This article is for:

* Students who want to understand the true cost of their education and the sacrifices their parents make in order to make better choices with their careers.

* Parents who make too much to get financial aid, but not enough to feel like they can comfortably afford private school.

* Students and parents who feel bad for attending or sending their kids to public school or have a tinge of envy for those kids who do go to private school.

Congratulations for getting accepted to your grade school or college of choice! You’ve now got to make a decision on how to spend what will likely be your parent’s money if you aren’t getting a scholarship.

I’ve been a big proponent of attending public schools over private schools because I’m biased. I attended international private schools when I lived in Asia, attended a public high school, and went to a public college. I found very little difference in education between my private middle school and public high school. Upon graduating from William & Mary, I got a good enough job that helped me reach financial independence a little sooner than normal.

We all know there’s no guarantee of doing anything special or being anything special just because you went to a private school. With the internet making education free, it’s hard to justify paying record high tuition for a private education unless you’re rich (make 10X the private school tuition per kid). Yet, many parents pay for religious reasons, fear of missing out, the desire for smaller class sizes and more attention for their kids, and the need for a more customized program if their child has special needs.

These reasons all make sense, and I respect them.

However, if you send your child to private school and pay full tuition, there is one guarantee. It is that you will spend a fortune. A lot of parents who advocate for private school got grants for their children to attend. That’s wonderful. But I’m talking about the parents whose children don’t get need based grants because they make a little too much, but not enough to feel wealthy. You know, those families making around $150,000 – $350,000 a year, depending on where they live and how many children they have.

Despite earning a six figure household income, many parents struggle to pay for their children’s education without going into debt. This post highlights how you can qualify for tuition assistance despite making $300,000, $400,000, or even $500,000 a year.

I was talking to a parent of four who used to send his kids to a private grade school K-8 about the makeup of families who pay $30,000+/year in tuition per child. I cherished my time growing up in Africa and Asia up until middle school and enjoyed my experience attending a public high school in Virginia. To have my son attend a homogenous school where everybody looks the same and comes from similar economic backgrounds would be a shame.

The dad mentioned the school tried to diversify its student body through financial aid. When I asked how the school determined which families got financial aid, he said something surprising.

“Households qualify for financial aid if they don’t make at least $100,000 a year per child.”

In other words, if you have four children, you qualify for financial aid if you make $390,000 a year. Financial aid consists of low interest rate loans, but mostly free grant money. I thought this was a high threshold because $390,000 is right around the top 1% income level in the country.

Nobody needs to send their kids to private school given every child can go to public school for free. Further, I’m not sure if too many folks decide to have four children if they can’t afford to raise them. Sure, one or two children may be unplanned. But having four is definitely intentional.

Because the dad and mom could not afford to continue paying $120,000+ a year in after-tax tuition for their kids, they moved their family to the suburbs to attend free public school. Ah hah, at least they decided to take action instead of complain why life was so hard making $500,000 a year!

The College of William & Mary

Update for 2018: Under the latest tax plan, up to $10,000 of 529 savings plans can be used per student for public, private and religious elementary and secondary schools, as well as home school students. In other words, a 529 plan isn’t just for college tuition anymore. This is HUGE!

The best gift any parent can give a child besides unconditional love is a great education. A 529 college savings account is a solution that is designed to help families tax-efficiently save for future college costs.

You contribute after tax money with the benefit of paying zero federal and state income taxes on the profits when it’s time to use the funds to pay for college. If your child does not end up going to college, you can either name a new beneficiary (different kid) or just pay the taxes on profits.

My goal is to max out my son’s 529 plan before he turns 18 so he can focus on his studies and graduate with zero student debt. The various complaints I read today about student debt holding young adults back from saving for a house, saving for retirement, accepting a job they like that might not pay as well, or starting a family are disheartening.

Below are the most important pieces of information you need to know about making the best 529 plan decision. Feel free to provide feedback at the end on anything that I may have missed. I’ve tried to cover all the questions I had before opening up an account.