anZel’s going to Ohio
Written by jlz on July 16, 2006 – 10:37 am -Last year way before anZel was born, we did a bit of research into saving for college.
Spent a bit more time the last couple of weeks doing more research into this area. We have finally decided that 529 college savings plans are probably the best way to go. The main reasons being
1. You can use the money for any public or private college
2. Earnings are tax deferred
3. You can transfer the money to a different beneficiary in case your first kid decides he doesn’t want to go to college
4. There are many plan choices, including fund choices as well as the state you can setup the plan
5. No penalty if you decide not to use the money for college (you do have to pay tax on the earnings though)
After much research into the 529 plans, we have decided to go with Ohio’s College Advantage plan. According to Saving For College, Ohio’s plan has the 5-cap ratings. We used the following criteria for comparison
1. fund selection
2. enrollment fee
3. account maintenance fee
4. program management fee
I’ve always liked Vanguard funds. They generally have the lowest management fees and above-average returns. So I was glad to see that Ohio’s plan had Vanguard funds. After comparing the various fees, Ohio turned out to have one of the lowest!
We also searched a bit and found the following links that offer 529 plan comparisons:
Note that Ohio’s not recommended by any of these comparisons. I have no idea why but maybe there were some changes to the Ohio plans after these comparisons that made it much more competitive.
So for now, this matter is settled.
Posted in Education, anZel |