What if $25,000 could help pay for your child's college AND give your future grandchildren a head start?

I was sitting down with my daughter last night going over her college planning. She recently graduated from a community college with an AA degree in Applied Mathematics and Civil Engineering. She transferred Fall of 2026 to the University of Wyoming. We were sitting down going over how her 529 college fund could be spread across her remaining semester and give her more time to complete her work. As we reviewed the remaining semesters, I realized something pretty remarkable. The money we had set aside years ago wasn't just helping her finish college without debt. It will help her pay for her children's education too. WOW!!! That was a pleasant surprise.

The answer to the above question is yes. When you place your financial focus on one thing at a time, you can complete tasks on your financial list quickly and invest your money in other areas. My husband and I rolled all extra money into a 529 college plan for our daughter over a couple years. We funded it with $25,000 as the principal. Over a 6-year period that money grew to $60,000.

SAAVY College Investing

My motto has always been when you go to college it is what you make of it. The average cost of attending a four-year college is between $95,000 and $100,000 per year. I have known people in my corporate career that I worked side-by-side who went to colleges 3-4 times more expensive than my education, but here we were working side by side, making similar money. Yet my schooling was a fraction of the cost, at under $13,000. That won't age me—lol.

I personally went to community college and then transferred to a 4-year state university. I made six figures for 14 years before I retired. This is the same path we took our daughter on because it was our mission to ensure she graduated debt free.

Today, there is no guarantee that your child will get a job right out of college. The 2026 statistics show that college graduates are having a harder time securing employment immediately after graduating. According to the Nation Association of College and Employers (NACE), only 54.8 percent of students in the class of 2024 received full-time jobs withing six-months of graduation.

Before committing to an expensive university, ask yourself: What are we really paying for? Will the school provide opportunities that justify the additional cost? Or could a more affordable path lead to the same career opportunities without the burden of student loan debt?

Since we decided that there was no real advantage for our daughter to go to an expensive school for her degree, with the $60,000 in here 529 college plan we were able to cash flow her community college our of our earnings and save the $60,000 to pay for the University of Wyoming. She will have to pay out of state tuition for one year, and then in state for the remained of her college. Based on this she will have money left over in her 529 college fund that she can save to grown and fund college for her own children. That fund will likely grow to over $140,000 for her own children, assuming 20 years from now. So, our original investment of $25,000 funded both her college and will fund part of her children's college.