Office Hours: 'Do we fund college or our retirement?'
The question every parent asks in their mid-forties. The plain answer, and the reason it isn't close.
The plain answer: retirement, then college. In that order. Not because you love your kids less than you love your future self — because your kids can borrow for school and you cannot borrow for retirement.
The 529 is a wonderful account. Fund it after the Roth, after the 401(k) match, after the emergency fund is real. The order matters more than the amount.
There is a version of this story where funding the 529 first means your kid takes no loans and your retirement gets tight. In that version, your kid inherits a stressed parent. Nobody wants that gift.
You do them both, in the right order, and you tell your kids the truth about what the family can and cannot cover. That's the actual gift.