Saving for Grad School?

[treespeak]

I'm looking into options for saving up for most/possibly all of my tuition costs for graduate school over the next five+ years. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this/is doing it and could offer advice or resources you used to gather info? I'm looking into 529 College Savings Plans, but I want a really low risk plan since the money will be used in the relatively near future. Not sure if the 529s fit the bill.

[mightymoo]

I believe there are 529s with CDs and savings accounts as the investment options:

http://www.savingforcollege.com/comp...n_question_ids[]=220&plan_question_ids[]=314&plan_question_ids[]=230&mode=Compare&page=compare_plan_questions&plan _type_id=1

(I don't know if that link will work right, if not go to http://www.savingforcollege.com/comp...plan_type_id=1 and select investment options to compare.)

If you search for 'certificate', you'll see several of them offer CD based investment options.

Definitely sign up for Upromise if you haven't already, you can get rewards for buying certain products. I don't necessarily buy things specifically because they are upromise products, but I like to get the rebate if I do buy something they give one for. I try to also go through them when buying online as they often give a % back as well.

[Ironica]

Also look into how much you *really* need to save up. I did a Master's in Transportation Planning, and barely paid any of my fees (which were pretty low anyway since I went to a public school and had residency). It turns out the Federal Government puts a lot of money into scholarships for Transportation Planners, and my advisor was in charge of distributing the funds allocated to our program... so I got $4,000 the first year ($1,000 initially, then there was money left over at the end of the year so I got another $3,000), then $7,000 the second year. Practically everyone majoring in Transportation at our school got at least something.

This is important, because 529s are GONE if you don't spend them on school (though you can pass them on to other members of your family), and you pay income taxes on scholarship monies that don't get spent on fees and books.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by Ironica

This is important, because 529s are GONE if you don't spend them on school (though you can pass them on to other members of your family), and you pay income taxes on scholarship monies that don't get spent on fees and books.

In this case, I wouldn't worry too much if she can use the leftover 529 money for her kids college education. Good point however, certain areas of study do get a lot of grants and funding.