The Sun’s Financial Diary

When I opened the 529 college savings plan for our first daughter in 2005, the plan offered by New Jersey was never an option to me because there is not tax benefit for using NJ 529 plan even for the state residents. But that wasn’t all. What really made me stay away from NJ college [...]

The name “529” has become synonymous with college saving since the account was created back in 2001. It’s become so synonymous that many people will likely assume that the 529 is the only account out there geared specifically towards saving for college. Not only is it not the only college savings account out [...]

I am using Fidelity 529 plan to save for our older daughter’s future education. The investing started nearly four years ago and it’s still going every month now. When I read an article on Morningstar.com yesterday that Fidelity is reducing costs of its direct-sold 529 plans, I was quite happy to hear the news because, [...]

Early this month, Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 College Savings Plan announced a promotion which gives each new plan participant $25 bonus for just opening an account. Yesterday, I got an email from CollegeAdvantage with a sweetened deal: For a limited time, each new customer will get another $25 bonus on top of the existing $25 referral [...]

It’s alive again!
Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 Savings Plan, the plan that was rated as one of the best college savings plans by Morningstar in 2007 which is also the one we’re using to save for our daughter’s future education, has reinstated the $25 referral program. The program was first launched last December and from what I [...]

I have heard some time ago that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will be available in 401(k) retirement accounts. Not sure whether plan participants can trade ETFs in their accounts already, but in general I think it’s a good news not only because it will gives investors more choices to save for their retirement, but also ETFs [...]

I opened a 529 college savings account for our second daughter last year four months after she was born. After some research, I decided to use Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 Savings Plan because of the selections of investments (mostly Vanguard index funds) and the plan’s low cost. Since then I have been making  contributions to the [...]

We started to save for our daughter’s future education shortly after they were born (for our second daughter, we did wait nearly four months before opening a 529 plan for her ) and since then we have been making monthly contributions to their 529 accounts, currently5. Th at $14,77e reason for deciding to [...]

Really, I almost got a heart attack when I saw Ohio CollegeAdvantage is among the worst college savings plans published by Morningstar yesterday because that’s the one I opened for our younger daughter last year. Fortunately, what I have isn’t exactly what’s named in the Morningstar list.
Anyway, Morningstar yesterday published its annual ranking of the [...]

Our second daughter is more than 4 months old already, yet I waited till yesterday to set up an 529 plan account for her. I wasn’t really waiting for anything. It has been on my mind since she was born, but I kept delaying it with no good excuses. If I didn’t read Lazy Man’s [...]