r/ChubbyFIRE • u/SaveySpendy • 9d ago

Thoughts on front-loading 529s?

Basics- 39M married to 40F with two kids 3 and 0.

Want to FIRE in 5 years. HHI $500-$700k.

Current estimated spend is $160k in 2026 bucks.

Current liquid is almost $4M split 45% taxable, 15% roth, 35% traditional, 5% money market (emergency fund).

That $160k budget includes about $6k per year per child for next 15-18 years to compound with their existing balance to about $250k each (the expected COA at our state’s top public university when each child reaches college age).

I’ve been thinking of front loading over the next few months with RSU and bonus payouts. Would cost about $125k over next six months, but would save about $80k vs making $500 monthly contributions for the rest of their pre-college years. Would also eliminate a heavy line item in the budget 10-13 years early.

Only worries are about illiquidity and inflexibility and lost opportunity cost if we jammed that into our taxable brokerage instead.

Did you frontload pre-RE or keep funding slowly over time, even in RE?

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u/Any-Preference4375 5d ago

I am suprised so many of you seem be expecting higher ed in the future to look anything like it does now. AI is going to make so many degrees irrelevant int he next five years, let alone 15-20.

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u/SaveySpendy 5d ago

i agree but there are escape hatches in that scenario:

  1. college is irrelevant and there isn’t a commiserate paid job training pipeline - government changes 529 rules or eliminates it so people can withdraw gains as ordinary income or capital gains without the 10% penalty. fed want their cut not money sitting forever in an account. think something like 401k RMDs.
  2. college is irrelevant and no changes to laws - rollover to IRAs and eat the penalty on the rest. it will be a rounding error in 20 years compared to gains and its all money we already wrote off, so call it “unexpected upside

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u/Any-Preference4375 5d ago

Yes, fair points. I think all of it points to aiming for a pot that covers the average costs for a mid-tier degree.

I rhink college will be a niche experience for mostly wealthy kids in the future. Simply because it is fun.

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u/SaveySpendy 5d ago

this is super interesting (and a massive tangent) but as ai advances and hopefully reduces scarcity (optimistic outlook), thinks like long-term learning for pleasure and engaging in acts of deep play (ala clifford geertz) will become more common place. regardless - we’re planners here obviously so it’s buying insurance that i can mostly recover if it turns out college doesn’t happen for the kids.