Saving for College?

[glatt]

Good question.

I'm putting most of my savings into my own (to share with my wife) retirement plan. I figure the best thing we can do for our kids is not be a burden on them when we're older. Plus, last time I looked, a parent's 401K holdings were not counted against you when you are applying for lots of various types of financial aid for college.

We also had a fair amount of money in our short term savings. We dumped a bunch of it into 529 plans for each of our kids. 10K for each kid. I don't make enough now to be saving anything for the kids' college, but hopefully that 10K will grow enough to cover the cost of textbooks when they finally get to school. I don't remember the details on the 529 plans, but they had some pretty significant tax savings. You can doublecheck the accuracy of my memory, but I think you get to deduct the money you put in to them from your income (like a 401K) and then they also grow tax free.

See this link for example, for more information.

Mostly, I'm just hoping my kids are smart enough to get scholarships.