^ You put your kid to work at 18 months? You are my hero. 
^^Hey, itâs tough all over! Pull that binky outta your mouth and get to work. No nap time around here!
^Were they in a Gerber commercial?
Is that Gerber baby actually real? Way too cute to be human.
Interesting that 529 doesnât have a name assigned to the account. Does that mean you could use the fund for anyone as far as it is spent for education? When we were looking into 529, they told us we couldnât open 529 if we are gifting the max to our kid.
You have to declare a beneficiary, but the beneficiary can be changed, as long as it is to a relative, or even yourself. Or you can take the money back and pay federal income tax and a 10% penalty on the earnings (and possibly some state taxes on the principal if you got a tax break for the contribution).
I donât think they were correct about the max gifting thing. As I understand it, 529 plan contributions are considered gifts. If you gift over whatever the gift exclusion amount is ($14K/year currently), the overage goes against your lifetime exclusion cap ($5.34 million) and you have to file a form with the IRS. If you are filthy rich and very generous and have already hit your lifetime exclusion cap, you would owe gift tax, but you can still make the contribution.
If itâs a gift, you canât take it back. Thatâs how I understand it, the defintion of a gift. I talked to more than one person about the gifting 529 and annual limit. The law might have changed since. I am sure filthy rich people donât mind extra paper work of filing a lifetime exclusion form. Most mortals try to stay away from pushing that.
The IRS has their own definition.
Itâs considered a âgiftâ for gift tax purposes, but you (the gifter) retain ownership and can take it back whenever you want. The only downside is you pay a 10% penalty on (just) the earnings.
If your contribution to a 529 put you over the annual exclusion amount and you filed a form 709, and then take the money back, Iâm not sure how that gets handled⊠do you get the amount against your lifetime limit back?
@notrichenough â now you have me worried. Suppose we deposited $100K in each boyâs 529 at once. Were we supposed to have filed something with the IRS? Fully intend to use 529 funds to pay for tuition, room & board.
Were we supposed to have filed this form 709 you reference.
Reading CC just illustrates how woefully uninformed I amâŠ
@CT1417 , you say âweâ so I assume it is two parents. Technically, any gift more than 28k is supposed to be filed. The excess amount will reduce your lifetime estate exclusion amount (from $10.86M).
As a practical matter, I wouldnât lose a lot of sleep over it. I think you can send form 709 after the fact. They are unlikely to haul you off in handcuffs if you donât make a habit of it. If you make a habit of it, Iâm open to being adopted 
http://www.savingforcollege.com/articles/a-tale-of-2-mistakes?page=2
@CT1417, you can file the 709 late.
Your husband and you only contributed once per kid?
Your cpa and you should check and see what the maximum contribution was when you contributed but I think you are ok.
There is a special rule for 529 contributions. You can contribute 5 yearsâ worth at once, and have it treated as being contributed over 5 years instead of one year.
So for example if you contributed $70K at once, you can treat it as $14K per year for 5 years, which requires no IRS paperwork.
You can divide the $100K between the two of you, and that spread over the 5 years gets you under the limit (although technically to do this it probably requires doing it with two checks, one signed by each of you, rather than one check for the whole amount. Unless you wind up getting audited over it, it wonât really matter).
eta: oops! should have read dstarkâs link first.
Youâre Ok. There is a special rule for 529s that allows you to front load it and make 5 years of gifts ($70,000) to a 529 at one time.
That would mean that you could give a child $70,000 and your wife could also do that - a total of $140,000 to a child in one year.
In the same year, you could give another child $70,000 and your wife could too - once again, a total of $140,000 to that child in one year.
However, you could not make an additional gift to either child for another 5 years (without using up some of your lifetime estate exclusion).
You just need to file the Form 709.
Edit - Oops - three posts in a row saying the same thing
@notrichenough â Thanks! It was just one check for $100K to each account, but from a joint checking account, if that helps any! And more than five years had elapsed since previous deposit so safe on that front. Thanks for your help.
@dadinator â No oops needed. Grateful for all the wise advice here.
I do think some of the struggles from our several generations (ours, parents,grandparents, etc) is very helpful to our children/grandchildren. My parents were very comfortable, but didnât pass any money on until they did decide to gift out some to all of us, even amounts. We were fortunate that dad was a good businessman and they traveled etc but didnât âfritterâ away money either.
We are 6 years away from H and me turning 65 - and Medicare eligible is the gating for us with retirement. We are still figuring things out, but have pretty decent financial plans in place. I am hoping to get back to work so I can cash flow home improvements to prepare our home to sell and down-size. In our area, you are always competing against new construction. I have closely watched the real estate market; also our A/C - heat units will need to be replaced, so I want them sized right to home improvementsâŠas soon as A/C compressor or coil goes out, 22 year old units will need to be replaced. Hope to make it through a few more summersâŠat least at 59.5 we can use retirement money w/o penalty, just paying taxes like ordinary incomeâŠ
Itâs days like this, weeks like this, that make me glad social security exists.
do not panicâŠdo not panicâŠdo not panicâŠdo not panicâŠdo not panic
And what the hell is with the friggin Royal Bank of Scotland anywayâŠthat borders on criminal
Iâm reserving judgment.
Me too. SS is something like âwe are all on the same boat, sink or float together.â It is an ultimate safety net for many people.
In our neighborhood (of the apartment area), we noticed there are many young parents raising young kids. Whenever I saw them, I would think it will be these toddlers who will eventually work to pay for my SS (and Medicare too.) i keep hearing that the most of the money we put in over the past several decades have mostly be gone and become a pile of IOUs. It is still the system of âyoung working people supporting the old and sickâ even though it is just a partial support.