Anyone currently enrolled in a 529 for their kid's college?  I have until Feb 23rd to decide.  Don't know if I should do a College plan, a 2+2, or the full 4 year University plan.  i really can't see any downside of signing up now for my little girl, who is 16 months old right now.  Any tips?

Interested in this as well, mine will be 1 soon.

I signed both my kids up for the Florida Pre-paid 4 year tuition plan, it's been painless and trouble free.

Two years and my Son will be paid off, three for my daughter. Feels good knowing that they will have an option to go to college.

They may get a scholarship for an out of state school, or they may decide not to go.

But the option is there for them.

If you have the ability/funds to do it, I sincerely encourage you to do it. It is the best investment you can make for your children. We did the 2+2 plan with fees,(the fees portion is in addition to the 2+2 but it is much cheaper to do it now than later). If they get a scholarship, all the better. If  you/they don't use it, you get your money back,of course with no interest. People say I can invest the money better the FPCP and some can but the majority don't/won't and you wasted time and money when your child is grown up and ready for college it is too late. Start as early as you can.

It has been a while. My Baby graduated college in 2008.
It was painless to use. They basically got a debit type card that got swiped and paid for the items they needed. I believe we got the 4 year tuition plan, but it could be used towards tuition, books, dorms, whatever. She had some scholarship credit from Florida bright futures and also earned some grant support for books from volunteering at the Mayo clinic. That eventually led to an interest in nursing, where she got her bachelors and now has almost 10 years as a RN and 9 of those years in the O.R.
Money well invested.

Our experience is similar to jjrockbush.

My wife and her sister had FL Prepaid back in the 90s, along with FL Academic (predecessor to Bright Futures). Worked as stated above, they got back money every semester after UF pulled out tuition and fees...used it for books and rent.

All 3 of ours (17, 14, 11) have the 4 year plan plus fees paid off on the 5-year option, each was enrolled the first chance after they were born. They also each have a 529 that a portion of gift money (b-day, holidays, etc) goes into; they each have about $9k apiece in those.

The biggest issue with the decision to enroll in FL Prepaid was the fact that the monthly payments took away from our Roth IRA contributions, but we decided it was more important that our kids be able to afford college w/o big loans than have a little extra retirement play money.

I enrolled in the 2+2 while still at the hospital with my son. I think it's a no brainer if you can afford the $100 a mo. If your child gets a scholarship it's 100% refunded or used for housing cost scholarship may not cover. If they go out of state it can paid face value of the investment. Do It! And I really hope you did stem cell storage also!

Thanks everyone.  Like I said, I don't see a downside and  you all agree.  I'll finish signing up this weekend.  I'm going to go with the 4 year university plan.  It's only $190 a month which aint too shabby.

And yes, we did stem cell storage.

If you can do housing I would add that as well. Dorms and meal plan are about the same as tuition right now. The state does a good job holding tuition prices but the schools are compensating by creeping up dorm and meal plan costs. Mine is @ FSU and looking back i would have added housing. You can do it in one year increments since most kids dont stay on campus all four years.

My coworker had 2 kids go to UF. He just bought a condo because the mortgage for a condo was cheaper then housing on campus or even a rental.

Let me add....my daughter graduated debt free. Really no need to go into debt with a little planning and investment, and she went out of town. Pre-paid, state scholarships (tax money), and applied for a grant that actually reimbursed her for books more than paid for books and tuition. I subsidized her with a strict monthly allowance and she worked. It all was great life lessons for her.

All of my nieces and nephews did it.

I think UNF requires students to stay on campus the freshman year. Sucks for local families.

Son currently attending FSU, I bit the bullet and paid for 4 years Pre-paid+ local fees + 529 plan (I just paid as much as I could into it ended up with shy of 5K ).

So basically, with meals + Dorm + Tuition + Books it's almost 18K/Year. Per semester it's
3K- Dorm
2K- Food (Obviously depends on your Childs eating habits)
400ish- Books
3K- Tuition

*If you bought prepaid before 2007 (I think might be 2011) your good. Schools got wise to you only paying 12K into prepaid for 4 years of school and them having to eat the difference. It's approx.. 18K/Year all said and done at FSU, 21K at UF.

Prepaid pays tuition, if you qualify as above, the school can not charge you what let's call a gap fee (you're prepaid amount + what the school is allowed to charge as the gap fee per semester)
Hopefully your child earns a Bright Futures scholarship (currently 3K+ 300.00 for books)- The school draws from prepaid first then all other fees from Bright futures. Obviously depending what prepaid plans you bought i.e. Tuition, local fees and Dorm affect how much Bright Futures $ they use. Whatever Bright Futures $ is left over your kid actually keeps, as long as they keep a full course load.

Tax Hint* If you use any scholarship money for dorms it's not deductible and scholarship amounts area reflected on your 1098T you receive from the school. Form even shows your actual tuition amount separate of scholarship amount.

Currently Prepaid is big bucks, 15-18 years ago it was tuff but we managed. I have friends with newborns that are going the 529 route or other investment mediums not associated with the FPP. FPP limits you to State schools to receive the full advantage of the traditional plans.

According to recent news the legislature is attempting to re-establish the full Bright Futures Scholarships which would pay for the entire 4 year ride.

Now if your kid throws 99mph or is 6'8 300lbs and runs like a Hessian candidate he can go to school for free, eat for free and live for free.

ETA* I'm going the condo route also, 3 bedroom place pays for itself.

Locking in the current tuition rates is what sealed the deal as they only do one thing, go up.  What is a credit hour going to cost in next 18 years.

Bumping this up as there’s only a few days left on this years enrollment. Just did the 2+2 for my little one.

Went ahead and did the 4 year University plan along with a separate 529.  I figure if she does end up going to community college, the tuition will be easier to handle.  Now at least 4 years tuition will be covered at hopefully FSU.

Thanks for all the advice team, and Go Noles!!

I know I’m late, but the plan is BS.

My grandparents got a 2+2 for me, which i was super thankful for, but they still charged me $300-$1000 a semester for “local fees”!

After my prepaid tuition ran out (my degree requires about 150 credits), I received federal pell grants that paid for my tuition in full that I couldn’t receive while I had FPP.

I haven’t don’t the math, but I can say with near 100% certainty that my grandparents had thrown the money into the stock market for 18 years, it would have stretched much further.