13 Comments

    • kimberly michelle

      I should go back and clarify that! We have a savings plan, so it’s just like a normal investment account with preselected mutual fund investment options. California doesn’t have a prepaid plan. Everything I’ve seen about the public prepaids is quite negative now, as they are incredibly underfunded and are only guaranteed to return your investment with 2% interest if the fund goes away.

  • Kelly | Glamour This

    Wow, I can’t believe how crazy education in the US and in Canada is so different. My parents never put money aside for my schooling and it cost less than 5k including books for 3 years.

    I opened an account for Mavi but we are just putting money in there so that he can choose what he wants to do with it in the future. We had government university plans that the Govn’t gives back a certain amount but if the child doesn’t go to university (say he decides to do a career like me) then the Govn’t takes the money back.

    I’ll try and save a little more money because who knows where we will live in 16 years.

  • Catherine

    I have NO idea who could do this now but my parents bought and rented out a duplex when we were really young. It was a dump and it took them several years to really clean it up. Once that was done, every month half of the rent went to a savings fund for college and half to the mortgage. They paid it off in about 15 years which was when they really needed the rent for college. It worked perfectly. Now that we’re both done with school and paying (paid) for our post grad degrees on our own, they are using the from the house for their retirement.

  • Michelle

    Whoa. Time for me to win the lottery. :) Good info! Thanks for taking the time to blog about this topic. I’ll file it away under “important stuff that I can look forward to someday.”

    • kimberly michelle

      Scary huh? What’s ever weirder, is that they totally recommend starting BEFORE you have kids… if it’s in the plan. It makes sense… it’s just that we all start saving too late for everything :(

  • Jennifer P.

    Hi there! I’ve had this post of yours starred in my Google Reader for months now and I just wanted to check in with you and see if you’re still satisfied with your decision to purchase a 529 with UESP?

    • kimberly michelle

      We are still really happy with it! It’s been so easy with automatic deposits from our checking, they’ve sent timely earnings reports, and the maintenance fees are incredibly low in comparison to our managed 401ks. :) they even sent a pre-Christmas note with information we could pass on to relatives who’d like to gift a contribution. So far, she’s made $500 in her account – not too shabby!

  • Jennifer P.

    $500! Fantastic!!
    I’m glad that you’re still happy with it. Your post has been super helpful for me, thanks!! I don’t know exactly how to word this, but….does your plan change (?) its investments automatically as your baby gets older, or is that something that you need to authorize yourself?