I did 529 plans for all 3 of my kids. Was one of the best decisions I have ever made. When my oldest son died, I was able to distribute his funds to my youngest son and daughter easily. When I divorced the money was protected from my ex-wife who probably would have pissed it away. Rate of return was on par with what I do with my 401k. I'm not as active with my accounts as I should be, i'm a invest and then compare on a yearly basis guy. As others have said, a financial advisor would be the best person to ask. For my individual case, the 529 plan worked well; and with 3 kids I knew at least one was going to go to college. I don't think you can save too much for college. My son goes to University of Illinois and tuitiion, dorm, meal plan etc comes to almost $40,000 a year (in state tuittion). And with incidentals its over that, for example a parking pass alone is $650 a year. My daughter plans to go to Illinois State next fall and in-state tuition there is around $25,000. When the government started guaranteeing loans to any student it basically provided a blank check for these universities. Eventually someone will have to pay the piper as billions of dollars in loans will never be paid for.