Maybe this belongs in r/tifu. Ugh. When our first of three children was born 12 years ago, my wife set up a 529 plan with a healthy chunk of money in it. Over the years we dropped more and more healthy amounts in, as we were able. As additional kids came along, we set up new accounts and added money as aggressively as we were able, thinking we’re doing all the right things to prepare for our kids’ educations and futures. Sounds responsible, right?
Here’s the big mistake. I didn’t look at the accounts at all, and just assumed they were growing in a healthy, compounding way. 12 years later we should be in a really good spot! Looked this week while preparing for convos with a new FA. I was shocked. The accounts had barely grown beyond our contributions. Looked a little closer. She had selected the very, very least aggressive growth option, basically the money was sitting as cash collecting no interest. At all. For 12 years. FML. I’ve seriously felt like throwing up all weekend thinking about this.
I’m not great at calculating these things, but I think it’s somewhere between $150k-$220k (considering compounding interest) we’ve left on the table by collecting almost no interest over these years. I’m completely devastated. Not too upset with my wife, btw, mostly with me for not being involved, not checking progress, and blindly trusting. Would love to hear that I’m actually an idiot because I’ve miscalculated the growth we’ve missed out on. Maybe just a sympathetic word of encouragement or pat on the back?
TL;DR - Dumped money into 529 for 12 years that was not accruing interest and missed out on a whole lotta growth.
Submitted June 21, 2021 at 12:22AM by justanotherhomey https://ift.tt/35F9XLA
