I’m guessing you’ve heard the theory that one should save for retirement before saving for a kid’s college education because borrowing for retirement isn’t an option and borrowing for college is.

Sounds good to me. But what if you can’t fully fund retirement and as the years pass, the college account stands empty (or is nonexistent). Then what?

I’d like to start saving for college but haven’t maxed out my retirement savings yet. I joke that my kids are going to start McGuire’s plumbing, since it seems like the more people study liberal arts in college the fewer can perform basic home repair (although I did fix a stopped up sink this weekend). But if they want to study film and history like I did in college, am I going to say no? Doubtful.

I’ve long said that our Roth IRAs could eventually be used to pay for college, but as my friends begin to open up 529 college savings plans, I’m worry that maybe we should open one too and fund it to the tune of $75 a kid. Really, what’s one less pair of ankle boots? (Check out this London Daily Mail story about wacky fashions I came across when looking for a picture of the very best ankle boots of all time. They are not found there.).

How do you plan to pay for college? If you are saving I’d be curious to know how much, where and why? Oh– and the age(s) of your kid(s).

And for those of you out there like me with no idea how much college will cost when your little Einstein will turn 18, try FinAid.org’s College Cost Projector.

Then check out the site’s Savings Growth Projector to learn how much $75 will be worth in 14 years.

Afraid of numbers? Your child’s age is all you need to use the Savingforcollege.com World’s Simplest College Cost Calculator.

Talk about scary. That calculator says I need to save $698 per month for my almost 4-year-old daughter to attend college in the year 2022. And I thought $75 would make a dent.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 1:49 pm and is filed under kids and money, saving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.