re: I want to start saving money for my children

quote:

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So you're hope is that you gain enough over time to take out the contributions+gains tax-free to recoup some of the money spent on private school

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Well, yes, technically. I typically don't tell people who need the money within, say, three years to invest the money in the stock market. You really need several years to let it grow tax deferred in order to make it worth the risk. You could and likely would make money in a short time frame, but then there's the 20-30% chance you lose a bunch right of the bat (which would be a good case to dollar cost average into the investment, but I digress).

So for a child in daycare, I wouldn't think the CESA would be a good place to save for Kindergarten since the time frame is so short. But for middle school and beyond, you have enough time to take the risk and make the growth worth your investment.

The START plan is different. Because you get the tax deduction, you can put your money in that the year of and have advantages to do so. For example, my kid is at SELU and I put in the $4,800 this year. As soon as the check cleared I turned around and made a distribution to cover tuition. I'll receive a $4,800 deduction and a 2% match on those funds so I made maybe $300 net/net to take the extra step in about one week turn around time (roughly 6%).