college
 
Interesting information here, my tax guy has put 4 kids through ivy league college. He told me never open a 529 plan because if your kids received any financial aid, they make you use your 529 first before the aid kicks in. You have to declare the 529 when applying for financial aid or receiving a scholarship so not sure how most of you were not required to declare your 529 when your kid applied at the college
 
Interesting information here, my tax guy has put 4 kids through ivy league college. He told me never open a 529 plan because if your kids received any financial aid, they make you use your 529 first before the aid kicks in. You have to declare the 529 when applying for financial aid or receiving a scholarship so not sure how most of you were not required to declare your 529 when your kid applied at the college
I disagree on advice to never open a 529. Merit-based scholarships are not affected by whether somebody has a 529 or not. In fact, if you receive a merit-based scholarship you are able to make non-qualified withdrawals penalty free up to that scholarship amount (still have to pay tax on earned investment income). For other financial aid it becomes a question of how much do you expect to receive in federal grants based on need and how much loans are you willing to take on. If you don't expect to qualify for financial aid or get scholarships then 529 is the way to go.
 
I disagree on advice to never open a 529. Merit-based scholarships are not affected by whether somebody has a 529 or not. In fact, if you receive a merit-based scholarship you are able to make non-qualified withdrawals penalty free up to that scholarship amount (still have to pay tax on earned investment income). For other financial aid it becomes a question of how much do you expect to receive in federal grants based on need and how much loans are you willing to take on. If you don't expect to qualify for financial aid or get scholarships then 529 is the way to go.
My advice is forget about it if you never started. If your already playing the 529 game, by all means stay and play some more.
 
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