Parents of the HS Class of 2024 (Part 2)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
2713

Reposting this for advice, I had bad timing yesterday with an important convo going on the thread…

I thought all the interviews were over but S24 got an invite this week for a small 100 person honors program that comes with some nice research and summer perks as well as super small seminar classes freshman year.

The format is video like Morehead was, question, moment to think, then answer. Email invite also said to stop by to see them while at admitted days. The interview is due day after we get home.

Probably overthinking, but any thoughts on timing and whether it would be better to do before or after meeting in person?

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2714

I had my annual visit (I am a woman) and I saw the term Lifestyle on my medical record with a color code. So I just used it from there.

With digital medical records, we can see so much that just went on behind our backs before…

There are a lot of things that young women can do to protect themselves from sexual assault. Just because it’s not their fault doesn’t mean that they have to be passive and resigned to it happening. Be careful about the messages you send. All boys are not violent, and that stereotype is offensive to me as a mom of boys who teaches consent from the time they are little.

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2715

Anyone thinking about their 529s and what to do? Ours has gone up 30% over the past year and now I am trying to figure out when to change to something more conservative. I am thinking now, but dont know enough to figure out when is best. Also when do you use them vs trying to save them and keep letting them grow…

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2716

I’m not sure how much it matters, but I would do it after you visit in person so that you can incorporate your conversation/experiences into the video. Best of luck!

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2717

As @sarahbrown24 said above, S24 may have additional thoughts gleaned from meeting program members that could be incorporated into the video.

Also, perhaps, he visited and we liked him, and he’s still interested after our meeting. Let’s take him.

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2718

529s are really complicated to game out for optimality because the tax issues are complex to begin with, and then there are so many different possible withdrawal scenarios at so many different possible times, including multi-generational scenarios.

So personally, I like to keep it simple.

In terms of when to withdrawal, if you have qualified expenses, I think it is almost always fine to withdraw for those. There may be theoretical circumstances in which you could get some marginal advantage paying those costs another way and holding onto the 529s, but those tend not to be big differences, and I think taking the bird in the hand benefit with qualified expenses is a robust strategy as it then presumably leaves any other resources you have for any purpose you choose.

In terms of investment, for S24 we did a fairly volatile mix up through 8th grade (although there was a bit of a glidepath) then swapped over to the PA GSP (a sort of pre-paid tuition plan) for the final run through HS. We’re currently on the same sort of path for D30. I think if you are actually planning to use all or most of the 529 over the next few years, something conservative like that makes sense. To the extent I want to make riskier investments for long-term purposes, I can still do that outside the 529, so to me it is no big deal to “miss out” on the “fun” possibility of the 529 balance going up a lot, or down a lot, while we are in withdrawal mode.

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2719

Nothing more enjoyable than the epic car seat blowouts :rofl:

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2720

ok, that makes sense, the fund did so terribly before the past year and then took off with the current market upturn. I was planning on using the fund for s24 and pay s21s much lower expenses through income. Our fund has an age adjusted plan or can just move it all to a bond fund. the gsp looks great, ours doesnt have that

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2721

I have been talking to our CFP about the 529s. Between our two 529s, we have just about the right amount to cover our S24 and D24 for 4 years at their respective chosen colleges. Yay! However, one kid’s college is significantly more expensive, so we will have to transfer funds from S24s to D24s 529, and then potentially make up the difference by potentially purchasing a condo for him or paying for grad school. S24 is likely to have off-campus housing after freshman year, so that is one expense we will cash flow as just about everything else is a qualified expense. Their funds automatically converted to a more conservative investment profile when they turned 17, so the funds feel reasonably safe. However, it is not looking like they will have much left over after college as a long-term investment. I’m OK with that, though, as I feel like we accomplished our goal of getting them through college with the 529s.

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2722

The other thing you can look for is what is sometimes called a Stable Value fund. We were using Utah before PA for S24, and it looks like they have changed things around some since then, but they have the PIMCO Interest Income Fund, which is a stable value fund.

SV funds are very boring and won’t always keep up with college cost inflation (like the GSP should). But they also didn’t drop like bond funds when interest rates increased. So, like, that SV fund had a 3-year annualized return of 1.87% as of end of 2023, which is not great, but it beats the 3-year annualized loss of -3.32% for the Vanguard “total bond” fund that Utah also offers.

That said, I think this was a much bigger risk back when bond rates were so historically low. At today’s more normal bond rates, I think you could do a short-term bond fund if available, or maybe a mix of a total bond fund and FDIC account if a short-term fund is not available.

Or probably just use your age-adjusted fund’s terminal portfolio. Like Utah has a target enrollment fund, and their Enrolled portfolio is 45.7% Total Bond, 8.30% Total International Bond, 20.25% Stable Value, 15.75% FDIC, and 10% stocks. That 10% makes very little practical difference, and otherwise that is actually not notably different from what I was suggesting (which is because I am not coming up with anything particularly clever). They are apparently trying to juice returns a little (probably to keep up with college cost inflation), which is a little risky, but these days I would not see that portfolio as excessively risky.

Edit: By the way, I sort of promised simple, and this is not so simple of a discussion!

So here is pretty simple. I think a very solid plan is use their target-enrollment or age-based option, contribute early and often, and then withdraw as qualified expenses arise.

And then try to ignore yearly ups and downs.

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2723

Same. It is looking like S24 is going to drain his whole 529 for college. D30 is still TBD, and actually given the timing gap we could use some of hers for postgrad for S24 and then top hers back up, and for that matter we could start recontributing to his if we feel like it (we get a state tax break so that isn’t the worst idea).

But if “all” that happens is we successfully use 529s to pay for college for both, then that is good enough for me.

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2724

Thank you for that info!

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2725

Do interview before the admitted student day. Set up in person meeting for admitted student day.

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2726

I have two sons (22 and 24) so have been there, done that, with condoms and consent. Of course not all boys are violent and nobody said they were. Your tone overall is offensive to me as a mother of daughters and as a woman.
I don’t think I am the only one who was disturbed by your use of the term lifestyle and I hope you won’t use it again. There are many many terms in your medical record that don’t translate well in everyday conversation.
Having Plan B is not being passive or resigned. It is part of being prepared. The messages you are sending on this thread and others on CC are not coming across well and I hope you will be careful moving forward too!
All done with this topic.

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2727

This is his preference due to his personality not liking to do things last day. I was just trying to think if there would truly be anything valuable from in-person that would impact answers. I can see pros and cons for either. Thanks for input all!

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2728

If it helps, my instinct was to say it very likely didn’t matter, so whatever your kid was most comfortable with doing was best. I didn’t say that originally because it sounds like something an AI would come up with, but I do actually believe it!

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2729

My understanding is that you have two choices with off campus housing (assuming your child is in school at least half time). You can track all the housing and food expenses and should be able to deduct those as qualified. Or, you can skip all that and use the school COA value for a student living off campus as is.

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2730

I totally get it. I would be nervous leaving it to the last day. I think it will be fine to do before and show he was interested even before he came back for admitted student day.

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2731

I believe on the off campus point - the schools listed COA is the max you can claim.

So on my daughter - her room and board is likely about $20K ish this year with rent increases.

But if the schools listed is only $14K, that’s all I can claim.

From one of many articles on it.
It is also possible to use a 529 plan for off-campus housing, up to a maximum of your school’s cost of attendance.

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2732

I feel the same about your comments regarding this topic also as a woman and mother.

Indeed, this is not worth pursuing. Our perspectives are different, obviously.

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