<p>What are the best financial savings plans available for Texas residents?
I have two sons - 1st son is starting college this fall and 2nd son is in 6th grade.
Based on my experience with my 1st sons, we do not qualify for any financial aid and it is hard to get any merit based scholarships.</p>
<p>I currently looking into the following investments:</p>
<ul>
<li>Texas guaranteed Tuition Plan</li>
<li>529 Plans - Which state is better?</li>
</ul>
<p>I am looking for advice from experienced parents in the forum.</p>
<p>We purchased state bonds which were paying 9% guaranteed when our kids were infants. We also maxed education ROTH IRAs for them. Our state had no good 529s, so I have no experience. Be sure to move investments to more conservative options as your kids near college age.</p>
<p>We bought I-Bonds way back when and they paid 4% which didn’t seem like much back then but it’s huge today. We never used them though as our kids picked inexpensive schooling options. Outside of that I did a lot of investing and trading in individual stocks. I had a lot of trouble trusting fund managers after the internet bubble deflated.</p>
<p>No 529 or Tuition Plan here. Just plain old boring laddered CDs. With no way to know if the kid really would need any money for college (heck, didn’t even know if the kid was truly collegebound), it made more sense to save the money in a form that we’d have access to for other purposes.</p>